MAKING AND COMPLEATING FISH-HOOKS OF A SUPERIOR STRENGTH, COLOUR, AND POLISH TO ANY OTHER FISH-HOOKS
Year: 1789

page_text: ANDREWS SPECIFICATION..
TO ALL PEOPLE TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,
Í, JOHN ANDREWS, of Redditch, in the Parish of Tardebig, in the County of
Worcester, Needle and Fish-hook Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-third day of December, in the thirtieth year of His reign, did give
and grant unto me, the said John Andrews, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge and, authority that I,
the said John Andrews, my executors, administrators, and assigns, during the
term of fourteen years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "MAKING AND COMPLEATING FISH-HOOKS OF A
SUPERIOR STRENGTH, COLOUR, AND POLISH TO ANY OTHER FISH-HOOKS;" in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a provisoe, obliging me, the said John
Andrews, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner it is to be performed,. to be
inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Andrews, in compliance with the
said provisoe, do hereby describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is performed and actuated, in manner following,
that is to say:-
The fish-hooks being first made and formed of steel wire, as in common
cases, are then hardened, tempered, polished, and compleated by the following

page_text: process (viz.)-They are first, being cold, spread upon thin cap paper and
covered with good thick yeast or barm to prevent the fire penetrating too
quickly into the steel and injuring the beard and fiue point of the hook; and
they are then put upon a smooth iron plate five inches wide, seven inches
long, and one-eighth part of an inch thick, which is then put into an iron case
open at each end, six inches wide, three inches deep, and ten inches long,
and then put into a slow clear fire made in a brick stove seventeen inches
long, twelve inches wide, and twelve inches deep, and there remain till the
fish-hooks are heated of a warm red; they are then taken from thence in
the iron case by a pair of tongs, and emptied out of the case into a small tub
of water milk-warm, and there. remain for the space of one minute, and are
then taken from thence and put into fine emory or drift sand, heated in an
iron pan two inches deep and nine inches diameter, over a brick stove or
tunnell over a slow coal fire, and there kept till perfectly dry, and then are
put into a fine. sieve to separate the hooks from the sand or emory; from
thence they are emptied upon brown paper, and put loose into a barrel or
barrels, there being three, which are fastened together with screws head to
head, without any communication with each other; the middle barrel being
capable of containing four gallons, the two outside barrels five gallons each,
of all which said barrels run upon two iron spindles fixed in a wood frame, one
at each end of the two outward barrels, and turned with a windlass by one
In each of the, two largest barrels there is put about two gallons of
water, a quarter of a pound of Castile soap, and three pounds of white emory
pounded small, and in the small barrel one gallon and an half of water, three
ounces of Castile soap, and two pounds and an half of white emory pounded
small. Then there are ten thousand of the fish-hooks put into each barrel,
and are secured therein by a round cork fixed in a bung-hole made in each
barrel, four inches diameter, and the barrels are then turned with the windlass
and kept in continual motion for twenty hours, by which time they will be
sufficiently bright for polishing, and by which mode there may be scoured
twelve sizes of hooks at one time by equally dividing them, viz., number 1 to
8 inclusive in the two largest barrels, and number 9 to 12 inclusive in the
small barrel. The hooks are then taken out of the barrels and dried by
putting them into a tub that is capable of containing about six gallons, and
therein mixed up with one gallon of dry ash sawdust, and there remain for
the space of five minutes; and from thence, they are put into a machine
called a tray, and fanned until the sawdust is separated from the hooks; and
the hooks are then spread upon a table and picked from the emory by hand,
and put into leather bags (made of sheep-skin, yellow drest,) fourteen inches
man.
5

page_text: long and five inches wide, and shook by hand for two hours, and then picked,
each size seperate. And in order to temper them, six pounds of fine sand,
called hour-glass sand, made hot in the same iron pan as before mentioned,
must be kept stirring till it is of a proper heat to temper, which will generally
be in eight minutes, but will be accurately known by putting a waste hook or
piece of wire of the size of the hooks that are to be tempered into the sand,
and then the fish-hooks are put loose into the sand, and kept constantly
moving and turning; and of those hooks which are in size 1, 2, 3, and 4, the
temper will come in five minutes; and of those which are in size 5, 6, 7, and 8,
in four minutes; and of those which are in size 9, 10, 11, and 12, in three
minutes; by which means the fish-hooks will become of a beautiful dark blue
colour, which is the proper temper, and as soon as that appears they must be
immediately put out of the iron pan into a wire sieve to seperate them from the
sand, and when so seperated they must be put into a leather bag, as before
mentioned, and shaken by hand for five minutes. When that is done they
are put into yellow paper, called steel paper, and are then compleat, and are
of a superior strength, colour, and polish to any other fish-hooks, and will
keep any length of time without the common application of oil.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Andrews, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of January, One thousand seven
hundred and ninety.
Seated and delivered, being first duly stampt,
JOHN ANDREWS. (L.S.)
Deale
in the presence of
ELIZ. GUARDNER.
R. H. GUARDNER.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Eighteenth day of January, in
the year above written, the aforesaid John Andrews came before of our Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also the
Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Twenty-second day of January, in the year above mentioned.