Specification of John Swainson : pill boxes.

  • Swainson, John.
Date:
1863
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Specification of John Swainson : pill boxes. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    Provisional Sif'fti'i^soTis XivpTOvsii'icfits in the IMo/nufctctuTB of Pill Poxes. lengths to the size required by means of a turning machine, commonly called a tLead bobbin machine, the said machine also fashioning one end of the wood length for the reception of the box lid. I next place the said turned lengths in the holder of the machine herein-after described, and by means of the said machine I bore or cut out the inside of the wood lengths to the required depth. 5 Pill boxes or similar boxes are thus manufactured and are ready for the reception of the lids, the said lids being made by turning the exterior and boring out the interior of short wood lengths in the manner described with respect to boxes. The machine or lathe by which I bore or cut out the interior of the cylin¬ drical wood lengths in order to make boxes and lids therefrom is constructed 10 essentially as follows :—A horizontal spindle working in headstocks on the bed of the machine carries at one end a boring bit of the ordinary form. The said spindle may either be fixed or capable of sliding in its bearings. In a line with the axis of the said bit a holder made in halves is supported. This holder is carried in an upright fixed on the end of a horizontal slide, working on a 15 dovetail on the bed of the lathe or machine. The lower half of the holder is dropped into a recess made in the said upright to receive it, and the upper half of the said holder is fixed in a vertical slide working on a dovetail in the said upright. By means of a screw and handle the said slide carrying the moveable half of the holder can be raised from or brought down upon the fixed 20 half in the upright. A short cylindrical length from which a box or lid is to be made is placed in the lower and fixed half of the holder; the moveable half is then brought down upon the said fixed one, and the wood length securely held in the said holder. A rapid rotatory motion being communicated to the boring bit, the slide carrying'the upright and in which the holder is fixed is ?5 moved forward on its dovetail bv means of a handle, and the wood length in the holder pressed against the rotating boring bit, and the inside of the said wood length bored or cut out by the said bit. The required depth of boring having been effected, the slide is moved from the boring bit, and the box or lid removed from the holder by means of a rod which passes through the back 30 of the said holder. The machine may either work horizontally or vertically. Holders of the kind described having different diameters are emjiloyed with corresponding sized boring bits to manufacture different sized pill and similar boxes. Although I prefer to employ the machine herein-before described to bore or 35 cut out the interior of the wood lengths, yet other machines may be employed for the same purpose.
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