A NEW OR IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR IRONING CLOTHES OR VARIOUS OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Mead Folsom, of the State of Massa-
chusetts, of the United States of America, for the Invention of
"A NEW OR IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR IRONING CLOTHES OR VARIOUS
OTHER ARTICLES."-A communication from Jeremiah W. Brown,
a resident of the United States of America, who has applied for a
Patent in the United States, and assigned all his right and interest
thereto to the said Samuel Mead Folsom, to whom such Patent is
to be issued.
Sealed the 16th January 1854, and dated the 10th November 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Mead
Folsom at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 10th November 1853.
I, SAMUEL MEAD FOLSOM, of the State of Massachusetts, of the
United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of my In-
vention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED INSTRUMENT FOR IRONING CLOTHES OR
VARIOUS OTHER ARTICLES" to be as follows:-

page_text: In the first place I make a metallic box or case of the form or pat-
tern desired, and provide such case with two smoothing flats or sur-
faces arranged on two of its opposite horizontal and outer sides. The
other two. opposite (or vertical sides) may have openings through
them if desirable. To the middle of each end of the case a cylindrical
journal is to be affixed or made to project, one of such journals being
made with a passage longitudinally through it, and so that the wick
tube of a lamp may be extended through it and into the body of the
case or box. This box I apply to or hang by its journals in a suitable
handle made somewhat like that of a common flat iron, the box being
so applied to such handle as to enable it to be rotated therein, so as to
enable a person to turn either of the smoothing flats or faces upwards.
To the handle or bale a lamp is to be affixed, and having its wick tube
made to extend through the passage of the hollow journal, and into the
box or chamber thereof between the two smoothing flats, and so that
the flame from the end of the wick that projects from that end of the
said wick tube which is within the box may play up against the top of
the box and heat it, which top when properly heated may be turned
downwards so as to bring the bottom over the flame. The fluid re-
servoir of the lamp may be made so as to have the wick tube extend
ip into it, and nearly up to the top of it, and directly beneath a
filling orifice that is provided with a screw plug, which may be screwed
down upon the top of the tube or nearly so, and so as to compress
or pinch the wick, which may be brought out of such part of the
tube, and made to fall down into the fluid or oil that may be put in the
lanip and around the wick tube. By screwing down the screw plug
upon the wick the flow of the liquid or oil through the wick, and
by capillary attraction, may be diminished or regulated at pleasure.
The solid journal of the box may be made to extend from the handle in
which it revolves, and havé a lever jointed to it, and the handle may be
provided with a suitable recess to receive such lever, and enable it, while
therein, to prevent the box from turning around in the handle or bale.
The lever is used for turning the box around in the handle.
..I claim as new the combination of two smoothing flats and a heating
lamp as applied to a handle or bale, and made to operate together, sub-
stantially as described.

page_text: Also the extension of the wick tube up so near to the screw plug of
the filling hole as to enable such screw, besides performing its office of
closing the filling hole, to operate in conjunction with the wick tube, as
described, and piuch the wick, and thereby regulate or diminish the
capillary attraction of the wick, or flow of the fluid through it, as
specified.
I also claim the combination of the turning lever and locking recess,
or their mechanical equivalents, with the box er case and the handle,
so as to enable a person to turn and lock the handle, as described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Samuel Mead Folsom in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 7th March 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
SAMUEL MEAD FOLSOM, of the State of Massachusetts, of the United
States of America, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of November, A.D. One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Samuel Mead Folsom, Her special license that I, the said
Samuel Mead Folsom, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Samuel Mead Folsom, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein ex-
pressed, 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 of "A NEW OR IMPROVED
INSTRUMENT FOR IRONING CLOTHES OR VARIOUS OTHER ARTICLES," (the same
being a communication to me from a foreigner, one Jeremiah W.
Brown, a resident of the United States of America, who has applied
for a Patent in the United States, and assigned all his right and interest
thereto to me, the said Samuel Mead Folsom, to whom such Patent

page_text: is to be issued.) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Samuel Mead Folsom, by an instrument of writing under my hand
& seal, should particularly 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,
or Office of Her Majesty's Commissioners of Patents for Inventions,
within six calendar months' next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
•
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Samuel Mead Folsom, 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 Specification and the accompanying Drawings,
letters, figures, and references thereof:
Of the said Drawings, Figure 1 denotes a side elevation, and Figure 2,
a vertical central and longitudinal section of one of the said improved
instruments for ironing.
In the said Drawings A denotes a metallic box or case provided
with two smoothing surfaces or flats a, b, and so combined with a handle
B, by means of suitable journals and bearings, (as seen at c, d, e, f,) as
to enable either smoothing face to be turned downwards at pleasure.
The case is made with openings in its two opposite vertical sides.
which are provided with wire gauze or netting g, g, or the equivalent
therefor, such not only serving to let in air for the combustion of the
alcohol of the wick of the heating lamp, but to enable a person at any
time to see the flame of the wick, whenever such may be necessary or
desirable. One of the journals c, d, viz., that marked c, is made hollow
or with an opening h, through it for the reception of the beak or wick
This
tube i, of a spirit lamp G, which is attached to the handle B.
beak or wick tube is extended through the side of the reservoir k,
of the lamp at or near the bottom thereof, and nearly or quite up to
the top of the reservoir, and so that a screw cap 7, which is fitted to a
filling opening m, may be screwed down upon the wick n, that is
made to pass out of the top of the tube, and down into the reservoir.
The alcohol or combustible fluid used is raised in the wick, and
moved through it by capillary attraction; and in order that the flow

page_text: of it through the wick may not be too great it becomes necessary to
provide some means by which the wick can be pinched above the level
of the fluid in the reservoir. By carrying up the upper end of the
wick tube so near to the screw of the filling hole that such screw may
be screwed down upon the wick where it passes into and lays on the top
of the tube, and to such an extent as to so compress it as to sufficiently
arrest the flow or capillary draft of the combustible fluid through the
wick, I have at once not only a simple means by which I am enabled
to supply the lamp reservoir with the alcohol as the same may be
required, but one which affords to me the power of regulating the
flowage of the alcohol through the wick as occasion may require; for
should the flowage be too great, I have only to screw down the screw
until it is reduced to the extent required. So, should it be too small, I
have only to unscrew the screw until the desired amount of flowage is
attained. The other journal of the case A, is provided with a turning
and locking lever I, which is jointed to it where it projects beyond the
handle B, and so that the lever may be turned in a vertical plane through
an angle of one hundred and eighty degrees, or thereabouts. The ful-
crum pin o, of the lever is made to extend through a vertical slot p,
formed in the lever, and so as to enable the lever to be raised upwards a
short distance sufficient to elevate one of two projections 7, s, thereof out
of a locking recess or hole t, made in the handle B, as seen in Figure 2:
The lever I, is provided with two projections 2, s, which are arranged
in and made to extend from its opposite edges, as seen in the Drawing.
By taking hold of the lever I, and raising it upwards so as to lift
the stud 2, out of the locking recess t, and next turning the lever a
little on its fulcrum so as to move it out of the recess u, (made in the
front side of the handle B, as seen in Figure 3, on a smaller scale,
which is a front end view of the said handle,) and next turning the
lever one hundred and eighty degrees laterally, and in a plane that is
perpendicular to the axis of revolution of the case A, I can turn the
case A, one hundred and eighty degrees, and so as to carry downwards
that smoothing face of it which may have been upwards and exposed
to the action of the heat of the lamp. This done, I next turn the lever
one hundred and eighty degrees, and raise it and press it towards the

page_text: handle B, and its projections, down into the recess t; and I shall have
the case A, and handle B, so locked or confined that the former cannot
be turned in the handle while the projections, is in its locking recess.
That smoothing face of the case A, which is uppermost will now be re-
heated by the flame of the lamp. The turning and locking lever
enables a person to readily rotate the case A, without that danger of
being burned by it that would exist were the case to be rotated by the
hand of the person applied directly to it.
What is claimed by me as new is as follows, viz. :-
I claim the combination of two smoothing flats and a heating lamp as
applied to a handle or bale, and made to operate together, substantially.
as described.
And I claim the extension of the wick tube up so near to the screw
of the filling hole as to enable such screw, besides performing its office
of closing the filling hole, to operate in conjunction with the wick tube
as described, and pinch the wick, and thereby regulate or diminish the
capillary attraction of the wick, or the flow of the fluid through it, sub-
stantially as specified.
And I also claim the combination of the turning lever I, and its two
locking contrivances or studs r, s, and the recess t, or the equivalent
therefor, together and with the turning and smoothing case A, and its
handle B, so as to enable a person to operate or turn such case, and
lock it to the handle, substantially as specified.
In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and scal, this
Third day of January, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
four.
SAMUEL M. FOLSOM. (L.S.)