IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR CLEANING KNIVES, FORKS, SPOONS, AND SUCH OTHER ARTICLES AS ARE OR MAY BE CLEANED BY POLISHING: ALSO IN MACHINES FOR SHARPENING
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Lester Hinks, of Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINES FOR CLEANING KNIVES, FORKS, SPOONS, AND SUCH OTHER ARTICLES
AS ARE OR MAY BE CLEANED BY POLISHING: ALSO IN MACHINES FOR SHARPENING
Scaled the 25th January 1859, and dated the 29th July 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Lester Hinks
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th July 1858.
I, JOSEPH LESTER HINKS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR CLEANING KNIVES, FORKS, SPOONS, AND SUCH OTHER
ARTICLES AS ARE OR MAY BE CLEANED BY POLISHING; ALSO IN MACHINES FOR
SHARPENING KNIVES," to be as follows:-
My improvements consist, firstly, in constructing machines for cleaning and
polishing knives and other articles in the following manner :-The said
machines consists of two cylindrical brushes working together after tho
manner of a pair of rolls. The said brushes are geared together by toothed
wheels, and driven by another toothed wheel or band, worked by a winch or

page_text: otherwise. Rapid rotation is given to the brushes, and the knife, fork, or
spoon is introduced between them. Any of the well-known polishing powders
or pastes may be supplied to the brushes.
In cleaning articles of complicated form, such as cruet frames, the upper
brush may be ungeared from the lower one, and the top of the case which
covers the brushes being removed, the cruet frame or other article is sub-
mitted to the action of the rotating upper brush, and thereby polished.
My Invention consists further in attaching to the foundation board or other
convenient part of knife-cleaning machines a surface of leather or other
suitable material covered with the cutting powders or mixtures used by
polishers, and called "dressing." The said dressing consists wholly or mainly
of emery powder, and is attached by glue or other adhesive matter. By
drawing the knives occasionally over the said dressing, either before or after
cleaning, they may readily be kept sharp.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Lester Hinks in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 28th January 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
LESTER HINKS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Joseph Lester Hinks, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph
Lester Hinks, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Joseph Lester Hinks, my executors, administrators, and 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 MACHINES FOR CLEANING KNIVES, FORKS, SPOONS, AND SUCH
OTHER ARTICLES AS ARE OR MAY BE CLEANED BY POLISHING; ALSO IN MACHINES
FOR SHARPENING KNIVES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Joseph Lester Hinks, my executors or administrators, by an instrument

page_text: in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Lester Hinks, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists, firstly, of the new or improved machine for cleaning
knives, forks, spoons, and such other articles as are or may be cleaned by
polishing, constructed as herein-after described, and illustrated in the accom-
panying Drawing.
Figure 1 represents a longitudinal vertical section of a machine constructed
according to my Invention; Figure 2 represents an end elevation of the
same, and Figure 3 represents a plan of the same. The said machine consists
of a pair of cylindrical brushes a, b, mounted upon horizontal axes c, d, or
instead of one brush on each of the axes c, d, two brushes a, a, b, b¹, may be
mounted upon the axes c, d, respectively. The axes c, d, work in bearings in
the framing e of the machine; f is a wheel or pulley turned by the winch g.
Motion is communicated from the wheel or pulley f to the axes c, d, by means
of two bands h, i, driven by the wheel, and passing over pullies upon the said
axes c, d. By turning the winch g, rapid rotation is given to the brushes, and
the knife, fork, spoon, or other article to be cleaned or polished is introduced
between the upper and lower brushes. Whiting or Bath.brick, or any other
polishing powder or paste may be applied to the brushes a, a, b, b', either by
a hopper over the top brushes, or in any other convenient manner.
In cleaning articles of complicated form, such as cruet frames, the lower
brushes b, b, may be thrown out of gear by throwing the band i off the pulley
upon the axis d, and the upper brushes a, a', may be uncovered by throwing
back the top cover k. The cruet frame or other article may thus be submitted
to the action of the rotating upper brush or brushes, and thereby polished.
The axis d, carrying the lower brushes, may be made to rise and fall, so as
to adjust the distance between the brushes by means of the screw 1, by turning
which said screw the bearing m, in which the axis d turns, is made to rise.
or fall in the slot n in the frame c. The arrangement described is applied to
both ends of the axis d. The brushes may either be made of bristles or fibrous
materials, or of buff leather.

page_text: For cleaning or polishing the interior of articles, such as bottles and other
vessels, a brush of the kind represented at o in Figure 2 may be attached
to one end of the axis c. By the rotation of the said brush o, the interior of
the bottle or other vessel may be rapidly cleaned or polished.
My Invention consists further in constructing machines for sharpening
knives, by attaching to the foundation board or other convenient part of
knife-cleaning machines a surface of leather or other suitable material covered
with the cutting powders or mixtures used by polishers, and called " "dressing."
Figure 4 represents in elevation, and Figure 5 in plan, a knife-cleaning
machine to which this part of my Invention is applied. The said machine,
Figures 4 and 5, consists of two boards p, q, pressed together by the india-
rubber springs, s. The opposed faces of the said boards p, q, are furnished
with pieces of leather t, between which the knife is inserted, and cleaned by
being moved backwards and forwards. Polishing powder is applied to the
leathers through the hole u, but as the said machine, Figures 4 and 5,
constitutes no part of my Invention, I do not think it necessary further to
describe it. On the lower board 9 are two pieces of leather or other material
suitable for holding the cutting mixtures called "dressing." The said pieces
of leather or other material are marked v, w, respectively in Figures 4 and 5.
The cutting materials attached to one of the pieces of leather v, w, is finer
than that attached to the other. The said cutting materials or "dressing"
applied to the leathers v and w, consists wholly or mainly of emery powder,
and is attached by glue or other adhesive matter. By drawing the knives
occasionally over the "dressing" on v and w, either before or after cleaning,
the said knives may readily be kept sharp.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described and represented, as the same
may be varied without departing from the nature of my Invention; but I
claim as my Invention,-
Firstly, the new or improved machine for cleaning knives, forks, spoons,
and such other articles-as-are_or_may be cleaned by polishing, herein-before
described and illustrated in Figures 1, 2, and 3 of the accompanying Drawing;
that is to say, a machine consisting of rotating brushes fixed upon horizontal
and parallel axes, and supplied with polishing material, the articles to be
cleaned being introduced between the said rotating brushes, or applied to one
of them, the said rotating brushes being driven by a winch, as described.
Secondly, constructing machines for sharpening knives, by attaching to the

page_text: foundation board or other convenient part of knife-cleaning machines a piece
or pieces of leather or other suitable material covered with emery or other
cutting powder or mixture, as described and illustrated in Figures 4 and 5 of
the accompanying Drawing.
foundation board or other convenient part of knife-cleaning machines a piece
or pieces of leather or other suitable material covered with emery or other
cutting powder or mixture, as described and illustrated in Figures 4 and 5 of
the accompanying Drawing
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Lester Hinks, have hereunto
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
JOSEPH LESTER HINKS. (L.S.)