IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE WIDTH OR BLACK AND COLORED BORDERS ON CARDS PAPER AND ENVELOPES
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Parkins, of Brewer Street, Golden
Square, in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturing Stationer, for
the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE WIDTH
OR BLACK AND COLORED BORDERS ON CARDS PAPER AND ENVELOPES "
Scaled the 16th January 1872, and dated the 19th July 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Parkins at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition; on the
19th July 1871.
I, JOSEPH PARKINS, of Brewer Street, Golden Square, in the County
of Middlesex, Manufacturing Stationer, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR REGULATING THE WIDTH
OF BLACK AND COLORED BORDERS ON CARDS, PAPER, AND ENVELOPES," to be as
follows:-
•
The object of my Invention is to construct a machine in which
sheets of letter paper, cards, or envelopes may be arranged in order
so that black or colored borders may be made thereon, with greater
accuracy as to width and facility of execution than heretofore.

page_text: The machine consists mainly of a moveable frame, which is mounted
on wheels and travels on rails fixed on a table. An angular guide
corresponding with the corners of the sheet of paper is fixed at the
lower end of two vertical rods capable of rising and falling in guides
when lifted by a hand lever, whereby the moveable frame is propelled
along the rails. The width of the black or colored border is regulated
by one of a series of ratchet wheels having different numbers of teeth.
Several of these wheels are kept ready to be adapted to the machine
according to the width of the border it may be desired to make.
These wheels are changeable in the machine, and any particular one
can be adapted with great facility according to the desired width of
the border. A pawl or click is adapted to this ratchet wheel, and
prevents it from rotating until the click is lifted up out of the
way of the teeth. This is effected by a rocking pin or stud, which is
raised by the hand lever. Upon depressing this hand lever, and thereby
raising the click or pawl away from the teeth of the ratchet wheel,
this latter will be free to rotate, which it will do (when the machine is
pushed forward) until the pawl or click falls and comes in contact
with another tooth of the ratchet wheel. The ratchet wheel is rotated
by motion communicated by a pinion from the wheels running on the
rails. In practice the whole machine is thus moved along the rails a
distance equal to the width of the intended border and is then stopped
until the ratchet wheel is started again by a second depression of the
hand lever and lifting of the click from the ratchet teeth. At every
temporary stoppage of the travelling frame, the attendant places a
sheet of paper, card, or other article in the angle of the guide. By
continued repetitions of this operation a number of sheets can be laid
in succession on a board cach a little in the rear of the preceding one,
and when the board is full they may be colored in the ordinary
manner.
For coloring. or bordering the flaps of envelopes, another guide is
required provided with moveable blocks which are capable of adjustment
according to the size of the envelope. For convenience this guide
may be attached to the angular paper guide, so that one machine may
be used for either purpose, but if preferred it may be attached directly
.to the travelling frame.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Parkins in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 19th January 1872..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
PARKINS, of Brewer Street, Golden Square, in the County of Middlesex,
Manufacturing Stationer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty- ·|
fifth year of Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Joseph Parkins, Her special licence that
I, the said Joseph Parkins, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Joseph Parkins, executors, adminis-
trators, 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 " IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR
REGULATING THE WIDTH OF BLACK AND COLORED BORDERS ON CARDS, PAPER, AND
ENVELOPES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph
Parkins, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under 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 Joseph Parkins, 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, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say):
The object of my Invention is to construct a machine in which sheets
of letter or note paper, cards, or envelopes may be arranged in order so
that black or colored borders may be made thereon with greater accuracy.
as to width and facility of execution than heretofore. .
'

page_text: In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 is a side elevation, Fig. 2 an
end elevation, Fig. 3 a plan view, and Fig. 4 a detached view of a portion
of the improved machine or apparatus whereby this object is effected.
The machine consists mainly of a moveable frame a, a, a, a, which is
mounted on wheels b, b, b¹, and travels on rails c, c, fixed on a table.
An angular guide & corresponding with the corners of the shect of
paper or other article to be operated upon is fixed at the lower end
of two vertical rods e, e, which are capable of rising and falling in
guides e¹, e¹, when lifted by a hand lever f whereby the moveable
frame a, a, is propelled along the rails. The hand lever f turns on a
centre at the end of the bracket which is secured to the transverse
bar a of the frame, as shewn at Figures 1 and 3. The hand lever f
serves not only to propel the frame a along the rails but also to lift
The
the angular guide d as will be hereafter more fully explained.
width of the black or colored border is regulated by one of a series of
ratchet wheels g having different numbers of teeth. Several of these
wheels are kept ready to be adapted to the machine according to the
width of the border it may be desired to make. One of these ratchet
wheels attached to its carrying plate is shewn in the detached views
Figures 4, 4*, and 5. These wheels are changeable in the machine and
any particular one can be adapted to the mechanism with great facility
according to the desired width of the border. To this end each ratchet
wheel is provided with a pin g¹ which fits in a hole in the face of
the carrying plate h, which is secured on a stud shaft provided at
its other end with a pinion which gears into and is driven by a
wheel on the axle b* of the carrying or running wheels b. A. pawl
or click j is mounted on a stud on the plate which is bolted to
the frame a of the machine. The pawl or click by acting against
the teeth of the ratchet wheel prevents it from rotating until the
click is lifted up out of the way of the teeth of the ratchet wheel.
This is effected by a rocking pawl m carried at the end of the cross
plate d mounted on the upper ends of the rods e, e, which support
the angular guide d. As the plate d*, the rods e, e, and the angular
plate d, d, are lifted by the hand lever f, the rocking pawl m is
brought up against a stud on the side of the pawl j and thereby lifts.
the latter and liberates the ratchet wheel and allows the pinion /' and
the toothed wheel i to revolve. The toothed wheel i being on the axle of
the running wheels, and another toothed wheel n (on the end of their
axle) being made to take into a fixed horizontal rack o, it follows that

page_text: the running wheels can only rotate and move forward when the toothed
wheel i is released.
It will now be understood that upon depressing the hand lever ƒ and
thereby raising the click or pawl j away from the teeth of the ratchet
wheel this latter will be free to rotate which it will do (when the
machine is pushed forward) until the pawl or click j falls and comes in
contact with another tooth of the ratchet wheel g. It will be seen that
by this arrangement of parts the moveable frame a cannot be moved
forward on its running wheels until the pawl j is lifted to release the
ratchet wheel g, then by pushing forward the frame a the spur wheel i
on the axle of the running wheels will drive the pinion ' and with it
the ratchet wheel until the pawl or click j falls into another notch or
tooth tiercon. The forward movement of the frame à is assisted by a
pendent weight attached to a cord which passes round the pulley p
fixed on the end of the axle of the running wheels. In practice the
whole machine is thus moved along the rails a distance equal to the
width of the intended border and is then stopped until the ratchet
wheel is started again by a second depression of the hand lever and
lifting of the pawl or click j from the teeth of the ratchet wheel g.
At every temporary stoppage of the travelling frame the attendant
places a sheet of paper, card, or other article in the angle of the guide d.
By continued repetitions of this operation a number of sheets can be
laid in succession on a board, cach a little in the rear of the proceeding
onc, and when the board is full they may be colored in the ordinary
manner.
For colouring or bordering the flaps of envelopes another guide is
required provided with moveable blocks which are capable of adjustment
according to the size of the envelope. For convenience this guide may
be attached to the angular paper guide as shewn in the detached plan
view Fig. 6, front view Fig. 7, and cross section Fig. 8, so that one
machine may be used for either purpose, but if preferred it may be
attached directly to the travelling frame a.
Having now described my Invention of "Improved Apparatus for
Regulating the Width of Black and Colored Borders on Cards, Paper,
and Envelopes," and having explained the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent as
aforesaid, the machine or apparatus herein shewn and described or any
mere modification thereof consisting of a carriage or frame carrying a

page_text: stop guide or guides for adjusting or regulating the position of the
cards, paper, or envelopes to be operated upon, which frame or carriage
is capable of being moved intermittently along horizontal rails and of
being stopped at regular intervals which are capable of adjustment
according to the desired width of border as herein set forth.
In witness whercof, I, the said Joseph Parkins, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.