IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METAL PENS AND HOLDERS, IN TOOLS EMPLOYED THEREIN, AND IN CARDS FOR CARRYING THE SAME
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joseph Wood at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd October
1861.
I, JOSEPH WOOD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF METAL PENS AND HOLDERS, IN TOOLS EMPLOYED THEREIN, AND IN
CARDS FOR CARRYING THE SAME," to be as follows:-
The main object of my Invention is to produce pens ready for hardening
and tempering by machinery, and without waste of metal.
My Invention consists in cutting out from the back or tail end of one pen
the point of another, as hereafter explained, and so on for as many pens as
the strip of metal will make. The pens, when made by the tools hereafter
described, are dished between the two side slits, somewhat in the form of an
arrow's point, to form a reservoir for the ink, and the wings made by the
metal which is cut out for the points afford a means for securing the pens in
the holder, the latter being made in such manner that the wings of the pen
when inserted in it become interlaced, a certain portion of the holder being
for that purpose compressed below the level of the adjoining parts.
The several operations on the strip of steel from which the pens are cut are
performed in two divisions or parts, namely, the tools for cutting the diagonal
lines of the pen and the side slits, and the stamping of the name or other
device are performed by being fixed in the usual cutting-out and stamping
press, while the cutting of the longitudinal and parallel lines and the raising

page_text: of the pen are performed by means of a pair of rolls having the necessary
steel cutters and tools keyed on to the same, such rolls likewise performing
the double duty of feeding rollers by drawing the strip of steel the required
distance from under the punch after each stroke of the same. The tools or
dies used by me in effecting the operations performed by the stamping and
cutting-out press are, by preference, four, which, when laid together and
secured in a planed iron frame, form the bottom die plate or fixed bed of the
press; there are notches and indentations at the sides as a provision for holding
and screwing them firmly together. The circular cutting and raising tools
are of two kinds, that used for cutting is turned on the edge or face in a
concave form, that used for raising is turned in the edge or face in a
convex form, so that when they are keyed on to the spindles alternately they
fit and work together. The convex or raising tool is made of a less thickness
than the concave and cutting tool, so as to admit of the introduction of small
india-rubber washers at each side to facilitate their proper working, and to
enable them to be screwed up to the required gauge to meet the corresponding
gauge of the tools used in the press. By the means before described I am enabled
at one stroke to perform all the operations of cutting out, stamping, piercing,
and raising wholly by power, the pens being delivered from the raising rolls
ready for hardening and tempering. The machine by which I propose to
work these tools is of the ordinary construction. In working, I use a strip
of steel broader than the breadth of the working tools, so as to leave a
margin on each side to hold them together while passing from the punch to
the rolls, and having once fixed the steel in the rolls parallel to the lines of
the tools in the punch, I fasten the ends of each succeeding strip together by
means of a small dovetail previously cut to fit each other. By simply changing
the ratchet wheel, I. can cut each row of pens of any required length, which
will likewise have the effect of increasing or diminishing the distance between
the side slits and the points of the pens.
I form cards for carrying pens by stamping, embossing, or otherwise
raising portions of the surface thereof, leaving spaces between the raised
surfaces for the reception of the pens and penholder, so that when the latter
are laid and stitched on the card they do not rise above the raised portions of
the card; or the pens may be stitched on the raised surfaces. I prefer to
make the dies for producing the raised surfaces on the cards circular.