IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR RUBBING OUT PENCIL MARKS, AND FOR SHARPENING PENCILS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Barnabas Daft, of Liverpool, Civil Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR RUBBING OUT
PENCIL MARKS, AND FOR SHARPENING PENCILS."
TIFI
Sealed the 9th August 1858, and dated the 16th February 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Barnabas Daft at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th February 1858.
I, THOMAS BARNABAS DAFT, of Liverpool, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR RUBBING
'OUT PENCIL MARKS, AND FOR SHARPENING PENCILS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in covering a small block of wood or any other
suitable material of a convenient shape with sheet india-rubber, of about
th of an inch in thickness, so as to give large comparative superficies and per-
manent rigidity to a small quantity of solid india-rubber, such blocks being
for the purpose of erasing pencil marks, and the rigid cores are to give
stability to the "rubber," and to admit of the following description of instrument
being attached thereto, namely, a "blank," cut from a sheet of steel, the size
and shape to form (when acted upon by proper tools) a hollow cone, one edge
of which is to be sharpened and adjusted so as to cut a pencil or similar
instrument when inserted and twisted with a gentle pressure. The pencil
mark eraser and pointer may be used separately or combined.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Barnabas Daft in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 16th August 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAB
BARNABAS DAFT, of Liverpool, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Barnabas Daft, Her special licence, that I, the said Thomas
Barnabas Daft, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Thomas Barnabas Daft, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the.Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR RUBBING OUT PENCIL MARKS, AND FOR SHARPENING
PENCILS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas
Barnabas Daft, my exccutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
.of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Barnabas Daft, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed; to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:―
This Invention consists in covering a small block of wood or any other suitable
material of a convenient shape with sheet india-rubber of about th of an inch
in thickness, so as to give large comparative superficies and permanent rigidity
to a small quantity of solid india-rubber, such blocks being for the purpose of
erasing pencil marks, and the rigid cores are to give stability to the "rubber,"
and to admit of the following description of instrument being attached thereto,
namely, a "blank," cut from a sheet of steel the size and shape to form
(when acted upon by proper tools) a hollow cone, one edge of which is to be
sharpened and adjusted so as to cut a pencil or similar instrument when
inserted and twisted with a gentle pressure. The pencil mark eraser and
pointer may be used separately or combined.

page_text: And in order that my said Invention may be most fully understood
and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the Drawing hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section, Figure 2 is a plan, and Figure 3 is a
side view of an instrument for rubbing out pencil marks and for sharpening
pencils constructed according to my Invention. a, a, is a hollow cylinder of
wood, or it may be a block of wood in any other form. Through the wood a
hole is bored, and the pencil sharpener b, the construction of which will be
presently described, is fixed into it, as is shown. The block a is afterwards
wrapped round with a strip of india-rubber c cut from a sheet formed by
rolling out the rubber when in a plastic or doughy state, and while it is still
in this state it is lapped round the block, and a joint is made up one side,
as is well understood by india-rubber manufacturers. The rings or ends of
rubber d, d, are then applied, and the article is complete.
The pencil
sharpener is manufactured in the following manner :-A blank of the form
shewn at Figure 4 is cut or stamped from a sheet of steel, and an edge is
ground to the blank along the side. The blank is then, dies, brought to
the trough-like form shown at Figure 5 (the cutting edge being on the inside
of the trough), afterwards, by means of closing over tools, which curve over
the two edges, it is brought very nearly to the finished form; and, lastly, it is
finished by placing it in a dic, with a conical hole in it, corresponding with
the exterior form of the article, and a conical plunger passes down into it and
obliges it to take exactly the form of the die. This plunger also turns over
the lugs b, b, by which the sharpener is attached to the block. The article,
when tempered, is ready for use. I would remark, that I do not in all cases
combine together instruments for rubbing out pencil marks and instruments
for sharpening pencils, instruments of the one or the other description may
be produced separately if it be desired.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Barnabas Daft, have hereunto
set my hand and, seal, this Fourteenth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
THOMAS B. DAFT. (L.S.)
Witness,
GEO. HASELDEN: