NEW- INVENTED TOAST STAND, OR
Year: 1806

page_text: PRATT'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
PRATT, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Steel Toy Maker, send.
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent. Majesty: King George the Third, by His
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and. Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Second day of
October, in the forty-sixth year of reign, did give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Pratt, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special.
license, full power,' sole priviledge and authority, that I,. the said Henry Pratt,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might, during
the term of years therein expressed, make, use, exercise, and vend, within;
that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my "NEW-
INVENTED TOAST STAND, OR AN IMPROVEMENT ON THE ARTICLE COMMONLY CALLED
CATE OR DOGS, UPON WHICH THINGS ARE PLACED BEFORE A FIRE;".in which
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Henry
Pratt, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature.
of my 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

page_text: month next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Pratt, do declare that my said Invention of a New Toast Stand, or an
Improvement on the Article commonly called Cats or Dogs, on which Things
are placed before a Fire, is described as follows, that is to say:-
Instead of the legs being screwed, as in the usual way of constructing cats
or dogs, to a ball or centre piece, I substitute one, two, or more joints, with
one or more stops to form proper angles, or I make them with fixed joints by
means of one or more pins or rivetts passing through the joints. The joints
which I substitute, instead of screwing the legs into the centre piece, are
described as follows:-In the article commonly called a cat (see Drawing,
Fig. 1), it is about one inch, more or less, diameter, with a hole made through the
centre of cach joint to admit a pin on which the centre joint moves; another
hole is made in each outside joint, half way between the centre hole and the
outside of the joint, through which another pin or rivet passes to fasten the
outside joints to keep from moving. The centre joint has a groove made in
it, about half an inch long, making about the third part of a semicircle. The
pin that fastens the two inside joints together passes through this groove,
making a stop, and forming a triangle when open. The joints which I
substitute for the article commonly called dogs (see Drawing, Fig, 2), in the
diameter of the joints the centre pin and middle joint are the same as
montioned in the description of the cat, and in each of the outside joints
I make a groove similar to the one described in the middle joint of the cat.
These grooves are opposite to each other. A pin passes through these two
grooves and the centre joint, making the stop and forming the triangle when
open. In cases when required. I attach a fork to these stands for the purpose of
toasting. This fork is attached in the following manner:-The middle leg of
the upper part of the cat or dog I make hollow, into which I make to slide
a small handle, with a toasting fork made to spring in the prongs, which,
when drawn out of the tube.by nieans of a joint, falls in an horizontal position
and forms a toasting fork. These articles are made of any kind of metal or
compound of metals of sufficient stiffness, or of wood.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Pratt, have hereunto set my.
hand and scal, this Thirtieth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and six.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirtieth day of October, in
the forty-seventh year of the reign of His Majesty King George the Third,
the said Henry Pratt came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the forty-
fourth year of His said Majesty's reign.
Inrolled the Thirty-first day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and six.