IMPROVE- MENTS IN RATCHET LEVERS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Aldridge Weston, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Mechanical Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN RATCHET LEVERS."
Sealed the 24th July 1863, and dated the 18th April 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Aldridge Weston
nt the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th April 1863.
I, THOMAS ALDRIDGE WESTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Mechanical Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RATCHET LEVERS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the improvements, herein-after described, in
ratchet levers, by which improvements large and strong teeth are employed in
the ratchet wheels of the said ratchet levers, and the same nicety of adjust-
ment obtained which is usually obtained by fine teeth. I make the teeth of
the ratchet wheels of the said ratchet levers by preference on the face, instead
of on the periphery of the ratchet wheel, the said teeth being larger and
stronger than the teeth of ordinary ratchet wheels, and I employ a series of
palls or clicks greater or less in number by one than the number of the
ratchet teeth. The said teeth are of uniform length, and occupy the whole
circumference of the face of the ratchet wheel, and the said palls or clicks are
situated at uniform distances apart, and are distributed over the whole cir-
cumference of the face of the disc carrying them. The said palls may be of

page_text: the ordinary kind, but I prefer to make them of a series of sliding bolts
working in a disc or short cylinder turning on the axis which carries the
ratchet wheel. The said bolts have motion in lines perpendicular to the face
of the said disc or cylinder, that is, in lines parallel to the axis of the ratchet
wheel. The said bolts are forced outwards by springs. As the disc or cylinder
carrying the palls is turned the several palls ascend the inclined sides of the
teeth, and fall in succession as they arrive at the summits of the several teeth.
When the pall disc is turned through a distance equal to the length of one
tooth, each of the palls will pass over one tooth, and each of the said palls
will assume the same relative position with respect to the tooth to which it is
brought as it had with respect to that from which it had been moved; but
as the distance between the palls is greater or less than the length of the
teeth, the palls do not pass over the teeth simultaneously, but in succession,
so that when the pall disc bas been moved through the length of a tooth, cach
of the palls has in succession fallen from the summit of the tooth on which it
previously rested, and has engaged with the vertical side of the said tooth;
that is, by moving the pall disc through the length of one tooth, there have
been as many engagements of the said disc with the ratchet wheel as there
are palls. There is thus obtained with large and strong teeth the nicety of
adjustment ordinarily obtained with fine teeth, which by their rapid wear soon
become useless.
My Invention is applicable to ratchet drills or braces, and to various other
articles to which ratchet levers are or may be applicable.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Aldridge Weston in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 15th October 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ALDRIDGE WESTON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Mechanical
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Iler reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Aldridge Weston, Her special licence, that I, the said Thomas
Aldridge Weston, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
1, the said Thomas Aldridge Weston, my executors, administrators, and assigns,

page_text: 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 United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN RATCHET LEVERS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Thomas Aldridge Weston, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Aldridge Weston, 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 fol-
lowing statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of the improvements, herein-after described, in
ratchet levers, that is, in the implement or tool commonly called in workshops
by that name, by which improvements large and strong teeth are employed in
the ratchet wheels of the said ratchet levers, and the same nicety of adjust-
ment obtained which is usually obtained by fine teeth. I make the teeth of
the ratchet wheels of the said ratchet levers by preference on the face, instead
of on the periphery of the ratchet wheel, the said teeth being larger and
stronger than the teeth of ordinary ratchet wheels, and I employ a series of
palls or clicks greater or less in number than the number of the ratchet teeth.
The said teeth are of uniform length, and occupy the whole circumference of
the face of the ratchet wheel, and the said palls or clicks are situated at
uniform distances apart, and are distributed over the whole circumference of
the face of the disc carrying them. The palls I employ consist of a series of
sliding bolts working in a disc or short cylinder turning on the axis which
carries the ratchet wheel. The said bolts have motion in lines perpendicular
to the face of the said disc or cylinder, that is, in lines parallel to the axis of
the ratchet wheel. The said bolts are forced outwards by springs. As the
disc or cylinder carrying the palls is turned the several palls ascend the
inclined sides of the teeth, and fall in succession as they arrive at the summits
of the several teeth. When the pall disc is turned through a distance equal
to the length of one tooth, each of the palls will pass over one tooth, and each
of the said palls will assume the same relative position with respect to the
tooth to which it is brought as it had with respect to that from which it had
been moved; but as the distance between the palls is greater or less than

page_text: the length of the teeth, the palls do not pass over the teeth simultaneously, but
in succession, so that when the pall disc has been moved through the length
of a tooth, each of the palls has in succession fallen from the summit of the
tooth on which it previously rested, and has engaged with the vertical side of
the said tooth; that is, by moving the pall disc through the length of one tooth,
there have been as many engagements of the said disc with the ratchet wheel
as there are palls. There is thus obtained with large and strong teeth the
nicety of adjustment ordinarily obtained with fine teeth, which by their rapid
wear soon become useless.
My Invention is applicable to ratchet drills or braces, and to various other
articles to which the implement or tool commonly called by workmen a
ratchet lever is or may be applicable.
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 elevation, and Figure 2 in vertical section, a ratchet
drill to which my Invention is applied, and Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6 represent
detached portions of the same, as herein-after explained. The same letters
indicate the same parts in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6.
a, a, is the ratchet wheel of the drill, the teeth of the said ratchet wheel
being made on the face of the disc a. The face of the disc a' has five teeth,
the said teeth being large and strong, as represented. The ratchet wheel a, a,
and disc a are shown separately in elevation in Figure 3, and plan of the
under side of the same in Figure 4. The interior of the upper part of the
disc a carrying the ratchet wheel a, a, is screwed, and is fixed upon
the screw b, in the lower part of which screw the drill or boring tool c is affixed
in the usual manner; d is the screw box, into which the screw b takes, and
by turning which, said screw box, when requisite, the drill or boring tool c is
made to advance as in the ordinary drill. The palls or clicks by which motion
is given to the ratchet wheel a, a, consist of four bolts f,f, (two of which are
sbewn in Figure 2) working in openings g in the short cylinder h, the said
cylinder h turning on the lower part of the screw b, being supported by the
flange of the said screw. The short cylinder h is provided with a lever or
handle i, by which the required reciprocating motion is given to it. The
short cylinder h is shewn separately in plan in Figure 5, and vertical section
in Figure 6, The palls f, f, have motion in lines parallel with the axis of
the cylinder h, and are forced outwards by coiled springs k, k.
ends of the palls are bevilled or curved of the figure represented
to fit the inclined sides of the teeth of the ratchet wheel a, a.
The upper
in Figure 3
When the

page_text: cylinder h carrying the palls f is turned by the lever i in the direction indi-
cated by the arrow in Figure 1, the several palls f ascend the inclined sides
of the teeth a, and fall in succession as they arrive at the summits of
the several teeth. When the cylinder h is turned through a distance equal
to the length of one tooth, each of the palls will pass over one tooth,
and cach of the said palls will assume the same relative position with
respect to the tooth to which it is brought as it had with respect to that from
which it had been moved. But as the distance between the palls f is greater
than the length of the teeth a, the said palls do not pass over the teeth simul-
taneously, but in succession, so that when the pall cylinder has been moved
through the length of a tooth, each of the palls f has in succession fullen from
the summit of the tooth on which it previously rested, and has engaged with
the vertical side of the said tooth; that is, by moving the pall cylinder h through
the length of one tooth, there have been as many engagements of the said pall
cylinder through the pall teeth with the ratchet wheel a, a, as there are palls.
When the cylinder h is turned in a direction contrary to that indicated by
the arrow in Figure 1, the ratchet wheel a, a, will bave motion given to it
in the direction indicated by the arrow in Figure 3, by one of the palls
engaged behind one of the teeth of the said ratchet wheel pushing the said
wheel forward. A partial rotatory motion is thereby given to the screw b and
to the drill or tool c. The action of the parts of the ratchet lever described
may be thus explained:-When the, pall cylinder is turned upon the ratchet
as many engagements occur between them by means of the teeth of the
ratchet and the palls as the number of the teeth multiplied by the number of
the palls. Thus in the ratchet lever described with reference to Figures 1, 2,
3, 4, 5, and 6, and having four palls and five teeth, there are twenty engage-
ments during a single revolution. Other relative numbers may be employed.
Thus five palls and six teeth give thirty engagements in one revolution.
The arrangement of the parts of the ratchet lever Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5,
and 6 may be thus modified:-Instead of making the sliding palls work in
the cylinder to which the vibratory motion is given, the said palls may work
in openings in the axis carrying the drill or boring tool, and the ratchet wheel
may be connected to the said cylinder. In this case the palls do not rotate
independently of the axis carrying them, and the requisite motion is given to
the axis of the drill or tool by the partial rotation of the ratchet wheel carried
by the cylinder.
Figures 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 represent another ratchet lever constructed
according to my Invention, Figure 7 being a plan, and Figures 8 and 9
sections of the same, the said sections being taken in planes at right angles to

page_text: one another.
Figures 10 and 11 represent portions of the same.
letters indicate the same parts in Figures 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11.
The same
In this form of my Invention I make a double hollow ratchet wheel in the
interior of a short hollow cylinder, the palls being carried by and working in
a short cylinder concentric with the ratchet cylinder.
a is the ratchet cylinder, having two series of teeth or ratchets b, c, in dif-
ferent planes made in it. The teeth of the double ratchet wheel b, c, are not
opposite each other, the summits of one set of teeth being midway between the
summits of the other set, as will be understood by an examination of Figure 9,
where the teeth of the upper ratchet 6 are represented in continuous lines,
while the teeth of the lower ratchet c are indicated in dotted lines. In the
ratchet cylinder a is the pall cylinder or wheel d (shown separately in
Figure 10) carrying the palls e, e (one of which is shewn separately in
Figure 11) which palls engage with the teeth of the ratchet wheels b, c. The
pall cylinder & has two pairs of parallel slots marked respectively f, g, made
in it, one pair f being at right angles to the other pair g. The slots f are on
the same level as the ratchet 6, and the slots g are on the same level as the
ratchet c. The palls slide in the slots f, and the palls & slide in the slots g.
The palls are urged forward by coiled springs h, and are guided in their
motions by the pins i. The pall cylinder d is fixed in its place in the ratchet
cylinder a by means of the pin k engaging in the groove l, as will be under-
stood by an examination of Figure 8. The lever or handle m is fixed to the
ratchet cylinder a by means of the key n. The pall cylinder d is affixed to
the drill or axis to be turned by means of the square hole in it marked d³.
There are four palls in the pall cylinder d, and ten teeth in tho double
ratchet wheel b, c. When the ratchet cylinder a is turned in the direction
indicated by the arrow in Figure 9, the palls e, e², are forced back and engage
with those portions of the teeth of the ratchets b, c, which are at right angles
with the direction in which the said palls slide, the said palls engaging with
the ratchets b, c, not simultaneously, but in succession. By moving the
ratchet cylinder a in a direction contrary to that indicated by the arrow in
Figure 9, a partial rotation is communicated to the drill or axis fixed in the
hole d of the pall cylinder d.
By constructing ratchet levers in the manner described and represented in
the accompanying Drawings, there is obtained with large and strong teeth the
nicety of adjustment ordinarily obtained with fine teeth, which by their rapid
wear soon become useless.
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

page_text: not limit myself to the precise details herein described and represented in tho
accompanying Drawings, as the same may be varied without departing from
the nature of my Invention; but I claim as my Invention arranging or com-
bining the parts of the implement or tool commonly called a ratchet lever,
essentially in the ways herein described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Aldridge Weston, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of October, in the
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and sixty-three.
year
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
THOMAS ALDRIDGE WESTON. (L.B.).