IMPROVEMENTS IN PENCIL CASES, APPLICABLE ALSO TO HOLDERS FOR PENS, CHALKS, ARTISTS' BRUSHES, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Edwards at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st
March 1871.
I, GEORGE EDWARDS, of Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford,
Hairdresser and Perfumer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PENCIL CASES, APPLICABLE ALSO TO HOLDERS
FOR PENS, CHALKS, ARTISTS' BRUSHES, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES," to be as
follows:-
I make the case or holder for a pencil or similar article with an
internal tube, having by preference a slightly smaller diameter for a
short distance from its bottom end than the diameter of its remaining
portion, and I form a slit down the said part which is of a smaller
diameter, in order that it may adjust itself to any slight irregularity in
the shape of the pencil or similar article which is inserted therein.
Over the said inner tube I place an outer one of nearly the same length,
and over the outer tube I place a short length of tube which is connected
at its upper extremity with the upper extremity of the inner tube
aforesaid, the upper extremities of the short and inner tubes being flush
or level with each other. An annular space is thus left between the

page_text: MU C
I
inner tube and the short tube, into which the end or
mentioned outer tube may be pushed. In the said annular space
insert a spiral spring which presses upon the top of the outer tube,
and employ suitable mechanism to retain the outer tube in its place
when pressed up to the required height, and also a suitable stop to
prevent its being pressed down too far by the spiral spring.
The method I prefer for this purpose, but which I wish it to be
understood I do not bind myself to use exclusively, is to provide the
outer tube near its upper extremity with a pin or button, which works
in a slot of suitable length formed lengthwise in the short tube, the said
slot being closed at its lower extremity, and having a niche or recess
on one side of it near the top, into which the said pin or button may be
passed by slightly twisting the outer tube.
The action is as follows :— -When the pencil or similar article is not
required to be used the said pin or button is twisted out of the niche
or recess, and the spiral spring presses the outer tube down over the
point of the pencil or similar article, but when the pencil or similar
article is required to be used the outer tube is pressed up and the pin
or button passed into the niche or recess aforesaid, the point of the
pencil or similar article being thus uncovered. The spiral spring exerts
sufficient pressure to maintain the pin or button firmly against the
bottom of the slot or in the niche or recess, as the case may be. The
inner tube I prefer to close at the top by means of a cap or other like
contrivance, which may be removed when the pencil or similar article
is to be inserted, if from the construction of the pencil or similar
article it is more advantageously inserted at the top than at the
bottom.
I also construct a modification of the above-described case or holder,
by dispensing with the spiral spring and making the slot (as before
described in the short tube) to extend from the bottom of the said short
. tube to or nearly to the top, and making the said slot narrower than the
pin or button (before described as being upon the outer tube), so that
force is required to cause the said pin or button to enter the slot. I
provide two holes in the said slot at a suitable distance apart, in which
the said pin or button exactly fits.
The action is as follows:-When the pencil or similar article is not
required to be used the outer tube is pulled downwards till the pin or
button is fairly in the hole near the lower end of the slot; but when

page_text: the pencil or similar article is required to be used the outer tube is
pushed up till the pin or button is slipped into the hole near the
upper end of the slot.
As there are two or three methods of applying this arrangement, as for
instance, by forming the slot in the inner tube, and letting the pin or
button project inwards, or by forming the slot in the outer tube and
fixing the pin or button, either on the inside of the short tube or the
outside of the inner tube, I do not confine myself to the one arrange-
ment.