IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HOOKS AND EYES, AND IN MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Newman, of Birmingham, in the County of;
Warwick, Manufacturer, and William Whittle, of Smethwick, in the
County of Stafford, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF HOOKS AND EYES, AND IN MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Newman and
William Whittle at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 22nd December 1855.
We, 'JAMES NEWMAN, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu
facturer, and WILLIAM WHITTLE, of Smethwick, in the County of Stafford
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HOOKS AND EYES, AND IN MACHINERY TO BE
EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THE HOOKS AFORESAID, to be as follows, that
is to say:
...
Our Invention consists, firstly, in the employment of a new material in the
manufacture of hooks and eyes to be used in place of solid brass, and which is
formed by taking wire, either iron or any other metal of lower cost than brass;
and lapping it round with thin brass or copper, or other suitable metal.
Secondly, our Invention consists in improvements in machinery by which
the hooks are made, the action of which is as follows:-The wire being placed
in a feeder is by it pushed forward to a grip lever, by which it is firmly held
whilst a second gripper liberates it, when the feeder' is withdrawn the next

page_text: motion pushes the wire forward through'a guide box and over a pair of needle
hole pegs. A cutter, which by working close to the end of the guide box, acts
as shears, severs the required length; a centre peg then pushes the wire down
a certain depth below the needle hole pegs, and the needle hole closers advance
and bend down the ends over the pegs. These ends are then closed round
under the pegs by the action of a pair of side closers; the centre peg is now
withdrawn, and the two sides of the wire are pressed together by the side
closers. The wire now forms what is called a blank; when a beaking plate
is employed for the purpose of forcing it through an opening or die, by which
it is bent into a hook; a planishing tool then works over the beak of the hook,
the beaking plate is withdrawn, and the hook falls from the machine. By
means of a pattern or device engraved or otherwise sunk or raised on the
planishing tool, we can produce any desired pattern, such as fluting; reeding,
checking, or any other ornament required on the beak of the hook, and this
ornament may also, if desired, be produced on the eyes.
Lastly, our improvements consist in making eyes or metallic loops of the
form of a letter D, having a small nib or projection to prevent the thread
from slipping.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Newman and William Whittle in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 20th June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
NEWMAN, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and
WILLIAM WHITTLE, of Smethwick, in the County of Stafford, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said James Newman and William Whittle, Her special licence that we, the
said James Newman and William Whittle, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said James Newman and William
Whittles, 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

page_text: Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
PACTURE OF HOOKS AND EYES, AND IN MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED IN THE MANUFAC-
TURE OF THE HOOKS AFORESAID," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said James Newman and William Whittle, our executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or
under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 James Newman, and William Whittle,
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:-
The first part of our Invention consists in manufacturing hooks and eyes
from wire, made by coating iron or other wire with brass or other metal. In
carrying this part of our Invention into effect we place a tube of brass upon a
rod or cylinder of iron, and subject the said tube with the contained rod to a
drawing process, similar to that by which the drawing of wire is ordinarily
effected. By the said drawing process the coated rod is elongated and reduced
in diameter to the required extent, and constitutes a wire of which the interior
is formed of iron and the exterior of brass. Instead of iron any suitable metal
or alloy less costly than brass may be employed. We manufacture the compound
wire into hooks and eyes by any suitable machinery.
The second part of our Invention consists of machinery for the manufacture
of hooks, the said machinery being so constructed that the working parts are
easy of access, so that the workman having charge of the machine can readily
change and adjust the various tools and working parts thereof.
The said machinery is represented in front elevation in Figure 1 of the
accompanying Drawings, in end elevation (partly in section) in Figure 2, and
in plan in Figure 3. The same parts are indicated by the same letters in the
various Figures.
A, A, are the upright standards of the machine by which the several moving
parts are carried; B, B, are bearings in which the main shaft C turns;
D1, D2, D3, D4, and D', are bolts, having vertical sliding motion, which they
receive from cambs on the shaft C. The motion of the said bolts communicates
motion to other working parts of the machines. E, E, are side closing levers
for working the slides F, F, to which the side closing tools G, G, are affixed.
HI, H, are closing tools for making the needle holes of the hook. These are

page_text: ' actuated by the sliding bolts D2 and D' respectively. I is a centre peg tool
.worked by the slide bolt D³; J is an opening in the die plate against which
the wire is partially bent into .a. hook. The blank is forced through the
-opening J, as herein-after explained,. whereby it is bent into the form of a
hook; K is a planishing tool carried. by the slide L; M is a guide box through
which the wire to be made into a hook passes; N is a cutter which cuts off
the wire. The feeding lever P turns upon two centres, that is to say, it turns
cupon the centre e in a vertical plane parallel to the plane in which the
standards A, A, are situated. The said. lever. P has also motion upon the
axis O in a vertical plane perpendicular to. the former; Q is the feeding slide;
R is the feeding grip lever; and S is a grip lever for holding the wire while
the feeding slidė makes its return motion; T is the grip. tool; Uis the feeding
camb; V, V, are. side closing cambs; .W is 'the bed of the machine, supported
on legs; X, X, are caps for keeping the slide bolts D', D2, D3, D4, D5, in their
position; Y is a lever for working the needle hole pegs; Z is a levér for
working the planishing: slide; a is a lever for working the beaking slide c; bis
the beaking plate'; d; d; are the needle hole pegs.
"
The action of our machine is as follows:-The wire to be made into hooks,
after passing through a straightening apparatus such as is commonly employed,
and which we do not think it necessary to. describe, is conducted into the
machine in the direction of the dotted line, marked "wire line," in Figure 1.
The said wire passes under the grip tool T, (see Figure 4,) and from thence
funder the grip lever S, (see Figure 2,) and through the guide box M to the
working tools. By the rotation of the camb U the 'feed lever P first turns
upon the axis O, and thereby presses the grip lever R against the feeding
slide Q, the wire is thereby griped between the tool T and the said slide Q.
The lever. P next turns upon the centre e, by which motion is communicated
to the slide Q; the said slide is carried towards the centre of the machine,
taking with it the wire which it has griped. In order that the wire thus fed
Jinto the machine may not be withdrawn on the return of the slide Q, the
grip lever S, (see Figure 2,) présses upon the wire and holds it firm against
the plate A, while the feeder makes its return motion. The wire thus fed.into
the machine is cut off by the cutter N, actuated by the lever f, which said
cutter bears against the hardened end of the guide box M, and forms therewith
a kind of shears. The centre peg I descending, forces the wire down between
the needle hole pegs, thereby doubling the wire at its middle. The ends of the
wire being preserved in a horizontal position by being engaged under the
needle hole closers H, H, the said needle hole closers H, H, next descend
and turn down the ends of the wire over the outer sides of the needle hole

page_text: pegs. The partially formed hook. in this stage of its manufacture has the
figure représented between J, J, in Figure 1. The side: closers G, G, advance
towards each other and press the extreme ends underneath the needle hole
pegs, and thereby complete the, needle holes of the hook. The centre peg I
next rises, and the closers G, G, being made to approach each other still more
closely by a second rise on the cambs V, V, the two parallel limbs of the
partially formed hook are brought into close contact; there is thereby formed
what is commonly called a blank, that is to say, the partially formed: hook only
requires to be bent or doubled near its middle to be completed.. ..The said
bending or beaking of the hook is effected by the beaking plate b, which said
plate:6 advances, horizontally at the same time that the needle: hole pegs d; d,
are withdrawn by the lever Y. The advancing plate 6 enters the opening J,
(see Figures 1 and 2,) and carries with it the blank; the said blank in. passing
through the opening J is doubled near its middle, and formed into a hook.
The beak, that is to say, the shorter limb of the hook, is planished by the tool
K, which advances horizontally, rubs along the "beak". of the hook, and
communicates thereto the required surface. The planishing slide K retires,
and the beaking slide 6 being withdrawn, the finished hook falls from the
machine. The return motions of the several parts of the machine may be
effected by means of helical or coiled springs.
The third part of our Invention consists in fluting the beak of the hook;
this we prefer to effect by giving a fluted form to the planishing tool K, which
said tool by passing over the beak of the hook gives a fluted figure
thereto; the said fluting expands the beak of the hook laterally, and thereby
strengthens the same. We also give an ornamental figure to the beak of the
hook by means of the tool represented in Figure 5, which said tool consists of
a disc, on the periphery of which the pattern to be given to the beak of the
hook is engraved. The disc is supported by and has rotatory motion on the
end of a stem or handle; the said tool, Figure 5, which resembles the "milling
tools" ordinarily used in the manufacture of articles of metal, is substituted for
the planishing tool K (Figures 1 and 2), and by its motion over the beak of
the hook communicates to the beak of the hook the pattern engraved on its
periphery.
The last part of our Invention consists in making metallic loops or eyes to
be used with hooks, in place of the ordinary eyes, the said metallic loops or
eyes having the figures represented in Figure 5 (Sheet 3) of the accom-
panying Drawings. The general 'figure of the said metallic loops or eyes is
that of the letter D, but in order to prevent the slipping of the thread by which
the said loops are attached to a garment, we either make transverse grooves or

page_text: lines on the straight part which is sewn to the garment, as shewn at f¹, or we
make a nib or projection 9 at or near the middle thereof. By either of the
means described the loops or eyes, Figure 5, are prevented from slipping out
of place after they have been attached to a garment.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be understood that we do not limit
ourselves to the precise details herein described, as the same may be varied
without departing from the nature of our said Invention; but we claim as our
Invention,-
:
Firstly, the manufacture of hooks and eyes from compound wire, the
interior of which consists of a less costly metal or alloy than the exterior, as
herein described.
Secondly, the general arrangement and disposition of the several parts of the
machine for making hooks, herein described, and represented in the accom-
panying Drawings.
Thirdly, the method of constructing the feeding mechanism of hooks-
making machines, herein described, and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings.
Fourthly, strengthening and ornamenting the beaks of hooks by fluting the
same longitudinally, as herein described.
Fifthly, ornamenting the beaks of hooks by the use of milling tools, as
herein described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
Sixthly, making metallic loops or eyes to be used with hooks in place of the
ordinary eyes, in the manner herein described, and illustrated in Figure 5 of
the accompanying Drawings, that is to say, making a projection on or trans-
versely grooving that portion of the said loops or eyes which is to be attached
to the dress, so as to prevent the slipping of the thread on the said part.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Newman and William Whittle,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Nineteenth day of June,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
JAMES NEWMAN.
(L.S.)
WILLIAM WHITTLE. (L.S.)