IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE- LIGHTERS.
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Pinchbeck, of No. 19, Salisbury Street,
Strand, London, and 3, York Buildings, Dale Street, Liverpool,
Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-
LIGHTERS.
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Pinchbeck at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 23rd February 1875.
I, JOHN PINCHBECK, of No. 19, Salisbury Street, Strand, London, and
3, York Buildings, Dale Street, Liverpool, Civil Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN FIRE-
LIGHTERS," to be as follows:-
:-
I construct or make up fire-lighters in stool-like form with several
legs. Instead of taking a central core piece of square cross section
against the sides of which to abut the bevilled ends of the legs, and then
nail, pin, peg, wire, or tie them together, or instead of securing the

page_text: bevilled upper end of each leg when suitably prepared by sliding it into
a corresponding dovetail notch or groove formed in the vertical sides of
the square core piece, I form the stool-like fire-lighters according to this
Invention without bevilling the upper ends of the legs and without
employing nails, pins, pegs, wire, or string for fastening them or securing
them to the core, and also without any dovetailing, shouldering, or
notching of the bevilled upper end of each leg, and the corresponding
treatment or preparation of the core to receive and secure the legs. This
I effect by taking a "body piece" of any suitable section, such as a short
length cut from a triangular sectioned strip, and I bore the requisite
number of holes therein from the opposite sides or the bevilled faces at
suitable angles; the apex of these inverted triangular pieces being down-
ward, the base forms the flat top of the "stool."
The leg portions of the fire-lighters instead of being sawn or squared
on the sides may be split up like bundle wood, and the upper end of
each may be reduced or tapered down, and they are then inserted in the
holes made in the body piece.
:
Instead of forming the body piece of a short length cut from a
triangular section strip of wood, the body piece may be of any other
convenient section or form that will admit of holes being bored therein at
suitable angles to receive the upper ends of the legs to form the fire-
lighters, and so to combine the whole together without the use of nails,
pins, pegs, or other driven fastenings, or the use of wire, string, or other
means of binding. The body and upper portions of the legs together
being then dipped into a resinous mixture or composition, the fire-lighter
is completed ready for use.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said John Pinchbeck, Her special
licence that I, the said John Pinchbeck, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Pinchbeck,
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 FIRE-LIGHTERS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said John Pinchbeck, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing, under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, 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 Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Pinchbeck, 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 and the accompanying Sheet of
Drawings:-
"
I construct or make up fire-lighters in a "stool-like form with
several legs. Instead of taking a central core piece of square cross
section, against the sides of which to abut the bevilled ends of the legs
to be applied thereto, and then nail, pin, peg, wire, or tie them together,
or instead of securing the bevilled upper end of each leg (when
suitably prepared) by sliding it into a corresponding dovetail notch or
groove formed in the vertical sides of the square core piece or head
I form the "stool-liko" fire-lighters according to this Invention
without bevilling the upper ends of the legs, and without employing
nails, pins, pegs, wire, or string for fastening them or securing them to
the core or body piece, and also without employing any dovetailing;
shouldering, or notching of the bevilled upper end of each leg, and the
corresponding treatment or preparation of the core or head to receive and

page_text: secure the legs by such dovetailing. This I effect by taking a head or
body piece of any suitable section, such as a short length cut from a
triangular sectioned strip, and I bore the requisite number of holes
therein from the opposite sides, or in the bevilled or under sides or faces
thereof at suitable angles; the apex of the (inverted) triangular head or
body pieces being downward, the base forms the flat top of the stool or
head piece of the fire-lighter.
The leg portions of such fire-lighters instead of being sawn or squared
on the sides may be split up like "bundle wood," and the upper end of
each leg may be reduced, rounded, or tapered down, and they (the legs)
are then inserted in the holes made in the body piece.
The one end of each leg may be either rounded down with or by
means of a hollow revolving cutter or cutting instrument, or by means
of a compressor or "swage-like" tool, or by a hollow cylindrical nipper
by which the angles are reduced, and the one end of each leg is shouldcred
down to the diameter suitable for entering the holes bored in the head or
body piece.
Instead of forming the head or body of a short piece cut from a
riangular section strip of wood, the body piece may be of any other
convenient section or form that will admit of holes being bored therein
at suitable angles to receive the upper ends of the legs to form the stool-
like fire-lighters, and so to combine the whole together without the use
of nails, pins, pegs, or other driven fastenings, or without the use of
wire, string, or other similar means of binding. The body and upper
portions of the legs being now combined together they are then dipped
into a hot resinous mixture or composition, and the fire-lighter is thus
completed ready for use.
In the accompanying Sheet of illustrativo Drawings I have shown
illustrations of my Invention, in which (preferentially) an inverted
triangular section of body or head piece is employed.
Although as I have herein-before stated other sections may be used or
employed.
Figure 1 is a side view of a piece or portion of a triangular strip of
wood which may either be one-fourth (in section) of a square rod or
strip from which it has been cut, or it may be cut from a plank by means
of inclined or angularly rotating or reciprocating saws.

page_text: Figure 2 is a side view of a short length of a triangular strip (in
Figure 1), in which the holes have been bored suitable for receiving the
upper ends of the leg pieces.
Figure 3 is a view of a leg picce as chopped or cut to the proper
length and scantling; Figure 4 shows the same [Figure 3] after it has
been rounded down, compressed, or otherwise reduced to fit the holes in
the head or body piece.
Figure 5 is a section; Figure 6, an end view; and Figure 7, a side
elevation of my improved stool-like fire-lighter composed of the parts
Figures 1 to 4 combined together. A, B, C, is the triangular top or head
forming the body; D, D, are the two left legs, and E, E, E, those on
the right; ff, represent the ends of the legs rounded down or reduced
to fit into suitable holes bored at convenient distances in the head A, B, C.
The legs may be either chopped or sawn to the proper size or scantling
(which may be inch or thereabouts square), and they are held in their
places by the fit of the rounded part into the holes which should be
bored suitably to receive them.
The lighter when employed stands or is placed on the bottom of the
fire-grate, and a small portion of paper (crumpled up by preference) may
be placed within the triangle G, C, H, after which the coals should be
loosely placed against the legs and on the top of the head A, B. As
soon as the paper is lighted the flame strikes against the thin edges of
the head or body piece A, C, and B which commence at once to burn,
and continue until the whole is consumed; in so doing the coal above is
ignited and forms a cake or hollow fire which does not require any
stirring to ensure a proper draught of air, the form of the lighter
ensuring a proper admission of air, and whereby it is caused to act upon
the fuel like a series of blow pipes. By this arrangement a much smaller
quantity (say only) of the wood usually necessary for the lighting of a
fire is required, while the lighter itself will maintain its original form
for a considerable time; nor can the legs by reason of the method above
described of connecting them to the top or head become detached
or separated from it until the body of the fire-lighter is entirely
consumed.
By the above described method when once the wood is ignited it is

page_text: Although I prefer to form the head of a triangular section (as shown
in Figures 1, 2, 5, 6, &c.), I do not propose to limit or confine myself
thereto, as the head or body piece can be made round, half round, square,
hexagonal, or of any other suitable shape so long as the legs are placed
angularly and secured to the head or body piece in or by the method
herein described.
Although in the accompanying Drawing I have shown two legs D, D,
on the one side, and three legs E, E, E, on the other side to form (in end
view) the triangle C, G, H, as shown in Figures 5, 6, and 7, there may
either be one and two legs similarly arranged or there may be any other
number of legs or any other relation of numbers disposed and arranged
on each side of the head or body piece. Moreover, the triangular shaped
head or body piece shown in section at Figures 5 and 6, at C, A, B, may
be bevilled at each end, and also be there bored and fitted with a leg at
each end, by which four legs may be employed, two at the sides and one at
each end, instead of disposing them, as shown in Figures 7, as it is not
the triangular section or shape shown at Figures 5 and 6 that is intended.
to be claimed hereby and apart from the mode of combining together,
constructing, and forming fire-lighters, and I wish it to be understood
that I am aware that a certain Patent was granted for improvements in
fire-lighters to one E. G. Phillips, dated 12th September 1873, Number
2998/", by which pyramidal shaped fire-lighters were formed and con-
structed by the combination of a body and legs, each leg being cut or
bevilled to a suitable angle at its upper end for being brought against
and attached to (externally) a square body piece, and to which body
piece such legs were nailed, pinned, screwed, or bound by some such
means as therein described; but I do not use or employ any such means
of attaching and securing the parts together, as by my present Invention
I avoid the use of nails, screws, pins, or wire or other binding, and all
extraneous materials for securing the parts together and employ only
wood, and the resinous matters for dipping the heads of the fire-lighters,
but what I claim is,―

page_text: sponding holes angularly in the head or body piece, substantially as herein
described and set forth.
Thirdly. Constructing fire-lighters with a head or body piece as herein
described, and inserting angularly thereinto the legs in manner set forth,
whether the one end of each leg be rounded down, compressed, or other-
wise reduced or not.
0
Witness,
H. H. M. SMITH,
19, Salisbury Street,
Strand.
JOHN PINCHBECK. (L.S.),