IMPROVEMENTS IN CUTTING NIPPERS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Nathan Thompson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 31st
August 1868.
I, NATHAN THOMPSON, of the City of Brooklyn, in the County of
Kings, and State of New York, United States of America, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CUTTING
NIPPERS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the production of cutting nippers of
great power and yet contained in a small compass and without unne-
cessary or objectionable complication, and the Invention is based upon
the idea of cutting edges as close as possible to the pivot of the nippers
in connection with handles whose ends or portions that are grasped are
as far as possible from the same pivot, thus securing the greatest amount
of leverage in any given length of nippers. The cutting edges of the
nippers may be forged upon pieces of steel which are dovetailed into or

page_text: otherwise secured to the sustaining jaws, or they may be welded to the
jaws, or the jaws, handles, and all may be forged of one piece of steel
except the supports herein-after described. These cutting edges are
as close as possible to the knuckle or hinge, or they may be brought
even closer to the pivot by dividing them into two edges for each jaw,
and permitting the knuckles to project up between the two edges.
There may be one or more knuckles to each jaw, but one is believed to
be sufficient, and the knuckles and jaws are secured together by and
turn upon the pivot. The close proximity of the jaws to the pivot
prevents any cutting of wire over the knuckles, and only those parts of
the cutting edges which are outside of the knuckles on either side of the
piyot as it were are practically effective. As the distance from the
cutting edges to the pivot is so small, and the distance from the same
pivot to the grasp of the handles or those parts thereof embraced by the
hand is so great, the cutting power of the edges is remarkable, and as it is
necessary to cut on one side of the centre of the edges there is, when the
nippers are cutting, a strong tendency to twist the knuckles apart, or tear
the knuckles of the sustaining jaws, or otherwise render the nippers
unserviceable; in fact, nippers proportioned as herein referred to would
be almost useless unless this difficulty were obviated, consequently there
are applied to the jaws two supporting pieces, one to each jaw, extending
from the handle to the jaw, and it is preferred to rivet or screw these
supports to the handles, sometimes abutting their ends against a ledge or
bracket projecting from the handles, and at others depending upon the
rivets or screws alone. Furthermore, it is preferred to attach the supports
to the jaws by letting them into slots or recesses formed in the jaws, and
if necessary rivet them fast. These supports remedy the difficulty and
allow of any wire being cut within the power of the nippers without
twisting or fracturing them. The jaws are therefore connected to the
handles by a double connection, one part of each connection being
embraced by the two parts appertaining to the other jaw.
Upon the same principles herein described other forms of nippers may
be made; thus the nippers may be made with two sets of knuckles and
two pivots, one set at each end of the cutting edges, and with a support
or connection from cach handle to each knuckle. Under this con-
struction there will be as before two connections from each handle to
each jaw, but in this case the cutting edges will be ineffective at the

page_text: two ends thereof and effective at and about the centro only. This form
is not believed to be as good as that described except when the nippers
are to be used for cutting short lengths of heavy wire.