IMPROVED TABLE KNIFE
Year: 1839

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
JONES, of Westfield Place, Sheffield, in the County of York, Commercial
Traveller, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of November,
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Jones, my exors, admors, and
assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the
said John Jones, my exors, admors, or assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Jones, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times hereafter during the term of years therein ex-
pressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within that
part of Her said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called
England, Her Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and
also in all Her said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention
of an "IMPROVED TABLE KNIFE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said John Jones, shall cause a particular description of
the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled
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 in and by the same, 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 Jones, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully set forth and ascer-
tained in and by the following description thereof, and in the Drawings
or Figures hereunto annexed and referred to, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in giving such a form to the blades of table knives
that the cutting edge of the blade shall be more readily, conveniently, and
effectually applied to the meat to be cut than is practicable with knives of the
ordinary forms, taking into account the usual position of the hand of the person
holding the knife and the usual shape of the plate upon which the meat is laid.
With knives of the ordinary forms, little more than the extreme point of the
cutting edge is brought in contact with the meat, but with my improved knife
nearly the whole of the cutting edge may be applied to the meat, and that
without so depressing the hand as to touch the table or the rim of the plate. In
consequence too of such improved shape, the blade of the knife may be thinner
and consequently lighter and more easily handled. Figure 1 of the Drawings
hereunto annexed represents a dinner knife of my improved shape, and
Figure 2 a carving knife. The part of the knife between the haft and the
commencement of the cutting part of the blade, marked a, a, b, b, in the
Drawing, is of a bent or curved shape. The degree of curve I recommend is
shewn in the Drawing, but it should be generally be such that the lower edge
of the haft d, d, shall be on a line with the upper edge of the blade e, e, as in
Figure 2, or nearly so, as in Figure 1, and the cutting part of the blade from
b, b, to c, c, may be of any of the convenient or approved forms of table knife
blades.
And having now fully described my said Invention of an improved "Table
knife," I declare that what I claim as new is the lowering of the cutting
portion of the blade so much below the haft of the knife that the former may be
more readily, conveniently, and ellectually applied to cutting purposes than the
blade of any knife of the ordinary form. And I declare that the curve or
shoulder between the haft and the blade may either be made of one piece with
the blade of the knife, or of one piece with the handle of the knife, or of a separate
piece between the blade and the handle, or the whole knife may be of one piece.
And I declare that instead of the shoulder being of a curved form, it may be
regular.
Lastly, I declare that I do not confine myself to any particular degree of
curve or angle, but that instead of coming within my Invention the giving to
a table knife the form or shape herein-before exemplified, in which the cutting

page_text: blade shall be on a different plane from the plane of the handle, such difference
of plane being sufficient to effect the objects aforesaid.
And such my said Invention being to the best of my knowledge and belief
entirely new and never before used within that part of Her said Majesty's
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, Her Dominion
of Wales, Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, or in any of Her said Majesty's
Colonies or Plantations abroad, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification
of the same, and that I do verily believe this my said Specification doth
comply in all respects fully and without treserve or disguise with the proviso
in the said herein-before recited Letters Patent; wherefore I do hereby claim
to maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Jones, have hereunto set my
hand & seal, this Thirty-first day of December, One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-nine
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirty-first day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1839, the aforesaid John Jones came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein 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 Sixteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty.