AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TOOTH BRUSHES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Susan Bidwell, James Bidwell, and Arthur
Bidwell, all of Kingsland Road, in the County of Middlesex, Manu-
facturers, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF TOOTH BRUSHES.”
Scaled the 30th December 1873, and dated the 2nd July 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Susan Bidwell, James
Bidwell, and Arthur Bidwell at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 2nd July 1873,
We, SUSAN BLDWELL, JAMES BIDWELL, and "ARTHUR BIDWELL, all
of Kingsland Road, in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturers, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TOOTH BRUSHES," to be as follows (that is to say):
Our Invention has for its object an improved manufacture of tooth
brushes, with the view to enable the hair to be permanently fitted and
retained within the handle or back of the brush in a more flexible and
durable manner than when rigidly fixed as at present, and consists in
drilling or forming the holes in the backs to receive the hair, with
countersunk heads tapering gradually downwards from the face towards
the back of the brush aforesaid, so that on the hair being drawn in and

page_text: fixed by wires, cement, or otherwise in the usual manner, the said hair
shall be enabled to expand within the said countersunk holes, and
present a more finished and uniform fulness of appearance with greater
elasticity or tendency to yield to the surface of the teeth without
breaking away from the rough edges of the ordinary holes when tightly
bound as at present.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Susan Bidwell, James Bidwell, and Arthur Bidwell
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 1st January 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, SUSAN
BIDWELL, JAMES BIDWELL, and ARTHUR BIDWELL, all of Kingsland
Road, in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturers, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of July, 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 successors
give and grant unto us, the said Susan Bidwell, James Bidwell, and
Arthur Bidwell, Her special licence that we, the said Susan Bidwell,
James Bidwell, and Arthur Bidwell, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Susan Bidwell, James Bidwell,
and Arthur Bidwell, 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 IMPROVEMENt in the ManufACTURE OF TOOTH BRUSHES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Susan Bidwell,
James Bidwell, and Arthur Bidwell, our exccutors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands
and scals, 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 Susan Bidwell, James Bidwell, and
Arthur Bidwell, do hereby 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 and the Drawings
therein referred to (that is to say) :— .
Our Invention has for its object an improved manufacture of tooth
brushes with the view to enable the hair to be permanently fitted and
and retained within the head of the brush in a more durable manner
than when rigidly fixed as at present, and consists in drilling or forming
the holes in the heads of the brush to receive the hair within counter-
sunk holes, tapering gradually downwards from the face towards the
back of the brush aforesaid, so that on the hair being drawn in and
fixed by wires, cement, or otherwise in the usual manner, the said hair
shall have free play in the countersunk holes, and thereby prevent the
bristles from being broken or cut off as in the case of the sharp or rough
edges of the ordinary holes when tightly bound as at present.
And in order that our said Invention may be more fully understood
and readily carried into effect, we now proceed to describe the same by
aid of the accompanying Drawings, reference being had to the letters
and figures thereon marked (that is to say) :-
Fig. 1 represents a top or plan view of a tooth brush upon our
improved principle of manufacture, shewing the hair partly removed;
Fig. 2, side view. thereof shewing the head partly in section; Fig. 3,
back view of the brush; Fig. 4, side view of a tooth brush partly in
section, upon the old principle, in which straight holes as hitherto
employed are shown by way of explanatory contrast to our improve-
ments; and Fig. 5, sectional end view of improved brush. In each
Figure the same letters of reference denote similar corresponding parts.
A, A, handle; B, B, head of the tooth brush showing countersunk
tapered holes drilled or otherwise formed therein, for receiving and
giving to the hair an elastic freedom without getting broken off or
impaired when in use as hitherto; C, C, the hair or bristles drawn
through and secured through the medium of wires and cement or other-
wise in the usual manner; D, D, drilled holes with countersunk head D'
tapering outwards in manner shown; E, E, graving lines formed in the
back of the brush for the recption of the fixing wires; F, F, old
manner of forming the holes in the head of tooth brushes, by which the

page_text: hair, from being tightly bound, is subject to be cut through and bent
or broken of when in use.
· In conclusion to the foregoing description we would here briefly note
that other forms of tapered holes, involving our principle of construc-
tion, may be employed by us in like manner to those above described.
Having now fully described and ascertained the nature of this our said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed and
carried into effect, we would have it clearly understood that we do not
´by any means intend to confine ourselves to the precise details herein-
before set forth and described, as the same may be otherwise varied
without departing from the general principle of this our said Invention,
nor do we claim as new and of our said Invention the exclusive use of
'the several parts, combinations, and arrangements herein-before described
and set forth, except when the same are employed in and for the pur-
poses of our said Invention, which we hereby declare to consist in the
exclusive right of manufacturing and vending tooth brushes having
countersunk tapering holes formed in the heads thereof for the purpose
of facilitating the method of drawing the hair or bristles through the
said holes, and giving to the same a firm tightening knot-hold and elastic
freedom to the bristles aforesaid, hitherto unobtained, substantially in
the manner and for the purposes herein-before set forth and described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Susan Bidwell, James Bidwell,
and Arthur Bidwell, have mercunto set our hands and scals, this
Thirty-first day of December, in the year of our Lord One
thousand cight hundred and seventy-three.
DINHATT