What-is-it question CXXXIX

[Granmaa]

Here's an interesting object made in Birmingham in 1923; what's it for? While it's here, I may as well ask for help identifying the maker.

Miles


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[doc]

Is it a table bell or desk bell for calling "the help"?
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[admin]

Miles,
Got nowhere with a patent search, am I reading the # correctly as 136330?
In the US, for this time period, it is one digit too many for a design patent and one digit too few for a utility patent.
I suspect that it is British patent # with the added info that a patent has also been applied for in the US. Can one look up British patents online?

Regards, Tom
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[admin]

Yes, you can, at http://www.ipo.gov.uk/types/patent/p-os ... number.htm
but search for GB0136330 fetched this result:
No Computerised record exists for case some paper records may exist.
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[dragonflywink]

Patent GB 136330 was issued 12/18/1919 to David Aloysius Martin for a hanging ink-pot with a gravity-seal push plunger type mechanism, other intended uses were for "scent, or other liquids, granulated substances, or the like". The illustration shows a different shape item, but perhaps the design was adapted for a novelty dispenser for one of the substances mentioned?

~Cheryl
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[Granmaa]

Hello all,

Not a bell, I'm afraid. Yes, Cheryl, I think it's a scent/aftershave dispenser. The bell fills up, and releases one drop when the pusher is depressed.
May I ask how you found the patent info?

I'm still after the name of the maker; I think one of the Bs could be bell, considering the shape of the mark.

Miles
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[admin]

Nice work, Cheryl, patent sites seem to confound me every time.

Bell Brothers is the obvious conclusion, but the nearest firm of that name that I could find was a retail watchmakers & goldsmiths located in Doncaster.

Regards, Tom
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[dragonflywink]

Heh, it's my secret source! ;-) Actually, it's the worldwide database of the European Patent Office, accessed from the IPO site. I spend wayyy too much time wandering through patent and book sites.....

http://gb.espacenet.com/search97cgi/s97 ... number.hts

~Cheryl
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[2209patrick]

The book "The Silversmiths of Birmingham and their Marks", edited by Kenneth Crisp Jones, shows this mark was entered at Birmingham in September of 1919 by the Bell Bros.



Pat.
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