AN APPARATUS FOR BETTER CUTTING WINDOW PLATE AND SHEET GLASS
Year: 1814

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ABRAHAN
SHAW, of Leicester, in the County of Leicester, Glazier's Vice and Diamond
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the the Third day of October, in
the fifty-fourth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Abraham
Shaw, my exors, adñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Abraham Shaw, my exors, aduiors,
and assigns, should and lawfully might, during the term of years therein
mentioned, make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN APPARATUS FOR
BETTER CUTTING WINDOW PLATE AND SHEET GLASS;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said Abraham Shaw, shall
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing. under
my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,

page_text: and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease,
determine, and become void, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto
had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, I, the said
Abraham Shaw, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in manner following (that is to say):-
In the Drawings hereunto annexed, the same letters denote the same
things; and,
Fig. 1 shews the whole apparatus in one. of the forms thereof; and Fig. 2,
Numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, shew the several parts, excepting the handle; and
Fig. 3 shews the metallic part of the handle.
Fig. 2. No. 1 is a piece of metal or other fit material, composed of a, b, a
frame or principal piece (called by me the carriage), seen sideways in Fig. 1,
upon or in the face of which is fixed c, a glazier's diamond, having the
cutting point thereof so.placed that the best and most effectual cut shall be
made thereby in a plate of glass when the diamond is or shall be applied thereto,
and the carriage drawn along with one side of the said carriage (called by me
the guiding side) in contact with the side or edge of a ruler or other similar
piece; and I do fix the said diamond either on the side of the face of the
carriage farthest from the guiding side, or else on the side thereof nearest to the
guiding side, or else on some other side thereof, which shall or may be remote
from or intermediate in position between the situations of the diamond last
mentioned. But in the respective cases of any or either of the said positions
or situations of the said diamond, I do also affix to the same carriage two pro-
tuberances, studs, rollers, wheels, or bearing pieces, at as great distances from
the point of the said diamond and from each other as conveniently may be, in
such manner as that the said carriage when in use shall bear against the glass
only, by means of the diamond point, and the said two protuberances, studs,
rollers, wheels, or bearing pieces. And moreover, I do make the guiding side
of the carriage either strait, in order that the same may be fairly applied to and
drawn along the edge of the ruler or other similar piece; or otherwise, if re-
quired, I do make the said guiding side bollow between the extremities thereof,
or I do put protuberances, as aforesaid, at the said extremities, but bearing
sideways, in order that the carriage may be steadily drawn along in contact
with a curved or rounded edge, such as the back board of a glass of a curve-
lined figure. The letters d and e denote certain screws or pieces, which pass
into a perforation through or cavity in the frame a, b, and, at or near the inner
extremities thereof, do afford support to the first universal joint-piece No. 5,

page_text: shewn in two positions, by receiving the points f, g, of the said piece, which
may be seen in its place in No. 6.
The Figures No. 2 and No. 3 shew, by two positions, the second universal
joint-piece, having the extremity h thereof notched and perforated to receive
and be affixed by a centre pin to the piece No. 5, as shewn in Fig. 1,
where the end or part l, m, is inserted in the piece Fig. 8, and confined
there by the screw in the groove m, so as to be prevented from coming
out; but at the same time the piece Fig. 3, and handle o, p, as thereto
affixed in Fig. 1, are allowed to revolve through a greater or less space
upon l, m, so as to turn entirely round if required. And by this means,
namely, the joints formed in effect by the points f, g, and by the socket pin
at h, and by the tail l, m, the carriage itself, when placed with the diamond
point upon the glass intended to be cut, and held by the handle o, p, will be at
liberty to apply itself fairly to the surface of the said glass, and to the edge of
a ruler or similar piece, and the apparatus may be drawn along as aforesaid.
And I do further declare, that I do in preference construct my said appa-
ratus and the universal joint of such dimensions and figure as may most
nearly approach unto those of the instruments at present in use for cutting
glass, altho' the said dimensions and figure may be much varied; and that
I do also, if required, make my universal joint for connecting the handle
to the carriage by means of a ball and socket, or of cross hinges, or of other
well-known contrivances of the nature of an universal joint for affording the
intended liberty of motion or position in the said carriage.
And lastly, i, i, No. 4, Fig. 2, and also in Fig. 1 and 2, do exhibit two rollers
as aforesaid, fixed on one side of the carriage and projecting beyond the face in
which the diamond is fixed, in order that the carriage, when applied with the
diamond point to the glass, may be allowed to bear against the surface only,
by means of that point and the said rollers; and in the use and practice of my
said Invention, I do apply my diamond to the glass to be cut, and the guiding
side of my carriage in contact with the edge of the ruler or similar piece as
aforesaid; and I do press and draw the same along, by means of the bandle.
And whereas, by the original fixing of the diamond, the effect of such
use and practice is a never failing cut (whether the operation be skilful
or not), I do call and denominate my apparatus the Infallible Diamond.
In witness whereof, I, the said Abraham Shaw, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fourteen.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of November,
in the year of our Lord 1814, the aforesaid Abraham Shaw came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-third day of November, in the year of our Lord One
housand night hundred and fountoon