IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE METHOD OF AFFIXING CERTAIN LABELS
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME GREETING,
I, JOHN HAUGHTON, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Master of Arts,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-first day of March, in the fifth year of Her reign, did give and
grant unto me, the said John Haughton, my exors, adñiors, and assigns,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said John Haughton, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, and such others as
I, the said John Haughton, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, my Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE METHOD OF AFFIXING CERTAIN LABELS;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso, that I, the said John Haughton, shall
particularly describe and ascertain 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 enrolled in Her said 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, reference being thereunto had, will
more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Haughton, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following instrument in writing (reference being had to the
letters and figures therein contained, and to the Drawings hereunto annexed.
Now, my Invention is an improvement of the one for which a Patent was
granted to inc by Her Majesty, bearing date the Nineteenth day of June,
One thousand eight hundred and forty-one, the distinctive peculiarity of which
was, as stated in the Specification, the employment of mechanical means for
the affixing postage labels to letters, instead of operations more directly
manual. A certain motion being communicated to the machine, a letter was
damped, and a certain pressure being applied to the machine, a gummed label
was made to adhere to the damped letter. The improvement of this Inven-
tion consists in this:-That a certain motion being given to the machine, a
label is damped, and a certain pressure being applied, the damped label is
affixed to a letter not needing to be damped. A is a four sided rectangular
brass box, part a, b, of whose top is immoveably fixed to its sides, to its end
at a, and to a fixed brass partition at b, shown in Figure 6 (which is a vertical
longitudinal section of the machine), the position of which partition is indicated
by the dotted lines at b, in Figures 1, 2, and 5. This partition thus causes
the part a, b, b', a', of A (Figures 1, 2, and 6), to be, in fact, itself a box
separato internally from the remaining part of the box A, and we will call it
tlic box a, b, and the size of this box a, b, horizontally is such as to fit the
penny labels easily but not loosely, and its height is about one inch. In the
top of box a, b, is an orifice, around which is fixed the tube c, which serves
guide the plunger d, which works vertically; to' the lower end of 'd is fixed a
rectangular piece of hard wood », about of an inch thick, accurately filling
the four sides of the box, so as to work easily within them; to the lower side of
this wood is fastened a piece of caoutchouc j, of the same size and thickness
(Fig. 6); the four sides of the wood and caoutchouc being bound by a thin
plate of brass, the caoutchouc being yet left of an inch lower than this
plate. The two long sides of the box A are made lower than the partition,
and than the end a, a', of the box A, by about 1 of an inch, enough to allow
of a groove being made in them, as shown (Figure 7), into which the brass
plate C, which has the edges of its sides fitting the grooves accurately, is made
to slide, these sides are also prolonged towards (as shewn,) with their grooves
to afford a hold for the plate C, when that plate is drawn out. This brass
plate C is the length of the box A, minus the thickness of its end e, f, (for the
to

page_text: end of the plate is required only to touch the inside of the side e, f,) and
plus one half-inch the length of the box A, the object of which half-inch is to
admit of the end g of the plate being turned up, as shewn, to facilitate the
drawing out or returning of the plate, as required. The end a, a', of the
box A has two small brass pins, not quite of of an inch long, similarly and
vertically fixed in its lower edge, being shown (Figure 7), and the brass sliding
plate C has also two slots 'v (Figure 6), corresponding with these pius, and of
such length and width as to admit of the plate C being fully drawn out and
returned without lindrance from the pins when the slide of plate C is fully
> pushed in, and when its end at f' touches the end ƒ of the box A; part of C
is outside the box a, b, and within the remaining part of box A (Figure 6);
now this part of the plate C is thinner by one-half than the other part, as scen,
Figure 6, and on this part is fastened a piece of sponge, w, as shown
divided into three parts by the two slots v, this sponge, when moistened,
rises slightly above the level of the other part of the plate C. Now, the
postage labels being properly.cut, in order to use the machine the box A is
turned so that its top shall be downward. The side plate is then drawn out,
and the postage labels are placed, with the gunimed side uppermost, in suc-
cession, one on another, the slide plate is then fully returned, as shown in
Figure 6; and the box again turned, so that its top shall be uppermost, the
gummed sides of the labels will now be undermost; the box is then laid flat on
the tray, which is a plate of brass standing firmly on a leg L in its centre, as
shown, and having its side's, s, turned up at right angles, as shown (Figure 2, 3),
so that the box A can be placed closely against it, and having its breadth
greater than that of the box A by about th of an inch, as shown by tho
dotted line p, Figure 5. In the turned up sides, s, are, Fig. 3, two slots t, into
which two corresponding studs o descend, when the box is placed on the tray,
as shown. The corner of the letter proper to be stamped is placed on the
tray (as shewn, Figures 1, 3, 5), the studs on the side of box A, fitting into
the slots in the turned-up side of the tray, keep the box and the tray
relatively in a right position during the operation; by the left-hand the box
and the tray are held together sufficiently tightly with the right-hand. The
slide plate being drawn "out, the sponge end of the plate passing under the
labels damps the gummed side of the undermost label, the pins,, hindering
its being drawn out together with the plate C, which being fully drawn out,
as shewn (Figure 1), the labels, no longer supported by the plate C, all fall
upon the letter, and the lowest label only is brought into contact on its gummed
side with the letter. The plunger now being pressed down, the lowest. label

page_text: is affixed to the letter, the left hand still keeping the box and the tray, and,
therefore, the letter between them closely pressed together, the box A is again
turned upside down; the letter and tray are lifted off the box with the right
hand. The labels have now, by the turning of the box, fallen downwards with
their gummed sides uppermost, and having been adjusted, if at all out of order,
the slide plate being returned to its right place, another operation may be
similarly performed. Respecting the part of the box A, I say nothing, as its
object is to hold a moistened sponge, which, being depressed by a screw, serves to
moisten, when required, the sponge fixed to the slide plate C, this operation
being described in the enrolled Specification of the former Patent; and I have
to remark now, that having described in this Specification many things which
are taken from the former Specification, and are protected by its Patent, as
the mode of enclosing labels in a box, and depressing the plunger, &c.
I claim none of these, nor do I limit myself to any particular mechanical
means of carrying out this improvement, it being manifest that there may be a
great variety of these. But I claim the improved principle of operation
developed in this machine.
My former Patent was for an improvement in the method of affixing labels
by adopting mechanical means of damping a letter and affixing the label, and
thus diminishing the well-known inconveniences of the ordinary modes of
operation; the present improvement on that Invention consists in the sub-
stitution of mechanical means of damping the label instead of the letter,
previously to the-letter and label being pressed together.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Haughton, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Twentieth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-two.
Figure 1.-Front view of machine with the tray and a lotter.
2.-Back
"
Figures 3.
& Ends
"
"
"
Fig. 3 having a letter.
4.
"
Figure 5.-Plan
6. Longitudinal vertical section, without the tray.
and a letter.
JOHN (L.) HAUGHTON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twentieth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1842, the aforesaid John Haughton came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing herein 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.
Inrolled the Twenty-first day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-two.