IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING AND PREPARING MATCH SPLINTS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Higgin, of Bow, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING
AND PREPARING MATCH SPLINTS."
Sealed the 21st February 1860, and dated the 81st August 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Higgin at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 31st
August 1859.
I, HENRY HIGGIN, of Bow, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR CUTTING AND PREPARING MATCH SPLINTS," to be as follows:-
The object of the first part of this Invention is to so arrange and work
knives as to cut a four-sided point to the end of match splints, in order that a
bundle of such splints may be dipped into the ordinary lighting composition at
one time without liability of the splints adhering together, while the lighting
composition is applied all round the points of the splints as well as if they had
been placed in the ordinary "clamping" machines previous to dipping. This
is best accomplished by setting a pair of knives in form of a V in front of
the slicing knife used in the ordinary "flaking" machine in cutting matchi
splints.
The Invention also consists in collecting the separate splints as they are
sliced off, and holding them in a bundle by means of an elastic band or bands.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Higgin in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 29th
February 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
HIGGIN, of Bow, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Higgin, Her special licence that I, the said Henry Higgin, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Higgin, my executors, 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 MACHINERY
FOR CUTTING AND PREPARING MATCH SPLINTS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Henry Higgin, 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 Henry Higgin, 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, that is to say:-
The object of this Invention is to so arrange and work kuives as to cut a
four-sided point to the end of match splints, in order that a bundle of such
splints may be dipped into the ordinary lighting composition at one time
without the liability of the splints adhering together, while the lighting com-
position is applied all round the points of the splints as well as if they had
been placed in the ordinary "clamping" machines previous to dipping. This
is accomplished by setting a pair of knives in form of a V in front of the
slicing knife used in the ordinary flaking machine in cutting match splints.
The manner in which my Invention is performed is as follows:-In cutting
wood into match splints, I use either what is known as the tooth machine,

page_text: or the "flake" machine now in use for that purpose, and I cut the splints
from the blocks either in single or double lengths.
My improvements are effected when cutting single length splints by fixing
one pair of knives in front of the horizontal cutting knife on the bed of a
flake-cutting machine, at such an angle, that when the bed is advanced the
knives cut av on one edge of the block of wood to be cut at the depth that
the horizontal following knife slices it off. When the block is cut up, the
shavings are to be gathered into a bundle and placed again in the holding
box, but with the edges downwards instead of flat side down, when the
advance of the bed will make the same cuts at the points transversely to the
former cuts, and the horizontal following knife will cut off splints having
four-sided points.
Instead of placing the bundle of slices into the same machine for second
cutting, I prefer using a separate machine having a wheel at the side carrying
the knives on its face. In using the ordinary tooth machine for cutting splints
of double length two pairs of knives are used for forming the V cut at both
ends of the wood, in the same manner as that already described.
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, attaching
knives in pairs to splint-cutting machines, and working them in such manner
that they shall make a V cut at the ends of splints while they are being cut.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Higgin, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of February, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty.
HENRY HIGGIN.
(L.S.)