IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MINCING MEAT
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Hoppen, of Plymouth, in the County
of Devon, a Master in Her Majesty's Navy, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MINCING MEAT."
Sealed the 12th January 1853, and dated the 21st October 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Hoppen
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 21st October 1852.
I, ROBERT HOPPEN, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, a Master
in Her Majesty's Navy, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MINCING MEAT" to be
as follows:-
This Invention consists of employing any convenient number of
knives which are moved up and down with a frame. The knives are
worked thro' narrow slots or openings in a plate suspended from above,
whereby the knives are cleansed each time they rise; thus is the
choking of the blades, which was heretofore consequent on using
several blades or knives side by side, prevented.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.
filed by the said Robert Loppen in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st April 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME. I.
ROBERT HOPPEN, of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, a Master in
Her Majesty's Navy, send greeting
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the six-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself. Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Robert Hoppen, Her special licence
that 1. the said Robert Hoppen, my executors. admistrators. and
assigns, or such others as 1, the said Robert Hoppen, 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
APPARATUS FOR MINCING MEAT," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Robert Hoppen. by an instrument in writing under
my hand and scal, 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 Robert Hoppen, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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):
This Invention consists of employing any convenient number of
Enives working through slots or openings in a plate suspended from
above, whereby the knives are cleaused each time they rise; thus is
the choking of the blades, which was heretofore consequent on using
several blades or knives side by side, prevented.

page_text: And in order that my Invention may be more fully understood, and
readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the means pursued
by me. The knives are fixed parallel in a frame as heretofore, and the
franic is caused to rise and fall in chopping meat as is well understood.
There is a plate suspended from the upper part of the machine by rods,
such plate has cut in it as many slots or openings as there are knives in
the machine, through which slots or openings the knives work, and the
slots are only made of a size to admit the knives moving ficely through
them, the plate thus acting as a scraper on each side of each knife or
blade, by which it will be evident that as the knives rise after chopping
or mincing the meat on the block or surface below they will pass
through the slots or openings, and any meat which may be between the
knives will be forced down from between them. The plate is fixed or
retained in such position that the cutting edges of the knives or blades
do not rise beyond or above the plate, but only to the upper surface
thereof.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I would have it understood that what I claim
is, the application of the plate or scraper to the several knives, as
herein described
In witness whereof, J, the said Robert Loppen, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and fifty-three.
5 Witness,
HENRY T. GRILLS.
ROBERT HOPPEN. (L.S.)