US180403A - Improvement in spoons and forks - Google Patents

Description

Le R.. S. WHITE.

SPOONS ANDFORKS.

Patented July 25,1876.

u amoa.

Wi'bzessea. %m w Unrr11 STATES PATEN Qrg rE.

LE ROY s. WHITE, or wATnRBUnY, CONNECTICUT, ASSIGNOR TO BROWN & BROTHERS, OF SAME PLACE.

IMPROVEMENT IN SPOONS AND FORKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 180,403, dated July 25, 1876; application filed June 28, 1876.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, LE RoY S. Wnrrn, of Waterbury, in the county of New Haven and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and useful Improvement in the Manufacture of Table Forks and Spoons and other articles of table use and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, which forms part of this specification.

This invention relates to the manufacture of forks, spoons, and other articles of table use from German silver or albata and other ductile metals or alloys, in which the entire article, including its handle, is made from the same piece of metal. In the ordinary process of manufacturing such table-forks and spoons it is customary first to cut out the blank from a sheet of uniform thickness, and, after annealing the same, to roll it to grade by tapering it from the shank toward opposite ends, and afterward to cut out the blank into its required shape, and after annealing such partlyfinished blank, to stamp it while in the flat state to produce the ornamentation, and'then to bend it to the required curvature in directions perpendicular to its face. This bending of the blank has the effect of weakening the metal at the shank, where increased stiffness is required. "This is due to the disturbance of the molecular arrangement of the metal by the act of bending, and no amount of facewise condensation of the blank prior to bending obviates this result.

My invention consists in condensing the metal in the shank of the fork, spoon, or blank by pressure in a directionperpendicular to the face of the latter after said blank has been bent, whereby any impairing of the strength of the shank by the act of bonding is fully, or more than, compensated for by the hardness or stiffness imparted to it by the condensation of the metal after bending, as above described. This condensation of the metal in the shank by pressure in a direction perpendicular to the face of the fork, spoon, or blank, after the latter has been bent, may also be applied to advantage when pressure to condense or harden the metal in the shank has been applied in a direction transverse to the plane or face of the blank before bending, as described in Letters Patent, No. 178,218, issued to Brown 86 Brothers, of Waterbury, Connecticut, as assignees of myself, May 30, 1876, inasmuch as condensing the metal in the shank after bending serves to restore the condensation affected senting the blank after it has been annealed.

Fig. 2 represents face and edge views of said blank after it has been rolled to grade. Fig. 3 represents face and edge views of the graded blank, cut out as required to form the fork, also showing the same as it appears after bein g annealed. Fig. 4 represents face and edge views of the graded cut-out blank shown in the immediately preceding figure, after said blank has been further shaped and roughed out, or after the metal in the shank has been condensed by pressure applied in a direction transverse to theplane of the blank, as described in Letters Patent No. 178,218, hereinbefore referred to, and been roughed out on a polishing-belt. Fig. 5 represents face and edge views of said fork-blank after it has been bent to give thefork or spoon its repuired contour lengthwise, and after the metal of the shank has been condensed by pressurein a direction perpendicular to the face of the blank, in accordance with this invention--that is, after said blank has been bent into form-such condensation reducing the thickness of the metal at the shank b, as compared with that shown for it in Fig. 4, to an extent corresponding with the amount of pressure brought to bear upon theblank in a direction perpendicular to its face after said blank has been bent. This condensation of the metal in the shank may either be done at the close of the bendto effect the bending, provided the said dies are made of proper form, or it may be done by a separate and subsequent stamping operation. Fig. 6 represents face and edge views of the finished fork.

By condensing the metal of the blank by pressure in a direction perpendicular to its face and after bending, said blank, instead of being weakened at the shank b by bending is materially stiffened or strengthened, and in case of the blank having been previously condensed by pressure in a direction transverse to its plane, the full benefit of that condensation is retained, as hereinbefore described.

I claim- 1. The improvement in the art of manufacturing forks, spoons, and other like articles of table use, by condensing the metal in its shank by pressure in a direction perpendicular to the face of the fork, spoon, or blank after the latter has been bent, substantially as specified.

2. The method, herein described, of condensing or hardening the metal in the shank of a fork, spoon, or other like article of table use, by first" applying pressure to the shank in a direction transverse to the plane or face of the blank before bending, and subsequently condensing the metal in the shank after bending, by pressure applied in a direction perpendicular to the face of the blank, essentially as and for the purpose or purposes herein set forth. 7

LE ROY S. WHITE.

Witnesses:

EDW. L. FRrsBIE, J r., FRANK PARTON.

Images