IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE SCREENS OR GUARDS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edwards, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Commission Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
FIRE SCREENS OR GUARDS."
Sealed the 19th April 1861, and dated the 3rd November 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edwards at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
November 1860.
I, WILLIAM EDWARDS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Com-
mission Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE SCREENS OR GUARDS," to be as follows, that is to
say:
My Invention consists, firstly, in making fire screens or guards, for protect-
ing open fires or domestic grates, after the manner of a fan with folding
leaves; the pivot or axis upon which these leaves fold, is furnished with a
handle, which handle may be shaped and perforated to form a hob for a small
kettle and may also be jointed to the axis of the fan. The object of making
fire guards of this form is that they may be readily folded up and put away
when not required for use and are not so bulky or cumbersome as those at
present in use. The leaves of the fan may be either stamped out of sheet
metal or framed in wire, each leaf when formed of sheet metal being attached
to its neighbour by studs or pins, which studs or pins have sufficient play in

page_text: slots or openings to admit of their closing up one over the other as a fan. When
made in wire the leaves are connected together by clips instead of studs and
slots.
The guard may, if preferred, be made by rivetting together a number
of these leaves which would thus form a very ornamental screen, but would not
of course be folding.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edwards in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
3rd May 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARDS, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Commission Agent,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Edwards, Her special license that I, the said William Edwards,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Edwards, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN FIRE SCREENS OR GUARDS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said William Edwards, 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 William Edwards, 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 Drawings hereunto annexed and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My Invention consists in making fire screens or guards for protecting open
fires or domestic grates after the manner of a fan with folding leaves; the pivot
or axis upon which these leaves fold is furnished with a handle, which handle

page_text: may be shaped and perforated to form a hob for a small kettle, and may also be
jointed to the axis of the fan. The object of making fire guards of this form
is that they may be readily folded up and put away when not required for use,
and are not so bulky or cumbersome as those at present in use. The leaves of
the fan may be either stamped out of sheet metal or formed in wire, each leaf
when formed of sheet metal being attached to its neighbour by studs or pins,
which studs or pins have sufficient play in slots or openings to admit of their
closing up one over the other as a fan. When made in wire the leaves
are connected together by clips instead of studs and slots. The guard
may (if preferred) be made by rivetting together a number of these leaves,
which would thus form a very ornamental screen, but would not of course be
folding.
I will now proceed to describe my Invention in detail with the assistance
of the accompanying Drawings, which in Figure 1 represent one of my
improved folding fan fire screens open or expanded as in use, and in Figure 2,
the same screen closed, Figure 3 being a section of the same.
The Drawings shew merely the outline of the design, all the ornamental
perforated work of which it is susceptible being in this case omitted in order to
shew the principle of the Invention the more clearly. (a) are the leaves of
the fan pierced with any design that may be desired; these are formed of sheet
metal, each blank or leaf being struck from the same dies; they are connected
together by pins or rivets passing through holes in one side of each leaf through
the slot (6), and secured upon the under side on a rivet head, so that the pin
has free play in the slot (b); the opposite end of each leaf has the spindle or
axis (c) passing through it, the two outside leaves being secured to the spindle
in such manner that they will not turn upon the axis. The fore end of the
spindle (c) is furnished with a ring or ornamental handle (d), by which the
guard may be partially or wholly folded up leaf upon leaf, the outer leaves
being secured to the spindle; it follows that these must turn with the spindle by
the action of the hand upon the ring or ornamental handle (d), and the outer
leaves being pinned or connected to the remaining leaves through the rivet
working in the slot (b), those leaves, which are free upon the spindle, follow in
the direction of the fixed or outer ones, and thus they fold one over the other
as in a common fan. The inner end of the spindle, (c) terminates in hooks by
which the guard is hung on to the bars of an ordinary fire-grate, and this portion
of the spindle may, if preferred, have a telescopic action, one part sliding over
the other, so that the guard may be extended outwards from the fire or con-
tracted nearer towards the bars. The handle (d) may be made of perforated
plate metal, and by having a stop fixed upon the pin or rivet upon which it

page_text: hangs, or by any other convenient mode, it may be made to fix itself in a
horizontal position when raised, so that it would form a hob for a small kettle or
for any other similar use. This guard may also be made of a number of
leaves cast in moulds, or it may be formed of leaves stamped out of sheet metal
or cast in moulds, and pinned or otherwise secured together; this would form
a very ornamental guard, but of course it would not have the advantages
of that already described in being folding and more portable for packing
away.
My improved fire screen or guard may also be made in wire instead of plate
or cast metal leaves; in that case I should employ instead of the studs or pins,
with which the leaves of the fan are connected, wire clips or hooks which
would answer the same purpose.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine
myself to these precise details; but that which I claim and desire to have
secure to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is the several
improvements in fire screens or guards substantially as herein more fully set
forth and specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edwards, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
WILLIAM EDWARDS, (L.S.)