CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ART OF WORKING AND MAKING SPOONS, FORKS, AND SUCH OTHER ARTICLES OF GOLD, SILVER, OR OTHER METALS AS USUALLY ARE OF MAY TE STAMPED OR STRUCK BY MEANS OF SEALS AND PWNCHES, OR DIE3 OF ANY KIND CR DESCRIPTION, AND LIKEWISE IN THE TOOLS OR INSTRUMENTS TO BE USED IN CARRYING THE SAID IMPROVEMENTS INTO EFFECT AND PRACTICE
Year: 1810

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HALL, of the Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Goldsmith, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, in and by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighteenth day of July last, for Himself, His heirs and successors,
did give and grant unto me, the said George Hall, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said George Hall, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, and every of them, by myself and themselves, or
by my and their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I,
the said George Hall, 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 of years therein expressed, 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 THE ART OF WORKING
AND MAKING SPOONS, FORKS, AND SUCH OTHER ARTICLES OF GOLD, SILVER, OR OTHER
METALS AS USUALLY ARE OF MAY TE STAMPED OR STRUCK BY MEANS OF SEALS AND
PWNCHES, OR DIE3 OF ANY KIND CR DESCRIPTION, AND LIKEWISE IN THE TOOLS OR
INSTRUMENTS TO BE USED IN CARRYING THE SAID IMPROVEMENTS INTO EFFECT AND
PRACTICE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging
me, the said George Hall, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,

page_text: 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 His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Hall, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in what manner the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained as follows, that is to say:
The tools or implements to be used in my said Invention are seats and
punches or dies, which I fabricate and make first, by forming a block or piece
of wood into the shape and form of a top die with a shank, and upon the face
of the said block or piece I do correctly carve, cut, fashion, or dispose a
prominent part of the same figure as that of the object or article intended to
be manufactured and made, which said part, when in steel, is denominated
the male die. And secondly, I do prepare another block of wood, about nine
inches thick, or of a fit thickness for the intended work, and so large as to
leave a sufficient thickness (suppose three inches) round a concavity to be made
in the face thereof, and I do make such excavation in the face of the said
block, and fill the same with plaister-of-paris, or any other material proper for
taking an impression, and I do make an impression or hollow in the said
plaister-of-paris, or any other material, by placing and pressing the first
described block, resembling a top die thereon, face downwards, and the counter-
part thus made and carefully repaired will represent what is called the female
die when formed in steel.
Thirdly, I do make a cast in fusible or cast iron from the said counterpart
wood block so used as the pattern, and I do employ and apply the said iron
cast as a mold or swage for giving the proper figure to the steel and iron pieces
or blocks, which, when completed, will constitute the actual top die or dies,
and I do forge and weld the said steel and iron pieces in and by means of the
said mold or swage.
Fourthly, I do make a cast in a fusible or cast iron from the wood block
herein first described, which I use as the pattern, and I do forge and weld
as aforesaid in the said iron cast as the mold or swage such steel and iron
pieces as, when completed, shall constitute the actual bottom die, and I do
further declare that I do use the words or terms top die and male die
indiscriminately to denote the convex or prominent die, and the words bottom
die and female die, and counterpart or counter die, indiscriminately to
denote the concave or sunken die, and that I do denominate the dies which

page_text: are or shall be made by the process herein-before described, and afterwards, if
need be, completed and finished by the usual process of repairing by hand or
otherwise, original dies, because the same are chiefly or altogether to be used
in striking and forming hubs or stamps for striking the working dies, which
last are the tools or instruments for manufacturing spoons, forks, and other the
articles before mentioned, enumerated, or referred to.
Fifthly, the original dies having been forged in a mold or swage of cast iron
as aforesaid, and being afterwards hardened, will have been somewhat smaller
than the cast-iron mould, forged in as before described, by reason of the contrac-
tion which the said dies will have undergone in cooling from the ignited state
in which the same was struck; but, on the other hand, since soft steel becomes
larger by the process of hardening, the one effect will counteract the other, and
the original dies, when hardened, will be very nearly of the same size as the
said blocks of wood or plaister. Now, I do fashon and make my said hubbs or
stamps by forging the same in steel and iron, and when prepared clean from
the forging; I do make them red hot, and strike thereon or therein [the
correct impression by means of the original dies respectively; and afterwards,
when the said hubbs are cold, I do correct the effects of the contraction in
dimensions which takes place between the red hot and the cold state, by again
striking the said hubbs without heating into the originals until they shall have
obtained the full size, and when the convex piece so made is hardened, the
said hubbs are fit for forming working dies.
Sixthly, the working dies are to be made in steel by forging, and when
repaired clean they must be made very red hot, and placed in the concave
hubb or stamp, and struck with the convex hob, and these, when completed,
will be about one-ninetieth part less than the original in their linear dimensions.
Seventhly, in order to make patterns of a proper size, that the articles cast
therefrom in gold, silver, or other metal may be of due size to be struck and
completed in the said working dies, I do make my said patterns by stamping
them in the original dies, in consequence whereof, the said patterns being
about one-ninetieth part larger than the size of the working dies, and the
articles cast from such patterns being about one-ninetieth part less by their
own contraction in cooling, it follows that the said articles will fit the working
dies, either accurately or sufficiently so, (whatever may be the metal) to answer
all the purposes of manufacturing.
Eighthly, I do work and make the said spoons, forks, and such other articles
of gold, silver, or other metals, by casting the same from the patterns and
striking the same in the working dies herein-before mentioned, specified, and
described.

page_text: And lastly, I do declare that the various descriptions of spoons, forks, and
other articles so manufactured according to my said improvements do receive a
correct and finished impression from the die without requiring the expence of
repairing and the great waste and labour of polishing, and that the mischevious
resistance from compressed air retained in the dies in the common method of
stamping is obviated by my said improvements, which are also productive of
various other advantages.
Inrolled the same Eighteenth day of September, in the year above
written.