CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SPLITTING AND SHAPING WOOD INTO SPLINTS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MATCHES AND OTHER SIMILAR FORMS
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, REUBEN
PARTRIDGE, of Cowper Street, Finsbury, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
send greeting:
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Ifer
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of March, in the fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, .the said
Reuben Partridge, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, tho said Rouben Partridge, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, and such others as I, the said Reuben Partridge, my executors,
administrators, 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 mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales; and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SPLITTING AND SHAPING WOOD
INTO SPLINTS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF MATCHES AND OTHER SIMILAR FORMS;" in
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Reuben
Partridge, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to
describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her
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

page_text: in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the snid proviso, I, the said
Reuben Partridge, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say):-
These improvements in machinery or apparatus for splitting and shaping
wood into splints for the manufacture of matches and other similar forms con-
sist in the employment of a perforated metal plato, through which blocks of
wood are to be passed by means of pressure, the perforations in such plato
being so shaped and situate as to cause the block of wood when pressed
against its face to be divided or split into a multitude of small rods or splints,
and these splints protruded through the perforations of the plate in regular
formed rods, either of a cylindrical, squaro, polygonal, or other figure, according
to the shapes and dimensions of the perforations in the plate. In the
accompanying Drawing. Fig. 1 represents the face of one of these plates,
serving a multitude of circular holes pierced through it; Fig. 2 is a section
of the same taken through the plate in the direction of a right angle to the
face. The forms of the perforations are cylindrical throughout, except at their
openings on the face, where they are slightly countersunk for the purpose of
presenting sharp cutting edges to the wood when pressed upon it, and in order
to afford more easy entrance. The size of the perforations in the plate must
depend upon that of the required splints or matches to be produced, but it is to
be observed that they must be as close together as possible, allowing sufficient
substance of metal to afford strength and resistance to the pressure when the
wood is forced through. And the reason why the apertures must be so closely
' contiguous is that there may be as small a space of surface or blank between
the holes as possible, in order that resistance to the passage of the wood may
be avoided, and that indeed the whole area of tho block of wood may be com-
pressed laterally into the countersunk openings and forced through the
cylindrical perforations. Though it is intended by me generally to split the
wood and form the splints into cylindrical rods, yet I do not intend to confino
myself to that form, as the perforations in the plate may be made of any other
figure, and thereby enable splints of other forms to be produced by forcing
wood through them. The plate shown in the Drawing has a steol face
strengthened by a bell metal back, but I do not limit myself to any particular
kind of metal, or compounds or combinations of metals, nor to, any preciso

page_text: dimensions, but that which is shown in the Drawing, being about three inches
wide by six inches long, and nearly an inch thick, I have found to answer the
purpose. This plate may be employed in connection with any suitablo
pressing apparatus. The mode which I have found to answer is by fixing the
back of the plate against a firm resisting block or bearing, having an aper-
ture equal to the area of the perforations in the plate, and then placing the end
of the piece or pieces of wood in the direction of the grain against the face of
the plate within the area of the perforated parts. A plunger, or a lever, or any
other suitable mechanical agent being then applied to the back or rever.c end
of the piece of wood, it may be forced through the perforations in the plate,
being first split as it advances by the cutting edges of the holes, and afterwards
compressed and driven through the perforations in the plate, coming out on the
opposite side or back of the plate in the forms of a multitude of distinct splints,
according to the shapes and dimensions of the perforations.
In witness whereof, I, the said Reuben Partridge, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-two.
REUBEN (L.s.) PARTRIDGE.
REUBEN (L.s.) PARTRIDGE.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventh day of September,
in the sixth year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said Reuben
Partridge came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknow-
ledged the instrument aforesaid, and 'all and every thing therein contained
and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of
His late Maiesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fourteenth day of September, One thousand eight hundred
and forty-two.