CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COMBS
Year: 1836

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NORRIS, of Alston, in the County of Cumberland, Land Surveyor, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Nineteenth day of November, in the seventh year of
His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Norris, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Norris, my exors, admors, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said William Norris, my exors, admors, or assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF COMBS," communicated to me by a certain foreigner residing abroad; in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said William
Norris, shall cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Norris, do hereby declare that the nature of the Invention consists
in certain peculiar modes of constructing combs of metal or other sufficiently
tenacious materials, and the manner in which the same is to be performed are
fully described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, and
the Drawings hereunto annexed:-
My method of manufacturing small or fine toothed combs of brass, silver,
steel, or other metals or alloys, or other sufficiently tenacious materials, is as
follows: I take the required kind of material in the form of sheets or plates
of a thickness corresponding with that of the teeth of the combs to be made
therewith, and by the force of an ordinary fly press acting upon suitable
cutting tools or dies, I stamp or cut out a quantity of flat pieces of the form
represented in plan at Figure 1, and edgeways in Figure 2.
[Note. For the convenience of accurately representing such diminutive
parts as the teeth of the combs, all the Figures are drawn double the size of
their linear admeasurement.]
Each end of these pieces forms a tooth to a double small-toothed comb, and
every tooth or piece is kept at the required distance asunder from each other
by the interposition of a smaller plate of metal stamped out by a similar process
to the former, represented in plan by Figure 3, and edgeways by Figure 4.
A part of a comb with the teeth alternately arranged with the interposing
pieces is shewn in Figure 5. Now, when a sufficient number of these teeth
and interposing pieces are compacted together to form a comb of the required
length, there needs a strong piece at each end to protect the teeth from
injury, and these I usually make of brass, either cut out by the aid of dies and
the fly press, or by casting them and forming them afterwards to the desired
shape by ordinary tools. One of these end pieces is shewn edgeways at
Figure 6, the other view or plan of it corresponds with the plan of the teeth,
as seen in Figure 1. All the pieces delineated, it will be noticed, are provided
with two holes, made either by the press or drill. Through these holes wires
are passed from end to end, and the several parts being forceably compressed
together by the aid of a common screw clamp, they are permanently fastened
together by rivetting the wires at their extremities. Afterwards they may be
finished by filing, grinding, or polishing, and be ornamented by gilding,
japanning, embossing, &c.
Another method of constructing fine-toothed combs is as follows:- Instead
of the former pieces delineated in Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, I make use of others
of about two-thirds their length, and of the form delineated in plan at Figure 7,
and edgeways at Figure 8. These I produce by the same process as the

page_text: former kind, but the mode of packing them together is alternately with the
ends upwards and downwards, as shewn in a part of a comb of this kind by
Figure 9.
It is obvious that combs constructed in the modes I have described may be
considerably modified in form and the details of their parts, without departing
from the peculiar characteristics herein set forth. I desire, therefore, that it
be distinctly understood that all such modifications, whether they be in the
ultimate form of the article, or in the mode of its construction, are contemplated
by me, and are included under this Patent right.
As an illustration of a simple manner of modifying the process of con-
struction, it may be proper to state that I have put in practice the following
method:-Instead of cutting out pieces of the length and shape of the tooth of
the comb by means of the fly press, I take the sheet metal and cut it into
strips of a convenient length, and of the same width as the length of the teeth
of the combs to be made. The Diagram, Fig. 10, represents at a, a, a, a, such
a strip of metal pierced at uniform distances for small rivet holes; when this
piece of metal comes to be afterwards divided by parallel lines, as shown, each
piece c, c, c, will constitute a double tooth of a comb in the rough, which may
afterwards be shaped, as shown by the dotted lines at d, which is of the same
figure as that represented in Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 11 shows a narrower strip
of metal at b, b, b, b, divided also into parallel lines, as seen at e, e, e; these
may also be subsequently cut to the shape shown at f, which is similar to
Figures 3 and 4. Previous to dividing these strips of metal, I collect as many
of each kind as there are teeth in the comb required to be made, and then pile
them alternately, as described with respect to Figs. 1 to 6, laying a thick plate
at bottom, and another thick plate at top for the end pieces of the combs,
wires being run through them all and rivitted together, as before described; I
then cut the mass into combs by sawing through the parallel lines at c, c, and
afterwards by filing, grinding, and other common operations, shape and finish the
teeth as before mentioned. From this example it will be obvious, that in order
to make the kind of comb represented in Figs. 7, 8, & 9, I require only one
sized strip of metal duely perforated, and that by alternating the edges of each
plate in succession, as sufficiently described, I produce the alternation of teeth
shown in Fig. 9.
Another of my improvements consists in manufacturing combs with curved;
wavy, zig-zig, or other bent shaped teeth (instead of straight), such bent
shapes being in the direction of their flat or principal surfaces, or across the
series of teeth; I likewise form the ends of the teeth of combs in the shape of
spear heads, or other similar device. The object of the bent teeth, as well as

page_text: the spear-head points, is chiefly to prevent the liability (to which ordinary
combs are subject) of their falling out of the hair when worn by women as
side or back combs, but partly also for the purpose of bestowing. upon the
combs an ornamental, novel, and pleasing appearance, as such forms admit of
a great variety of elegant designs. An example of the plainest kind of curved
tooth combs is given in Fig. 12, from which it will be evident that a great
diversity may be readily imagined; Fig. 13 is also an example of a comb with
the spear-head points. These being designed to prevent the combs falling
away, their precise form is immaterial, and I vary them as taste may.direct.
In some cases I also apply similar shaped points to the curved teeth. Hence,
it will be understood that all variations or modifications of my plan are equally
included in my Patent. The mode of constructing these peculiar combs in the
workshop will be evident to mechanics in the line of business to which it
relates; therefore, to avoid incumbering this Specification with useless descrip-
tion, I will simply state that I cut out the spaces between the teeth by means
of suitably formed cutting dies in a fly press, and that I finish them by files,
scrapers, burnishers, and other well-known tools; and the materials which I use
for the combs are gold, silver, iron, brass, various alloys, and other metals,
gilt, plated, and tinned metals, and any other material sufficiently tenacious
and otherwise suitable to the object.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Norris, have hereunto set mý
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of May, in the year of our
Lord 1837