IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE AND ORNAMENTATION OF NUT-CRACKERS AND LOBSTER- CRACKERS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas White, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Managing Clerk, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE AND ORNAMENTATION OF NUT-CRACKERS AND LOBSTER-
CRACKERS."
Sealed the 17th June 1862, and dated the 24th March 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas White at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
March 1862.
I, THOMAS WHITE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Managing
Clerk, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS, IN THE MANUFACTURE AND ORNAMENTATION OF NUT-CRACKERS AND LOBSTER-
CRACKERS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, firstly, in constructing the points of nut-crackers
and lobster-crackers in the following manner :-Instead of connecting the
two sides of the joint with the middle piece of the joint by means of pins or
rivetted at their ends, I employ pins or axes of iron or German silver, or.
other metal or alloy, which are passed through the parts to be joined, and are
left,unrivetted. The said pins or axes are kept in their places by small orna-
mental, caps fixed over them, the said caps being fixed by soldering or other-
wise, in countersunk depressions made in the sides of the cracker to receive
them. The pins or axes may be rivetted according to the ordinary method of

page_text: manufacture, in which case the ornamental caps serve to conceal the rivetting,
and also ornament the joint.
My Invention consists, secondly, in making and ornamenting the handles
of nut-crackers and lobster-crackers in the following manner:-I make the
said handles cylindrical, and place and fix thereon tubes of metal, ivory, bone,
pearl, wood, glass, china, or papier mâché. I fix the said tubes in their
places on the cylindrical handles, by preference, by means of ornamental
screws; but other means of fixing them may be employed. Handles made in
this way have an ornamental appearance. When I employ metal tubes; they
may be ornamented by engine turning, chasing; engraving, or stamping, and
the tubes-of other materials may be ornamented by painting or gilding, or
otherwise.
My Invention is applicable to nut-crackers and lobster-crackers made of
any material of which they are or may be made
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas White in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th
September 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WHITE, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Managing Clerk, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Thomas White, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas
White, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Thomas White, my 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 AND ORNAMENTATION OF NUT-CRACKERS
AND LOBSTER-CRACKERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Thomas White, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in

page_text: 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas White, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists, firstly, in constructing the joints of nut-crackers and
lobster-crackers in the manner 'herein-after described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing. Instead of connecting the two parts of the joint
with the middle piece by means of pins or axes rivetted at their ends, I employ
pins or axes of iron or German silver, or other metal or alloy, which are passed
through the parts to be joined, and are left unrivetted. The said pins or axes
are kept in their places by small ornamental caps fixed over them, the said
caps being secured by soldering or otherwise in depressions made in the sides
of the cracker to receive them. The pins or axes may be rivetted according
to the ordinary method of manufacture, in which case the ornamental caps
serve to conceal the rivetting, and also ornament the joint.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents in front elevation a nut-
cracker, the joint of which is constructed according to my Invention; Figure 2
is a vertical section of the same taken through the dotted line of Figure 1,
and Figure 3 represents a front and edge view of one of the ornamental caps
employed to secure the pins or axes of the joint in their places.
a, b, are the two sides of the joint, and c is the middle piece of the joint
connected to the parts a, b, by the pins or axes d, which are passed through
the said parts a, b, c, after they are put in the respective positions represented
in the Drawing; e are the ornamental caps by which the pins or axes d are
secured in their places, the said caps being soldered or otherwise fixed in
depressions made in the sides of the cracker to receive them, as will be
understood by an examination of the Drawing. In Figures 1 and 2, one of
the ornamental caps is removed in order to show the shape of the depression
in which it is fixed. Instead of the depression represented, an annular or
ring-like depression for the reception of the edge of the ornamental cap may
be employed. The pins or axes d of the joint may, as before stated, be
rivetted instead of being left loose, and the rivetted ends be concealed and the
joint ornamented by means of the ornamental caps e, the said caps being fixed
in the ways before explained. The ornamental caps e may be made of a
figure and design different from those represented. The nut-crackers, Figures
4, 6, and 7, are provided with joints made according to my Invention..
:

page_text: My Invention consists, secondly; in making and ornamenting the handles of
nut-crackers and lobster-crackers in the manner herein-after described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing. In carrying this part of my
Invention into effect, I make the handles of a cylindrical or prismatic figure,
and fix thereon tubes of metal, ivory, bone, pearl, wood; glass, china, or papier
mâché; or other material. I fix the said tubes in their places, by preference,
by means of ornamental screws or screwed terminations; but other means of
fixing them may be employed.".
Figure 4 represents in front elevation a nut-cracker, the handles of which
are constructed and ornamented according to my Invention. Part of one of
the handles of the said nut-cracker, Figure 4, is represented detached in
Figure 5, in order to exhibit the construction of the said handle. The
cylindrical handle g is made in one piece with or joined to the head h of the
cracker; or the said handle may have a prismatic figure. Upon each of
the said handles g an engine-turned cylindrical metal tube i is placed and fixed
thereon against the shoulder of the ornamental collar by means of the ter-
mination / screwing upon the screw m on the bottom of the handle g. "The
cylindrical or other shaped tubes may, however; be fixed in their places by
rivetting, soldering, or in any other convenient. way.
Figure 6 represents in front elevation, and Figure 7, in side elevation;
another nut-cracker, the handles of which are made according to my Invention;
namely, of ornamental tubes. In the said Figures 6 and 7 the ornamental
tubes n are made of ivory, and the ornamental screwed terminations o by which
they are fixed in their places are made of metal. .
Figures 8, 9, 10; and 11 represent other shaped tubes which I employ in
carrying my Invention into effect. Plain tubes of any section, and ornamental
tubes of various kinds' may, however, be employed, and when metal tubes are
used they may be ornamented by engine turning, chasing, engraving, or
stamping, and the tubes of other materials may be ornamented by. painting or
gilding, or otherwise.
I prefer to make the tubes of the same figure internally as the handles on
which they are to be fitted, but I do not limit myself thereto. Handles of
uut-crackers and lobster-crackers made according to my Invention have an
ornamental appearance. My Invention is applicable to nut-crackers and
lobster-crackers made of any material of which they are or 'may be made.
I have not thought it necessary to represent or describe lobster-crackers
made according to my Invention, as the said lobster-crackers differ only in
size from nut-crackers, and the construction of the said lobster-crackers,
according to my Invention, will be readily understood by the description and

page_text: illustration of the application of my Invention to nut-crackers herein-before
given.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described and illustrated, as the same may
be varied without departing from the nature of my Invention; but I claim, as
my Invention,
Firstly, the improvement in the construction of the joints of nut-crackers
and lobster-crackers, herein-before described and illustrated in Figures 1, 2,
and 3 of the accompanying Drawing, that is to say, connecting the parts of
the said joints by means of pins or axes passed through the said parts and
left unrivetted, the said unrivetted pins or axes being fixed in their places by
means of small ornamental caps soldered or otherwise fixed in depressions made
in the sides of the crackers, the said depressions being concentric with-the said
pins or axes.
.. Secondly, the improvement in the construction of the joints of nut-crackers
and lobster-crackers when the pins or axes of the said joints are rivetted,
herein-before described with reference to Figures 1, 2, and 3, of the.accom-
panying Drawing, that is to say, concealing the rivetted ends of the pins or
axes of the said joints, and ornamenting the said joints by means of small
ornamental caps fixed over the said rivetted ends.
Thirdly, the improvement in making and ornamenting the handles of nut-
crackers and lobster-crackers, herein-before described and illustrated in Figures.
4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 of the accompanying Drawing, that is to say,
making the said handles of a cylindrical or prismatic figure, and placing
and fixing thereon tubes of metal, ivory, bone, pearl, wood, glass, china, papier
mâché, or other material.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas White, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw,
Birmingham.
THOMAS WHITE. (L.S.)