CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ENVELOPES AND CASES, AND IN THE TOOLS AND MACHINERY USED THEREIN
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WORSDELL, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventeenth day of
November, One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, in the thirteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Thomas Worsdell, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Worsdell, my
exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Worsdell,
my exors, adiñors, 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, usc, exercise, and vend within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick upon Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies
and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF ENVELOPES AND CASES, AND IN THE TOOLS AND MACHINERY USED
THEREIN;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said
Thomas Worsdell, shall cause a particular description of 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, to be inrolled in Her said

page_text: 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Worsdell, hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed; are fully-described and ascer-
tained in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:
Whereas according to the mode in which envelopes are now ordinarily
manufactured they have to pass through a number of distinct processes, with
intervals more or less dilitory between them, before they attain to a finished
state, which processes are accomplished partly by hand and partly by machinery.
Now my Invention consists;
Firstly, in an arrangement and combination of machinery, or of machines in
serial order, whereby some of the said processes are performed simultaneously
with others of them, and the whole are performed in continuous or uninter-
rupted succession by means of inachinery, chiefly with as little. aid as may be
from hand labour, and with much greater despatch than heretofore, and whereby
also the cost of manufacturing the same is greatly reduced.
And, secondly, in certain improvements peculiar to parts of the said
processes, machinery or machines, and to certain of the tools used therein or
therewith, which improved parts of the processes; machinery or machines, or
tools, may (some or all of them) be used by themselves separately from and
independant of the serial order and arrangement aforesaid. **
The processes referred to consist, first, of the shaping and cutting, that is,
the cutting out from sheets or webs of paper pieces of the shape or contour of
the envelope when spread out flat; second, in stamping the projecting part
of that side of the piece so cut out, which is afterwards to form the seal flap of
the envelope, with any required device; third, in gumming the edges of two
of the other sides which are afterwards to form the end flaps of the envelope;
fourth, in what is called "creasing" the piece of paper; or, in other words,
indenting it in rectangular lines, so as to throw up the four sides which are
to form the four flaps; fifth, in applying to the under part of the seal
flap an "adhesive" composition; sixth, in pressing down and flattening the
three sides which have been prepared as aforesaid for being cemented
together; and seventh; in arranging a number of such envelopes into lots
of determinate numbers as they emerge from the pressing and flattening
allowe

page_text: The details of these processes, and the improvements which I have effected
in each, I shall now proceed to describe in the order in which they succeed
each other.
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THE SHAPING AND CUTTING-OUT PROCESSES.
I perform these operations by one machine, and by one continuous move-
ment of that machine. Figure 1 is a side elevation of this instrument, which
I call a "cutting ram; and Figure 2, a plan thereof. E, E, is a framework,
and F the ram, which moves up and down on the pillars P, P. The centre
plate R of this ram is of the same rectangular area as the back of the envelope
intended to be manufactured, and has four cutters 'S', S²; S³, 'S+, projecting
downwards from it, which are of the exact shapes of the four flaps of the future
envelope. Each of these sides is formed with knife edges, or has knife edges
inserted into it, which act after the manner of shears in cutting the paper. G is
a table, on to which the web of paper is fed, from which the envelope and a
succession of such envelopes is cut out. H, a rectangular recess in the centre
of the table, of a size a little larger than the centre plate R of the ram. The
cutting ram is lowered and raised by means of a crank and fly wheel, and thé
paper is fed into the machine by two rollers, which are acted on by a cam in
such manner as to give an intermittent motion of the web, so that at each
elevation of the ram a fresh length of paper sufficient to make an envelope
shall be fed in. (The two last parts of the machine are omitted in the Drawings.)
The mode of operation is as follows: On the web of paper being brought upon
the table G the ram is lowered, when the four extreme points of the knife
edges S1, S2, S3, S4, simultaneously penetrate the paper, and by their joint
action as the ram descends cut out from the web a piece of the form of the
intended envelope when spread out flat. As soon as the knife edges have thus
performed their office, the centre plate R (the ram still continuing to descend)
comes in contact with the piece of paper which has been so externally shaped
and cut out, and, carrying it down through the recess, gives to the centre of it
the rectangular form of the centre plate R and recess H, that is to say, a forni
suitable for the back of the future envelope, and throws up at the same time
the four sides which are destined to form the end and side flaps into nearly a
perpendicular position: On the ram completing its stroke, the roughly shaped
envelope drops out at bottom into a receiving tray.
+
THE STAMPING, GUMMING, "CREASING," AND ". ADHESIVE" COMPOSITION
APPLYING PROCESSES.
The whole of these four processes I perform by the continuous operation of
one machine, of which a front elevation is given in Figure 3, a back elevation

page_text: in Figure 4, a side view in Figure 5, and a plan in Figure 6. To some
extent this machine is precisely similar to the shaping, and cutting machine
previously described and in practice. I prefer combining the two machines in
one, which shall do the work of both. E, E, is a framework; F, a ram, with
centre plate R; and G, a table, with rectangular recess H, all, as in the
machine before described. I is a shaft, carrying an eccentric K, which is
worked by a band on the pulley M, and gives motion to the ram.
L is a fly
wheel. N, N, N, N, are four guides, between which the piece of paper is
placed ready to be acted on by the ram; O is a slide, to the bottom of which
is attached a die or stamp Q;. R, R.,. are the gumming vessels, which are
attached by stays r, r, to the slide; X is a cam on the shaft I, which acts upon
the roller Y, which presses down the slide O. The gumming vessels R°, R*,
consist each of a small cylinder, into which a piece of sponge or other suitable
porous material is closely fitted. ¹, 71, are two small taps, by which the flow
of the gum is regulated; T¹, T, Ts, T, are four metal "creasing plates,
which are suspended from a frame F2, and when hanging nearly coincide with
the four sides of the recess, inclining slightly inward..
"
A view of three of these plates and the frame which supports them is given
separately in Figure 7. V is an oscillating reservoir, containing the "adhe-
sive" composition, which is connected to the centre plate by the slotted bracket
2 B is an under platform, which has a rising and dropping motion given to
it, by arrangements to be presently explained.
When it rises it acts in combination with the centre plate R, to press the
paper into the required form, and when it drops into an inclined position it
serves to deliver the paper after it has been stamped, gummed, and creased
into a trough Z. It is centred on the top of a bent lever b, which has at
bottom a spring c, and this bent lever ba is connected to the under end of
another lever e, which passes upwards to near the shaft I, where it is sur-
mounted by a roller fa, which is acted on by a cam 9 on the shaft I. When
the cam is in one position it depresses the lever ea, and consequently the lever
band spring c, which allows the platform to fall into the inclined position as
represented in Figure 7; and when the cam, taking another position, sets free
the spring and lever be, the platform is thrown up, by the action of the spring
and of the tail pin ha, into a horizontal position..
The mode of operating with the machine is as follows:-The paper being
laid on the table within the guides N,. and the shaft I made to revolve,
the cam X acting on the roller Y, first depresses the slide O, which brings the
stamp Q down on the end of the seal flap, and simultaneously therewith the
mouths of the gumming vessels R, R, upon the edges of the two end flaps,

page_text: immediately after which these tools are returned to their original position by
the action of a vulcanised india-rubber spring W. Two horizontal stops A³
prevent the paper from being touched by the gum at any but the desired
points. The centre plate R of the ram comes next in contact with the centre
of the piece of paper, and presses it down through the recess H, throwing up
the four sides into nearly a perpendicular position, as explained in the descrip-
tion of the shaping and cutting out machine. The motion of the ram being
continued, the paper is forced down between the "creasing "plates T', T2, T3, T,
the springs t, t, at the back of these plates giving way accordingly. The
"adhesive" composition reservoir V, descending along with the ram, comes
now in contact with the edge of the recess H, which causes it (the reservoir)
to tilt in the direction shewn in the Drawing, Figure 7%, and thus to bring a
sponge (which is fitted into the lower part of the reservoir, and through which
the composition flows,) into contact with the inner side of the steel flap, and
any further descent of the reservoir being stopped by the table, the
paper
is
drawn through the remainder of the distance between the gummed sponge
and the metal "creasing" plate T', whereby the gum is laid upon the paper to
the extent required. To enable the centre plate R in its descent and ascent
to move clear of the gummed edges of the end flaps, and also of the under side
of the seal flap, to which the "adhesive" composition is applied, it is made
with recesses in the sides, as separately represented in Figure 8 (a plan),
Figure 9 (an end elevation), and Figure 10 (a side elevation). 1 and 2' are
the recesses which free the gummed edges of the end flaps; and 3, the recess
which allows the seal flap to keep clear. When the ram reaches the lowest
point of its stroke, the centre plate 'R and paper are met by the ascent
of the under platform B, which is supposed to have just previously discharged
an envelope into the trough Z. The ram now commences its return or
up stroke, leaving the paper detained by the pressure of the four "creasing"
plates, which, as soon as the ram rises above the points Z, Z, return to
their original positions by the action of the springs t, t, behind them. The
four sides of the paper are at this time slightly inclined inwards, at an anglè
regulated by the set screws k, le. When the ram in its ascent reaches above
the highest points of the upright sides of the paper, the under platform B is
made to fly up, and press the edges of the paper against the bottom edges. of
the four "creasing" plates, which serves still farther to impress the paper into.
the required form. The manner in which the last movement of the under
platform B is produced is as follows:-In the side of 6, the spring lever on
the top of which the platform is centred, there is a notch ma cut, into which a
spring sliding bolt n fits, and during the previous or first ascent of the under

page_text: platform that bolt is left in the notch, which necessarily limits the height of
the ascent to the height of the notch; but on the farther ascent of the ram,
the sliding bolt n³, is acted upon by a cam pa, attached to a shaft C, which is
worked from a crank pin. D on the main shaft I, and is thus withdrawn from
the notch, which allows the bent lever * to ascend to its full extent. The
envelope, in the. state at which it has now arrived, is of the appearance
represented in Figure 13 (a plan), and Figure 14 (a side elevatiou)..
THE PRESSING AND FLATTENING PROCESSES. :.
The partially formed envelope, after having been stamped, gummed, and
"creased," and had the "adhesive" composition applied to it, as before
described, is removed to the flattening rollers: This is effected by the cam g
coming.in contact with the roller f*; and depressing the rode and spring c³,
which forces down the lever. 6, when the platform drops into an inclined posi-
tion, and the envelope slides off the platform into the trough Z, and thence
beneath a cross guide S'; between the rollers RRThe under roller is
driven by a pulley.and. band from the main shaft I; the upper one is driven
by frictional contact with the lower one; and is shorter than the lower roller,
to allow the seal flap. of the envelope to pass without being flattened; whilst
the remaining three sides are drawn between the rollers and fattened, the
gum which has been laid on the two end flaps, as before described, is pressed
by the rollers down upon the side flap (opposite to the seal flap), and all three
are thus cemented together.
:
THE ASSORTING PROCESS.
i
Upon emerging from the rollers; the envelope descends of its own weight
farther down the trough, and then 'drops into a circular revolving receiver T',
a plan and section of which are given in Figures 11 and 12. The receiver
has an upright spindle U, fitted with a ratchet wheel and lever V, with pall
and spring. It is composed of a table, carrying 'two semicircular trays, which
together occupy the whole surface of the table. The ratchet is worked by
a rod Ww from a crank pin X* on the shaft C, and makes at each movement
of a tooth a stroke equal to one twenty-fifth part of the circumference of one
of the trays; and the rate at which the receiver T revolves is so adjusted, that
at every advance of a tooth there shall be a new envelope ready to drop into
the trays, which operation goes on continuously until both the trays are nearly
filled, in the order shewn in the Drawing (Figure 11). When one tray is to
be removed, the spring holders Y' are first turned down, so as to keep those
of the envelopes secure from derangement which lay across-the-parts-where the

page_text: two trays join. The envelopes are then carried away to a suitable place for
drying, and the tray replaced in its original position on the table, and the
spring holders returned to an upright position, ready for farther use.
From the description which has been thus given of the series of processes
through which the envelope is passed, it will be readily understood that
although it will be generally preferable to employ the whole series, yet that
several of the series may be left out without. prejudice to others. For example,
the stamping die, or the gumming vessels, or the adhesive composition reservoir,
with their respective appendages, may be left out of the machine represented
in Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6, all or any of them, and the machine employed for
creasing only, or for creasing in combination with any one or more of the other
processes; so also, the flattening rollers may be dispensed with; in which case
the envelopes would be creased only, but creased to such an extent that the
sides would incline so far inwards as to, be easily laid flat by hand. I have
stated that the machine last referred to (Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6,) is to some
extent the same as the shaping. and cutting-out one first herein-before
described;cand, in fact, all that is necessary to combine the two into one
would be to add knife edges to the centre plate of the ram, with such corre-
sponding modifications in the other parts as will treadily suggest themselves to
any competent workman. But instead of adopting in such a combination the
same arrangement of the cutters as is represented in Figures 1 and 2, and
before described, the knife edges may be attached to a box or working frame
independent of the centre plate of the ram, taking care that they are so placed
as not to interfere with the proper action of the creasing plates: Again, instead
of the gumming vessels (in Figures 3; 4; 5, and 6,) being made moveable, as
described, they may be fixed at a proper height above the table, so that when
the centre plate is, in its descent through the recess H, throwing up the four
siles of the paper into a (nearly) perpendicular position, the outer edges of the
two end flaps would come in contact with the mouths of the gumming vessels.
A modification. of. the arrangements for applying. the adhesive composition
to the seal flap, such as represented in Figure 15 (an end elevation), and
Figure 16 (a back elevation), may also be adopted. Instead of the reservoir V
being: connected to and acting by the descent of the ram, it, may be held in.a
fixed. horizontal position over the table by a projecting arm or stay F³
(Figures 15 and 16), attached to any convenient part of the framework of the
machine, so that when the centre plate (R) is, by its descent into the recess H,
throwing up the four sides of the paper,.the.inner face of the seal flap may be
pressed against the mouth of the reservoir,. as indicated. by dotted lines in the
Figures.
t

page_text: In Figure 17 (an end elevation in section), Figure 18 (a plan), and
Figure 19 (a side elevation in section), I have shewn a modification, of which
the creasing parts of the machine represented in Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6, are
susceptible. The side flaps are fitted into or between four corner posts
xx, xx, xx, xx, as shewn, and form of themselves the rectangular recess
through which the centre plate of the ram works; and instead of being acted
upon by springs at the back, they are acted upon by sliding weights w*, one
attached to each. The area of the recess formed by the four flaps may be
also diminished or encreased at pleasure by means of the adjusting screws y*
and slots. The table may then be dispensed with, except for the purpose
of supporting the paper.
By the same improved processes, machinery, and tools by which envelopes
arė manufactured as before described, cases similarly shaped may be also
made of strong paper for holding documents, lace, seeds, and other light
articles.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that the improvements which
I claim as of my Invention are as follows:-
First, I claim the machine for shaping and cutting out envelopes represented
in Figures 1 and 2, and before described, that is to say, in so far as regards
the combination of the cutters with the centre plate of the ram, and whether
these cutters are of the precise shape there represented or of any other suitable
shape.
Second, I claim the machine for stamping, gumming, and "creasing" en-
velopes, and applying "adhesive" composition to the seal flaps thereof, repre-
sented in Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6, and before described, that is to say, in so far
as regards the combination in that one machine of the means of accomplishing
these four processes, all, or any two or three of them, (the creasing as described
always being one,) partly simultaneously and partly continuously, but laying
at the same time no claim to any one of the said processes separately and
individually except as herein-after excepted.
Third, I claim the working of the stamping die Q, and gumming vessels
(R, R.,) in envelope-making machines, by means of one cam or movement.
Fourth, I claim the combination in one machine of the machine repre-
sented in Figures 1 and 2, or of the parts peculiar thereto, with the machine
represented in Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6, by the continuous operation of which
combined machine the shaping and cutting-out, the stamping, the gumming,
the "creasing," and applying of the "adhesive" composition, may all be
performed, partly simultaneously and partly continuously, as aforesaid.

page_text: Fifth, I claim the combination of the centre plate with recesses, as repre-
sented in Figures 8, 9, & 10, and before described.
Sixth, I claim the addition to the machine represented in Figures 3, 4, 5,
and 6, and to the combination thereof with the machine represented in
Figures 1 and 2 of the flattening rollers and their immediate appendages, as
before described.
Seventh, I claim the application of the under platform B, in the mann e
described, to the "creasing" of envelopes.
Eighth, I claim the keeping of the seal flap elevated and apart during the
creasing and flattening processes, in order to have the adhesive composition
applied thereto, and to prevent any of the other parts of the envelope or any
parts of the machinery from coming in contact with the said composition
while in a wet, state; as also the applying of the "adhesive composition to
the seal flap while the creasing or other operations is or are in progress.
Ninth, I claim the oscillating and stationary vessels for applying the adhesive
composition to the seal flap, as before described.
Tenth, I claim the construction of "creasing apparatus, represented in
Figures 17, 18, & 19, and before described.
Eleventh, I claim the assorting apparatus represented in Figures 3, 4, 5, & 6,
and 11 & 12, and before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Worsdell, have hereunto set
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of May, in
the year of our Lord 1850, the aforesaid Thomas Worsdell came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and everything 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.
Enrolled the Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty.