CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CROWN GLASS
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
EWING, of the Town of Dumbarton, in the County of Dumbarton, Scotland,
Glass Splitter, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifteenth day of August, in the eighth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alexander Ewing, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Alexander Ewing, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alexander Ewing, my exors, adñiors, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of Her
said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the
Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her
said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CROWN GLASS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Alexander Ewing, shall cause
a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what
mauner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately

page_text: after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Alexander Ewing, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say):
The object of my Invention is to improve the manufacture of crown glass
by so operating in making each table of crown glass as to produce greater
equality of thickness or substance throughout the tables of crown glass; and
in order that the Invention may be fully understood and readily carried into
effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
It is well known that by the present mode of manufacturing crown glass
it is liable to be unequal in substance from rim to rim, or in particular places,
and such states of manufacture are known in the trade as "fine" or "slack,"
for the thin parts, and "strong" or "heavy," for the thick parts, and also
strong or heavy rims." Now by means of my Invention these may be
avoided and the periods of the process of making crown glass, at which I per-
form certain parts of the operation, the manner of doing so, and the metallic
instruments such as herein described, which are brought into use, are as
follows: When the workman called the gatherer has formed the piece, or
what is called the handpointing or gatherer's "marver," and when the picce
so formed is about to be pierced or perforated by the blower behind, or during
the operation of piercing, or immediately after it, which operation of piercing
or perforation is well understood by workmen, at this stage of the process
the gatherer is to apply that part of the gathering near the tube or pipe to the
implement called a cutter, represented at No. 1. This cutter, made of iron or
other suitable metal, is sharpened by means of a file or other instrument, and
affixed by a bolt to the standard which is attached to the back of the hand-
pointing or gatherer's marver, as shewn in the Drawing. I make the cutter
separate from the standard, and capable of being removed and replaced. at
pleasure, that I may have cutters of the various sizes I may require. When
the gatherer has applied that part of the gathering near the tube or pipe to the s
cutter above described, he (the gatherer) and the blower behind turn the
piece round, and thereby an incision is made by the implement, which displaces
the inetal from the nose of the pipe into the shoulder of the gathering, insuring

page_text: strong shoulders, and the rim may be thus made or brought to any consistency,
and after expansion an equality of substance of the table of glass generally will
be the result, and owing to such uniformity a more effectual standing in the
annealing arches or kilns can be depended on. I would remark, that although
I believe that the form of the metallic instrument a, No. 1, of the Drawing
called a cutter before described to be the best for the purpose of my Invention,
I do not confine myself thereto, as the same may be varied so long as it is
suitable for accomplishing the process herein described; and I have at No. 2
and No. 3 of the Drawing, shewn two other instruments which may be used
for performing the same process in place of the instrument No. 1 of the
Drawing. No. 2 is a circular bar of iron or other metal attached to the
marver, which can also be removed and replaced at pleasure. No. 3 shews
the common marver, the edge or adage of which may be used at this stage of
the process to effect to some extent the same object.
At the time of per-
foration or before or immediately after that operation has been performed by
the blower behind, the glass is as heretofore carried to the Pattison hole, and a
heat being taken, as is well understood, it is marvered on the blower's
marver; it is then replaced by the workman in the Pattison hole, and when
sufficiently heated he takes it to the stake or standard No. 4 of the Drawing
in order to increase the size of the globe. Here I apply the cutter, being a
metallic implement shewn at the top of the stake or standard above men
tioned and attached thereto by a nut and screw so as to admit of its being
lifted or let down at pleasure.. The cutter is applied to that part of the
"piece" commonly called the nose or neck, for the purpose of preventing the
picce swelling at the neck or nose, and effecting a greater disunion of the piece
from the pipe. The cutter above mentioned is also shewn at No. 4, separate
from the standard. The piece is then taken to the bottoming hole by the
blower, reheated and repeatedly heated and blown to the size desired; it is
then taken to the "casher box," then to the "nose hole," thence to the "flashing
furnace," and then to the annealing arch or kiln, all which are well under-
stood by the workman, and therefore will not require description in this my
Specification.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the best means I
am acquainted with for performing the same, I would have it understood that
I do not confine myself to the details of the apparatus used as above described,
provided the peculiar character of the Invention be retained.
But what I clain is,
First, the mode of operating in the manufacture of crown glass described in
respect of the Drawing No. 1. And.

page_text: Secondly, I claim the mode of operating in the manufacture of crown
glass described in respect to No. 4 of the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Ewing, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.