IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OR SHAPING SCREW NUTS AND THE HEADS OF BOLTS AND FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Peter Parkes, of West Bromwich, in the County
of Stafford, Machinist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OR SHAPING SCREW NUTS AND THE HEADS OF BOLTS
AND FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES."
Sealed the 15th February 1870, and dated the 14th December 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Parkes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th December 1869.
I, PETER PARKES, of West Bromwich, in the County of Stafford,.
Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OR SHAPING SCREW NUTS AND THE.
HEADS OF BOLTS AND FOR OTHER LIKE PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
The said machinery consists essentially of the following arrangements
of parts:-
The nuts or bolts to be shaped are carried by a disk near the periphery
of which they are supported in radial directions. The said disk has a
slow rotatory motion communicated to it. By this motion the nuts

page_text: and heads to be cut or shaped are carried in succession between three
pairs of rotating cutters. Each nut or head as it passes between the
first pair of cutters is cut or shaped on two opposite sides. As it passes
from the first pair to the second pair of cutters it is turned through one-
sixth of a revolution, and two other opposite faces are brought under the
operation of the second pair of cutters. As it passes from the second
pair to the third pair of cutters it is turned through another sixth of a
revolution, and two other opposite faces are brought under the operation
of the third pair of cutters. In this way the six sides of a hexagonal nut
or bolt head are cut or shaped by being carried between three pairs of
cutters. Three nuts or bolt heads are always under operation at the
same time. The disk carrying the nuts or bolts has a slow rotatory
motion given to it by means of worm and worm wheel gearing con-
necting it to the driving shaft, and the cutters have a rapid rotatory
motion given to them by means of toothed wheel gearing connecting
them to the driving shaft. The requisite motion of the nuts or bolts as
they pass from one pair of cutters to the next pair is effected in the
following way: The cast-iron disk carrying the nuts or bolts has six
pairs of brackets cast upon it in radial directions. In these brackets
tubular holders are fitted and turn. Each of these holders is bored to
receive a chuck which is fastened in the holder by a set screw. These
chucks are capable of being changed to suit the size of the bolt head to
be shaped. When nuts are to be shaped a pin or mandril on which the
nut is fixed is placed in the chuck. On each holder is fixed a hexagonal
guide collar of the same shape as but of larger size than the head or
nut to be shaped. During the motion of the head or nut between the
cutters one face of the hexagonal guide collar bears against a wrought-
iron ring fixed to the back end of the headstock which carries the
revolving disk. In this way the head or nut is prevented from rotating
while under the action of the cutters. The motion through one-sixth of
a revolution which takes place as the nut or bolt passes from one pair
of cutters to the next pair is effected in the following manner :-On each
holder are six projecting pins or stops, one of which as the nut or bolt
passes from one pair of cutters to the next pair comes in contact with
a projection on the ring described, and in passing the said projection
the said holder is made to perform one-sixth of a revolution. The
hexagonal guide collar on the holder comes opposite to a cut-away
portion of the ring described as the nut or bolt leaves one pair of cutters,
and the holder is thus capable of performing the partial rotation

page_text: described. When, however, the nut or bolt comes under the operation
of the next pair of cutters the hexagonal collar bears against another
portion of the said ring and thereby prevents the rotation of the holder.
After the nut or bolt has passed the several pairs of cutters other
projections on the ring acting on the stops on the chuck holder bring
the said holder into its original position. The attendant feeds or
supplies nuts or bolts at one side of the rotating disk, which being
carried between the cutters and returned to him are removed, and the
continuous action of the machine thus only requires the proper feeding
and removal of the nuts or bolts.
Although I have only described the machinery as constructed for
cutting or shaping hexagonal nuts or bolt heads yet square or other
nuts or heads may be cut or shaped by the machine by making such
changes as do not affect the essential construction of the said machine:
Besides being applicable to the cutting or shaping of nuts and bolt
heads my Invention is also applicable to the cutting or shaping of
ramrod stoppers, the forked sides of the joints of reaping and mowing
machines, and other like articles may be shaped by the machine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Peter Parkes in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 6th June 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
PARKES, of West Bromwich, in the County of Stafford, Machinist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Peter Parkes, Her special licence that
I, the said Peter Parkes, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Peter Parkes, 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

page_text: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
CUTTING OR SHAPING SCREW NUTS AND THE HEADS OF BOLTS AND FOR OTHER LIKE
PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Peter
Parkes, 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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Peter Parkes, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thercof, that is to say :-
The said machinery consists essentially of the following arrangements
of parts:-
The nuts or bolts to be shaped are carried by a disk, near the
periphery of which they are supported in radial directions. The
said disk has a slow rotatory motion communicated to it. By this
motion the nuts or heads to be cut or shaped are carried in succession
between three pairs of rotating cutters. Each nut or head as it passes
between the first pair of cutters is cut or shaped on two opposite sides.
As it passes from the first pair to the second pair of cutters it is turned
through one-sixth of a revolution and two other opposite sides are
brought under the operation of the second pair of cutters. As it passes
from the second pair to the third pair of cutters it is turned through
another sixth of a revolution, and two other opposite sides are brought
under the operation of the third pair of cutters. In this way the six
sides of a hexagonal nut or bolt head are cut or shaped by being carried
between three pairs of cutters. Two or three nuts or bolt heads are
always under operation at the same time. The disk carrying the nuts
or bolts has a slow rotatory motion given to it by means of worm and
worm wheel gearing connecting it to the driving shaft, and the cutters
have a rapid rotatory motion given to them by means of toothed wheel
gearing connecting them to the driving shaft. The requisite motion of
the nuts or halts as they pass from one pair of cutters to the next pair
is effected in the following way:-The cast-iron disk carrying the nuts
or bolts has six pairs of brackets cast upon it in radial directions. In

page_text: these brackets tubular holders are fitted and turn. Each of these holders
is bored to receive a chuck, which is fastened in the holder by a set
screw. These chucks are capable of being changed to suit the size of
the bolt head to be shaped. When nuts are to be shaped a pin or
mandril on which the nut is fixed is placed in the chuck. On eacli
holder is fixed a hexagonal guide collar of the same shape as but of
larger size than the head or nut to be shaped. During the motion of
the head or nut between the cutters one face of the hexagonal guide
collar bears against a wrought-iron ring fixed to the back end of the
headstock which carries the revolving disk. In this way the head or
nut is prevented from rotating while under the action of the cutters.
The motion through one-sixth of a revolution which takes place as the
nut or bolt passes from one pair of cutters to the next pair is effected
in the following manner :-On each holder are six projecting pins or
stops, one of which as the nut or bolt passes from one pair of cutters
to the next pair comes in contact with a projection on the ring described,
and in passing the said projection the said holder is made to perform
one-sixth of a revolution. The hexagonal guide collar on the holder
comes opposite to a cut-away portion of the ring described as the nut
or bolt leaves one pair of cutters, and the holder is thus capable of per-
forming the partial rotation described. When however the nut or bolt
comes under the operation of the next pair of cutters the hexagonal
collar bears against another portion of the said ring and thereby
prevents the rotation of the holder. After the nut or bolt has passed
the several pairs of cutters other projections on the ring acting on the
stops on the chuck holder bring the said holder into its original position.
The attendant feeds or supplies nuts or bolts at one side of the rotating
disk, which being carried between the cutters and returned to him are
removed, and the continuous action of the machine thus only requires
the proper feeding and removal of the nuts or bolts.
Having explained the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to
describe with reference to the accompanying Drawings the manner in
which the same is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in side elevation, Figure 2 in end 'elevation, and
Figure 3 in plan a machine for cutting or shaping hexagonal screw nuts
and other articles constructed according to my Invention; Figures 4, 5,
6, 7, 8, and 9 represent parts of the same, as herein-after described.

page_text: The same letters of reference are employed to indicate the same parts in
the several Figures of the Drawings. .
:
a is the bed of the machine, and a² are the legs of tlic same; b, c, d, are
the three pairs of cutters of the machine through which the nuts or bolts
are successively passed. The cutters of each pair are fixed on the end
of their shafts at a distance apart equal to the diameter of the nut or
head of the bolt to be operation upon, the acting faces of each pair of
cutters being presented to each other as represented. Each pair of
cutters b, c, d, is fixed respectively on the shafts b, c, d, supported in
the uprights e, c. f is the rotating disk turning in a vertical plane near
the periphery of which disk the nuts or bolt heads to be cut or
shaped are supported. The said disk fis carried by the shaft turning
at one end in the standard or headstock g and at the other end in the
headstock h. Rapid rotatory motion is communicated to the three pairs
of cutters b, c, d, by the train of toothed or spur wheels i, k, l, m, n,
the toothed wheels i, l, n, being fixed on the shafts b, c, d, of the said
pairs of cutters, and the intermediate wheels k, m, gearing with the said
wheels, as seen in Figure 2. In addition to gearing the shafts of the
three pairs of cutters together the intermediate wheels k, m, cause the
whole of the pairs of cutters to rotate in the same direction. The
shaft of the middle pair of cutters c is prolonged at c³ and constitutes
the driving shaft of the machine. A band passed over the fast pulley of
the fast and loose pulleys p, q, gives motion to the shaft c³, and the
motion of the said shaft is transmitted to the several pairs of cutters by
the train of wheels described and represented. A slow rotatory motion
is transmitted from the train of wheels i, k, l, m, n, to the disk f in the
following manner:- is a shaft parallel with the cutter shafts; on the
said shaft r is a toothed wheel or pinion, which gears with and takes
motion from the bottom intermediate spur wheel m (see Figure 2).
This shaft is geared by the worm and worm wheels with the ond
shaft and the said end shaft t is geared by the worm and worm wheel u
with the shaft f of the disk f. A front elevation of the disk fis
represented in Figure 4. I will now proceed to describe in detail the
construction of the parts of the said disk f by which the nuts or bolts
are carried. On the said disk f are cast six pairs of brackets v, v, in
radial directions. In each of the pairs of brackets v, v, a tubular
holder w is fitted by the caps represented, the said holders being capable

page_text: of turning freely in the said brackets. Each of the said holders wo is
bored to receive a chuck x fastened in the holder by a set screw y. In
these chucks the stems of the bolts, the heads of which are to be
operated upon by the machine, are fixed, or when nuts are to be operated
upon mandrils carrying the nuts are fixed in the chucks. One of the
holders to is represented on a larger scale in elevation in Figure 5, and
the said holder combined with a chuck a and mandril z is represented in
vertical section in Figure 6.
The chuck is represented separately in Figure 7, and the mandril z
is represented separately in Figure 8. The mandril is used when nuts
are to be shaped, the nut being forced by a blow on to the reduced end
of the mandril before the latter is fixed in the chuck by the set
screw. On each holder is fixed or made a hexagonal guide collar 2 of
the same shape as but of larger size than the head or nut to be shaped,
and on cach holder are six projections or stops 3, 3. In front of the
revolving disc f is a ring marked 4, 4, 4b, fixed by bolts to the head-
stock h, in which the shaft f of the disk f works. The said ring
4, 4, 4, and headstock are represented in front elevation and plan in
Figure 9. The said ring is made in segments or pieces, and is provided at,
one part with two projections 5, 6, for rotating the holders w through the
required angle, as herein-after explained, and on another part of the said
ring are four projections 7, 7, 7, 7, for returning the holders w into their.
original positions after they leave the last pair of cutters. The hexagonal
guide collar 2 of each holder to bears upon the ring 4, 4, 4, during the
action of the pairs of cutters upon the nut or bolt head; but during the
rotation of the holder wo to bring fresh faces of the nut or head under
the operation of the next pair of cutters the said guide collar is brought,
successively opposite the cut-away parts 10, 11, (see Figure 9) of the
ring, and the holder is thus capable of performing a partial rotation.
The ring is also cut away at the part where the projections 7 are
situated.
I will now proceed to describe the action of the machine as applied
to the cutting or shaping of screw nuts. The attendant at the side A
of the machine, Figure 2, feeds the nut 8, 8, to be shaped fixed on the
mandrils into the chucks x, x, of the holders w, 10, carried by the
disc f, the sides of the nuts being so fixed in the chucks as to be parallel
with the sides of the guide collars 2. As the disc f slowly rotates in
the direction indicated by the arrow in Figure 2, the several nuts are

page_text: carried in succession through the several pairs of cutters b, c, d, and the
several faces of the nuts are thereby cut or shaped.
For convenience of description I will describe the action of the
machine upon one nut only, say the nut marked 8 in Figures 2 and 3,
which is about to be operated upon, all the other nuts being operated
upon in a similar manner. As the disc f slowly rotates the nut 8* is
prevented from rotating by the hexagonal guide collar 2 of the holder 10
bearing against the part 4 of the ring (see Figure 3), and the said nut
enters the first pair of cutters 6 so held. As the nut 8 passes between
the first pair of cutters b it is cut or shaped on two opposite sides. As
the nut 8 leaves the first pair of cutters b, and before it enters the
second pair of cutters c, it is turned through one-sixth of a revolution
by one of the pins 3 of the holder 10 striking against the projection 5
of the part 4* of the ring, this partial rotation being permitted by the
guide collar 2 of the holder being situated opposite the cut-away part 10
of the said ring. Thus as the nut is carried through the second pair of
cutters c two other opposite faces of the nut are operated upon. As
the nut passes from between the second pair of cutters c and before it
enters the third pair of cutters d it is turned through another sixth of
a revolution by another of the pins 3 of the holder to striking against
the projection 6 of the ring, the guide collar 2 being opposite the cut-
away part 11 of the said ring. Two other opposite faces of the nut are
thus brought under the operation of the third pair of cutters as the said
nut passes between them. The six sides of the hexagonal nut are thereby
cut or shaped by being carried through the three pairs of cutters b, c, d.
During the time that the nut is under the operation of the pair of
cutters the hexagonal guide collar 2 bears against the part 4 of the
ring, and during the time that the nut is under the operation of the pair
of cutter d the hexagonal guide collar 2 bears against the part 4 of
the said ring, and thereby prevents the rotation of the holder carrying
the nut. As the finished nut leaves the third pair of cutters d four of
the projections 3 on the holder to strike in succession the projections 7
of the ring, and the said holder is thereby turned into its original
position. As the finished nut approaches the attendant at the side A
of the machine he removes the mandril z from the chuck a, and puts
another mandril provided with a fresh nut in its place. By the rotation
of the disk the nut last introduced is carried through the three pairs of
cutters b, c, d, as herein-before described, and returned to the attendant,

page_text: the action of the machine being made continuous by the attendant
properly fitting the nuts into and removing the finished nuts from the
chucks of the rotating disk f of the machine.
By an examination of the Drawing it will be seen that two nuts are
being operated upon by the machine at a time. When the heads of
bolts are to be cut or shaped by the machine the stems of the said
bolts are fixed in the chucks in place of the nut mandrils. By
changing the chucks and mandrils and adjusting the cutters nuts and
bolts of different sizes may be operated upon by the machine.
Although I have only described and represented the machinery as
constructed for cutting or shaping hexagonal nuts or bolt heads, yet
square or other nuts or heads may be cut or shaped by the machine
by making such changes as do not affect the essential construction of
the said machine. For example, when square nuts or bolt heads are to
be cut or shaped two pairs of cutters only, are employed, the chuck
holders having square guide collars and a less number of projections.
A less number of projections is also required on the ring. When
octagonal nuts or bolt heads are to be cut or shaped four pairs of cutters
are employed, the guide collars of the chuck holders having a corre-
sponding shape, and a greater number of projections are used on the
chuck holders and ring. By an examination of Figure 9 it will be seen
that the parts of the ring 4, 4, 4b, are made in segments for convenience®
in adapting the machine to operate upon different kinds of nuts and
bolts.
Besides being applicable to the cutting or shaping of nuts and bolt
heads, my Invention is also applicable to the cutting or shaping of
ramrod stoppers, the forked sides of the joints of reaping and mowing
machines, and other like articles.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
I do not limit myself to the precise details herein described and
illustrated, as the same may be varied without departing from the
nature of my Invention; but I claim as my Invention of improvements
in machinery for cutting or shaping screw nuts and the heads of bolts
and for other like purposes,-
Firstly. The combination of two, three, or more pairs of rotating
cutters, with a rotating disk for holding or carrying the nuts or other

page_text: articles to be cut or shaped, the rotation of the said disk causing the
nuts or articles to be brought in succession between the several pairs of
cutters, the two opposite sides of the nut or article being cut or shaped
by each pair of cutters as it passes between the several pairs of cutters, the
the said rotating cutters and disk and parts connected therewith being
constructed and operating substantially as herein-before described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
Secondly. The arrangement or combination of parts, substantially as
herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings,
for turning the holders carrying the nuts or articles through a portion
of a revolution, so as to bring two opposite sides of the nuts or articles
under the operation of the next pair of cutters and for bringing the
holders into their original position.
Thirdly. The arrangement or combination of parts, substantially as
herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings,
for preventing the rotation of the holders carrying the nuts or articles
during the action of the cutters and for permitting the said holders to
rotate at the proper times.
Lastly. The general arrangement or combination herein-before de-
scribed and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings of the parts of
a machine for cutting or shaping screw nuts and the heads of bolts, and
for other like purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Parkes, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Third day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw,
Birmingham.
PETER PARKES. (L.S.)