IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF POLLING
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Swindells, Builder, and George Andrew
Robinson, Accountant, both of Stockport, in the County of Chester,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF POLLING
Scaled the 7th September 1870, and dated the 9th March 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Swindells and
George Andrew Robinson at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 9th March 1875.
WC, JAMES SWINDELLS, Builder, and GEORGE ANDREW ROBINSON,
Accountant, both of Stockport, in the County of Chester, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CON-
STRUCTION OF POLLING STATIONS OR POLLING BOOTHS AS REQUIRED BY THE BALLOT
ACT," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in forming cabinet polling stations or booths,
each of framed boarding in parts, having joints and hinges, so that the
several parts can be readily folded and packed into a comparatively

page_text: .
small space for transit and storage, and also be rapidly built up to form·
the station and taken down with equal facility.
In one arrangement one side of the station has three hinged parts,
and the other side two hinged parts, capable of being held by buttons
and cyclets or bolts to a third part hinged to two hinged parts of tho
front end of the station, and the back end of the station is formed of
two, three, or more hinged parts held to the sides by buttons and eyelets
or bolts, there being between the ends and one side spaces for ingress
and egress.
At the interior of the back of the station there are as many boxes or
chambers as there are hinged parts, in cach of which chambers the voter
can retire to mark his voting paper previously to depositing the same in
the box in charge of the presiding officer.
The voting chambers or boxes when fixed are fitted with curtains and
curtain rods, which, with the desks fitted to cach, bind the whole
securely together, the remaining portions being held firm by grooved.
scantlings.
The polling stations or booths as at present constructed are formed of
rough unplaned deal boards fixed up in size and position as required by
the Ballot Act, and held together by rough pieces of scantling, to which
the boards are nailed. The booths being so constructed, it is necessary
to take them to pieces before they can be removed, and in so doing the
boards are ripped or torn from each other, thus causing very great wasto
every time the process is repeated, whereas our cabinet polling station is
so constructed that not one nail or screw is required to fit it in position.
-
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Swindells and George Andrew Robinson in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 9th September 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JAMES
SWINDELLS and GEORGE ANDREW ROBINSON, both of Stockport, in.the
County of Chester, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most. Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of March, in the year.

page_text: of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said James Swindells and George
Andrew Robinson, Her special license that we, the said James Swindells
and George Andrew Robinson, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said James Swindells and George Andrew
Robinson, our exccutors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF POLLING STATIONS OR POLLING
BOOTHS AS REQUIRED BY THE BALLOT ACT," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said James Swindells and George Andrew Robinson,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Swindells and George
Andrew Robinson, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference
being had to the Figures on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and
to the letters of reference marked thereon (that is to say):
This Invention consists in forming cabinet polling stations or booths,
each of framed boarding in parts, having joints and hinges, so that the
several parts can be readily folded and packed into a comparatively
small space for transit and storage, and also be rapidly built up to form
the station and taken down with equal facility.
In one arrangement shewn in the sectional plan, Fig. 1, drawn to a
scale of one and a half inches to the foot, one side of the polling station
has three hinged parts a, b, c, the part a hinged to the part 6 by the
hinge d, and the part 6 hinged to the part c by the hinge e, and the
front end of the part c is hinged by the corner hinge f to the front part g,
hinged by the hinge h to the part i.

page_text: 7"
The back of the station is composed of three parts %, 1, m, hinged
together by the hinges n, o; and to the inner side of the back of the
station are hinged pannelled partitions p, q, and the side for forming
the chambers or compartments for the voters, and an elevation of one of
the partitions hinged to the back is shewn in Fig. 2, and the desks for
the voters, which can be raised and lowered as required, are marked s.
The back of the station is connected at right angles to the left side by a
stud or studs t and socket plate u, shown full sizo in Figs, 3 and 4, the
stud being rivetted to the plate v screwed to the part a, Fig. 1, and the
socket plate to the part m; and when the parts have to be connected the
head of the stud is passed through the hole in the slotted plate, and then
pressed downwards; and as the stud fits the slot the connection and
disconnection can be made quickly and steadily.
The right side of the station is composed of part hinged exactly
similar to those on the left, and between the right side and the front and
back there are spaces for ingress and egress, there being at the top con-
necting rods or stays mounted with curtains, and a side view of the
front stay is shown in Fig. 5, and it will be seen that the right side
of one station or booth forms the left side of the adjoining station or
booth.
The voting chambers or compartments when fixed are fitted with
curtains on a curtain rod w, Figs: 1 and 6, there being in the rod pins x,
which enter holes in the tops of the sides and partitions, thereby
binding the whole securely together, and the front, back, and each side
of the station are kept firmly together by grooved scantlings shown by
dotted lines in Fig. 1, and a cross section of one of the scantlings in its
place. On the top of the framed boarding is shown full size in Fig. 7,
the scantling being marked y and the top of the boarding .
Fig. 8 is a cross section of the back and voting chambers or compart-
ments when folded; Fig. 9, an enlarged section of one end of the
same.
Fig. 10, a cross section of the left and front sides of the station when
folded.

page_text: for use, with the front removed; and Fig. 13, a similar view with tho
back removed.
The polling stations or booths as at present constructed are formed of
rough unplaned deal boards fixed up in size and position as required by
the Ballot Act, and held together by rough pieces of scantling, to which
the boards are nailed. The booths being so constructed, it is necessary
to take them to pieces before they can be removed, and in so doing the
boards aro ripped or torn from each other, thus causing very great
waste, every time the process is repeated, whereas our cabinet polling
station is so constructed that not one nail or screw is required to fit it in
position.
Having now described the nature and particulars of our said Inven-
tion, we desire it to be understood that we claim, the improvements in
the construction of polling stations or polling booths, as herein described
and illustrated on the accompanying Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Swindells, for and on behalf
of myself and the said George Andrew Robinson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Seventh day of September,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.