IMPROVEMENTS IN EXPANDING TABLES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Hawkins, of 2, John Street, Kingsland
Road, N.E., for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXPANDING TABLES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Hawkins at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th
June 1861.
I, SAMUEL HAWKINS, of 2, John Street, Kingsland Road, N.E., do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN EXPANDING TABLES,'
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in expanding tables. For
these purposes, when screws and tubes are used in combination for expanding
and contracting tables, they have been so arranged as to cause the table to be
expanded at one end, or, when arranged to expand from both ends, the
expansion of the two ends has been by separate mechanism put in motion
independently of each other. Now, the object of the present Invention is so
to combine the use of screws and tubes that the two ends of a table may be
simultaneously and to a like extent expanded or contracted, the movement of
the two ends of the table depending one on the other. It is preferred that
the apparatus should consist of an external tube applied at about midway
of the length of the frame of the table. This tube is arranged to turn in
bearings, and in order to its receiving rotatory motion it has on it a bevil
toothed wheel, which receives motion from another bevil toothed wheel, the

page_text: axis of which is at right angles to the axis of the tube; into this wheel
another toothed wheel gears; the axis of this wheel is also at right angles to
the tube, and it is arranged to turn in suitable bearings in such manner that
nkey introduced at the side of the table may take hold of or give motion to
it, and consequently give motion to the tube. At each end of the tube is a
screw nut, and tubular screws of about half the length of the external tube
enter each end of the tube. At the outer ends of the tubular screws are also
placed screw nuts, and they receive two other screws, one of which is a
hollow or tubular screw, in order that the screw at the other end may pass
into it when the table is contracted. It should be remarked that the number
of tubes and screws used may be varied; so long as. the giving motion to one
is the cause of giving motion to another, or to more than one at each end of
the one to which motion is first communicated.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Hawkins in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
6th December 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
HAWKINS, of 2, John Street, Kingsland Road, N.E., send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Samuel Hawkins, Her special licence that I, the said Samuel
Hawkins, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Samuel Hawkins, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN EXPANDING TABLES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Samuel Hawkins, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Hawkins, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to tables which are expanded by the combined use
of tubes and screws, and the present improvements consist in so combining the
use of tubes and screws that by giving motion to one of a combined series it
shall cause one or more at each end thereof to receive motion, and move away
from the ends of the one which first receives motion.
And in order that my Invention may be most fully understood, I will
proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shows a perspective view of an expanding table, having apparatus
applied thereto combined according to my Invention; Figure 2 shows a plan
of the apparatus and parts of the framing of the table, the combined series
of tubes and screws being shewn in the contracted state and on a larger scale
than in the previous Figure; Figure 3 shews the same combined series of
tubes and screws as that represented in Figures 1 and 2 in an expanded state,
and drawn to a similar scale to Figure 2; and Figure 4 shews a longitudinal
section of the combined series of tubes and screws of Figures 1, 2, and 3, but
on a still larger scale than the other Figures.
a is a tube which is supported in suitable bearings or supports at a', a', and
also at a, there being two collars a³ fixed round the tube a, so as to prevent
it moving endwise in the bearing a². The combined series of tubes and screws
is fixed to the table by means of two plates b and c, which are fastened to the
two end rails d, d, of the framing of the table. At one end of the tube a is
fixed a screw nut or socket e suitable for receiving the tube f, which has a
screw thread formed around its exterior surface corresponding with the screw
thread in the socket or screw nut e. At the other end of the tube a is fixed
another screw nut or socket c', suitable for receiving the tube which has a
screw thread formed on its exterior surface corresponding with the screw
thread in the nut or socket. By giving rotatory motion to the tube a, it will
cause the tubes f and g, the threads being right and left-handed, to move
outwards simultaneously from each end of the tube a, and if there were no
other tubes and screws used in the series, the outer ends of the screws f and g
would have plates b and c fixed to them, and they would be fastened to the
end rails d, d, of a table, but in the combined series shewn there are two
other tubes h and i, to which the plates b, c, are fixed, so that in giving rotatory
9,

page_text: 'motion to the tube a, when the tubes ƒ and g stop, two screws will be caused
'to move away from each end of the tube a. In the Drawings the screw
tubes and 9. are arranged to meet in the middle of the tube a, but this may
be varied, and one caused to pass into the other. The other two screws are
longer. The outer end of the screw h has fixed on it the plate b, by which its
end is fastened to the end rail d at one end of the table. This screw.h
is shown to be solid, but it may, if preferred, be hollow. The outer end of
the screw is fixed to the plate c, which is fastened to the end rail d at the
other end of the table. In the arrangement shewn the tube a receives rotatory
motion by means of a handle j, which fits on to the end of an axis or shaft k.
On this shaft k is a cog wheel 1, which takes into and drives a cog wheel m
on the axis of the mitre wheel n, which gears into and drives the mitre
wheel o on the tube a. The screw his arranged to pass into the hollow
screw, and the screws h and i are respectively received in screw nuts or
-sockets-p,p,fixed in the outer ends of the tubes f and g, hence when the
screws and g receive a rotatory motion, there being-stops-to-prevent them
running through their nuts, they will cause the two screws and i to move
outwards, the one in a direction from one end of the tube a, and the other in
a direction from the other end of the tube a. I would remark that other
means than what are shown may be resorted to for giving rotatory motion to
the central tube or screw a, from the two ends of which the other tubes or
screws are propelled or moved outwards, in order simultaneously to extend a
table at both ends.
Figure 5 shows a longitudinal section of another combined series of tubes
and screws, which though it differs in several respects from the arrangement
shown at Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, still retains that which is the essence of my
Invention, viz., that the giving motion to one screw or tube is the cause of
giving motion to another or to more than one at each end of the one to which
motion is first communicated. In this combined series the plate b is fixed at
the outer end of a tubular screw q, whilst the plate c is fixed at the outer end
of another tube 2, which is of sufficient internal diameter to receive the tubular
screw a, and also the screw q within it. The screw ? I prefer to be a double-
threaded screw, and the screw a a single-threaded screw. The screw a is the
one to which rotatory motion is first communicated by means of a square shaft
or axis s, on to the outer end of which a key is placed when it is desired to
turn it. The shaft s passes through a socket t fixed in one end of the tubular
screw a, by which the tube a is turned, and as it is turned it causes the outer
tube r, which has a short screw within it, and also the inner screw q to be
propelled or moved outwards from its two ends, and this is accomplished by

page_text: means of two screw nuts or short screws, one of which is fixed interior of
the end of the tube r, the other q' is fixed interior of the tube a. Figure 6
shows an external view of the one end of this combined series of tubes and
screws. By this arrangement it will be seen that the tubular screw a remains
stationary in position as it is revolved, the tube and screw 7. being propelled
or moved away from the two ends thereof, and the shaft or axis s simultaneously
moved out of the screw a.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I mako
no claim to the use of screws and tubes for expanding tables, nor do I make
any claim to the parts separately, nor do I confine myself to the preciso
arrangements or series shown and described, so long as a number of tubes
and screws are arranged into a series for expanding a table in such manner
that by giving motion to one tube or screw another or others is or are caused
to move outwards from each of the two ends of the one to which rotatory
motion is first communicated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Hawkins, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
SAMUEL HAWKINS. (L.S.)