IMPROVEMENTS m Samown
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to David Pratt, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, and Henry Johnson, of Birmingham,
aforesaid, Press Tool Maker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
m
Samown "
'
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said David Pratt and
Henry Johnson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 18th August 1871.
We, DAVID PRATT, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturer, and HENRY JOHNSON, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Press
Tool Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF THIMBLES USED IN SEWING," to be as
follows:-
In the ordinary manufacture of the said thimbles a circular disc or
blank of sheet metal is raised into a cup-like form by the well-known
process of raising metals, the indentations or "gratings" being formed

page_text: upon
the head of the thimble by pressure, and upon its sides by a tool
while the thimble is made to rotate in a lathe. The inscription or border
near the
open end of the thimble is produced and the rim made by the
action of tools and the use of a lathe.
In making thimbles according to our Invention we take a blank cut
out of sheet metal, the said blank being cruciform or having four arms;
we impress this blank with the required indentations or "gratings,”
as well as with the inscription or border, and by means of raising tools
worked in a press we raise the said blank into the form of a thimble;
that is, the four arms of the blank are brought nearly at right angles to
the central portion and at the same time so curved that there is formed
a thimble having in it four fine longitudinal slits. The thimble is
completed by the addition of a rim; this rim consists of a ring of metal
fixed outside, and at the open end of the thimble; or of a hollow ring
in which the edge of the thimble is inserted and fixed to the open end :
by closing it upon the thimble by a spinning process effected in a lathe,
or by a press; or the rim may be made of a ring of wire over which the
edge of the thimble is turned by the spinning process. The thimble
thus made resembles an ordinary thimble excepting that it has four fine
longitudinal slits in it; these slits permit of the escape of perspiration
from the end of the finger, and give a slight elasticity to the thimble.
Instead of impressing the indentations or "gratings" and inscription or
border upon the cruciform blank the said indentations and inscription
or border may be impressed upon the sheet metal from which the
cruciform blank is cut.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said David Pratt and Henry Johnson in the Great Scal
Patent Office on the 10th February 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, DAVID
PRATT, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and 8
HENRY JOHNSON, of Birmingham, aforesaid, Press Tool Maker, send
greeting.

page_text: 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 us, the said David Pratt and Henry Johnson,
Her special licence that we, the said David Pratt and Henry Johnson,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the
said David Pratt and Henry Johnson, our 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 THE
MANUFACTURE OF THIMBLES USED IN SEWING," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said David Pratt and Henry Johnson, our executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands
and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 David Pratt, on behalf of myself and
the said Henry Johnson, 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:
In the ordinary manufacture of the said thimbles a circular disk or
blank of sheet metal is raised into a cup-like form by the well-known
process of raising metals, the indentations or "gratings" being formed
upon
the head of the thimble by pressure, and upon its sides by a tool
while the thimble is made to rotate in a lathe. The inscription or
border near the open end of the thimble is produced and the rim
made by the action of tools and the use of a lathe.
In making thimbles according to our Invention we take a blank cut
out of sheet metal, the said blank being cruciform or having four arms;
we impress this blank with the required indentations or gratings, as well
-as with the inscription-or-border; and by means of raising tools worked
.in a press we raise the said blank into the form of a thimble; that is,
the four arms of the blank are brought nearly at right angles to the
central portion, and at the-same time so curved that there is formed a
>

page_text: thimble having in it four fine longitudinal slits. The thimble is completed
by the addition of a rim, this rim consists of a ring of metal fixed
´ outside and at the open end of the thimble, or of a hollow ring in which
the edge of the thimble is inserted and fixed to the open end by closing
it upon the thimble by a spinning process effected in a lathe or by a
press; or the rim may be made of a ring of wire over which the edge of
the thimble is turned by the spinning process or by a press. The
thimble thus made resembles an ordinary thimble excepting that it has
four fine longitudinal slits in it; these slits permit of the escape of
perspiration from the end of the finger and give a slight elasticity to
the thimble.
Instead of impressing the indentations or gratings and inscription or
border upon the cruciform blank the said indentations and inscription
or border may be impressed upon the sheet metal from which the
cruciform blank is cut.
Having explained the nature of our Invention we will proceed to
describe with reference to the accompanying Drawings the manner in
which the same is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents a cruciform or four arm blank cut from sheet
metal to be used in the manufacture of a thimble according to our 2
Invention. Figure 2 represents the blank, Figure 1, after it has been
impressed-with the indentations or gratings at a and the inscription or
border at b. We impress the said indentations or gratings and inscrip-
tion or border upon the said blank, Figure 1, by the use of the lower
die or tool represented in plan in Figure 3 and section in Figure 4, the 2
said impressing die or tool being used in conjunction with a moveable
die or force, the said moveable die or force being brought down upon the
plain blank, Figure 1, placed on the lower die, Figures 3 and 4. The
lower impressing die or tool, Figures 3 and 4, is provided with two sets
of inscriptions, so that by placing the plain blank upon it in different 8
positions impressed blanks having different inscriptions upon them may
be produced by the use of one pair of dies. In using the die, Figures 3
and 4, the blanks require to be very carefully fed on to the said die so ·
that they may receive only the required portions of the inscriptions on
the die. Instead of the inscription represented on the die an orna- 3
mental or plain border may be used. In making the body of a thimble
from the impressed blank, Figure 2, the said blank is placed upon the
lower die c of the pair of dies, Figure 5, "and by the descent of the

page_text: "
upper die or punch d of the said dies the blank is raised into the
partially made thimble represented in Figure 6, the said thimble
having in it four fine longitudinal slits. The rim of the thimble is
made in either of the following ways:-By means of a pair of dies or
5 by a spinning process the lower edge e of the thimble, Figure 6, is
turned around the exterior of the thimble so as to give a trough
form to the said lower edge of the thimble as represented at f, Figure 7,
which represents a section of the partially made thimble. We next fix
in the bottom of the trough fa flat ring 9 (Figure 7). We effect this
by means of the pair of dies or tools represented in section in Figure 9,
elevation in Figure 10, and plan of the lower die in Figure 11. The
lower die hof the said pair of dies is provided with a central peg i, upon
which the partially made thimble is supported, the trough lower edge f
of the thimble resting in the annular depression in the lower die h.
5 The upper die or punch is hollow and has a ring-like shoulder at its
bottom. The thimble, Figure 7, with the flat ring 9 upon its exterior
being placed on the lower die the upper die or punch is made to
descend upon it, the action of the said punch and its shoulder forcing
the ring g to the bottom of the trough and at the same time fixing
Dit securely to the thimble. The upper edge of the trough ƒ is next
closed upon the ring 7 so as to completo the rim às represented in
section in Figure 8 by the action of the pair of dies or tools m, n, repre-
sented in elevation (partly in section) in Figure 12 and plan of the
lower die in Figure 13. The said dies m, n, resemble those last
described excepting that the upper die or punch m is provided with an
internal rounded shoulder at p by which the closing of the edge of the
trough upon the ring g is effected.
Instead of making the rim in the way already described a separate
sheet metal ring of a trough shape may be employed to form the rim.
A trough ring of this kind is represented in plan and section in
Figure 14, and is marked q. In connecting the ring a to the bottom
of the partially made thimble the lower edge of the thimble is placed
within the said ring, as represented in Figure 15, and by means of a
spinning process or by a pair of dies the said trough-shaped ring is
closed upon and fixed to the bottom of the thimble, so as to form a rim
thereto, as represented in Figure 16. That edge of the rim thus fixed to
the thimble, which is situated on the inner side of the thimble, is made
smooth by a burnishing tool, or by the closing dies, so as to make the

page_text: inside of the thimble perfectly smooth. Or the rim may be made by a
ring of metal of the kind represented at g, Figure 7, compressed upon
the outer edge of the bottom of the thimble as shown in Figure 17,
where the rim is marked r. By the compressing action of a pair of dies
the said ring is firmly fixed on the thimble, and the open end of the
thimble properly shaped at the same time. The dios or tools herein-
before described and illustrated are worked in a press in the ordinary
way.
Instead of employing an impressed blank having four arms, as illus-
trated in the Drawings, an improssed blank having three arms, or more
than four arms, may be employed with the same or nearly the same
effect; and instead of impressing the indentations or gratings and
inscription or border upon the blank after the said blank has been cut
out, the said indentations or gratings and inscriptions or border may
bo impressed upon disks of sheet metal, and the blanks cut from
the said impressed disks. A. disk of shect metal impressed with the
indentations or gratings and border, from which a cruciform blank is to
be cut according to our Invention, is represented in plan and edge view
in Figure 18. The impressed disk, Figure 18, is placed in a circular die
with a set edge, and the blank is cut from it by the punch or upper die
in the ordinary way. The middle of the impressed disk, Figure 18,
which forms the top of the finished thimble, may be raised or fashioned
in the manner represented prior to the cutting out of the blank.
When indentations or gratings alone are required on the thimble the
sheet metal, from which the blanks are cut, may be impressed with the
said indentations or gratings by a rolling process.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, we wish it to be under-
stood that we do not limit ourselves to the precise details herein
described and illustrated, as the same may be varied without departing
from the nature of our Invention; but we claim as our Invention the
improvements in the manufacture of thimbles used in sewing, herein-
before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings, that is
to say, manufacturing the bodies of the said thimbles from cruciform
blanks, the said blanks being impressed with the required indentations;
or gratings, and when necessary with an inscription or border, the said
impressed cruciform blanks being raised into the bodies of thimbles by
raising tools substantially as described and illustrated.

page_text: Also constructing and attaching rims to the open ends of the bodies
of the thimbles so made substantially in the ways described and
illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Pratt, have hereunto_set
my
hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw,
Birmingham.
DAVID PRATT. (L.s.)