MAKING ELASTIC SPRING BUCKLES AND SPURS IN GOLD, SILVER, IRON, STEEL, COPPER, PINCHBECK, OR OTHER MIXED METALS TO BE PLATED WITH GOLD AND SILVER
Year: 1786

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
CHESTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Plater, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the First day of July, in the twenty-sixth year of His reign, did
give and grant unto me, Thomas Cheston, His especial licence, that I, the said
Thomas Cheston, during the term of years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "MAKING ELASTIC SPRING
BUCKLES AND SPURS IN GOLD, SILVER, IRON, STEEL, COPPER, PINCHBECK, OR OTHER
MIXED METALS TO BE PLATED WITH GOLD AND SILVER;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a provisoe obliging me, the said Thomas Cheston,
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same 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 recited Letters Patent, as in and
by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Cheston, do hereby declare my said Invention of Making Elastic
Spring Buckles and Spurs in Gold, Silver, Iron, Steel, Copper, Pinchbeck,
or other mixed Metals, and also in Iron, Steel, Copper, and other Metals or
mixed Metals to be Plated with Gold and Silver, is performed in the following
manner (that is to say):-

page_text: I take gold, silver, iron, steel, copper, brass, pinchbeck, or any metal or
mixed metals; or I take iron, steel, copper, brass, pinchbeck, or any metal
or mixed metals plated or to be with gold or silver, which I either forge,
strike, cut out, roll, file, or grind into different forms and sizes for buckles,
spurs, shanks of spurs, and springs for spur necks, which process is performed
by placing the metal on an anvil, die, or steady, and by striking it repeatedly
with a hammer in my hand, or by a hammer or tool placed between two
supports standing perpendicular, which is commonly called a stamp or press;
then, by fixing a cord, chain, or fly, or any thing which will force the said
hammer up so as to give force to strike or squeeze down the same sufficiently
to give the form of either buckles, spurs, the shanks of spurs, or springs for
spur necks, which force or pressure, being repeated, renders the article elastic
or springy, if the metal is not softened by fire. I also take gold, silver, iron,
steel, copper, brass, pinchbeck, or any metal or mixed metals, or iron, steel,
copper, brass, pinchbeck, or any metal or mixed metals plated or to be plated
with gold and silver, and place them between two round bodies of iron or
steel, either plain or on which is sunk or engraved the form of buckles, spurs,
the shank parts of spurs, or springs for spur necks; and on passing the metal
through those two round bodies (which is commonly called rolling), the forms
of buckles, spurs, shanks of spurs, and springs for spur necks, are given, and
by repeatedly passing or squeezing the metals or mixed metals plated or to be
plated through the round bodies above mentioned, or by any other mode of
pressure, the same become elastic, if not previously softened by fire. But steel
in particular, after I have either forged, flattened, cut out, rolled, ground, or
filed it into the forms of buckles, spurs, shanks of spurs, or springs for spur
necks, I turn the bridge or middle part of the buckle towards the under side,
or I rivet, screw, dovetail, or brase any solid hollow body or bridge on the
middle or center of the buckles, for the purpose of affixing or putting to it
(if necessary) a chape and tongue. I then set or bend the buckle (either
before or after I have so affixed the bridge), and also the spurs, shanks of
spurs, and springs for spur necks, in or near the form they are generally worn
in, and put them into an oven, stove, or any place heated by fire, till they
become red hot, or nearly so. I then put them into any sort of liquid (but
oil, water, turpentine, butter, grease, with the addition of salt, are found to
answer the purpose best) whereby they become or are made hard. I then
temper them either by blazing the oil, turpentine, butter, or grease, which will,
of course, hang upon them from the process of hardning, or by any gradual or
regular heat (taking care not to render them too soft), by which means of
hardning and tempering the buckles, spurs, shanks of spurs, and springs for

page_text: spur necks, become elastic. I also take of any of the aforesaid metals or
mixed metals, and either forge, strike, roll, grind, cut out, or file them into the
forms of necks of spurs, which necks I affix or put to the shank or heel part
of the spur either by rivetting, screwing, or soldering the same. I also make
elastic springs by any or either of the means aforesaid, which springs I inlay,
put to, in, or upon any part of the necks or breast parts of spurs, and which
springs receive an elastic motion from any pressure against caps or boxes,
which I affix to spur necks, or breast parts of spurs, by means of pins, screws,
rivets, or dovetails, or by soldering, which caps or boxes move upwards, down-
wards, obliquely, or horizontally, and thereby expose the rowels or pricking
part of the spurs, and, on the pressure ceasing, recover their former situation
by the means of the said elastic springs, and which caps or boxes may be
taken off or put to the necks of spurs at the option of the wearer.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Cheston, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of July, in the twenty-sixth
year of the reign of His said Majesty King George the Third, and
T
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