IMPROVEMENTS IN SCRAPERS FOR REMOVING MUD FROM BOOTS AND SHOES WHILST IN WEAR
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Walton, of Staines, in the County of
Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SCRAPERS FOR
REMOVING MUD FROM BOOTS AND SHOES WHILST IN WEAR."
Sealed the 14th September 1869, and dated the 7th July 1869..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Walton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 7th July 1869.
I, FREDERICK WALTON, of Staines, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SCRAPERS FOR REMOVING MUD FROM BOOTS AND SHOES WHILST IN WEAR," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in scrapers for
removing mud from boot and shoes whilst in wear. For this purpose
I take a number of thin strips of hard wood, beech wood is a suitable
material, and I place them side by side on edge parallel the one to the
other and at short distances apart. I place filling pieces between them
to keep them equally spaced, and I pass metal rods through both the

page_text: strips and the filling pieces. The ends of the metal rods I secure by
means of nuts screwed upon them, or in other similar and convenient
manner. In constructing such scrapers I first drill the required holes
in the wood by means of a number of drills mounted in a frame parallel
the one to the other, and I then cut the wood into the thin strips
required by means of a number of small circular saws set parallel the
one to the other on the same axis. The filling pieces may be of
wood or other material; if of wood I make them by turning or
otherwise reducing the wood to a cylindrical form and boring a hole
at the axis as in making wooden bobbins, and this cylinder of wood is
then sawn off in short lengths equal to the distances required between
the strips. The edges of the strips when the strips are combined
together as above described act as scrapers, and the dirt which they
remove escapes by the passages between the strips. In some cases I
surround the scraper with a margin of bristles set like a brush for
removing mud from the uppers of the boots and shoes; or a rubber
of india-rubber may be similarly combined with the scraper.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Walton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 6th January 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
WALTON, of Staines, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Frederick Walton, Her special
licence that I, the said Frederick Walton, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick Walton,
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

page_text: "IMPROVEMENTS IN SCRAPERS FOR REMOVING MUD FROM BOOTS AND SHOES WHILST
JN WEAR," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick
Walton, 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
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Frederick Walton, 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 has for its object improvements in scrapers for
removing mud from boots and shoes whilst in wear. For this purpose
I take a number of thin strips of hard wood, beech wood is a suitable
material, and I place them side by side on edge parallel the one to
the other and at short distances apart. I place filling pieces between
them to keep them equally spaced, and I pass metal rods through both
the strips and the filling pieces. The ends of the metal rods I secure
by means of nuts screwed upon them, or in other similar and convenient
manner. In constructing such scrapers I first drill the required holes
in the wood by means of a number of drills mounted in a frame parallel
the one to the other, and I then cut the wood into the thin strips
required by means of a number of small circular saws set parallel the
one to the other on the same axis. The filling pieces may be of wood
or other material; if of wood I make them by turning or otherwise
reducing the wood to a cylindrical form and boring a hole at the axis,
as in making wooden bobbins; this cylinder of wood is then sawn off
in short lengths equal to the distances required between the strips.
The edges of the strips when the strips are combined together as above
described act as scrapers, and the dirt which they remove escapes by
the passages between the strips.
In the annexed Drawings Figure 1 represents a plan of a boot
scraper constructed according to my Invention; Figure 2 is a longi-
tudinal, and Figure 3 a transverse section of the same; Figures 4 shew
separately the several parts.
a, a, are the longitudinal strips of wood suitably bored; the outside
strips are strips made stouter than the others; b, b, b', b', are the filling

page_text: picces, the filling pieces 6' at the ends are shaped in place of being
mado circular to give a better finish to the scraper; c, c, are the metal
rods; they may have nuts on their ends or be rivetted over washers c', c',
as the Drawing shows.
In some cases I surround the scraper with a margin of bristles set
like a brush for removing mud from the uppers of the boots and
shocs; or a rubber of india-rubber may be similarly combined with the
scraper.
What I claim is, the construction of scrapers for removing mud from
boots and shoes whilst in wear, substantially as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Walton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.