IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF HORSE AND MULE SHOES BY MACHINERY
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Lloyd Wise, of Chandos Chambers, Adelphi, in
the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF HORSE AND MULE SHOES BY MACHINERY." A communication
from abroad by James A. Burden, of Troy, in the County of Rensselaer,
and State of New York, United States of America.
Sealed the 2nd June 1876, and dated the 9th March 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Wiliam Lloyd Wise at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 9th March 1876.
WILLIAM LLOYD WISE, of Chandos Chambers, Adelphi, in the County of
Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE AND MULE SHOES
BY MACHINERY." (A communication from abroad by James A. Burden, of Troy, in the
County of Rensselaer, and State of New York, United States of America.)
In that class of horse-shoe machines in which the shoe is bent and swaged into
shape before it is creased and punched it has been found extremely difficult, if not
impracticable, to give to the crease, in its cross section, its proper size and shape.
These should conform to the head of the nail so that the latter may fit the crease
and hold the shoe to its place without looseness or displacement. When the crease
is to be made in a straight bar moving in line with the creaser this may be accom-
plished (though with some difficulties) by a proper shape of the tool, but when the
crease curves away from such line, as it does in a bent blank, and the movement is
in part across the crease, it is necessary to give to the creaser a bevelled or V shape
that it may readily enter and leave the iron on which it operates. Moreover, the
strains upon the creaser, which sometimes are considerable, are thus brought partly
across its edge, and it requires a thickness of material much greater than the proper
width of the crease to resist such strains, and in making creases in straight bars the
material between the roll that holds the blank and the creasers becomes chilled
when the crease is made sufficiently near to the outer edge, an imperfect crease re-
sults, and frequent breakage of the tool. To avoid this the creases in straight bars
as well as in curved ones, are made too far from the edge, and with creasers too wide
and strong to form a proper shoe.
The holes in the shoe should also conform to the size and shape of the nails that
are driven through them. There must be a fit between the two to hold the shoe
firmly to its place, but whether the crease and holes are made in a straight bar or
after it has been bent it has been found impracticable to use a punch as small as
these holes require.
Many attempts have been made to punch these holes automatically, and while
[Price 6d.]

page_text: the iron was still heated, but the difficulty of making punches small enough that
would withstand the heat and pressure to which they are subjected has hitherto
been found an insurmountable objection. They are now universally (so far as my
foreign correspondent is aware) punched when the iron is cold, one hole at a time,
and still the holes are unavoidably made much too large, and the losses and delays
from breakage constitute a very important item in the expense of making horse-
shoes.
It is also very important that the holes in horse-shoes, especially those on the
sides of the shoc, should be made near the outer edge, otherwise the nails, when
setting the shoe, will be driven within the walls of the hoof and injure the horse.
Punching the holes forces the iron outward into unsightly protuberances on the
outside of the shoc, and this whether the crease has been made before or after
the shoe has been bent. The effect diminishes as the holes are made farther from
the edge, and to prevent too irregular an outline and bad appearance these holes
have to be made nearly along the middle line of the shoe. For these reasons shoes
made by machinery have been regarded as inferior to those made by hand, and
although perfect in general shape and sold at about the same price as horse-shoe
iron they have failed to be generally adopted. Steel shoes, on account of the
greater hardness of the material, and the requirement of still stronger tools to make
them, have not been manufactured with any success by machinery. All these
difficulties are overcome in a very simple manner by this Invention.
After the shoe has been made, creased, and punched in the usual manner it is
passed, while heated, through another machine, or part of the same machine, that
pressing against the outer edges forces the material back to its proper place, narrows
the creases and the holes as much as desired, brings the outer edges sufficiently
near to the holes, and gives a smooth and perfect outline to the shoe. The necessity
for small tools is thus avoided. They may be made two or three times thicker
than the finished width of the creases and holes, and strong enough to operate in
hot iron or in steel.
The machinery that effects these objects may be much varied. My foreign
correspondent has used several forins. One that he has found entirely successful is
constructed with a cast-iron frame whose two ends are connected at the top by two
side plates attached by bolts and nuts, and at the bottom by two bars with screws
and nuts. The frame stands upon a heavy iron plate to which it is bolted. Upon
these ends are cast or bolted projections to make bearings for two vertical shafts,
and upon the inside are also cast or bolted projections to support slides and their
guides. The main shaft is supported on the top of the frame. It has its bearings
on the ends, and is held in place by caps in the usual manner.
At either end may
be attached a pulley or a gear wheel through which the machine is put in motion.
At about the middle is a cam which gives the proper movements to a plunger, and
near the ends are attached bevel wheels which nesh into bevels of the same size and
number of teeth, and drive the two upright shafts. The plunger carries what is
termed the upper die. It is fitted to slide up and down within the space formed
by the two sides and the two ends and fills the same. The upper part is hollowed
out to receive the cam, and over the top are caps secured to it by screws and nuts.
The orifice thus formed fits the cam at the top and bottom but is not touched by it
at any other point, and a vertical movement only is thus imparted to the plunger.
In the bottom of the plunger a place is provided for inserting the top die, and this is
held in place by a cap with screws and nuts. Around the periphery of a cast-iron
wheel are attached by screws the lower dies. This wheel has its bearings in boxes
fitted in recesses cast in the two ends of the frame, and is held to its place by caps
and screws.
It is provided with seats around the periphery made wider than the
disc of the wheel on which to place the dies, and from every second one ribs extend
to the shaft to increase its lateral strength; these lower dies receive the shoe to be
swaged. The middle elevated portion has at its base the shape to be given to the
inside of the shoe. Above the thickness of the shoe it tapers and extends upward
one or one and a half inch. This enables it to receive a shoe with imperfections on

page_text: its inside. The base or horizontal part is pressed when in use by the under or creased
side of the shoe, and extends from the middle elevated part to about the inside of
the crease.
There is a hole through the middle to receive a bolt and a rib on the
bottom by which it is secured to the wheel. The upper die is a rectangular block
with a tapering vertical hole through the middle that fits over the elevated part of
the lower die. Its under surface has the shape of the upper surface of the shoe,
and may extend out a little beyond the shoe, or (as it is rather preferred) fall a
little, say one-eighth of an inch, within the outer edge.
The shoe is placed upon
the elevated part of the lower die. The upper die comes down upon it and presses
it firmly against the bottom or horizontal part and the two hold it in place, while
the side dies or swages come up and press the outer edge into proper shape and
close up sufficiently the creases and holes. A wedge that is inserted over the top of
the upper die and presses against the plunger serves to adjust the proper height of
the die, and it is held in place and regulated by a screw and nut.
The vertical shafts on the sides of the machine are held to their bearings by caps
and screws in the usual manner. They carry eccentrics which operate the slides.
These slides move on ways made in orifices cast in the ends of the frame and on
the projections. They are held in place sidewise by guides, and these are adjusted
and held by set screws in the frame.
To the slides are attached by screws and bolts the side dies or swages fitted to
give the proper shape to the outside of the shoe. A recess is made in the casting
to receive them, and they are adjusted to place by packing against the sides.
While the side dies are operating upon the shoe it is necessary that the plunger
should stand stationary to hold the shoe in place, and to effect this object a part of
the cam that actuates the plunger is made concentric with the shaft.
The shoes to be swaged are placed on the dies on the wheel either by hand or
automatically, and at every revolution of the main shaft the wheel is revolved
sufficiently to bring another shoe in place under the upper die. To effect this
movement a part of the plunger and of the cam that moves it are cut away. An
eccentric is attached to the shaft around which is a strap connected by screws and
nuts to the upper part that extends upward to a lever to which it is attached by a
joint. A shaft on which this lever vibrates has its bearings on two upright pieces
attached to the caps, herein-before mentioned; to the other end of the lever is
attached by a joint also a pawl; a spring holds the pawl to its place and against
the stop. The pawl in its upward movement drops in against the elevated part of
a lower die and presses the wheel around by its downward movement, and the
eccentric is so adjusted that the movement of the wheel takes place when the dies
are wholly disconnected. Should there be any failure in the wheels being brought
accurately to its place by the pawl the upper die sliding down the conical elevated
part of the lower die brings it to its place and holds it there until the shoe is
completed.
In those cases in which a straight blank or bar is creased and punched before it
is bent into the form of a horse-shoe the swaging to close up the creases and holes
to a proper size may be effected in a very simple manner. The blank may be put
in place by hand and a reciprocating movement of a swage or die adapted to press
against the parts of the blank that need it will be all the machinery required. A
more rapid way is to pass the blank between two rolls, one of which is in part cut
away and the remaining part fitted to give the requisite compression upon the
blank, and with shoes that have been bent and swaged before they are creased and
punched the wheel may be dispensed with and in its place substituted a single
stationary lower die on which the shoes may be placed and removed by hand or by
automatic machinery.
It will be manifest that the essential feature of the Invention does not consist of
a mere form of machinery, and that there may be many variations of the same and
still use the new mode of proceeding to remedy the defects in machine-made horse-
shoes.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Lloyd Wise in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th
June 1876.
WILLIAM LLOYD WISE, of Chandos Chambers, Adelphi, in the County of Middle-
sex. "1MPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE AND MULE SHOES BY
MACHINERY." (A communication from abroad by James A. Burden, of Troy, in the
County of Rensselaer, and State of New York, United States of America.)
In that class of horse-shoe machines in which the shoe is bent and swaged into
shape before it is creased and punched it has been found extremely difficult, if not
impracticable, to give to the crease in its cross section its proper size and shape.
These should conform to the head of the nail, so that the latter may fit the crease
and hold the shoe to its place without looseness or displacement. When the crease
is to be made in a straight bar, moving in line with the creaser; this may be
accomplished (though with some difficulties) by a proper shape of the tool; but
when the crease curves away from such line, as it does in a bent blank, and the
movement is in part across the crease, it is necessary to give to the creaser a
bevelled or shape that it may readily enter and leave the iron on which it operates.
Moreover, the strains upon the creaser which sometimes are considerable, are thus
brought partly across its edge, and it requires a thickness of material much greater
than the proper width of the crease to resist such strains; and in making creases
in straight bars the material between the roll that holds the blank and the creasers
becomes chilled when the crease is made sufficiently near to the outer edge, an im-
perfect crease results, and frequent breakage of the tool. To avoid this the creases
in straight bars as well as in curved ones are made too far from the edge, and
with creasers too wide and strong to form a proper shoe.
The holes in the shoe should also conform to the size and shape of the nails that
are driven through them. There must be a fit between the two to hold the shoe
firmly to its place; but whether the crease and holes are made in a straight bar or
after it has been bent it has been found impracticable to use a punch as small as
these holes require.
Many attempts have been made to punch these holes automatically, and while the
iron was still heated, but the difficulty of making punches small enough that would
withstand the heat and pressure to which they are subjected, has hitherto been
found an insurmountable objection. They are now universally (so far as my foreign
correspondent is aware) punched when the iron is cold, one holo at a time, and still
the holes are unavoidably made much too large, and the losses and delays from
breakage constitute a very important item in the expense of making horse-shoes.
It is also very important that the holes in horse-shoes especially those on the
sides of the shoe, should be made near the outer edge, otherwise the nails when
setting the shoe will be driven within the walls of the hoof and injure the horse.
Punching the holes forces the iron outward into unsightly protuberances on the
outside of the shoe, and this whether the crease has been made before or after the
shoe has been bent. The effect diminishes as the holes are made farther from the
edge, and to prevent too irregular an outline and bad appearance these holes have
to be made nearly along the middle line of the shoe. For these reasons shoes made
by machinery have been regarded as inferior to those made by hand, and although
perfect in general shape and sold at about the same price as horse-shoe iron, they
have failed to be generally adopted. Steel shoes on account of the greater hardness
of the material, and the requirement of still stronger tools to make them, have not
been manufactured with any success by machinery.
All these difficulties are
overcome in a very simple manner by this Invention.
After the shoe has been made, creased, and punched in the usual manner, it is
passed while heated through another machine, or part of the same machine, that,
pressing against the outer edges forces the material back to its proper place, narrows

page_text: the creases and the holes as much as desired, brings the outer edges sufficiently near
to the holes, and gives a smooth and perfect outline to the shoe. The necessity for
small tools is thus avoided. They may be made two or three times thicker than the
finished width of the creases and holes, and strong enough to operate in hot iron or
in steel.
The machinery that effects these objects may be much varied. My foreign
correspondent has used several forms. One that he has found entirely successful is
represented in the accompanying Drawings.
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the whole machine made separately from the
machines that form the shoe; Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section through the
middle of the machine along the line x, x, in Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a vertical middle
section at right angles to the former along the line y, y, in Fig. 2; Fig. 4 is a
horizontal section along the line z, z, in Fig. 2, shewing the slides, the side swages
attached, and the cams that actuate them.
Fig. 5 is an enlarged vertical longitudinal section through the several dies, and a
shoe in place being swaged.
Fig. 6 is an enlarged cross sectional view of the shaft and cam that actuates the
plunger; cach part is indicated by the same letter in the several Drawings. The
two ends of the cast-iron frame are shewn at A, A; they are connected at the top
by two side plates B, B, attached by bolts and nuts, and at the bottom by two
bars C, C, with screws and nuts. The frame stands upon a heavy iron plate D, to
which it is bolted; upon these ends are cast or bolted projections E, E, E, E, to
nake bearings for the two vertical shafts F, F, and upon the inside are also cast or
bolted the projections G, G, to support the slides H, H, and their guides. The
main shaft I is supported on the top of the frame; it has its bearings on the ends
and is held in place by caps J, J, in the usual manner; at either end may be
attached a pulley or a gear wheel, through which the machine is put in motion;
at about the middle is the cam K, which gives the proper movements to the
plunger L, and near the ends are attached bevel wheels M, M, which inesh into the
bevels N, N, of the same size and number of teeth and drive the two upright
shafts F, F. The plunger carries what I term the upper die (shewn at 0); it is
fitted to slide up and down within the space formed by the two sides and the two
ends, and fills the same; the upper part is hollowed out to receive the cam, and
over the top are the caps P, P, secured to it by screws and nuts; the orifice thus
formed fits the cam at the top and bottom, but is not touched by it at any other
point, and a vertical movement only is thus imparted to the plunger; an outline of
this orifice is shewn by the cross section, Fig. 6. In the bottom of the plunger a
place is provided for inserting the top die, as shewn in Figs. 2 and 3, and this is
held in place by a cap a with screws and nuts, Figs. 1 and 3. Around the periphery
of the cast-iron wheel W are attached by screws the lower dies R, R; this wheel
has its bearings in boxes fitted in recesses cast in the two ends of the frame, and is
held to its place by caps and screws; it is provided with seats around the periphery,
made wider than the disc of the wheel, on which to place the dies, and from every
second one ribs extend to the shaft to increase its lateral strength; these lower dies
receive the shoe to be swaged; the middle elevated portion has at its base the shape
to be given to the inside of the shoe; above the thickness of the shoe it tapers and
extends upward one or one and a half inch; this enables it to receive a shoe with
imperfections on its inside. The base or horizontal part is pressed when in use by
the under or creased side of the shoe, and extends from the middle elevated part to
about the inside of the crease; there is a hole through the middle to receive a bolt
and a rib on the bottom, by which it is secured to the wheel. The upper die is
a rectangular block with a tapering vertical hole through the middle that fits over
the elevated part of the lower die; its under surface has the shape of the upper
surface of the shoe, and may extend out a little beyond the shoe or (as it is rather
preferred) fall a little, say an eighth of an inch, within the outer edge. The shoe is
placed upon the elevated part of the lower die; the upper die comes down upon it
and presses it firmly against the bottom or horizontal part, and the two hold it in

page_text: place while the side dies or swages come up and press the outer edge into proper
shape and close up sufficiently the creases and holes. A wedge S that is inserted
over the top of the upper die and presses against the plunger serves to adjust the
proper height of the die, and it is held in place and regulated by a screw and nut
(seen in Fig. 3).
The vertical shafts on the sides of the machine are held to their bearings by caps
and screws U, U, in the usual manner; they carry eccentrics T, T, which operate
the slides H, H. These slides move on ways made in orifices cast in the ends of the
frame and on the projections G, G; they are held in place sidewise by guides V, V,
and these are adjusted and held by the set screws X, X, X, in the frame.
The ends of the slides that embrace the eccentrics are fully shewn in Fig. 4. The
orifices are made on the same principle as that in the plunger. The eccentrics
press against those sides only that are at right angles to the movement of the slides;
to these slides are attached by screws and bolts the side dies or swages Y, Y, fitted
to give the proper shape to the outside of the shoe; a recess is made in the casting
to receive them and they are adjusted to place by packing against the sides. While
the side dies are operating upon the shoe it is necessary that the plunger should
stand stationary to hold the shoe in place, and to effect this object a part of the
cam that actuates the plunger is made concentric with the shaft, as shewn by the
dotted lines in Fig. 6.
The shoes to be swaged are placed on the dies on the wheel either by hand or
automatically, and at every revolution of the main shaft the wheel is revolved
sufficiently to bring another shoe in place under the upper die; to effect this
movement a part of the plunger and of the cam that moves it are cut away, as
shewn at Z in Figs. 2 and 3. An eccentric b is attached to the shaft, around which
is the strap c connected by screws and nuts to the upper part d that extends upward
to the lever e, to which it is attached by a joint; the shaft f on which this lever
vibrates has its bearings on two upright pieces g, g, attached to the caps J, J; to
the other end of the lever H is attached by a joint also the pawl i; a spring /
holds the pawl to its place and against the stop j; the pawl in its upward move-
ment drops in against the elevated part of a lower die and presses the wheel around
by its downward movement, and the eccentric is so adjusted that the movement of
the wheel takes place when the dies are wholly disconnected. Should there be any
failure in the wheel's being brought accurately to its place by the pawl the upper
die sliding down the conical clevated part of the lower die brings it to its place and
holds it there until the shoe is completed.
In those cases in which a straight blank or bar is creased and punched before it is
bent into the form of a horse-shoe the swaging to close up the creases and holes to
a proper
size may be effected in a very simple manner; the blank may be put in
place by hand and a reciprocating movement of a swage or die adapted to press
against the parts of the blank that need it will be all the machinery required. A
more rapid way is to pass the blank between two rolls, one of which is in part cut
away and the remaining part fitted to give the requisite compression upon the
blank;
and with shoes that have been bent and swaged before they are creased and
punched the wheel may be dispensed with and in its place substituted a single
stationary lower die, on which the shoes may be placed and removed by hand or by
automatic machinery.
It will be manifest that the essential feature of the Invention does not consist of
a mere form of machinery, and that there may be many variations of the same
and still use my foreign correspondent's new mode of proceeding to remedy
the defects in machine-made horse-shoes. I do not therefore wish to be under-
stood as limiting my claims to the precise machinery described; but what I
do claim as an improvement in the manufacture of horse and mule shoes by
machinery is, the method of first making the creases and nail holes of broader
dimensions than is proper in the finished shoe, in order thereby to employ punches
and creasers of large dimensions, and then partially closing said creases and nail
holes, reducing them to their proper sizes, and at the same time imparting evenness

page_text: of contour to the blank by dies acting to compress the blank edgewise, substantially
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Lloyd Wise, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-six.
Witness,
F. J. BROUGHAM,
Adelphi,
London.
W. LLOYD WISE. (LS.)