A METHOD OF MAKING TONGS, SPOONS, KNIVES, FORKS, AND MEDALS OUT OF SOLID SILVER OR OTHER METAL, WHICH WILL TEND GREATLY TO REDUCE THE PRICE OF THOSE ARTICLES, AND BE OF GREAT UTILITY
Year: 1781

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, WILLIAM
PLAYFAIR, of the Parish of Handsworth, in the County of Stafford, sends
greeting.
WHEREAS, the said William Playfair did, by his Petition, humbly repre-
sent unto His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, that he had
invented "A METHOD OF MAKING TONGS, SPOONS, KNIVES, FORKS, AND MEDALS
OUT OF SOLID SILVER OR OTHER METAL, WHICH WILL TEND GREATLY TO REDUCE
THE PRICE OF THOSE ARTICLES, AND BE OF GREAT UTILITY;" the said Petitioner
thereby prayed His said Majesty to grant unto him, the said William Playfair,
his exors, admors, and assigns, His Majestic's Letters Patent for the sole
making, vending, and selling of the said articles for the term of fourteen years,
according to the form of the Statute in that case made and provided; and
His said Majesty, being pleased to condescend to his request, did, by His
Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of
December, in the twenty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto the said
William Playfair, his exors, adñiors, and assigns, especial licence, full power,
sole privilege and authority, that he, the said William Playfair, his exors,
adiñors, and assigns, by himself and themselves, or by his or their deputy or
deputies, servants or agents, or such others as he, the said William Playfair, bis
exors, adiñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein

page_text: expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend his said
Invention within that part of His said Majestie's Kingdom of Great Britai
called England, his Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in
such manner as to him, the said William Playfair, his exors, admors, and assigns
or any of them, should in their discretion seem meet; and that he, the said
William Playfair, his exors, admors, and assigns, should and lawfully migh
have and enjoy the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time
to time coming, growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the said Inven
tion, for and during the term of years therein mentioned; to have, hold
exercise, and enjoy the said licence, powers, privileges, and advantages therein
before granted or mentioned to be granted unto the said William Playfair
his exors, admors, and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and
term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent next and
immediately ensuing, and fully to be complete and ended, according to the
Statute in that case made and provided; in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a provisoe that if the said William Playfair should not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of his said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under his hand and
scal, and cause the same to be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within
four calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent, that then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void,
anything therein-before contained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwith-
standing, as in and by the said Letters Patent, relation being thereunto had,
may appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that he, the said William Playfair, in pursuance of the
said recited proviso, doth, by this Instrument in writing under his hand and
seal, particularly describe and ascertain the nature of his said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, in manner and form
following, that is to say :-
Cause the piece of gold, silver, or other metal of which the tongs, spoons,
knives, forks, and medals, or any of them, are made, to pass between the
convex surfaces of two cylinders or parts of cylinders moving upon their axis,
commonly called rollers, made of steel or iron, or whatever other metal may be
thought proper, which cylinders are pressed or held together by screws or other
great force, having their convex surfaces moving upon one another, and in these
surfaces, having sunk indentations or hollows, nearly the converse of the piece
of work that is intended to be made; the manner is as follows:-Suppose that
the piece of work intended to be made is a circular medal, which is to have

page_text: an head on one side and letters on the other, an indentation or hollow is for this
purpose to be made in the convex surface of one of the cylinders or rollers, of
the shape and size of one side of the medal, only with this difference, that it
must be about one thirtieth part of its breadth less in the direction in which
the cylinder moves round than the medal is intended to be, or than it is in the
direction parralell to the axis round which the cylinder moves, which latter
should be the real breadth intended for the medal, as the metal does not
lengthen in that direction, at least, not sensibly; and this hollow should be
nearly as deep as half the intended thickness of the medal. In the bottom of
this hollow and head is then to be engraved, struck in, or otherwise sunk, in
the manner of a seal or dye, the impression of which, if taken off in wax or
clay, or other soft substance, shall be of the formn wanted in the medal, only
with this difference, that it will be bended to the curve of the convex surface
of the cylinder, and that it will be about one thirtieth part less in the direction
in which it is bended than in the other direction in which it is not bended.
In the same manner should an hollow be made of the same size and depth, as
nearly as possible, in the convex surface of the other cylinder in such manner
as to give an impression, in wax, or clay, or other soft substance, like that
intended to be on the other side of the medal, only with the same difference
of its being bended to the curved surface of the cylinder, and being about one
thirtieth part less in the one direction than it is in the other. When the
indentations or hollows are made in this manner, care is to be taken to place
the cylinders so as that the hollows may be opposite to one another, and to
regulate the cylinders by wheels, levers, or screws, in such a manner that the
same parts may come opposite to each other every time they turn round, or
as often as a medal is to be made, which may be done in one way by teethed
wheels working in one another, the diameters of which bear the same propor-
tion to one another that the diameters of the cylinders do, and which are so
connected with the cylinders as to regulate the motion of them. The rollers
or cylinder are then to be moved round, or in part round, upon their axes by
the power of water, men, horses, or whatever power is thought most conve-
nient; and the piece of gold, silver, or other metal to which the medal is to be
formed, and of which the weight must be somewhat greater than that of the in-
tended medal, is to be put between the rollers at the place where the hollows,
with the impressions of the different sides of the medal, are sunk, and just
before that part comes into the strait line that joins the centers of the axes,
or, in other words, at the time when the hollows in the cylinders come so near
in contact with one another as to touch the metal of which the medal is to be
made on both sides at once; the metal will then, by the motion of the cylin-

page_text: ders, be pulled or forced through between them and delivered at the other
side, with the impression and shape required, for the stretching or lengthening
that the metal has undergone in passing between the cylinders will have made
all the dimensions of the medal equal, although the hollows in the cylinders
were about one thirtieth part less in the one direction than in the other. It is
necessary here to be observed, that as metals of different tenacity and hardness
lengthen differently during this operation, a soft metal lengthening more than
a harder one, and that as the proportion in which they are lengthened varies
also with the diameters of the cylinders through between which they pass,
for it lengthens more in passing between cylinders of small diameters than
those of larger ones, the exact proportion in which it does lengthen cannot
be specified in general. In passing through, the excess or overplus metal
will be pressed out round the edges of the medal into a grove or hollow that
should be made in the cylinders for the purpose of receiving it, and may be
taken off by clipping or filling, or any other convenient means, and the medal
may then be finished by making it flat or giving it any particular bend that
may be wanted between two pieces of lead or tin, or by whatever means the
workman chooses. The manner of making any of the other things to which
this Patent extends is the same with what has been here described, and the
only variations are there which their impression, figure, or size may render
necessary; for as the making the metal to pass between the cylinders does not
give the last finish to the work, any particular bends or curvatures wanted
must be given by a workman, or by some other means.
It is not essentially
necessary to the method that the surfaces in which the impressions of the
pieces of work are made should be cylinders, as in Figure First in the attached
Drawings, of which A is the end and B the side view; but the purpose may
also be effected by a curved surface and a plane one, in which the hollows are
sunk, moving upon one another, as in Figure 2d, of which C is the end and
D the side view; or by a curved surface and a plane one, with the necessary
indentations made in them, by which the one is fixed and the other moveable,
as in Figure 3d, of which E is the end and F the side view; or also by two sur-
faces of different curves, as in Figure 4th, of which G is the end and II the side-
view, in which the necessary indentations are made, or by any two surfaces
that are made in such a manner that in moving upon one another they touch
but partially, that is, one part of the surfaces at one time, and in which
the necessary hollows are made; but it must be observed, that as I cannot
represent all possible forms and proportions of machines that are applicable
to this purpose, I have only specified those that I think to be the best, though
in general the end proposed may be attained by any surfaces with the neces--

page_text: sary indentations or hollows impressed in them, so moved upon on another as
to press partially on the metal of which the tongs, spoons, knives, forks, or
medal is to be made, that is, by such pressure as shall act, not on the whole
body of the metal at once, but shall begin at one side, one end, or one corner,
and proceed to the opposite side, end, or corner, giving each part its form as
it passed in succession between the surfaces in which the indentations are
impressed.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Playfair, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand seven hundred and cighty-two.
WILLIAM (L.S.) PLAYFAIR.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1782, the aforesaid William Playfair came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Indenture aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the
Statutes made in the sixth year of the reign of the late King and Queen
Wm and Mary of England, and so forth, and in the seventeenth year of the
reign of His Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Fifteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand
seven hundred and eighty-two.