AN IMPROVED TOBACCO BOX AND TOBACCO CUTTING MACHINE COMBINED.
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Clark, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Iron Planer, and Thomas Vicars, of the same Place,
Gentleman, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED TOBACCO BOX AND
TOBACCO CUTTING MACHINE COMBINED.'
Sealed the 14th August 1868, and dated the 17th February 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Clark and
Thomas Vicars at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 17th February 1868.
We, JOHN CLARK, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Iron
Planer, and THOMAS VICARS, of the same Place, Gentleman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED TOBACCO
Box AND TOBACCO CUTTING MACHINE COMBINED," to be as follows:-
The object of our Invention is to provide for smokers and others a
portable or pocket box for containing tobacco, so fitted or combined
with a knife and feed mechanism that tobacco can be conveniently and.
with dispatch cut as required to any desired degree of fineness. The
box is made of metal, gutta percha, vulcanite, or other suitable material

page_text: of a cylindrical, oval, or other form, we prefer the cylindrical form.
Inside the box, preferably through its greatest length, wo rest in bearings
a finely pitched screw. The said screw projects a short distance beyond
the end or mouth of the box, and has attached firmly to it a knife of
any convenient shape; this knife is hinged to the lid of the box, such
lid serving as an operating handle, or if prefferred a separate operating
handle is provided. Between the bearings and on the said screw a
travelling nut or feed picce is placed. When therefore the screw is
rotated the feed piece puslics forward the tobacco at a slow speed beyond
the end or mouth of the box, and such tobacco is cut off by the knife
as it comes round cach revolution.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Clark and Thomas Vicars in the Great Scal
Patent Office on the 14th August 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, Joun
CLARK, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Iron Planer, and
THOMAS VICARS, of the same Place, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant. unto us, the said Jolin Clark and Thomas Vicars,
Her special license that we, the said John Clark and Thomas Vicars,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the
said John Clark and Thomas Vicars, 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 "AN IMPROVED TOBACCO BOX AND
TOBACCO CUTTING MACHINE COMBINED," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said John Clark and Thomas Vicars, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one
of our or their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to

page_text: 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 we, the said John Clark and Thomas Vicars,
do hereby declare the nature of our said 'Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the
accompanying Sheet of illustrative Drawings, and to the figures and
letters thereon, that is to say:
The object of our Invention is to provide for smokers and others a
portable or pocket box for containing tobacco, so fitted or combined
with a knife and feed mechanism that tobacco can be conveniently and
with despatch cut as required to any desired degree of fineness. The
box is made of metal, gutta percha, vulcanite, or other suitable material
of a cylindrical, oval, or other form, we prefer the oval and cylindrical
forms. Inside the box, preferably through its greatest length, we'rest
in bearings a finely pitched screw. The said screw projects a short
distance beyond the end or mouth of the box, and has attached firmly
to it a knife of any convenient shape; this knife is hinged to the lid
of the box, such lid serving as an operating handle, or if preferred a
separate operating handle is provided. Between the bearings and on
the said screw a travelling nut or feed piece is placed. When therefore
the screw is rotated the feed piece pushes forward the tobacco at a slow
speed beyond the end or mouth of the box, and such tobacco is cut off
by the knife as it comes round each revolution.
On the accompanying Sheet of Drawings Fig. 1 is a perspective view,
Fig. 2 a longitudinal elevation, Fig. 3 a longitudinal section, Fig. 4 an
-end elevation, and Fig. 5 an end elevation, the lid being removed, all
of an oval tobacco box and cutting machine combined according to our
Invention. In all these views like letters denote the same parts.
a is the body of the box or tobacco container; b; the bottom cover;
¹, the top cover or lid; c is the cutting knife provided with an operating
handle d; c is formed with a polygonal opening to fit over a many-
"sided portion near the end of the fine pitch feed screw e; f is a nut to
bind c on e. The feed screw e is carried and held in position by the
fixed bearing at one end and by the bottom cover b at the other end.
I is a screwed nut or feed piece to travel on e. The tobacco is placed

page_text: and carried within a; to cut it it is simply necessary to hold the box
in one hand, grasp and move the handle d, and by it rotate the knife c
and the screw e. Every revolution of e causes h to travel thereon the
distance between two threads and propel the tobacco over the end of
the box for that length where the knife c cuts it off; this is illustrated
by Fig. 1. The pitch of c determines the fineness of cut of the tobacco;
fastidious smokers can be provided with several screws of different
pitches to suit different kinds of tobacco, and thereby be enabled to
provide themselves with newly cut tobacco of any required degree of
fineness. When / has travelled close up to c, e is made to rotate in
the opposite direction, that is, with the back of the knife as the leading
edge to send / down to b, or the screw can be so arranged with bearings
and shoulders at both ends that the knife can be removed from one end
to the other; in this case the piece would feed when travelling in
both directions. A modification or extension of the above arrangement,
whereby a smoker would be enabled to carry and cut up two kinds of
tobacco without interfering the one with the other, is effected or secured
by using two screws in the same line, or right and left handed threads
on the said rod or bar, two feed pieces travelling away from each other
and two cutting knives or a removeable cutting knife.
Fig. 6 is a side elevation, Fig. 7 a longitudinal section, and Fig. 8
an end view looking on the lid, all of another apparatus constructed
according to our Invention. Here i is the body of the box; j, the
bottom cover; k, the top cover or lid, this serves here also as the
operating handle by which the cutting knife Z is rotated on, and with
the screw m carrying the feed piece n; o is a bearing for m; and P is
a rod to prevent the tobacco from coming in contact with m. The
position in which is placed when at work is shown by dotted lines in
Fig. 7 is hinged to the connecting piece q, the stud of which passes
through 1, and is fastened by a cotter or otherwise.
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and par-
ticularized the same by two convenient modifications, we would have
it understood that we do not confine ourselves to the exact details
herein described and delineated, as many variations may be made
without departing from our said Invention, for instance, the feed screw
might be placed outside the box or container, and the feed piece pass
from the screw through a slot or long opening into the box; but what
we claim is,-

page_text: First. The combination of the rotating cutting knife c or with the
tobacco container or box a or i in portable or pocket apparatus for the
purpose specified.
Second. The combination of the box a or i with the knife c or 1, the
screw e or m, and the feed piece h or n in portable or pocket apparatus
for the purpose specified, substantially as described.
Third. The combination of the knife c or with the operating handle d
or the operating handle and lid k in portable or pocket apparatus for
the purpose specified, arranged substantially as described.
Fourth. The combination of the whole of the parts, arranged sub-
stantially in in the manner for the purpose set forth.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Clark and Thomas Vicars,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Seventh day of
August, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-eight.
In the presence of
JOHN T. KING,
Patent Agent,
Liverpool.
JOHN CLARK.
(L.S.)
THOMAS VICARS. (L.S.)