A NEW OR IMPROVED DOVETAIL JOINT AND MODE OR MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE SAME, APPLICABLE FOR CONSTRUCTING DRAWERS, CABINET WORK, AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Joel Livsey, of the City of Manchester, in
the County of Lancaster, Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent,
for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED DOVETAIL JOINT AND MODE OR
MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE SAME, APPLICABLE FOR CONSTRUCTING DRAWERS,
CABINET WORK, AND OTHER PURPOSES."-A communication from abroad
by Thomas Hall, of Northampton, Hampshire County, Massa-
chusetts, United States.
Sealed the 16th January 1874, and dated the 5th August 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Joel Livsey at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 5th August 1878.
I, PETER JOEL LIVSEY, of the City of Manchester, in the County of
Lancester, Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED DOVETAIL JOINT AND
MODE OR MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE SAME, APPLICABLE FOR CONSTRUCTING
DRAWERS, CABINET WORK, AND OTHER PURPOSES," a communication from

page_text: abroad by Thomas Hall, of Northampton, Hampshire County, Massa-
chusetts, United States, to be as follows:-
-=
The object of the Invention is to construct drawers and other cabinet
work and articles where the parts have to be joined together by a method
and joint which is stronger and more accurately and casily formed than
the ordinary dovetail joint, and the Invention consists in forming the
joint by cutting a series of segmental cavities in the edge of one piece to
be joined, and side by side, leaving a central pin of the material opposite
each segmental cavity, and in cutting in the side of the other piece to be
joined, and side by side, a series of holes corresponding to the central
pins left in the edge of the other piece, and in cutting curves or scollops
concentric with the holes corresponding to the segmental cavities, so
that when the two pieces are put together, one will exactly join with and
fit the other. The segmental cavity is formed leaving the solid central
pin by a hollow cutter or auger. The hole is drilled or bored in the
other piece by a drill, and the curves or scollops are formed by one or
two angle chisels and a gouge chisel.
The mode or machinery for forming the dovetail is as follows:-The
two pieces of wood to be operated upon are clamped in the proper
position (one edgeway, the other flatway up), on a sliding table which
can be moved uniformly by any suitable mechanism after each operation
or cut in the line in which the dovetails are to be made to the extent of
the space between each dovetail. The hollow cutter or auger is mounted
on a spindle to rotate, and the drill also on another spindle, and the
angle and gouge chisels are fixed in the proper position on the same
bracket that carries the drill slide and auger spindles, then at each
downward movement the auger cuts to the depth required in one piece,
and the drill bores the corresponding holes in the other piece, and the
angle and
gouge chisels act to form the scollop, then the table moves for
the next dovetail and so on. Though it takes three movements to finish
one scollop, yet as each tool or cutter makes one cut at each movement,
one scollop is completed at each movement of the cutters.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Peter Joel Livsey in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 22nd January 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
JOEL LIVSEY, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Consulting Engineer and Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Peter Joel Livsey, Her special
license that I, the said Peter Joel Livsey, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter Joel Livsey, 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED
DOVETAIL JOINT AND MODE OR MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE SAME, APPLICABLE FOR
CONSTRUCTING DRAWERS, CABINET WORK, AND OTHER PURPOSES," a commu-
nication to me from abroad by Thomas Hall, of Northampton, Hampshire
County, Massachusetts, United States, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Peter Joel Livsey, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 Peter Joel Livsey, 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 and the accompanying Drawings (that is to
say) :-
The object of the Invention is to construct drawers and other cabinet
work and articles where the parts have to be joined together, by a
method and joint which is stronger and more accurately and easily

page_text: formed than the ordinary dovetail joint for which it is a substitute, and
the Invention consists in forming the joint by cutting a series of circular
segmental cavities side by side in the edge of one piece to be joined,
leaving a central pin of the material opposite each circular segmental
cavity, and in cutting in the side of the other piece to be joined a series
of holes in a row corresponding to the central pins left in the edge of
the other piece, and in cutting curves or scallops concentric with the
holes corresponding to the segmental cavities, so that when the two
pieces are put together, one will exactly join with and fit the other.
The segmental cavity is formed leaving the solid centre pin by a hollow
cutter or auger.
The hole is drilled or bored in the other piece by a
'drill, and the curves or scallops are formed by one or two angle chisels
and a gouge chisel.
:
The mode or machinery for forming the dovetail is as follows:-The
two pieces of wood to be operated upon are clamped in the proper
position (one edgeway, the other flatway) upon a sliding table which can
be moved uniformly by any suitable mechanism after each operation or
cut in the line in which the dovetails are to be made to the extent of the
space between each dovetail. The hollow cutter or auger is mounted on
a spindle to rotate, and the drill also on another spindle, and the angle
and gouge chisels are fixed in the proper position on the same bracket
that carries the drill slide and auger spindles, then at each downward
movement the auger cuts to the depth required in one piece, and the
drill bores the corresponding hole in the other piece, and the angle and
gouge chisels act to form the scallop, then the table moves for the next
dovetail and so on. Though it takes three movements of the table and
cutters to finish one scallop, yet as each tool or cutter makes one cut at
each movement, one scallop is completed at each movement of the
cutters.
The Invention is illustrated by Fig. 1, an elevation, shewing the auger

page_text: Fig. 4, a plan of the piece in which the holes are bored, and on the
edge of which the scallops are formed, also showing plan or cross
sections of the two angle chisels and the gouge chisels, and by Fig. 5 an
isometrical view of the two pieces x and y joined together.
க,
the circular segmental cavities (formed by the auger b); o the solid
pins left concentric therewith in one piece (x); d the holes bored for the
solid pins (c) in the other piece y by the drill k; e the first angle chisel
to act in cutting the scallop; f the second angle chisel to act, leaving the
scallop partly formed, as shown at g; and h is the gouge which finishes
the scallop as shown at i.
I have now particularly described the nature of the Invention com-
municated to me and the mode of carrying it into effect, and claim as the
Invention secured to me the system or mode and means of forming
joints which are substitutes for the ordinary dovetail joints, substantially
as herein-before described and illustrated by the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Joel Livsey, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.