A NEW METHOD OF MANUFACTURING OF SPOONS AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1785

page_text: DARBY'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I WILLIAM
DARBY, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Silversmith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Tenth day of November, in the twenty-sixth year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said William Darby, His especial licence that I, the said
William Darby, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfull
might use, exercise, and yend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF MANUFACTURING OF
SPOONS AND OTHER ARTICLES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said William Darby, under my hand and seal, to
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and how
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majestie's High Court of
Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Darby, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following, that is to say:-
The silver plated or other metal being rolled through mills, as for other
purposes, or hammered to the thickness of the thickest part of the spoon,
sugar tongs, or spoon forks, it is cut with a bed and punch in the form of the
article intended, and about a fourth part shorter than the dye in which it is to be
stamped; it is then rolled at each end, but not at the middle, so as to bring it
to the length of the dye by thinning each end as much as wanted, which must
vary according to the weight upon the spoon or other article intended, which can
only be ascertained by the judgment of the workman; they are then stamped

page_text: with a hammer, stamp, screw press, or any engine of sufficient force, between
two steel dyes, one or both of the dyes having the exact form of the spoon or
other article intended. If they are large they are better struck hot of a dark
red, if small they may be stamped cold. If the spoon or other article is
stamped flat and raised afterwards, then the impression must be only on one
dye, the other being quite flat; if stamped in the raised form, then the im-
pression must be on both dyes, one forming the back, the other the front of the
article. In stamping there will be superfluous metal squeese out between the
two dyes, which is cut off by a bed and punch in the manner they are first
cut out of the piece, but that the bed and punch must be the exact outline of
the dye in which they are struck. If the spoons are stamped flat, the bowles
must be raised by means of a convex punch the form of the bowl of the
spoon forced in a piece of lead or pewter by a screw press or with a hammer,
and after the pewter has received the form of the punch, the spoon is placed
between the punch and pewter and receives its form by press or hammer.
The same process serves for the sugar-tong ends for raising them as does for
the bowls of the spoons. The spoon forks after being struck the first time, as
described for the spoons, have the prongs pierced out with bed and punch, and
then struck the second time; they then have the edges filed. The spoon and
tongs when struck the second time just to put them in form, are filed on the edges
of the bowl and handle, and the forks are done the same, after which they are
burnished or polished as wanted. In the said articles made of plated metal,
the edges must be turned over with a burnisher, or be tinned or have silver
solder run on them to cover the bare edges of the metal.
The above description I conceive is sufficient for any person to make them
by who are used to the working of stamps and cutting presses.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Darby, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Sixth day of December, One thousand seven
hundred and nights fir
Signed and sealed by the said William Darby,
being first duly stampt, the several inter-
lineations between the 13th & 14th lines,
the 14th & 15th lines, the 16th & 17th
lines, the 17th & 18th lines, the 23d & 24th
lines, the 24th & 25th lines, and the 26th &
27th lines, and the erazure in the 12th line,
boing first made in the
of ve
WILL DARBY. (L.S.)

page_text: :
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of December, in the
year of our Lord 1785, the aforesaid William Darby came before our said Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and eighty-five.

page_text: DARBY'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
DARBY, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Silversmith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Tenth day of November, in the twenty-sixth year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said William Darby, His especial licence that I, the said
William Darby, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfull
might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW METHOD OF MANUFACTURING OF
SPOONS AND OTHER ARTICLES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso obliging me, the said William Darby, under my hand and seal, to
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and how
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majestie's High Court of
Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Darby, do hereby declare that ny said Invention is described in
manner following, that is to say:-
The silver plated or other metal being rolled through mills, as for other
purposes, or hammered to the thickness of the thickest part of the spoon,
sugar tongs, or spoon forks, it is cut with a bed and punch in the form of the
article intended, and about a fourth part shorter than the dye in which it is to be
stamped; it is then rolled at each end, but not at the middle, so as to bring it
to the length of the dye by thinning each end as much as wanted, which must
vary according to the weight upon the spoon or other article intended, which can
only be ascertained by the judgment of the workman; they are then stamped

page_text: with a hammer, stamp, screw press, or any engine of sufficient force, between
two steel dyes, one or both of the dyes having the exact form of the spoon or
other article intended. If they are large they are better struck hot of a dark
red, if small they may be stamped cold. If the spoon or other article is
stamped flat and raised afterwards, then the impression must be only on one
dye, the other being quite flat; if stamped in the raised form, then the im-
pression must be on both dyes, one forming the back, the other the front of the
article. In stamping there will be superfluous metal squeese out between the
two dyes, which is cut off by a bed and punch in the manner they are first
cut out of the piece, but that the bed and punch must be the exact outline of
the dye in which they are struck. If the spoons are stamped flat, the bowles
must be raised by means of a convex punch the form of the bowl of the
spoon forced in a piece of lead or pewter by a screw press or with a hammer,
and after the pewter has received the form of the punch, the spoon is placed
between the punch and pewter and receives its form by press or hammer.
The same process serves for the sugar-tong ends for raising them as does for
the bowls of the spoons. The spoon forks after being struck the first time, as
described for the spoons, have the prongs pierced out with bed and punch, and
then struck the second time; they then have the edges filed. The spoon and
tongs when struck the second time just to put them in form, are filed on the edges
of the bowl and handle, and the forks are done the same, after which they are
burnished or polished as wanted. In the said articles made of plated metal,
the edges must be turned over with a burnisher, or be tinned or have silver
solder run on them to cover the bare edges of the metal.
The above description I conceive is sufficient for any person to make them
by who are used to the working of stamps and cutting presses.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Darby, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of December, One thousand seven
hundred and eighty-five.
Signed and sealed by the said William Darby,
being first duly stampt, the several inter-
lineations between the 13th & 14th lines,
the 14th & 15th lines, the 16th & 17th
lines, the 17th & 18th lines, the 23d & 24th
lines, the 24th & 25th lines, and the 26th &
27th lines, and the erazure in the 12th line,
being first made in the presence of us
WILL DARBY. (L.B.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Sixth day of December, in the
year of our Lord 1785, the aforesaid William Darby came before our said Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Ninth day of December, in the year of our Lord One