IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF KNIFE-CLEANING MACHINES.
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Hawkins, the younger, of London
Road, and Charles Pickering, of Waterloo Road, both in the County
of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION
OF KNIFE-CLEANING MACHINES.".
Scaled the 25th April, 1871, and dated the 26th October 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Hawkins
and Charles Pickering at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 26th October 1870.
We, ALEXANDER HAWKINS, the younger, of London Road, and
CHARLES PICKERING, of Waterloo Road, both in the County of Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for 'IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF KNIFE-CLEANING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
66
This Invention consists in constructing machines for cleaning knives
in the following manner :-We take a flat piece of wood or table
sufficiently large to hold the blades of twelve knives when laid thereon
side by side, and to the ends and one side of the said table we screw a
piece of iron bent to the shape of the table at those parts thereof to
which it is to be fixed. The ends of the aforesaid piece of iron extend

page_text: about two inches, more or less, beyond the opposite side and edge of the
aforesaid table, to which the aforesaid piece of iron is fixed, the extreme
ends of the iron being bent square for about two inches to receive and
hold temporarily a long piece of wood or other material for the handles
of the several knives to rest upon, the said handles being held in position
separate from each other by raised pieces of cork fixed on the wood or
other suitable contrivance. To the ends of this piece of wood short
upright pieces are fixed and suitably shaped to receive a narrow bar of
wood or metal covered at its under side with a piece of any soft material,
the said bar being hinged by one end to one of the aforesaid upright
pieces, the other end fitting into a bayonet slit or other contrivance in
the other upright, so that by lifting up the aforesaid bar the several
knives may be placed on the table, and held by their handles in position
for being cleaned, the aforesaid bar is then brought down and fixed so
as to securely hold the knives by their handles. The operator with a
hard hair or other suitable brush with moist emery powder or other
suitable cleansing powder proceeds to clean the blades of the several
knives, and finishes and polishes them with dry powder and a piece of
wood covered on one side with buff or wash leather, and when one side
of the several blades has been cleaned the operator lifts up bodily the
piece of wood that hold the knives and turns them over so as to present
the other sides of the blades to be cleaned, and cleans them as before
stated; he then lifts up the aforesaid bar and takes away the cleaned
knives and places other knives therein to be cleaned as before, and so
on in succession.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alexander Hawkins and Charles Pickering in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th April 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALEXANDER
HAWKINS, the younger, of London Road, and CHARLES PICKERING, of
Waterloo Road, both in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the
thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-

page_text: cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Alexander Hawkins, the
younger, and Charles Pickering, Her special licence that we, the said
Alexander Hawkins, the younger, and Charles Pickering, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Alexander
Hawkins, the younger, and Charles Pickering, our executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF KNIFE-CLEANING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Alexander Hawkins, the younger, and Charles
Pickering, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, 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 we, the said Alexander Hawkins, the younger,
and Charles Pickering, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following, statement, that is
to say :-
This Invention consists in constructing machines for cleaning knives
in the following manner:-We take a flat piece of wood or table
sufficiently large to hold the blades of twelve or any number of knives
when laid thereon side by side, and to the ends and one side of the
said table we screw a piece of iron bent to the shape of the table at
those parts thereof to which it is to be fixed. The ends of the aforesaid
piece of iron extend about two inches more or less beyond the opposite
side and edge of the aforesaid table to which the aforesaid piece of iron
is fixed, the extreme ends of the iron being bent square for about two
inches to receive and hold temporarily a long piece of wood or other
material for the handles of the several knives to rest upon, the said
handles being held in position separate from each other by raised pieces
of cork or any other substance fixed on the wood or other suitable con-
trivance. To the ends of this piece of wood short upright, pieces are
fixed and suitably shaped to receive a narrow bar of wood, or metal

page_text: covered at its under side with a piece of any soft material, the said bar
being hinged by one end to one of the aforesaid upright pieces, the other
end fitting into a bayonet slit or other contrivance in the other upright,
so that by lifting up the aforesaid bar the several knives may be placed,
on the table and held by their handles in position for being cleaned
the aforesaid bar is then brought down and fixed so as to securely
hold the knives by their handles. The operator with a hard hair or
other suitable brush with moist emery powder or other suitable cleansing
powder proceeds to clean the blades of the several knives, and finishes
and polishes them with dry powder and a piece of wood covered on one
side with buff or wash leather, and when one side of the several blades
has been cleaned the operator lifts up bodily the piece of wood that
holds the knives and turns them over so as to present the other sides
of the blades to be cleaned and cleans them as before stated, he then
lifts up the aforesaid bar and takes away the cleaned knives and places
other knives therein to be cleaned as before, and so on in succession.
And in order to explain our said Invention more clearly we now
proceed to describe the best means we are acquainted with for carrying
the same into practical effect reference being had to the illustrative Sheet
of Drawings accompanying these Presents, and to the numeral figures
and letters of reference marked thereon respectively as follows.

page_text: of a strip of wood E, and we connect the other end of the piece E to
the piece C by a sliding bolt G; e is a piece of metal fixed to d to bring
the bolt G into proper position for locking; H are recesses, one to contain
moist cleaning powder and a coarse brush, and the other a finer brush.
The dry cleaning powder we propose to keep in a tin box with holes
in the lid for sprinkling the powder out as required.
OPERATION OF THE MACHINE.
The piece E is first removed and then the handles of the knives placed
between the pieces of cork D as shewn at Figure 1, after which the
piece E is replaced and fixed, thereby securely holding the knives steady,
the blades of the knives resting on the board A. This done the operator
with the coarse brush shewn at Figure 6 proceeds to pass the brush
briskly to and fro over the blades of the knives with moist powder,
then uses dry powder and a finer brush, and finally polishes with the
polisher shewn at Figure 7, which is a piece of wood covered with leather,
or by preference vulcanized india-rubber.
The operator then withdraws
the pin and lifts out the piece C with the knives therein, and turns it
and the knives over all together, and replacing and fixing the piece C
proceeds to clean the other sides of the blades as before stated, and in
this manner and by these means several knives may be cleaned at one
and the same time.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of
our said Invention for « Improvements in the Construction of Knife-
cleaning Machines" together with the means by which it may be
effected, we would remark in conclusion that we hereby declare our
Invention to consist in and we claim, constructing and operating with
a knife-cleaning machine in the manner above described with reference
to the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Hawkins, the younger,
one of the parties hereto, have hereunto set my hand and seal,
this 22nd (Twenty-second) day of April, in the year of our Lord.
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
ALEX³. HAWKINS. JUN. (L.S.)