IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AIR-TIGHT COFFINS, AND IN THE MODE OF ORNAMENTING OR FINISHING THE SAME, AS ALSO IN THE APPLICATION OF A MATERIAL OR COMPOSITION NOT HITHERTO USED IN THEIR PRODUCTION
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry John Cox, of Aston, near Birmingham,
in the County of Warwick, Gentleman, and William Loach, of
Birmingham. aforesaid, Mechanical Draughtsman, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AIR-TIGHT COFFINS, AND IN THE
MODE OF ORNAMENTING OR FINISHING THE SAME, AS ALSO IN THE APPLICATION
OF A MATERIAL OR COMPOSITION NOT HITHERTO USED IN THEIR PRODUCTION."
Sealed the 18th May 1866, and dated the 24th November 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry John Cox and
William Loach at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 24th November 1865.
We, HENRY JOHN Cox, of Aston, near Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Gentleman, and William Loach, of Birmingham aforesaid,
Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the nature of our said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AIR-TIGHT COFFINS, AND IN THE
MODE OF ORNAMENTING OR FINISHING THE SAME, AS ALSO IN THE APPLICATION OF
A MATERIAL OR COMPOSITION NOT HITHERTO USED IN THEIR PRODUCTION," to be as.
follows (that is to say):
Our Invention consists, first, in the application to the manufacture of

page_text: coffins of paper boards, made in parts or continuous sheets, long enough
for the top, bottom, and sides of the largest coffin desired to be made,
uniting them together at the joints either by dovetailing, screwing, or
with marine or other glue, gelatinous, bituminous, or other suitable
material or compounds.
Secondly, the use of pulp by which the whole volume of the coffin may
be built up and formed and pressed into shape by suitable dies and moulds,
and finished by oiling, and drying with japanning and stoving in the
ordinary way in which papier-maché articles are or may be finished, or the
inside may be lined with thin lead or other foils or sheet metal, and the
outside painted to imitate wood, blacked or covered with flock or cloth,
as may be desired. In all cases we preserve a rabbet for the reception of
the cover, which may be held down by screws or clamps separate from or
in connection with the handles, the said cover being laid in a thick coating
or priming of marine glue or other material or compound as before stated,
to effect an air and water tight joint, the said cover being moulded or
formed with or without à breastplate and head or foot ornaments as well
as a glass panel at. the upper part.
Thirdly, we purpose ornamenting such coffins with woven lace, which
may be protected with white varnish, so as to preserve the colour, or, with
black or other colour when so preferred. Coffins thus manufactured will
be found perfectly air-tight, light, strong, enduring, and as economic in
cost as if made of wood.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry John Cox and William Loach in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 24th May 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, HENRY
JOHN Cox, of Aston, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Gentleman; and William Loach; of Birmingham aforesaid, Mechanical
Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-ninth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Henry John Cox and William Loach, Her special

page_text: license that we, the said Henry John Cox and William Loach, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Henry John Cox and William Loach, our executors, administrators, or
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 THE MANUFACTURE OF AIR-TIGHT COPPINS,
AND IN THE MODE OF ORNAMENTING OR FINISHING THE SAME, AS ALSO IN THE
APPLICATION OF A MATERIAL OR COMPOSITION NOT HITHERTO USED IN THEIR
PRODUCTION," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Henry
John Cox and William Loach, by an instrument in writing under our
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 we, the said Henry John Cox and William
Loach, 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 (that is to say):
Our Invention consists, first, in the application to the manufacture of
coffins of paper boards, made in parts or continuous sheets, long enough
for the top, bottom, and sides of the largest coffin desired to be made,
uniting them together at the joints either by dovetailing, screwing, nailing,
or with marine or other glue, gelatinous, bituminous, or other suitable
adhesive material or compounds.
Secondly, in the use of pulp for the manufacture, of coffins, by which
the whole volume of the coffin may be built up and formed on suitable
moulds, and further pressed into shape by suitable dies, and finished by:
oiling and drying with japanning and stoving in the ordinary way in which
papier-maché articles are or may be finished; or the inside may be lined
with thin lead or other foils, or sheet metal, and the outside painted to
imitate wood, blacked or covered with flock or cloth, as may be desired.
In all cases we preserve a rebate or other equivalent means for the recep-
tion of the cover, which may be held down by screws or clamps separate
from or in connection with the handles, the said cover being laid in a thick
coating or priming of marine glue or other material or compound, or

page_text: means, as before stated, to effect an air and water tight joint, the said
cover being moulded or formed with or without a breastplate and head
or foot ornaments as well as a glass panel at the upper part.
Thirdly, we purpose ornamenting such coffins with woven lace, which
may be protected with white varnish, so as to preserve the colour, or with
black or other colour when so preferred. Coffins thus manufactured will
be found perfectly air-tight, strong, and enduring, and as economic in cost
as if made of wood.
But in order that we may be well understood as to the manner in which
we purpose giving effect to our various improvements, we will state, in
reference to the first head of our Provisional Specification, that we do not
purpose confining ourselves to the use of dried papier-maché boards as
therein referred to, as the same may be taken in a semi-dried, pulpy, or soft
condition, and bent or pressed into the desired shape, which shape we
prefer, in a lengthway form, to be without angles, that is to say, round at
the head and foot, as also at the usual obtuse angles on the sides; or two
bodies may be formed of paper board or boards in a semi-pulpy or soft
condition, so moulded that the two shall fit one in the other, having a
coarse or open-meshed woven or other fibrous material between the two
surfaces, fully coating the inside of the outer one and the outside of the
inner one with any suitable adhesive material, preferring the same to be
capable of resisting moisture, such as drying oil, or a combination of oil
and bituminous compounds, tar, pitch, asphaltum, or other suitable
material; and, if necessary, coffins thus formed may be further improved
by being pressed, either in cold or heated dies, with more or less power
of compression, as afforded by hydraulic or other convenient pressure, so
as to solidify and condense the material, to prepare it for the subsequent
operation of finishing, which may be effected by oiling or japanning and
stoving, obtaining a smooth surface as desired in the ordinary way in
which workers of japanned and papier-machê goods effect this object. But
for hardening the surface we have found silicate of soda mixed with
refined linseed or other like oil to answer well; from which condition
the coffin so made and treated may be finished as hereafter described or
otherwise, as economy or taste may direct.
Under the second head of the foregoing description of our Invention we
purpose making coffins of pulp reduced from any suitable vegetable matter
or compounds capable of being readily and economically reduced to pulp
by the ordinary processes, in which case we prefer setting up a mould on

page_text: a suitable stand with a trough or channel around it, for carrying off the
water that will be expressed from and run down from the pulp during the
process of moulding; and after covering the top of the mould over with
pulp, as also the sides and ends, until we have an uniform layer of pulp
over the surface of the mould, we then stretch a piece of open woven
canvass or other fibrous material over the pulp, doubling it in on the ends
and sides until the whole is smoothly and regularly placed over the surface:
of the pulp, when we again add another layer of pulp of sufficient thick-
ness and uniformly placed so as to form a thorough combined mass with
the former coating of pulp and canvass layer, and after sufficient pressing
and working to get rid or press out the water held and incorporated with
the pulp we fit a matrix or die over the same, which by slow pressure com->
presses and condenses the pulp until the water is extracted from it, when
an additional or extra pressing on suitable dies and with or without the
addition of heat as desired, the coffin may be again further pressed, when
it will be in a condition for removal from the mould to be hardened and
finished by being coated with- the mixtures herein-before stated, and then
stoved or dried in the way in which papier-machê goods are treated.
By referring to the Drawings hereunto annexed, we have at Fig. 1
I represented a coffin round at the head and foot, which form we believe
preferable to any other, but difficult and expensive to make in wood or
metal unless cast, but which can be produced by the processes herein
described with great convenience; and we will observe that the broadest
part, as at g and h, may either be angular as at g, or rounded as at h, as
preferred.
Fig. 2 represents a section of a coffin being moulded; the mould marked
A, A, may be made of metal and perforated or otherwise arranged to
facilitate the escape of the moisture in the pulp. This mould is placed on
a stand marked B, with a channel or gutter around marked C, C, to carry
off the water, but of course may be otherwise arranged according to the
taste or convenience of the operator; d, d, d, is the inner lining or body of
pulp; e, e, e, the canvass layer for affording additional strength to the
coffin when moulded, and f,f,f, the outer body of pulp; and it is from
this condition, as before stated, that by pressing in a suitable die or dies,
and with or without the addition of heat, that the pulp will become con-
densed and solidified as the water is expressed, absorbed, or allowed to
evaporate.
Neither in the last Figure or Figure 1 have we thought it necessary to

page_text: exhibit the coffin cover, as it would be simply formed from sheet or sheets
of board or paper in the manner herein-before described, and if necessary
further finished and solidified by dies and pressure with any ornamental:
device on the top side that may be appropriate or desired; and although
we have described the said cover as resting in a rebate formed around the
top inner edge of the coffin, nevertheless as an equivalent the cover may,
project and have a sunken groove on its under side the counter part in
size and shape of the top edge of the coffin, that in both cases by the use.
of marine glue, asphaltum, or other suitable compound or material, such as
india-rubber, a perfect air-tight joint may be effected, and the cover further
held down by screws or clamps as preferred. Coffins thus formed may
ornamented or finished beyond the treatment herein-before described by
blacking or otherwise colouring them, or coating them with flock of any
desired colour; and as a further finish they may be wholly or partially
covered with woven lace, the same being protected by strong transparent.
varnish, so as to wholly or partially preserve the colour of such lace; or
such coffins may be painted or coloured dead with an ornamental border
as well as top and sides formed by a bright varnish applied through stencil
plates or other means, which forms an agreeable relief; but if cloth cover-
ing and the ordinary metal lace binding and trimming be preferred, the
same may be applied to this description of coffin with the same treatment
and application as to coffins made of wood.
We have not thought it necessary to elaborate and describe how the
handles and other paraphernalia of coffin requisites may be applied, as we
consider it unnecessary, as handles can be attached by shanks and screws
in the ordinary way, care being taken to surround such screws with
metallic or other washers and bituminous or other compounds to make the
coffin at such parts perfectly air-tight. And again, as to the mode of
finishing the interior or lining, this also may be done in the same way in
which coffins are ordinarily treated, or lined with lead or other foil to
improve the appearance or to render the same additionally impervious to
moisture or inaccessible to air from without.
Having thus given a general description of our Invention, and the
manner in which the same may be carried into effect, we wish it under-
stood that what we claim as of our Invention, and wish to protect by these
our in part recited Letters Patent is, the manufacture of air-tight coffins of
the material and by the process or processes herein-before described, or
their equivalents, by which we are enabled to obtain a lighter, better

page_text: shape, and general more compatible receptacle for the dead as a coffin than
has hitherto been produced.
In witness whereof, we, the said Henry John Cox and William
Loach, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-third
day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-six.
Witness,
HERBERT HESKEY,
Clerk to James S. Cockings,
Patent Agent,
Birmingham.
HENRY JOHN COX. (L.s.)
WILLIAM LOACH.
(L.S.)