IMPROVEMENTS IN COFFIN FURNITURE
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William George Ingall, and Charles Joseph
Parsons, both of Bordesley, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
COFFIN FURNITURE.”
Sealed the 9th December 1873, and dated the 23rd June 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William George
Ingall and Charles Joseph Parsons at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 23rd June 1873.
We, WILLIAM GEORGE INGALL and CHARLES JOSEPH PARSONS, both
of Bordesley, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturers,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for " IMPROVEMENTS IN
COFFIN FURNITURE," to be as follows:-
Our Invention has for its object facilitating the fixing of coffin
handles, and improving their appearance and strength. For this purpose
we provide rods of iron of say a section of one-eighth of an inch square
(or any other section suitable,) and cut them into lengths of about one

page_text: and a half inches; these pieces we use in place of the double fanged
shanks in ordinary use by slightly heading or cutting them roughly, so
that when the molten metal is poured or cast around the ends they will
adhere thereto.
We prefer one long fastener with a groove (semicircular at bottom) {
from end to end, and the gripe (handle) being also made with a bar to
work inside the said groove, whereby the strength of the handle is
increased.
In fixing the handle to the coffin the fastener is placed in position,
the coffin marked and bored, the bar of the gripe placed in the groove
of the fastener, the solid spikes passed through the sides of the coffin,
and by two blows of the hammer the handle is secured to the coffin.
We sometimes make the handle with shoulders and the bar not
continued through, but only sufficient of the bar to each shoulder to
ensure the strength, this in combination with our improved long fastener ]
we make to connect with the coffin by either two or more solid or split
spikes.
The parts of the fastener where the wrought iron spikes are connected
are made, stronger, this by a suitable design also improves the appear-
ance.
To keep the handle in position whilst the spikes or fangs are clenched,
and afterwards, we sometimes have one or more small projections cast
on the fastener; these are pressed or let into the wood or side of the
coffin; when the metal of the fasteners is sufficiently malleable the
spikes for clenching may be cast of the same.
2
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William George Ingall and Charles Joseph Parsons
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 23rd December 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
GEORGE INGALL and CHARLES JOSEPH PARSONS, both of Bordesley, 3
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of June, in the year

page_text: 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 us, the said William George Ingall and
Charles Joseph Parsons, Her special licence that we, the 'said William
George Ingall and Charles Joseph Parsons, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said William George Ingall and
Charles Joseph Parsons, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN COFFIN FURNITURE," upon the"
condition (amongst others) that we, the said William George Ingall"
and Charles Joseph Parsons, our executors 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 t
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.
}
J
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William George Ingall and Charles
Joseph Parsons, 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 thereof,
reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters,
and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-)
Our Invention has for its object facilitating the fixing of coffin
handles, and improving their appearance and strength. For this purpose
we provide rods of iron of say a section of one-eighth of an inch square
or any other section suitable, and cut them into lengths of about one and
a half inches; these pieces we use in place of the double fanged shanks*
in ordinary use by slightly heading or cutting them roughly, so that
when the molten metal is poured or cast around the ends they will
adhere thereto.
We prefer one long fastener with a groove semicircular at bottom.
from end to end, and the gripe (handle) being also made with a bar to
work inside the said groove, whereby the strength of the handle is,
increased.
'

page_text: with solid fangs or spikes for clenching. We also claim to make the
groove at each end only of the fastener as section Fig. 3, and the bar not
continuous, as shewn and described.
In witness whereof, we, the said William George Ingall and
Charles Joseph Parsons, have hereunto set our hands and seals,
this Eighteenth day of December in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.