IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING WITH DEAF AND DUMB OR DEAF OR DUMB PERSONS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Bertram Mitford, of Cheltenham, in the County
of Gloucester, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR COMMUNICATING WITH DEAF AND DUMB OR DEAF OR DUMB PERSONS."
Sealed the 26th May 1868, and dated the 30th March 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Bertram Mitford at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 30th March 1868.
I, BERTRAM MITFORD, of Cheltenham, in the County of Gloucester,
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR COMMUNICATING WITH DEAF AND DUMB OR DEAF OR DUMB
PERSONS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar form of apparatus for facilitating
intercourse with deaf and dumb or deaf or dumb persons, and consists
in the construction of a hollow case of any convenient form and size
composed of wood or other suitable light material and provided with a
handle whereby it may be easily held in the hand of the user. On that
side of the said case which is intended to face the user there are contained
the letters of the alphabet, numerals, or other signs useful in personal

page_text: intercourse, and upon the opposite side or that which faces the person
communicated with there is provided an aperture which may be
protected by glass. In the interior of the hollow case are disposed a
number of slides worked by buttons which traverse along slots disposed
each immediately above a different letter or sign. The upper end of
each of these slides carries the corresponding letter or sign to that
marked on the case opposite to the particular button, and when any
slide or button is pushed along the slot the corresponding letter or sign
will be presented at the glazed aperture on the opposite side of the case.
By successively raising and lowering or moving the slides it is obvious
that words can be easily spelt and communication be thus established
with the deaf and dumb or deaf or dumb without necessitating a
knowledge of the signs known as "the deaf and dumb or finger
alphabet."
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Bertram Mitford in the Great Scal Patent Office
on the 1st September 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BERTRAM
MITFORD, of Cheltenham, in the County of Gloucester, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Bertram Mitford, Her special license
that I, the said Bertram Mitford, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Bertram Mitford, my 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 APPARATUS
FOR COMMUNICATING WITH DEAF AND DUMB OR DEAF OR DUMB PERSONS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Bertram Mitford, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
under my hand
and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said

page_text: same was to be performed, and
Great Scal Patent Office within
Invention, and in what manner the
cause the same to be filed in the
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Bertram Mitford, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is
to say:-
My said Invention relates to a peculiar form of apparatus for
facilitating intercourse with deaf and dumb or deaf or dumb persons,
and consists of a hand telegraph composed of a hollow case of any
convenient form and size made of wood or other suitable light material,
and provided with a handle whereby it may be easily held in the hand
of the user. On that side of the said case which is intended to face the
user there are contained the letters of the alphabet, numerals, or other
signs useful in personal intercourse, and upon the opposite side or that
which faces the person communicated with there is provided an aperture
which may be protected by glass. In the interior of the hollow case
are disposed a number of sliding wires worked by buttons which traverse
along slots disposed each immediately above a different letter or sign.
The upper end of each of these sliding spindles carries the corresponding
letter or sign to that marked on the case opposite to the particular
button, and when any slide or button is pushed along the slot the
corresponding letter or sign will be presented at the glazed aperture on
the opposite side of the case. By successively raising and lowering or
moving the slides it is obvious that words can be easily spelt and
communication be thus established with the deaf and dumb or deaf or
dumb without necessitating a knowledge of the signs known as "the
deaf and dumb or finger alphabet."
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood I shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that
purpose shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of
Drawings, the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts
in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents a front elevation of my improved
apparatus, which I have named "The Hand Telegraph for the Deaf or

page_text: Dumb," with one half of the cover removed to show the internal
arrangement; Figure 2 is a corresponding vertical section of the same
at right angles to Figure 1; and Figure 3 is a back elevation showing
the aperture at which the letters or other signs are exhibited.
A is a flat or shallow box or case made of wood, light metal, or other
suitable material, and by preference of a quadrant shape, as shown by
the Drawings, for the facility of disposing of or arranging the moveable
parts carrying the letters or signs to be exhibited, as well as the
quadrants containing the corresponding letters and signs indicated
outside the case. In the interior of the case A are disposed in a radial
or converging direction a number of sliding spindles or wire rods a, a,
guided laterally and maintained at equal distances apart by passing
between guides b, b, secured to the interior of the back of the box or
case. These several sliding wires or rods are held down in their places
by the cross bar c, the rubbing surfaces of the said bar and of the back
of the box being faced with Icather if desired, as shown at d, d; e, e,
are buttons fast on the sliding rods a, and projecting through the front
of the box at right angles to the said sliding wires or rods; these
buttons pass through circular openings f, with which openings long
and narrow slots g made in the front of the box or case communicate.
The several buttons e traverse these slots, a flattened portion of the
buttons entering the said slots. The instrument which I have illustrated
contains the letters of the alphabet and the sign "&," these being
perforated or cut out after the manner of stencil plates in thin plates of
metal h, h, each attached to its respective rod a, the button of that
particular rod corresponding in position with the same letter or sign
on one or other of the two indicating quadrant plates i, i. In order to
economise space I have disposed the plates h and rods a in two tiers or
series one behind the other separated by a partition of thin sheet metal k,
the one series corresponds to the letters in the upper or smaller quadrant,
and the other to the letters or signs in the lower or larger quadrant.
B is a handle secured to the wider part of the apparatus by which it is
held by the user, and C is a small glazed aperture made in the back of
the box or case through which any letter or sign moved up by sliding
one or other of the buttons along its slot may be presented to the view
of the person with whom communication is being held, as shewn in
Figure 3. Care should be taken in spelling out the words by the aid
of this instrument that one letter be moved up to the aperture C and
withdrawn again from sight before another is acted upon.

page_text: Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of
my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may
be used or carried into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what
I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the
Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is, the combination of moveable letters or signs with actuating
slides and buttons or projections working through slots on one side of a
box or case, the opposite side of such box or case containing an aperture
through which is exhibited singly the particular letter or sign required,
the whole being arranged and operated substantially as and for the
purpose herein-before described and illustrated by my Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bertram Mitford, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, the Thirteenth day of
August One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
BERTRAM MITFORD. (L.S.)