AN IMPROVEMENT OR Iм- PROVEMENTS IN FORKS FOR AGRICULTURAL AND OTHER PURPOSES."
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Asbury, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT OR Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN FORKS FOR AGRICULTURAL AND OTHER PURPOSES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Asbury at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
February 1854.
I, WILLIAM ASBURY, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT
OR IMPROVEMENTS IN FORKS FOR AGRICULTURAL AND OTHER PURPOSES" to be as
follows:-
My said Invention consists in making the prongs of forks of separate pieces
of steel fashioned by forging or otherwise, and connecting the said prongs by
the use of a transverse or head piece made of wrought iron or malleable iron
(that is so say, annealed cast iron,) or brass, the said transverse or head piece
being provided with holes, into which the said prongs of steel are inserted and
secured by rivetting or otherwise. The essence of my Invention consists in
making the prongs of separate pieces of steel, and inserting and fastening them
in a head of other metal or alloy.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Asbury in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd
August 1854.
..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ASBURY, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Asbury, Her special licence that I, the said William
Asbury, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Asbury, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT
OR IMPROVEMENTS IN FORKS FOR AGRICULTURAL AND OTHER PURPOSES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Asbury, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 William Asbury, 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):-
My said Invention consists in making the prongs of forks of separate pieces
of steel fashioned by forging or otherwise, and connecting the said prongs to a
transverse bar or head piece made of wrought iron or malleable iron (that is
to say, annealed cast iron,) or other metal, the said transverse bar or head piece
being provided with holes, into which the said prongs of steel are inserted and
secured by rivetting or otherwise.
Figure 1 represents in front elevation a fork constructed according to my
Invention Figure 2 represents a side elevation of the same; Figures 3, 4,
and 5, represent parts of the same. a, a, are the prongs, one of which is shewn
separately in Figure 4; 6 is a transverse bar or head piece to which the prongs
a, a, are connected. This head piece. is shown separately in front elevation in

page_text: b
Figure 3, and side elevation in Figure 4. The head a¹ of a prong, Figure 4,
is inserted in each of the holes 61, 61, Figure 3, and secured in its place by
rivets c, c, Figure 1. One of the holes in the head b, with the head of a prong
inserted therein, and fixed by a rivet c, is represented in section, Figure 5. The
head or cross piece 6 may be connected with the handle d, in the manner
illustrated in the several Figures, or in any other convenient manner. The head
or cross piecé 6 may be made of wrought iron or brass, or any other suitable
metal or alloy; but I prefer to construct the said head piece of what is called
malleable iron, that is to say, a kind of cast iron which on being annealed in
contact with powdered hematite or peroxide of iron becomes soft and malleable,
as is well known and commonly practised.
b
Although I prefer connecting the prongs with the head or cross piece in the
manner described, yet other methods of connecting the said prongs with the
said head piece may be employed.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described and represented, as the same may
be varied without departing from the nature of my said Invention; but I claim
as my Invention making the prongs of forks used for agricultural and other
like purposes of separate pieces of steel, and connecting the said prongs together
by rivetting or otherwise fastening them to a transverse bar or head piece made
any suitable metal or alloy, but by preference of malleable or annealed cast
iron, as herein described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
of
In witness whereof, I, the said William Asbury, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
WILLIAM ASBURY. (L.S.)