IMPROVEMENTS IN SOCKETS FOR RECEIVING TELEGRAPHIC AND OTHER POSTS OR UPRIGHTS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Looker, junior, of Kingston-on-Thames,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SOCKETS FOR RECEIVING TELEGRAPHIC
AND OTHER POSTS OR UPRIGHTS."
Sealed the 2nd August 1858, and dated the 11th February 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Looker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 11th
February 1858.
I, BENJAMIN LOOKER, junior, of Kingston-on-Thames, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SOCKETS FOR RECEIVING
TELEGRAPHIC AND OTHER POSTS OR UPRIGHTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in sockets for receiving.
telegraphic and other posts or uprights. For this purpose the sockets are
composed of earthenware, by preference of stoneware, the exterior being
glazed and the interior glazed or left unglazed. Each socket is made with
a foot or enlargement at the lower end, and the bottom is closed so as to
prevent any moisture or water passing up from below into the interior of the
socket. The sides of the socket may be strengthened by being formed with
ribs on the exterior or interior or both. These earthenware sockets may be
moulded in any convenient manner, but I prefer to cause them to be moulded:
by expressing the clay through dies or openings of suitable form, and they
may be arranged for producing the foot or lower end, or such foot or lower
end may be applied after the upper part has been moulded by expressing the:
clay through the moulding dies or orifices.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Benjamin Looker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
10th August 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
LOOKER, junior, of Kingston-on-Thames, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Benjamin Looker, Her special licence, that I, the said Benjamin
Looker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or. such others as I, the
said Benjamin Looker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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
SOCKETS FOR RECEIVING TELEGRAPHIC AND OTHER POSTS OR UPRIGHTS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Benjamin Looker, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Benjamin Looker, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in sockets for receiving
telegraphic and other posts or uprights. For this purpose the sockets are
composed of earthenware, by preference of stoneware, the exterior being
glazed and the interior glazed or left unglazed. Each socket is made with
a foot or enlargement at the lower end, and the bottom is closed so as to
prevent any moisture or water passing up from below into the interior of the
socket. The sides of the socket may be strengthened by being formed with
ribs on the exterior or interior, or both. These earthenware sockets may be
moulded in any convenient manner, but I prefer to cause them to be moulded
by expressing the clay through dies or openings of suitable form, and they

page_text: Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of a socket for receiving a telegraphic or
other post or upright, and Figure 2 is an exterior view of the same. This
socket is constructed in the manner and of the form which I prefer in carrying
out my Invention, and it may be round, square, or of other convenient form
in cross section. It is made in three parts, a, b, and c; the lower part a is
closed at one end, and has a foot formed to it, and at its other end there is a
socket to receive the lower end of the piece b, which also has a socket at its
upper end to receive the end of the piece c. By constructing the socket in
different parts in this manner it is more easy to fit the upright or post into it.
In order to prevent water entering the socket by the joints between the
different parts, I render them tight by means of Roman or other suitable
cement, and I also employ cement to fix the post or upright firmly in the
socket. The use of sockets of this description protects the post or upright
from rotting off especially at the point where it enters the ground, which is
the point where decay takes place first; for this reason I, in some cases,
employ the upper portion c of the socket without the parts a and b, thus
obtaining some of the advantages of the use of a socket at a very small cost.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Looker, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
JAMES C. LOOKer,
of Kingston-on-Thames.
BENJN LOOKER, JUN. (L.S.)