IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE AND FRAMING OF WRITING SLATES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS THEREFOR."AL
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwyn John Jeffery Dixon, of New Deanfield Works,
Bangor, in the County of Carnarvon, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
AND RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE AND FRAMING OF WRITING SLATES,
AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS THEREFOR."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwyn John Jeffery Dixon
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th March 1881.
EDWYN JOHN JEFFERY DIXON, of New Deanfield Works, Bangor, in the
County of Carnarvon. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE
AND FRAMING OF WRITING SLATES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
THEREFOR."
My Invention relates to the improvements, hereinafter described, in machinery
for the manufacture of writing or school slates, and in the machinery for and
method or methods of attaching the several parts or pieces of the wood forming
the frames of writing slates to each other, or to the slates themselves, or to both,
so as to give to the said frames when complete greater strength and durability,
with a firmer hold upon the slate; also of a method or methods of rendering the
said slate frames themselves (or parts of them), when they are attached to the
writing slates, useful to and for educational purposes.
The first portion of these improvements relates to the machinery for and method
of reducing the rough slates to a proper and necessary thickness, and in doing the
said work with greater ease, accuracy, and with more expedition than is now
adopted;
and after the slates have been so reduced and made of the required
thickness, by a further improvement and modification of the said machinery to
give a better finish or more perfect writing-surface to the said slates than has
hitherto been accomplished.
To effect these objects I dispense with the long complex-pusher in the machine
now employed to drive and push six or more slates through the same number of
pairs of cutting or planing knives at one and the same time. By my improve-
ments I make all pusher machines, and each so constructed as to work independently

page_text: of the other, cach one of the said improved machines having but one pair of cutting
or planing knives in use at the same time, the work of each individual machine
being effected at one push or forward feed of one slate at a time through the said
pair of tools.
This improved machine is constructed as follows:-Upon a strong and firmly
fixed bench made of iron or other suitable material I screw or otherwise fasten one
pair of head stocks, placing them right and left and each at suitable angles to form
a V. Against these head-stocks I fix cutting knives or planing tools in a perpen-
dicular position, and sufficiently deep to compass the whole length or breadth of a
slate at the same time. These tools are supplied with regulating screws against
their back edges, so that their cutting-edges may be carefully adjusted to give
the required thickness of the slate when the latter is forced or pushed between
them.
On the hereinbefore described bench, and at the end opposite to the edges of the
aforesaid cutting knives or planing tools, I place within side guides a slide plate
which is attached to a rod or arm connected with a crank, an eccentric, or a face-
plate (which latter I prefer), to give an alternating stroke to the said slide-plate.
Motion is given to this arrangement by a rack and pinion or cog-wheels, or by a
pulley-wheel or wheels, with a belt or belts from the shaft of the motive power, or
by any other suitable arrangement of wheels, or by direct steam, or by bydraulic
pressure, or compressed air, or any other convenient motor.
The length of the stroke to be given to this slide-plate is determined by the
length or breadth of the slate to be operated upon, and can be shortened or
extended from time to time as the case requires by an adjusting addition to the
face-plate forming the "crank" or otherwise.
Attached to the before described slide-plate I provide a piece of wood which is
fixed perpendicularly to the horizon, and which shall impinge against the edge of
the slate, so that when motive power is given to the said slide-plate it acts as a
pusher, and forces the slate against the edges of the cutting or planing knives, as
already described, and the slate comes out of the back of the latter planed on both
its sides, and reduced to the proper thickness by this improved machinery, and in
a better manner than it could have been done by the afore described long complex
pusher acting on six or more slates at one and the same time, and under the same
forward stroke or push. To complete this arrangement I place a grooved rib of
metal or other material upon the before described bench, and in a perfectly straight
line to the edges of the said cutting or planing knives to conduct the slate accurately
between them; and another similar rib to receive it on the opposite side, and
hold it in position as it passes forward to the completion of the operation.
By a modification of this improved machine I am enabled to give the slates a
finished and very superior writing surface to any that has been accomplished
hitherto.
The said modification consists in a reversed position and different arrangement
of the head-stocks and their tools.
The former are also placed right and left (as in the other machine), but the
inner part of the angular surfaces, with the tools attached, are now placed towards
the pusher, or exactly reversed from the already described arrangement.
The tools for this surfacing process are not cutting tools, but are ground with
square edges like cabinet maker's scrapes. They are made of sheet cast steel,
such as is used for saws or other suitable steel, but I prefer saw plate steel.
In fastening them to the reversed head stocks I place their ends or edges close
together, but the said steel plates (or tools) are made to overlap the surfaces of the
said head stocks by so much as to admit of their having a little "spring" when
force is applied at the point where the edges or ends of the two plates meet, and
the force from the afore described wooden pusher against the slate opens them
sufficiently for the slate to pass in, while at the same time the tension against the
sides or planes of the latter by the spring which is allowed from their special
mode of "setting" causes their square edges to scrape the surfaces of the slate, and

page_text: thus to produce the desired finish. The arrangement of the pusher, and the
application of the accessory parts, and the details for the improved single pusher
reducing machine are the same in the machine now just described for surfacing or
finishing writing slates, except in the reversed position of the head stocks, and
in the different arrangement and the form of the tools attached to the said head
stocks.
"
"
"
The rough slates having been reduced in thickness and smoothed or surfaced by
the improved machinery for those purposes hereinbefore described, I will now
describe my improved method or methods of framing the said slates and the
machinery connected with the operation. Instead of adopting the usual plan of
cross-cutting the timber into the necessary lengths for the various sizes of
writing slates, as the first operation after the timber has been planked, I cut
the said timber into long laths or ribs, and pass these through a machine
constructed like a usual "moulding machine," but having those other appliances,
movements, and cutting tools, which shall plane, groove, and shape the said laths
or ribs to any required size or form for the frames of writing slates. These
laths or ribs I then cross cut to the various lengths that are necessary for the
"styles" and "rails" to frame the several sizes of writing slates by a machine.
supplied with two circular saws, both running at the same time, the one right
and the other left. In attaching the several pieces or styles" and "rails of
the frame (prepared as hereinbefore described) to each other, I altogether discontinue
the use of tenons cut out of or in the solid wood, and I provide "false tenons,"
which I make of iron, steel, or of other metal or of any other substance not of
metal, but which shall be different from the wood itself of which the slate frame
is made. These false tenons" I make of any convenient or desired shape or
form, say, a parallelogram, or triangular, or like a masonic or carpenter's square,
or of any other suitable or convenient form or forms or shape or shapes. To apply
or use these "false tenons " I cut open mortices or slits in each end of all the four
pieces of wood which are to compose the frame of the writing slate, and into
these mortices or slits I place one (or more if desired, but I prefer one only) of
the said "false tenons," giving one (or if desired more) to each corner of the said
frame; one part of the said "false tenon" being thus let into or embedded in the
ends of the "styles" and the other part in the ends of the rails" of the said
frame, so that they are to be seen only on the edges of the said frame when the
same is finished. The latter being put upon the slate and the "false tenons" being
pushed or squeezed into place by a clamping machine adapted for that purpose,
and the shoulders or mitres of the frame (as the case may be) brought up to their
respective joints by the said clamping machine, the frame with the slate in it is
then drilled through the wood, and the said false tenons at each of its corners,
and two or more rivets are put through the thickness of the frame enclosing the
false tenons, and is thus completely united by the afore described methods with
the "styles" and "rails" of the slate frame, and so makes the latter firm, strong,
and lasting.
"
When I use my Invention of the "false tenon" in a "parallelogram" shape I
give a square shoulder to the frame, and nothing more is needed as regards that
particular shape than to cut the ends of the "rails" true and smooth to form the
shoulder, letting the "false tenon" extend beyond the end of the said "rails"
sufficiently to go through the breadth of the "styles" when the frame is drawn up
to its joints, but if I "mitre" the corners of the frame for the latter operation I
employ a special machine, which cuts both mitres in each "rail" or "style" at the
same stroke and with great accuracy. The said "double mitreing machine" is
constructed as follows:-
On two of the sides of a square table or bench I place two small shafts, the
ends of the said shafts meeting at one angle or corner of the said table or bench,
and there having on each a small mitre wheel with cogs working into one another,
so that the said shafts shall rotate at equal speed. At the other ends of these shafts
I place eccentrics, one on each shaft. Arms from the said eccentrics are attached

page_text: "
by moveable joints to two slide-rods which alternate easily between fixed guides,
and meet at the other angle or corner of the aforesaid table or bench, and opposite
to the angle or corner where the two shafts with their mitre cogged wheels join, as
before described. It will be seen that these slide rods by this arrangement alternate
in a "mitre or from corner to corner of the aforesaid table or bench. They also
slide by their eccentrics upon the shafts so as to approach nearer to or go farther
from each mitre-cogged wheel. As this machine is constructed for the purpose of
"double mitreing," or of cutting two mitres, one at each end of the "style" or
"rail" of the frame, at the same time, so the machine must be made to shift for a
great many different sizes of frames for writing slates and the necessity of this
sliding of the before described eccentrics (which are kept in their places by set
screws upon their shafts) will be easily comprehended.
Attached to the slide rods worked by the said eccentrics are chisels, one being on
each inner side of the said slide-rods, and these chisels work against the ends of
accurately made mitre boxes of metal, which have a small shelf or rebate, upon
which the piece of frame to be cut is placed, while the slide-rods with their chisels
are making the downward stroke, and on the return (or upward stroke) they cut
the mitre, and the operation is rapidly repeated.
Special mitre-boxes are made to suit the length or breadth of every frame, and
the change from one to the other is easily effected, and is in accordance with the
slide or altered position of the eccentrics upon the shafts, as before described.
Motion is given to these shafts by a pulley wheel upon one of them, acted upon by
a belt in the usual manner.
Another section of my Invention for more firmly fixing writing slates in their
frames is to drill the frame along the inside edges of its "styles" and "rails," and
transversely through its grooves, and consequently through the slate also,' and then
to introduce rivets, and by this means securely fasten the four pieces of the frame
to the slate itself. This method may include the metallic or other "false tenons
at the corners, or it may dispense with the latter altogether, as may be convenient
or deemed desirable.
"
My Invention further relates to the method of making the slate frames them-
selves, useful for educational purposes, and this I effect as follows:-
The slate being completely framed and finished I print, stamp, burn, or otherwise
depict upon the frame attached thereto strokes, letters, figures, characters, or
designs of any description or descriptions. From these lines are ruled across the
slate, and also transversely to form small squares upon the surface or surfaces of
the latter.
The object of this improvement being that of supplying the pupils with permanent
copies on the frame of their slate, and which they can imitate in the little squares
upon the surface or surfaces of the slate, as described.
In manufacturing these educational slates I vary the process by placing the
strokes, letters, figures, characters, or designs of any description or descriptions
upon the separate parts before they are united into a slate frame, but intended to
make the said frame, but I prefer to do it after the slate is framed and completely
finished. Or I again vary the process by placing the said strokes, letters, figures,
characters, or designs of any description or descriptions upon some other substance
(not the wood itself), and then attaching the same to the writing slate frames to
accomplish the same purpose.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Edwyn John Jeffery Dixon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
5th September 1881.
"
EDWYN JOHN JEFFERY DIXON, of New Deanfield Works, Bangor, in the
County of Carnarvon. IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE
AND FRAMING OF WRITING SLATES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
THEREFOR."
"1
My Invention relates to the improvements, hereinafter described, in machinery
for the manufacture of writing or school slates, and in the machinery for and
method or methods of attaching the several parts or pieces of the wood forming
the frames of writing slates to each other, or to the slates themselves, or to both,
so as to give to the said frames when complete greater strength and durability,
with a firmer hold upon the slate. Also of a method or methods of rendering the
said slate frames themselves (or parts of them), when they are attached to the
writing slates, useful to and for educational purposes.
The first portion of these improvements relates to the machinery for and method
of reducing the rough slates to a proper and necessary thickness, and in doing the
said work with greater ease and accuracy, also with more expedition than is now
adopted; and after the slates have been so reduced and made of the required
thickness by a further improvement and modification of the said machinery to give
a better finish or more perfect writing-surfaces to the said slates than has hitherto
been accomplished.
To effect these objects I dispense with the long complex pusher in the machine
now employed, and which drives and pushes six or more slates through the same
number of pairs of cutting tools or planing knives at one and the same time. By
my improvements I make every machine so as to have its separate pusher, and each
so constructed as to work independently of any other, each one of the said
improved machines having but one pair of cutting tools or planing knives in use
at the same time, the work of each individual machine being effected at one push
or forward feed of one slate at a time through the said one pair of cutting tools or
planing knives.
.
But to make my Invention better understood I will proceed to describe the
same by reference to the accompanying Drawing, in which Figure 1 is a plan,
Figure 2 a side view, and Figure 3 a cross section of the improved machine for
reducing the rough slates to a proper thickness, and which I term a slate
reducer.
The said improved machine or slate reducer is constructed as follows:-Upon a
strong and firmly fixed bench 1 made of iron or other suitable material I screw or
otherwise fasten one pair of "head stocks" 2, placing them right and left, and
each at suitable angles to form a V, as shewn in Figure 1. Against these " head
stocks" I fix cutting tools or planing knives 3 in a perpendicular position, and
sufficiently deep to compass the whole length or breadth of a slate at the same
time. These cutting tools or planing knives are supplied with regulating screws 4
against their back edges so as to allow of their cutting edges being carefully
adjusted to give the required thickness of the slate when the latter is forced or
pushed between them.
The construction of the headstocks 2 themselves differs but little from those at
present used in the machine with the "long complex pusher," my improvement
being that the latter is entirely dispensed with, and that one pair only of the said
"headstocks" 2, and that pair carrying one pair only of the said cutting tools or
planing knives 3, is attached to and used at each of these improved machines at the
same time.

page_text: On the herein before described bench 1, and at the end opposite to the edges of
the aforesaid cutting tools or planing knives 3, I place within side guides 6 a side
plate 5, which is attached to a rod or arm 7 connected with a face plate 8 (or the
rod or arm may be connected with a crank or an eccentric) to give an alternating
stroke to the said side plate 5. Motion is given to this arrangement either by a
rack and pinion or cog wheels, or by a pulley wheel or wheels 9 with a belt or
belts from the shaft of the motive power, or by any other suitable arrangement of
wheels, or by direct steam power, or by hydraulic pressure or compressed air, or
any other convenient motor.
The length of the stroke to be given to this slide-plate is determined by the
length or breadth of the slate to be operated upon, and it can be shortened or
extended from time to time as the case requires by an adjusting addition to the
face plate 8 forming the crank or otherwise.
Attached to the before described slide plate I provide a suitable piece of
wood 10 which is fixed in a socket of iron and is set perpendicularly to the horizon
that it shall impinge against one edge of the slate, so that when motive power is
given to the said slide plate 5 it acts with its pusher 10 and forces the slate
against the edges of the said cutting tools or planing knives 3, and passes it between
the latter as already described, and the said slate comes out at the opposite end
planed on both its sides, and reduced to the proper thickness by this improved
machinery, and in a more perfect manner than it could have been done by the use
of the machine with the long complex pusher hitherto in use, and acting on six or
more slates at one and the same time, and under the same forward stroke or
push. To perfect this arrangement I place a grooved rib 11 of metal or other
material upon the before described bench in a perfectly straight line, and in the
centre of the space between the edges of the said cutting tools or planing knives 3
to conduct the slate accurately between them; and I place a similar rib 12 to
receive it on the opposite side and hold it in position as it passes forward to the
completion of the operation.
Figure 4 shews a part plan of the modification of the improved machine or slate
reducer herein before described, by which I am also enabled to give the slates
a more finished and superior writing-surface to any that has been accomplished
hitherto.
The said modification consists in giving a reversed position to and in a different
arrangement of the head-stocks, and in employing a different form of tools attached
to them.
In this arrangement the headstocks, which are marked 13 in Figure 4, are also
placed right and left (as in the herein-before described machine), but the inner part
of the angular surfaces which carry the altered form of tools 14 are now placed,
as shewn, towards the pusher, or exactly reversed from the arrangement shewn in
Figures 1, 2, and 3.
The tools 14 for this surfacing process are not to be cutting tools, but they
are ground with square edges like cabinet makers' scrapes. They are made of
sheet cast steel, such as is used for saws, or of other suitable steel, but I prefer saw
plate steel.
In fastening these steel plates or tools 14 to the reversed "head stocks" 13,
I place their ends or edges quite close together, and they are each made to overlap
the surfaces of the said "headstocks" 13 by so much as to admit of their having
a little bend or "spring" when force is applied at the point where the edges or
ends of the two plates 14 meet, and the said force from the hereinbefore described
wooden-ended pusher 10 against the slate opens them sufficiently for the slate to
pass in, while at the same time the tension against the sides or planes of the latter
by the bend or spring, which is obtained from their special mode of setting, causes
their square edges to scrape the surfaces of the slate, and thus to produce the
desired finish.
The arrangement of the wooden-ended pusher 10, and the application of the
accessory parts, together with the other details for the improved single pusher-

page_text: reducing machine, as shewn in Figures 1, 2, and 3, are the same in the machine
now just described and shewn in Figure 4, for surfacing or finishing writing slates,
except in the reversed position of the "head stocks" 13, and in the different
arrangement and the form of the tools (or steel plates) 14 attached to the said
head stocks" 13, as already described.
"
The rough slates having been reduced in thickness, and smoothed or surfaced
by the improved machinery for those purposes hereinbefore described, I will now
explain my improved method or methods of framing the said slates, and the
machinery connected with the operation by reference to Figure 5 of the
Drawing.
22
دو
"
•
or corner
Instead of adopting the usual plan of cross cutting the timber into the necessary
lengths for the various sizes of writing slates, as the first operation after the timber
has been planked, I cut the said timber into long laths or ribs and pass these
through a machine constructed like a usual moulding machine, but having those
other appliances, movements, and cutting tools which shall plane, groove, and
shape the said laths or ribs to any required size or form for the frames of writing
slates. These laths or ribs I then cross cut to the various lengths that are necessary
for the "styles" and "rails" to frame the several sizes of writing slates by a
machine supplied with two circular saws, both running at the same time, the one
right and the other left; but I do not claim any special Invention or use of this
machine, nor of or in the machine for planing, grooving, and shaping the said laths
or ribs, and afterwards used for the frames of the writing slates, as already
described. In attaching the several pieces or "styles" and "rails" of the frame
(prepared as herein before described) to each other, I altogether discontinue the use
of tenons cut out of or cut into or made in the solid wood, and I provide "false
tenons or corner connexions, shewn at Figure 5. These "false tenons
connexions I make of iron, steel, or of other metal, or of any other substance not
of metal, but which shall be different from the wood itself of which the slate frame
is made. These "false tenons or corner connexions 1 I make of any convenient
or desired shape or form, say, a parallelogram, or triangular, or like a masonic or
carpenter's square, which latter shape is shewn at 1 in Figure 5 of the Drawing,
or they may be of any other suitable or convenient form or forms or shape or
shapes, but I prefer the shape shewn. To apply or use these "false tenons" or
corner connexions I cut open mortices or slits in each of the ends of all the four
pieces of wood which are to compose the frame of the writing slate, and into these
mortices or slits I place one (or more if desired, but I prefer one only) of the said
"false tenons or corner connexions 1, giving one (or if desired more than one)
" or corner
to each corner 2 of the said frame, one part of the said "false tenon
connexion 1 being thus let into or embedded in the ends of the "styles" 3, and
the other part in the ends of the "rails" 4 of the said frame, so that they are to be
seen only on the edges of the said frame, when the same shall be finished. The
frame being put upon the slate, and the "false tenons or corner connexions being
pushed or squeezed into place, and the said frame set " square" by a clamping
machine adapted for that purpose, and the shoulders or mitres of the frame 2 (as
the case may be), being also brought up to their respective joints by the said
clamping machine; the said frame with the slate in it is then drilled through the
wood, and also through the said "false tenons or corner connexions 1 at each of
its corners, and two (or more) rivets 5, 5, are there put through the thickness of
the frame enclosing the "false tenons or corner connexions 1 at each angle, and
is thus so completely united by the afore described methods with the "styles" 3
and "rails" 4 of the slate frame as to make the latter firm, strong, and lasting.
"
"
23
"
"
"
When I use my improvement of the "false tenon or corner connexion in a
parallelogram" shape, I give a square joint or shoulder to the frame, and for
which nothing more is needed (as regards that particular shape) than to cut the
aforesaid open mortices (or slits) in the ends of the rails, and to make the said ends
themselves true and smooth, and so form the said joints or shoulders, and also to
let the false tenon or corner connection of the parallelogram shape (when that
"

page_text: shape is used) extend beyond the end of the said "rails" sufficiently to go through
the breadth of the styles in which the open mortice (or slits) have previously been
made when the frame shall be fully drawn up to its said joints or shoulders, but if
I mitre the corners of the slate frame 2 I then employ for the latter operation a
special machine which I have invented to cut both mitres (in each end) of a "rail"
or a "style" at the same stroke, and with great accuracy. The said "double
morticing machine," which is shewn in plan at Figure 6 of the Drawing, I construct
as follows:-
As
On two of the sides of a square table or bench 1 I place on raised brackets 2 two
small iron shafts or spindles 3, the ends of which meet at one angle or corner of the
said table or bench, as shewn, and there they have fitted on each a mitre wheel 4,
with cogs working into one another, so that the said shafts 3 shall rotate at equal
speeds. At each of the other ends of these shafts or spindles 3 I place eccentrics 5,
and arms therefrom are attached by moveable joints to two slide-rods 7, which
alternate between guides 8 to the said slide-rods 7, and the latter meet at the other
angle or corner of the said table or bench 1, and opposite to the angle or corner where
the two shafts 3 with their mitre cogged wheels 4 join, as already described. It
will be seen that these slide-rods 7 by this arrangement do alternate (when rotation
is applied) in a "mitre," or from corner to corner of the said table or bench 1.
this machine is constructed for the purpose of " double mitreing," or of cutting two
mitres, one at each end of the "style" or "rail" of the frame pieces, at the same
time, so certain parts of the said machine must be provided for mitreing a great
many different lengths of frame-pieces adapted for many sizes of writing slates, and
which arrangement or arrangements are hereinafter described. Attached to the
said slide rods 7, which are worked by the two eccentrics 5, are two "tool boxes "9,
each holding a chisel 10, which is fastened against it by a set-screw. One of the
said "tool boxes "9, with its chisel 10, being placed against the inner side of each
of the said slide-rods 7, the said rods and the tool-boxes with their chisels attached
therefore alternate altogether, as before explained. For the cutting-edges of the
said chisels to work against are accurately fitted metal "mitre-boxes " 11. These
have a rebate (or shelf) made through their length, and upon these the piece of
wood 12 to be mitred is placed, while the said slide-rods 7, with their chisels 10
attached, are making their downward stroke, and on their return (or upward
stroke) the said chisels cut both the mitres, one at each end of the piece of wood 12,
intended for part of a slate frame. The operation is as rapidly repeated as the
attendant can place another piece of wood upon the rebate or shelf of the said metal
mitre box 11. Special mitre boxes are provided to suit the length or the breadth
of any and every size of slate frame. The special mitre box which shall from time
to time be required is to be placed in its position upon truly planed and fitted iron
ribs 13, which are fixed upon the said square table or bench 1, and to these iron
ribs 13 the said mitre box 11 is to be fastened by set screws, or in any other manner
convenient for easy exchange. To shift or change from one length of wood to
another which it is required to mitre, the mitre box adapted for the required length
must be fixed upon the said iron ribs 13, either more towards the corner of the
machine at which the aforesaid mitre wheels work, or nearer to the opposite corner
where the ends of the alternating rods carrying the tool boxes and their chisels
meet, as the case shall require. Long mortices or slots 14 are made in the said
slide rods 7 to allow of the tool boxes 9 carrying the chisels 10 being slid up or
down and fastened by a set screw, so that the cutting edges of the chisels may be
brought into close contact with the ends of the mitre box which has been selected
(from its special length) for use. This is to be repeated when and as often as
change in the length of the wood to be mitred is needed, or otherwise for the
purposes hereinbefore detailed, any or some of them.
.
Motion is given to this machine by a pulley wheel 15 keyed upon one of the said
shafts or spindles 3, and which is acted on by a belt from the motive power in the
usual way. My hereinbefore described metallic false tenon or corner connexion 1,
Figure 5, has no reference as to its use to the shape of the frames of writing slates,

page_text: and I apply the same to flat, round, oval, or any other description of frames, as
shall be convenient or found to be desirable.
I also apply the said Invention, as is shewn in Figures 7, 8, 9, and 10 of the
Drawing, in the manufacture and framing of "book slates," "log slates," or folding
slates of any description, and I join the two or more slates by a new method of
setting and fixing the hinges 1 in these Figures. I effect this by cutting the open
mortices (or slits) as herein before described, but of double the length required for
the insertion of the said "false tenons" or corner connexions 1 in each end of one
of the "styles" of the frame of each of the slates to be united to form the said
'book slates" (or other folding slates) as aforesaid, and into this extra length of
open mortice or slit, and below that portion occupied by the false tenon or corner
connexion, I introduce metallic hinges, the leaves or flanges of which have been
cranked or turned down sufficiently to throw the revolving portions of the said
hinges exactly in the centre between two of the edges of the frames of the slates
to be joined. The leaves or flanges of the said hinges I make of the same width
as are the "false tenons or corner connexions, and I then rivet the former through
and through the slate frames in the same manner as the latter are rivetted. This
new method of manufacture entirely prevents the hinges from becoming loose or
the slates disunited.
"
Another section of my Invention for more firmly fixing writing slates to their
frames than that now adopted is shewn in Figure 11 of the Drawing, and consists
in drilling the frame along the inside edges of its "styles" and "rails," and trans-
versely through its grooves, and consequently through the slate also, the latter
being previously in its frame. I make as many holes as shall be convenient for
this purpose, but I do not bind myself to the number of holes in each slate. I
then introduce rivets r, and by this means I securely fasten the four pieces of the
frame to the slate itself. This method may include the hereinbefore described
metallic or other "false tenons or corner connexions, or it may dispense with these
altogether, as shall be found convenient or may be deemed desirable.
"
My Invention further relates to a method of making the slate frames themselves
useful for educational purposes; this part of my Invention is shewn in Figure 12
of the Drawing. For this purpose I print, stamp, burn, or otherwise depict upon
the slate frame strokes, letters, figures, characters, or designs of any description or
descriptions adapted to or required for educational purposes. From these lines are
ruled across and upon the slates and also transversely thereon as shewn, so as to
form small squares upon the surface or surfaces of the said slate. The object of
this improvement being that of supplying the pupils with permanent copies on
the frames of their slates, and which they can then write and imitate in the squares
upon the surface or surfaces of the said slates as described.
In manufacturing these educational slates I vary the process by placing the
strokes, letters, figures, characters, or designs of any description or descriptions,
adapted to or required for educational purposes, upon the separate parts before they
are united into a slate frame, but are intended to make the said frame, although I
prefer to do it after the slate is framed. Or I again vary the process by placing
the said strokes, letters, figures, characters, or designs, of any description or
descriptions adapted to or required for educational purposes upon some other
substance (not the wood itself), and then attach the same to the writing slate
frames to accomplish the same purpose.
Having thus described my said Invention, and the best means with which I
am acquainted for carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood
that I do not confine myself to the precise details herein laid down, as the same
may be varied without departing from the peculiar character of the Invention,
but what I do claim is,-
Firstly. The improved machine for reducing the thickness of rough slates so as
to fit them for use in the further manufacture of writing slates, arranged and
operating substantially as hereinbefore described and represented in Figures 1, 2,
and 3 of the accompanying Drawing.

page_text: Secondly. The modification of the said improved slate reducing machine so as
to adapt it for giving a finish or fine writing surface to writing slates, as herein-
before described and represented in Figure 4 of the accompanying Drawing.
"
Thirdly. The improved method herein described of fastening together the parts
forming the frames of writing slates by the employment of concealed "false
tenons (or corner connexions) for the purpose of superseding the usual wooden
tenons, substantially as hereinbefore described and represented in Figure 5 of the
accompanying Drawing.
Fourthly. The improved machine for cutting two mitres by the same stroke, or
one at each end of a piece of wood intended to be used in the framing of writing
slates, the said machine being arranged and operating substantially as herein before
described and represented in Figure 6 of the accompanying Drawing.
"
Fifthly. The improved construction of "book slates" and other "folding slates
by a new method of affixing the hinges to the frames of the said slates, as herein-
before described and represented in Figures 7, 8, 9, and 10 of the accompanying
Drawing.
Sixthly. Attaching the slate frames to the slates themselves by rivetting the
frame and the slate through and through, as hereinbefore described and represented
in Figure 11 of the accompanying Drawing.
Seventhly. The methods of making the frames of writing slates suitable for
educational purposes, as hereinbefore described and represented in Figure 12 of the
accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwyn John Jeffery Dixon, have hereto set
my hand and seal, this Third day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty one.
Witness,
DANIEL JONES,
EDWYN JOHN JEFFERY DIXON. (L.S.)
Manager at New Deanfield Works,
Bangor,
North Wales.