AN IMPROVEMENT IN SPECTACLES AND EYE-GLASSES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Buonaparte Anderson, of Gravesend, in
the County of Kent, Optician, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN SPECTACLES AND EYE-GLASSES."
Sealed the 26th September 1854, and dated the 21st April 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Buonaparte
Anderson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Peti-
tion, on the 21st April 1854.
I, FREDERICK BUONAPARTE ANDERSON, of Gravesend, in the County of Kent,
Optician, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SPECTACLES AND EYE-GLASSES" to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to those spectacles and double eye-glasses in which a
spring keeps the spectacles upon the face and the eye-glasses upon the nose,
which spring, when the spectacles or eye-glasses are not on the face, causes the
side frames of the spectacles to fold down flat upon the front frame, which
carries the glasses, and when applied to double eye-glasses causes them to
fold up or fly open, at the option of the wearer; and the Invention consists in
a new construction and arrangement of spring and parts working therewith,
whereby the above effects will be produced.
I will now describe the construction of such a spring and apparatus fitted to
the side frames of a pair of spectacles. There will be a like contrivance for
each side frame. The bottom of the side frame carries a box for the recep-
tion of a spiral spring, through which a spindle or bolt is passed; there is
also at the bottom of the box a joint for attaching the side to the front frame.

page_text: The pin which forms the attachment between the side and front frame joints,
carries a ring, with two projections on its outside; one of these projections rests
upon a shoulder on the front frame, while the other projection is pressed upon
by the spiral spring through the spindle or bolt inside it. On strain or
pressure being removed from the side frame, the spring acts upon the shoulder
of the bolt, and causes the side frame to fold down. In the case of double
eye-glasses, I make the spring which connects the glasses answer the
of the ring with its two projections.
purpose
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick Buonaparte Anderson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 20th October 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
BUONAPARTE ANDERSON, of Gravesend, in the County of Kent, Optician, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the,said Frederick Buonaparte Anderson, Her special licence that I, the
said Frederick Buonaparte Anderson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Frederick Buonaparte Anderson, my exccutors,
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 "AN IMPROVEMENT IN SPECTACLES AND EYE-GLASSES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick Buonaparte Anderson, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 Frederick Buonaparte Anderson, 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, reference being had to the Drawings
liereunto annexed, that is to say:-

page_text: My Invention relates to those spectacles and double eye-glasses in which a
spring keeps the spectacles upon the face and the eye-glasses upon the nose,
which spring, when the spectacles or eye-glasses are not on the face, causes
the side frames of the spectacles to fold down flat upon the front frame, which
carries the glasses, and when applied to double eye-glasses causes them to fold
up or fly open, at the option of the wearer; and the Invention consists in a new
construction and arrangement of spring and parts working therewith, whereby
the above effects will be produced.
.I will now describe the construction of such a spring and apparatus fitted
to the side frames of a pair of spectacles. There will be a like contrivance for
each side frame. The bottom of the side frame carries a box for the recep-
tion of a spiral spring, through which a spindle or bolt is passed; there is
also at the bottom of the box a joint for attaching the side to the front frame.
A pin forms the attachment between the side and front frame joints. The joint
of the front frame has formed upon it a projection, which is pressed upon by
the spiral spring through the spindle or bolt inside it; on strain or pressure
being removed from the side frame, the spring acts upon the shoulder of the
bolt, and causes the side frame to fold down. In the case of double eye-
glasses or hand frame spectacles I make the joint with a similar spring, and
acting in the same manner as in the spectacles before described, placing the
projection upon the nose piece.
In the Drawings hereunto annexed I have shewn a pair of spectacles
constructed according to my said improvements; Figure 1 being a plan, and
Figure 2 a side view thereof; Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 are details, drawn
upon an enlarged scale. A, A, is the front frame, and B, B, the side frames
or "temples," which have formed upon their ends the boxes a, a, which are
hollowed out, as shewn in Figure 6, in order to receive the spiral spring,
Figure 8, and bolt, Figure 9. The ends and under side of the boxes are
formed into two circular pieces b, b, which form the joint, a space being
slotted out between them for the reception of a similar circular piece c, upon
each end of the front frame A. These pieces c have made upon them the
projecting piece d, against which the end of the bolt, acted upon by the spring,
presses when the frames are put together, and held by means of a bolt c,
which is passed through a hole in each of the circular pieces b and c. The
bolt, Figure 9, is passed into the interior of the spiral spring, and a shoulder is
formed upon the bolt for the end of the spring to act upon; the end of the
side picces or "temples," and also the ends of the front frame, are chamfered
off at an angle, as shewn, to regulate and determine the extent to which the
side pieces are opened. The act of opening. out the side pieces to apply the

page_text: spectacles to the face serves to compress the spiral spring, and directly the
pressure is relieved or the spectacles removed, the reaction of the spring
forces down the side pieces upon the front frame, as represented in Figures
1 and 2. Similar spiral springs may be fitted to the joints of double eye-
glasses or hand frame spectacles, for the like purpose of causing them more
securely to retain their position upon the face.
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,-
The constructing the joints of spectacles and double eye-glasses, and adapt-
ing thereto spiral springs, for the purpose of causing the side pieces or temples
of spectacles, and the frames of double eye-glasses, to fold down when not in
use, and for retaining them when on from falling off the head or face, as
herein-before described and represented in the Drawings hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Buonaparte Anderson, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of October, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
FREDERICK BUONAPARTE ANDERSON. (L.S.)