A CERTAIN ARTICLE, WHICH FORMS OR MAY BE USED AS A HANDSOME NOB FOR PARLOUR AND OTHER DOORS, BELL PULLS, AND CURTAIN PINS, AND IS ALSO CAPABLE OF BEING USED FOR A VARIETY OF USEFUL AND ORNAMENTAL PURPOSES IN THE INTERIOR OF DWELLING HOUSES, AND OTHER PLACES
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
JOYCE, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Ironmonger, send greeting.
WHEREAS I did by Petition humbly represent unto Her present
most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, that after considerable application
and expense I had invented "A CERTAIN ARTICLE, WHICH FORMS OR MAY BE
USED AS A HANDSOME NOB FOR PARLOUR AND OTHER DOORS, BELL PULLS, AND
CURTAIN PINS, AND IS ALSO CAPABLE OF BEING USED FOR A VARIETY OF USEFUL
AND ORNAMENTAL PURPOSES IN THE INTERIOR OF DWELLING HOUSES, AND OTHER
PLACES," and Her said Majesty, being willing to give encouragement to all
arts and inventions which may be for the public good, was graciously pleased
by Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the First day of
October, One thousand eight hundred and forty, in the fourth year of Her
reign, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, to give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Joyce, my exors, adñors, and assigns, Her especial license, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I or they, by myself or themselves;
or by my or their deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I or they
should agree with (and no others), during the term of fourteen years from
the date of the said Letters Patent, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend my said Invention within that part of Her said Majesty's
Dominions called England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, and also in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad,
in such manner as to me, my exors, admors, and assigns, shall seen meet,

page_text: and as that I or they shall enjoy the whole profit and advantage, arising by
reason of the said Invention, during the said term of fourteen years; and
for that end Her said Majesty requires and strictly commands all Her
subjects whatsoever, within England, Wales, and Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
in the Colonies and Plantations aforesaid, that they shall not, neither directly
nor indirectly, make, use, or put in practice my said Invention or any part
thereof, or in anywise counterfeit, imitate, or resemble the same, nor make
any addition thereto or subtraction therefrom, whereby to pretend himself or
themselves to be the inventor or inventors thereof; and whereas the said
Letters Patent contain a proviso obliging me, the said Thomas Joyce, par-
ticularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said 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
Thomas Joyce, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described and
ascertained in manner following, and by the aid of the Sheet of Drawing
hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
My said Invention consists in a certain article formed by the application of
a mirror, having a brilliant surface adapted to reflect light, and to give a
handsome ornamental appearance to the substance to which such mirror is
applied; which substance may be wood, bone, ivory, horn, papier maché, or
metal, or any other suitable substance, or any combination of such substances
which has or have been or may be used for making knobs for parlour and
other doors, bell pulls, curtain pins, or knobs for other like purposes, the
mirror being applied to the end or most visible part of such knob, within a
recess or cavity, so as that it will be surrounded by a prominent border, in.
order to protect it from injury.
Figure 1 of the Drawing hereunto annexed represents the said article as
it is constructed and prepared, in order to be used for the knob of what is
called a mortice door-lock. The chief mass A of the knob may be made of
hard wood polished, or of any other suitable material, or of metal; and it
may be japanned or varished.. B is the mirror, which may be made of glass
silvered at the back in the manner of looking glasses, or of concave or convex
mirrors, and lodged in a recess hollowed out in the end of the knob A, the
mirror being retained in its intended place in that recess by a ring or border
rim m of ivory, mother-of-pearl, or metal, or other suitable material inserted

page_text: and fastened into the recess, after the mirror has been lodged therein, and
that ring overlapping so much of the circumference of the mirror as to
retain the same securely in its place within the recess.
The ring m may
form a prominent border to the mirror, to protect the same from injury. D
is the rose which is to go against the door, with a cavity sunk into it for the
.small part
"b" of the knob to enter into that part, b being a piece of metal
covering the small end of the wood and going up into the centre thereof, and
having a square hole up through the centre of the metal, in order to fit on
the square spindle or axis of the lock, to which axis the knob is to be affixed
by means of a small screw inserted transversely in the usual manner. d is a
circular plate of thin metal, inlaid into the bottom of the aforesaid cavity in
the rose D, and a small hollow neck which projects from the central part of
the plate d enters into the central hole through the rose D, forming a. lining
to that hole, and the round part of the square spindle or axis aforesaid fits
into the said lining, whilst the metal at the end of the part 6 fits to the flat
surface of the plate d.
The separate Figure E shows the plate & turned the other way upwards,
to explain how its hollow neck projects from its surface.
Figure 2 represents the said article as it is constructed and prepared in
order to be used for a knob to a drawer, A being the mass of the knob, and
B, the mirror applied thereto, as before. The metal central sbank or screw
pink, which projects out from the knob to go through the front of the drawer
is round, and the nut K, which is to go withinside. that front, is a short
tube let into the wood thereof, with a square to prevent it from turning
round, and with the circular end beyond that square made smooth and
rounding, but the end of the screw need not project through beyond
the nut..
Figure 3 represents the said article as it may be constructed and prepared
in order to be used for what is called a lever bell-pull; A being the mass of
the fixed part of the bell pull; and B, the mirror for the ornament of that
fixed part; and. W is another smaller mirror applied to the knob, by which
the lever of the bell pull is to be actuated, or otherwise the article with a
mirror (such as B) may be constructed in order to be used in a bell pull of
that kind which is suspended at the end of a bell rope or ribband.
Figure 4 represents the said article as it is constructed and prepared
in order to be used as a curtain pin, B being the mirror applied as
aforesaid.
Figure 5 represents the said article constructed and prepared. as an es-
cutcheon for closing the keyhole of a door lock, B being the mirror applied
thereon as aforesaid.

page_text: Figure 6 represents the said article constructed and prepared in order to
be used as a finger plate for doors; B, B, B, being the mirrors applied
thereto.
Figure 7 represents the said article constructed and prepared in order to
be used as an ornament for the cornice of a room, or over a window, B
being the mirror as aforesaid, and there may be one or more such mirrors.
And in all cases the mirrors may be either flat, like a piece of ordinary looking-
glass, or they may be convex or concave like a watch glass; such glass being
silvered. And in form the said mirrors may be circular, or oval, or poly-
gonal, or square, or oblong, according to what will give the most handsome
ornamental appearance to the article. Or, instead of glass silvered, the mirror
may be made of polished steel, or other metal which is capable of being so
polished as to reflect light in the manner of a mirror; and in some cases the
mirror may have a cylindrically formed surface for reflection of light, like
that of a tube or portion of a tube; such surface, being either concave or
convex on the visible exterior, as will best suit the purpose to which the
article is to be applied.
Figure 8 represents the said article so constructed and applied, in order to
be used as a handle for a door. A is the mass of the handle; D, the plate
to fasten against the door; B, the mirror, in the form of a portion of a cylin-
drical tube, and which may be formed of glass, silvered at the back; the
mirror being lodged in a cavity sunk in the handle, and retained therein by
the border rim m, which projects so much beyond the surface of the mirror as
is requisite to protect it from injury.
Figure 9 represents the said article constructed and prepared in order to
be used as a portion of ornamental moulding for the walls or cornices of
apartments, or for the ornament of furniture; the mirror B being a portion
of a long cylindrical tube, either concave or convex, with a prominent
margin m, m, at each side, and an appropriate ornament A, A, at each
end; and mirrors W, W, may be introduced in those ornaments if desired.
Figure 10 is a similar moulding or beading, which, if it is required to
extend along a considerable length, the mirror B must be made in lengths
put together end to end, with some ornament applied over the junctions' so
as to conceal them.
Figure 11 represents the said article as constructed and prepared in order
to be used as what is called a curtain band to retain curtains when they are
gathered up to the sides of the window in the daytime; B is the mirror, which
is in this case formed of a portion of a cylindrical tube bended in its length
to a curve, to suit the curvature of the band, the mirror being secured in its
place thereon by a prominent border rim m, m.

page_text: I claim
my invention the article herein-before described, nich is
formed by the application of a mirror in any of the various ways herein-before
described to the ordinary substance or substances, whereof like articles to
those herein-before described have heretofore or may be made.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Joyce, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of March, One thousand eight
hundred and forty-one.