IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR CRACKING NUTS, CRUSHING BONES, AND OTHER LIKE PUR- POSES.
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Aldridge Weston, of Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, and of Philadelphia, in the United States
of America, Engineer, for the [Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
INSTRUMENTS FOR CRACKING NUTS, CRUSHING BONES, AND OTHER LIKE PUR-
POSES.
"
Sealed the 9th April 1875, and dated the 12th October 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Aldridge
Weston at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 12th October 1874.
I, THOMAS ALDRIDGE WESTON, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, and of Philadelphia, in the United States of America,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR CRACKING NUTS, CRUSHING BONES, AND OTHER
LIKE PURPOSES," to be as follows:--
My improved instruments are constructed as follows:
I pivot
together two levers, herein-after called the hand levers, which for con-
yenience of description I will compare to the two sides of an inverted V

page_text: with the pivot or joint at the apex. The free or diverging ends of these
hand levers are shaped so as to be opened and shut easily by the hand
grasping them, and their intermediate parts are peculiarly shaped for the
attachment to and operation of a second pair of levers or crushing jaws,
by which latter term I will herein-after refer to these parts, and which I
will now describe. The crushing jaws are so shaped or curved as to
have their widest opening towards their pivoted end or centre of motion,
where the largest object they can act upon may be inserted, and their
other ends approach each other so as to touch, or as nearly so as to be
capable of there receiving between their crushing faces the smallest
object it is desired to act upon. The crushing or acting faces are
serrated or grooved, or wavy, or they may be jagged in the usual manner
to grasp the nut, bone, or other object to be crushed, and their detached
or moving ends are pivoted one to each hand lever at opposite points
situated towards the jointed end of the latter so that the apex or jointed
end of the hand levers points in an opposite direction to that of the
crushing jaws. The hand levers are curved or otherwise shaped to
follow the external outline of the crushing jaws.
Instead of the hand levers terminating at the pivot or their jointed
ends, they may be extended further, that is beyond the axis or centre of
motion, to form cutting nippers, forceps, and pliers for seizing and
cutting small bones, wooden skewers, the shells of shell fish, the wire of
champagne bottles and other articles.
By obvious modifications this my Invention may have the crushing
jaws adapted to cutting and compressing various articles as well as for
kino nuts and crushing bones.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Aldridge Weston in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 12th April 1875..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ALDRIDGE WESTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, and of
Philadelphia, in the United States of America, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of October, in the year

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Aldridge Weston, Her
special licence that I, the said Thomas Aldridge Weston, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Aldridge
Weston, 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN INSTRUMENTS FOR CRACKING NUTS, CRUSHING BONES,
AND OTHER LIKE PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Thomas Aldridge Weston, 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 Thomas Aldridge Weston, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say:-
-
My improved 'instruments are constructed as follows:
I pivot
together two levers herein-after called the band levers, which for con-
venience of description I will compare to the two sides of an inverted V
with the pivot or joint at the apex. The free or diverging ends of these
hand levers are shaped so as to be opened and shut easily by the hand
grasping them, and their intermediate parts are peculiarly shaped for the
attachment to and operation of a second pair of levers or crushing jaws,
by which latter term I will herein-after refer to these parts, and which I
will now, describe. The crushing jaws are so shaped or curved as to
have their widest opening towards their pivoted end or centre of motion,
where the largest object they can act upon may be inserted, and their
other ends approach each other so as to touch or as nearly so as to be
capable of there receiving between their crushing faces the smallest
object it is desired to act upon. The crushing or acting faces are

page_text: serrated or grooved or wavy, or they may be jagged in the usual manner
to grasp the nut, bone, or other object to be crushed, and their detached
or moving ends are pivoted one to each hand lever at opposite points
situated towards the jointed end of the latter, so that the apex or jointed
end of the hand levers points in an opposite direction to that of the
crushing jaws. The hand levers are curved or otherwise shaped to
follow the external outline of the crushing jaws.
Instead of the hand levers terminating at the pivot in their jointed
ends, they may be extended further, that is, beyond the axis or centre of
motion to form cutting nippers, forceps, and pliers for seizing or cutting
small bones, wooden skewers, the shells of shell fish, the wire of cham-
pagne bottles, and other articles.
By obvious modifications this my Invention may have the crushing
jaws adapted to cutting and compressing various articles as well as for
cracking nuts and crushing bones.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents one modification
or arrangement of my improved instruments. A, A, are the two hand
levers pivoted together at B; C, C, are the crushing jaws pivoted
together at the point D, which forms their centre of motion. These
jaws are, as before stated, so shaped or curved as to have their widest
opening towards their pivoted end D, while their other ends approach
each other. These other ends are pivoted at E, E, one to each hand
lever A as shewn.
Figure 2 represents an instrument similar to that represented in
Figure 1, but with modified proportions, and with scissor bows on the a
ends of the hand levers A, A. Figures 1 and 2 are drawn full size, the
dimensions of the jaws being adapted to large articles, such as lobster
claws, as well as to small ones, such as filberts.
Figure 3 represents an instrument of the same general arrangement,
but of smaller dimensions. The hand levers A, A, are for compactness &
let into a slit in the jaws C, C, as seen in the sectional view. Scissor,
forcep, or nipper jaws may be formed on the extended ends of the jaws
C, C, as shewn in dotted lines at F, F.
Figures 4 and 5 represent an instrument in which the hand levers
A, A, and crushing jaws B, B, are modified in form for use in a relative 3
position with regard to each other, arrived at by taking Figure 1 or

page_text: Figure 2, say Figure 2, and opening the levers A. in opposite directions,
as indicated by the arrows, until their ends meet and the pivot B is at
the point B¹ within the jaws.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as
my "Improvements in Instruments for Cracking Nuts, Crushing Bones,
and other like purposes," the combination of crushing jaws or levers
with the hand levers, substantially as herein-before described and repre-
sented in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Aldridge Weston, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of March,
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
.