Improvements in the Manufacture of Metallio Rings for Cornice Poles and Curtain and Blind Rods, and for other purposes.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 1st June, 1891
Complete Specification Left, 9th Feb., 1892-Accepted, 12th Mar., 1892
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Metallio Rings for Cornice
Poles and Curtain and Blind Rods, and for other purposes.
We TONKS LIMITED of Moseley Street Birmingham in the County of Warwick
Manufacturers and JOHN BURN of Sturge Street Sparkhill near Birmingham
aforesaid Tool Maker do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
In metallic rings for cornice poles and curtain and other rods and for other like
purposes as ordinarily made the eyes of the said rings that is the small loops by
which the hangings curtains or blinds are connected to the rings are formed
separately from and attached to the rings.
This invention consists in making the eye or small loop referred to in one piece
with the body of the ring so that it forms an integral part of the ring. That is
to say instead of forming the metal strip into an open ring and fixing its meeting
ends together as usual and afterwards attaching a separate eye or loop thereto we
so cut and shape or fashion and operate upon the ends of the ring strip or upon the
ends of the partly made or open ring that the said shaped ends serve to join the
ends of the ring and also to form the eye or loop of the ring.
For this purpose we form at the ends of the strip or at the meeting ends of the
partly made ring small disc shaped pieces joined to the ends of the strip or ring
by contractions or necks. One of the said disc shaped pieces is somewhat larger
than the other and the larger disc is slightly cupped for receiving the smaller disc.
These two disc shaped pieces having been bent at right angles to the open ring
are brought together by the smaller disc being placed in the cupped larger disc
and by an eyeletting or closing process the edge of the cupped disc is turned over
the edge of the flat smaller disc and the two discs thereby joined face to face. The
joined discs are then pierced with a hole so as to convert them into an eye or small
loop. The eye or loop of the ring is thereby made in one piece with the ring and
the meeting ends of the ring at the same time joined together.
In making the said rings the following process may be adopted but we wish it
to be understood that other analogous processes may be employed for carrying the
said invention into effect.
We take a long strip of sheet brass or other ductile metal or alloy and by means
of a pair of troughing rolls we give a trough figure to the strip the trough strip
on leaving the troughing rolls being coiled upon a roll or mandril into a compact
These con-
helix that is into a series of parallel convolutions nearly in contact.
volutions are separated into open rings by a longitudinal cut and the open ends of
each ring are cut and shaped or fashioned into the disc shaped pieces herein before
referred to by which the ends of the ring are joined together and from which the
eye or loop of the ring is made.
Or a flat strip of a length sufficient to make a ring and eye may be taken and
while in the flat its ends are cut and fashioned into the disc like pieces from which
the eye is to be made. The flat strip so shaped at its ends is bent or coiled into
a ring its disc shaped pieces turned at right angles to the ring and closed upon one
another and joined together. The ring is then troughed by the use of a pair of
dies and pressure. Or the troughing of the strip may be effected before it is coiled
into a ring.
Dated the First day of June 1891.
W.
T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicants.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Metallic Rings for Cornice
Poles and Curtain and Blind Rods, and for other purposes.
We, TONKS LIMITED, of Moseley Street, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturers, and JOHN BURN, of Sturge Street, Sparkhill near
Birmingham, aforesaid, Tool Maker, 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 statement:-
In metallic rings for cornice poles and curtain and other rods and for other like
purposes as ordinarily made, the eyes of the said rings, that is, the small loops by
which the hangings, curtains or blinds are connected to the rings are formed
separately from and attached to the rings.
This invention consists in making the eye or small loop referred to in one piece
with the body of the ring so that it forms an integral part of the ring. That is
to say, instead of forming the metal strip into an open ring and fixing its meeting
ends together as usual, and afterwards attaching a separate eye or loop thereto,
we so cut and shape or fashion and operate upon the ends of the ring strip or upon
the ends of the partly made or open ring, that the said shaped ends serve to join
the ends of the ring and also to form the eye or loop of the ring.
For this purpose we form at the ends of the strip, or at the meeting ends of the
partly made ring, small disc shaped pieces joined to the ends of the strip or ring
by contractions or necks. One of the said disc shaped pieces is somewhat larger
than the other and the larger disc is slightly cupped for receiving the smaller disc.
These two disc shaped pieces having been bent at right angles to the open ring are
brought together by the smaller disc being placed in the cupped larger disc and by
an eyeletting or closing process the edge of the cupped disc is turned over the
edge of the smaller disc and the two discs thereby joined face to face. The joined
discs are then pierced with a hole so as to convert them into an eye or small loop.
The eye or loop of the ring is thereby made in one piece with the ring and the
meeting ends of the ring at the same time joined together.
In making the said rings the following processes may be adopted but we wish it
to be understood that other analogous processes may be employed for carrying the
said invention into effect.
We take a long strip of sheet brass or other ductile metal or alloy and by means
of a pair of troughing rolls we give a trough figure to the strip, the trough strip
on leaving the troughing rolls being coiled upon a roll or mandril into a compact
helix, that is, into a series of parallel convolutions nearly in contact. These con-
volutions are separated into open rings by a longitudinal cut and the open ends of
each ring are cut and shaped or fashioned into the disc shaped pieces hereinbefore
referred to, by which the ends of the ring are joined together and from which the
eye or loop of the ring is made.
Or a flat strip of a length sufficient to make a ring and eye may be taken and
while in the flat its ends are cut and fashioned into the disc like pieces from which
the eye is to be made. The flat strip so shaped at its ends is bent or coiled into a
ring, its disc shaped pieces turned at right angles to the ring and closed upon one
another and joined together. The ring is then troughed by the use of a pair of
dies and pressure. Or the troughing of the strip may be effected before it is coiled
into a ring.
We will now proceed to describe with reference to the accompanying drawing
the manner in which the said invention is to be performed.
In manufacturing a metallic cornice pole or other metallic ring from flat strips
of brass or other ductile metal or alloy we proceed as follows:—
We cut out at a press; a flat blank of the kind represented in plan and edge
view in Figure 1. The ends of this blank are provided with disc like pieces a
- 3

page_text: and b from which the eye or loop of the ring is to be made. The said disc like
pieces also serve to join the ends of the ring together. The disc like pieces a, b
are joined to the ends of the strip c by necks or contractions, the disc like piece a
being larger than the other disc like piece. The prepared blank Figure 1 is bent
into an open ring as represented in clevation and plan in Figure 2 so as to bring
the disc ends a, b together. The edges of the ring c and discs ", b are next slightly
cupped inwards as represented in front and side elevations and plan in Figure 3.
The slightly cupped discs a, b of the ring care next bent at right angles to the
ends of the ring as represented in front elevation and plan and parts in section
in Figure 4, and the said discs a, are next further cupped and also pierced as
represented in Figure 5. The piercings in the cupped discs are best seen in the
enlarged sectional parts in Figure 5. There are thereby formed at the ends of the
body of the ring, pierced discs from which the eye or small loop of the finished
ring is to be formed, the said discs also joining the ends of the ring together. In
forming the eye or loop, the ends of the ring are brought nearly together so
that the cupped smaller pierced disc enters the cupped larger pierced disc a
and by a closing or eyeletting process the edge of the larger disc a is turned over
the edge of the smaller disc band the two discs joined face to face and formed
into an eye or loop. Figure 6 represents the two pierced discs a, b after they
have been subjected to the eyeletting or closing process last described and thereby
formed into an eye or loop marked d, the said eye or loop at the same time joining
the ends of the ring together.
The ring is finished by bringing its ends into close contact and further cupping
inwards the edges of the ring as represented in Figure 7.
Instead of piercing the cupped discs at the stage represented in Figure 5, the
discs may be pierced after they have been closed upon one another to form the eye
or loop; that is, at the stage represented in Figure 6, the discs being pierced and
afterwards eyeletted, or pierced and eyeletted at one operation.
By the operations described there is formed a metallic ring for a cornice pole,
curtain rod or blind or other purpose in which the eye or small loop is made in
one piece with and forms an integral part of the ring.
Instead of making the open ring Figure 3 having disc shaped ends from a flat
strip, rings of a similar kind may be cut from a compact helix made by first
troughing a strip and afterwards coiling the troughed strip upon a roll or mandril
as hereinbefore described.
Figure 8 represents a compact helix of the kind referred to. The convolutions
of this compact helix are separated into open rings and at the same time the disc
pieces formed on their ends by the action of cutting tools upon the said con-
volutions in the manner indicated in dotted lines in Figure 8, that is to say, the
cutting tools have such a shape that they separate the convolutions into open rings
by piercings which leave on the ends of the open rings discs of the desired shape
for forming the eyes or loops on the finished rings. Figure 9 represents one of the
convolutions separated from the compact helix Figure 8, so as to form an open
ring having disc shaped ends. We treat the separated rings Figure 9 so as to
form them into finished rings having eyes or loops in one piece with the bodies of
the rings by subjecting them to the several processes illustrated in Figures 4, 5, 6
and 7, or to other analogous processes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said iuven-
tior and the manner in which the same is to be performed we declare that we
claim as the said invention
The improvements in the manufacture of metallic rings for cornice poles and
curtain and blind rods and for other purposes herein before described and illustrated
in the accompanying drawing; that is to say, making the eyes or loops of the
said rings in one piece with the bodies of the rings by forming on the ends of the
sheet metal blanks from which the rings are made, or on the ends of partly made
or open rings, disc shaped pieces and so fashioning and operating upon the said

page_text: disc shaped pieces as to convert them into the eyes or loops of the rings and at
the same time join the ends of the rings together substantially as described and
illustrated.
Dated the Sixth dox of Fahruary 1800
TONKS, LIMITED,
Arthur J. Tonks, Director and Secretary.
JOHN BURN.