AN IMPROVED NEEDLE DEPOSITOR
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Beard and William Beard, both of Cannon
Street, in the City of London, Pin and Needle Manufacturers, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED NEEDLE DEPOSITOR."
Sealed the 19th September 1854, and dated the 7th July 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Georgo Beard and
William Beard at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 7th July 1854.
We, GEORGE BEARD and WILLIAM BEARD, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED NEEDLE DEPOSITOR" to be as follows:-
This Invention has reference to a machine for depositing needles into their
packing papers or otherwise in any determinate number or quantity, and in
such manner that the needles may be readily examined before being deposited
in such packing papers.
In connection with suitable framing is an inclined plane, and a hopper or
receiver, into which needles are to be placed. At the bottom of this hopper is an
opening, which is closed by the inclined plane, which is moveable, and grooved
with as many grooves as there are needles to be deposited at any given time
into the papers. At each side of the inclined plane is the lifter or discharger,
which delivers the needles from the inclined plane to the papers. To use the
machine, after the needles have been supplied to the hopper, it is necessary to

page_text: push upwards the aforesaid inclined plane, so as to cause the grooved part to slide
immediately beneath the opening at bottom of the hopper. When the needles
fall on to the same, then the inclined plane, being brought down again, will
only carry away such needles as are in the grooves, by reason of the inclined
plane sliding so close to the bottom of the hopper as not to allow any others
to pass. This inclined plane is so adjusted as never to slide down so far as
not to keep the opening at bottom of the hopper closed.
The needles in the grooves of the inclined plane are visible on its being
drawn down, and may then, if necessary, be examined and counted, when, by
pushing the same back a little way, the lifter or discharger is brought into
play, and the needles will fall into the papers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Beard and William Beard in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 1st January 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, GEORGE
BEARD and WILLIAM BEARD, both of Cannon Street, in the City of London,
Pin and Needle Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
George Beard and William Beard, Her special licence that we, the said
George Beard and William Beard, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said George Beard and William Beard, our 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 "AN IMPROVED NEEDLE DEPOSITOR," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said George Beard and William Beard, by an
instrument in writing under our 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said George Beard and William Beard, do
bereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
i
This Invention, as stated in the Provisional Specification already filed;
consists in a peculiar machine for depositing needles into their packing papers
or otherwise in any determinate number or quantity, and in such manner that.
the needles may be readily examined before being deposited in such packing
papers, the peculiar character of which machine or the means whereby it was
intended to carry the Invention into practical effect being indicated clearly i
the said Provisional Specification; and in order to comply with the aforesaid
condition in the said Letters Patent, the same is hereby re-stated (in this our
Specification thereof) more fully and explicitly, as follows:-
First, then, the machine is-provided with a bed plate-made of cast iron, the
said machine being placed on a bench or board for convenience. The bed
plate is formed with two standards or posts arising therefrom, wherein recesses
or openings are left, the surfaces of these recesses being filed true for receiving
a slide or inclined plane, which works backwards and forwards in or through
them; plates covering the said openings or recesses are screwed to the posts
aforesaid, for keeping the slide or inclined plane in its proper place. A handle
is attached to the said slide for moving it forwards or towards the front of the
machine; over a pulley mounted on the hindermost of the said posts a cord
passes, one end of which cord is attached to the said slide about the middle.
thereof, and the other to a weight or spring, which serves to pull or move the
slide in the reverse direction; on the top of the said slide is fixed the needle car-
rier. This needle carrier is simply a bar, having a series of grooves in or across
its upper surface, capable of receiving one needle in each groove, the number.
of grooves corresponding with the number of needles required to be deposited
by the machine. A hopper or receptacle for the needles to be deposited is
mounted on a bracket, fixed to the front post by means of an adjusting screw,
for regulating the height of the hopper above the needle carrier, which should
be such as to allow only one needle to pass out at a time; it is also furnished
with checks, to adapt it to needles of different lengths, and one side is
made removable (being secured by latches, in order to obtain side access,
when required; a bar works on a pin fixed to the hinder post, and is pulled
downwards by a spring, so as to cause it to press upon a stud projecting from
the slide. There is a notch in this bar, into which the said stud enters, for the
purpose of checking or arresting the motion of the slide at a particular part
of the stroke. In connection with the hopper aforesaid is the lifter, which

page_text: consists of two plates, connected together and capable of moving upon a pin
which hinges or connects one end of it to the hopper or the framing; the
opposite end rests on a part proceeding from the front of the bed plate; and it
is to be noted that in this position the top edges or surfaces of the lifter are
lower than the top surface of the needle carrier. A pair of delivering lips
are attached to the lifter, and the other to a plate fixed to the lifter, for the
purpose of carrying the said lip. There is a spring lever working on a
fulcrum on one of the plates of the lifter, and pressed upwards against a
projecting pin on the same by means of a spring acting against a projecting
pin on the lever itself. This lever has on one side of it a wedge block pre-
senting inclined surfaces, against which a striking pin carried by the slide or
inclined plane is intended to act. The action of the moving parts of the
machine is as follows:-The slide or inclined plane, in passing the hopper
cither backwards (up) or forwards (down), receives one needle in each of its
grooves, and in the forward (down) motion is checked by the notch in the bar
falling on the stud. This position affords the opportunity of inspecting the
needles, when if any are faulty, they can be removed; in which case, or in the
case of any of the grooves not having by mischance received needles, a back
stroke and a forward stroke are to be made as far as the position described;
and if the grooves be then all charged and the needles perfect, the forward
stroke is to be continued to its extreme limit. In gaining this position, the
striking pin of the slide or inclined plane passes over the upper inclined
surface of the wedge block, depressing the spring lever without producing
any effect on the lifter. In the back stroke, the striking pin will pass under
the lower inclined surfaces of the wedge block, raising the spring lever, and
also with the lifter, the top edges or surfaces of which will consequently be
raised higher than the top surfaco of the needle carrier; the effect of which
will be to lift the needles out of the grooves of the carrier, when they will
roll down the top edges or surfaces of the two plates of the lifter and through
the delivering lips into the papers in which they are intended to be packed,
which should be placed under the lips in order to receive the needles. In
continuing the back stroke, the striking pin will be disengaged from the wedge
block, when the lifter and parts in connection with it will resume their pre-
vious positions, and, by the time the slide has reached the extreme limit of
its range, the needle carrier will become charged; or if any grooves remain
uncharged, they will have a further opportunity of receiving needles in again
passing the hopper on the forward stroke.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed or carried into effect, as required by the

page_text: aforesaid condition in the said Letters Patent, we declare that we claim as
our Invention, the improved needle depositor, of the nature and character
herein-before set forth and described, it being understood that we do not
claim the component parts of the same if taken and considered apart there-
from.
In witness whercof, we, the said George Beard and William Beard, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-first day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.