IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBINATION TOOLS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO PARTLY APPLICABLE TO SCISSORS, PLIERS, AND SUCH LIKE INSTRUMENTS
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd February 1870.-A communication from abroad by Emile
Granier, of 13, Boulevart St. Martin, Paris, in the Empire of
France, Merchant.
I, ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COMBINATION TOOLS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS
ARE ALSO PARTLY APPLICABLE TO SCISSORS, PLIERS, AND SUCH LIKE INSTRUMENTS,"
to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in shaping and combining duplex tools
having cavities, flat, round, or raised surfaces, sharp edges or points as
desired so as to obtain by their combination on the opening and shutting
of the handles (or singly on each separate handle) different tools com-
bined in one instrument, as shewn in Figure A, for the use of workmen,
farmers, pioneers, and others, rendering to a great extent the same
services as a box of separate tools, which latter are liable to be mislaid

page_text: and lost. It affords also a great saving of time, as there is no need of
changing the tools for different operations.
I do not bind myself to apply all the combinations described in
Figure A to all tools, as I select according to the size and use intended
the most appropriate combinations and apply them so as to produce a
less complicated tool, as shown in Figure B, for instance, which I term
the "home companion," useful for household work, for use in laboratories,
and for other purposes. I apply one or more combinations as desired to
any tools having a similar lever action, such as scissors, pliers, pincers,
or hand shears, as exemplified in Figures G, H, I, J, in order to add to
such tools_one or more new and appropriate qualities without adding
much if any to the expense of their construction and without-interfering-
in any way with their original uses.
I construct the tools of any material best adapted to their uses in point
of strength. The tools consist of two limbs jointed together by a rivet
or screw Y, said limbs being so shaped at the desired points with cavities,
round, flat, or raised surfaces, sharp edges or points, in order to produce
by their opening or shutting or even on each separate limb different tools
combined, described for instance in Figure A of the accompanying
Drawing.
In Figure A called the pioneer's companion," the following numbers,
respectively represent, No. 1, pincers for holding hot or cold crucibles or
vessels; No. 2, hand tongs for holding or grasping hot or cold surfaces,
plates, or other articles, and for forging small articles; No. 3, hand
shears for cutting metallic plates for opening tin cans, cutting the wires
of corked bottles, and for other similar purposes; No. 4 is a hammer;
No. 5, hook for taking off kettles, furnace or other covers; No. 6, screw-
driver or cold chisel; No. 7, hand vice parallel or angular according to
the space reserved between the limbs applicable for holding any small
objects for filing or cutting and other similar purposes; No. 8, a tri-
angular or square small wrench for grasping small angular objects or
square screw nuts; No. 9, a circular or oval tong formed in the main
body of the pincers No. 1, handy for holding small tubes in chemical
laboratorics, or grasping round objects, such as round nuts, for instance;
No. 10, wire pliers being formed at the top portion of the pincers No. 1;
No. 11, concave nippers placed at the bottom of the hand shears No. 3,
for the purpose of readily cutting thick wires; No. 12, a circular or oval
combination provided with teeth so as to form a concave nut cracker,

page_text: a tube holder for chemists, a tube tong for gas burners, pipes, or large
round nuts; No. 13, a claw for drawing small nuts or tacks; No. 14,
the hand vice No. 7, used as a hand tong or jaw rendered powerful by
using the top of the main tool as the fulcrum of a lever for drawing nails,
tacks or pins, too firmly driven in to be drawn by the small claw
No. 13, the hand tong or jaw can be used also as a cramp in glueing
small articles; No. 15, the French decimeter or other scale; No. 16,
English inch or other desired scale; No. 17, 17, 17¾, a small conical
groove square a round at choice formed half on each nose and producing
by the close junction of the two jaws a small conical box for holding
grasping awls or punches and very useful for repairing tents or awnings;
No. 18, a straight ruler for tracing small lines produced by having a
portion of one of the limbs made perfectly straight; No. 19, a conical
groove made half in each limb, and by the close junction of the two
producing a conical cavity for holding augers, taps, or drills; No. 20, the
square main tool used as a handle for the auger conical cavity No. 19,
and as a universal turning wrench.
In order to render the above-described tools, Figure A and B, more.
useful I add to them any desired instruments, such is a saw and cork-
screw, for instance, rivetted or adjusted in any suitable manner to the
limbs, as shown in Figure K.
In order to retain the two limbs. firmly closed when required any
appliance can be used, but I prefer the use of a coiled spring fixed to the
rivet or screw Y inside the two halves of the tool, as shown in Figure J,
as by such spring the links are rendered self-closing without hindering
the action of either of the combinations.
Figure F represents a pair of hand shears, with the hand vice or jaw C¹
added to it, said vice being very handy for holding, straightening, or
curbing metallic plates. The small channel (6) formed on one side of the
vice is very handy for sinking a groove on the edge of tin sheets, the
small hole (c) on the other side of the vice is very handy for punching a
hole through tin plates.
Figure G represents a pair of ordinaay scissors with the hand vice C¹
added to it for the purpose of drawing tacks, pins, or needles that it is
impossible to draw with the fingers. The hand vice or jaw if applied
to scissors used in chirugical operations will prove very useful, and also
to those used by sewing machine workers and others.

page_text: Figure H represents hand tongs with the hand vice C¹ and concave
tong E added to it without in any way interfering with its original
uses, this addition in many instances will be found very useful and time
saving for straightening nails or grasping tubes.
Figure I represents a pair of pliers containing the hand vice or jaw C'
and C respectively applied to both limbs or parts, as is also the conical
square socket before referred to for holding and grasping small punches,
drills, and augers, the whole tool being used as the handle of the
auger.
Figure represents the hand vice or jaw produced by cutting away
an inner portion of each jaw at an acute angle widening from its centre
as at a in Figure C¹, to any desired degree of the circle-in-order-to-
correct the deviation produced from the straight centre line by the spring
of said limbs and thus form according to the angle selected an angular
or parallel hand vice or jaw very handy for holding or grasping any
small objects intended to be filed or worked as needed.
Figure C represents the said hand vice or jaw described in Figure C',
but applied to the nose of the tool, the centre of the angle being
then reversed and placed at a, Figure C.
I am aware that the fore ends of nippers, pliers, and tongs have
previously been shaped at an angle so as to open more or less parallel to
each other, but the present Invention consists in shaping said fore ends
so as to have on the same being opened one part at an angle and the
other portion parallel, as exexplified in Figure C.
Figures D' and D2 represent the inside faces inclined, as described in
Figure C', so as to open parallel, and in the centre of that part is made
a conical, square, or angular groove facing exactly the groove on the
opposite limb in order to form by the junction of the two limbs a
conical recess for holding augers and drills, the whole of the main tool
being then used as a handle.
Figure D shows a small conical socket formed as described in
Figure D' and D², but placed at the extreme end of the nose of the
main tool for the purpose of holding small awls or punches, the whole
of the tool being used as a handle.
Figure E represents à circular or oval socket made in the inside
of each limb at the hinder part at an angle widening from its centre
placed at a so as to open parallel. Said sockets are provided with teeth

page_text: and form by the junction of the two limbs a concave jaw or nut cracker
surrounding as much as possible the nut so as to crack it with ease and
less force than with the ordinary flat crackers. Said concave jaw is at
the same time very useful as a tong for grasping or holding round
surfaces, such as gas burners, pipes, rounds, nuts, and other purposes.
I am aware that concave tongs have been made before, but they
have been always placed at the fore end of duplex tools, and what I
claim is, the placing of said concave tongs at the hinder part of duplex
tools.
Figure K is another combination called the "shoemaker's companion,"
the jaws x of which when closed are slightly wider apart at the base
than at the point so that when opened to the thickness of the leather
they will be parallel and so grip the leather equally throughout their
length, thereby obtaining a powerful hold on the leather without injury
thereto. is a projection rounded to avoid damaging the leather when
pressing thereon.