Improvements in Horse-shoe Nails and Method of Making the same.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Jan., 1893-Accepted, 25th Feb., 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Horse-shoe Nails and Method of Making
the same.
We, WILLIAM WILSON MINER and ACHILLE FRANCIS MIGEON, both of
Torrington, in the County of Litchfield and State of Connecticut, United States of
America, Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to an improvement in horse-shoe nails and method of
making the same. The object of the invention is to provide a horse-shoe nail
perfectly homogeneous in structure; not liable to split or sliver; sufficiently stiff
and hard to adapt it to be driven without buckling, and soft and ductile enough to
be easily clinched, and having smooth and rounded corners and a highly finished
surface. A further object is to provide a simple, efficient and economical method
of producing such improved nails. With these ends in view the invention consists
in the improvement in horse-shoe nails and method of making the same as will be
hereinafter described and pointed out in the claims.
In the accompanying drawings,
Figure 1 represents a length of wire from which the nail blanks are severed.
Figure 2 is a severed blank.
Figure 3 is a view in side elevation of the blank shown in Figure 2 after a
rounded head has been formed thereon by swaging or upsetting.
Figure 4 is a cross-section taken through the rounded head of Figure 3.
Figure 5 is a view in side elevation of the blank after its body or shank portion
has been reduced by swaging or otherwise and a tapered form imparted thereto.
Figure 6 is a view in side elevation, and Figure 7 an edge view of the finished
nail.
Figure 8 is a view in vertical section of the heading dies.
Figure 9 is an enlarged view in perspective of one form of our improved nail.
Figure 10 shows a blank in which the shank is not swaged to a sharp point.
Figure 11 represents the blank of Figure 10 with a point formed by grinding.
Figure 12 shows a blank formed of wire which is square in cross-section.
Figures 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, and 20 show the blanks and nails resulting
from the employment of square wire.
Figures 21, 22, 23, 24, 25 and 26 illustrate various views of nail blanks formed
from wire of large diameter and successively reduced by swaging or rolling.
Figures 27, 28, 29 and 30 represent different views of blanks in a method
in which the blank is reduced or partly reduced before it is severed from the coil
or long piece of wire.
Figures 31, 32 and 33 represent the steps in an operation and means employed
for producing a headed blank by swaging.
In manufacturing nails by our improved process we first take round wire-
preferably of Bessemer steel-and by any suitable machinery cut the same into
suitable short lengths and thereby produce blanks like those represented in
Figure 2, the dotted lines in Figure 1 showing the lengths of the blanks as cut
from the wire. The blank A as thus formed is then placed in suitable dies which may
be of the form represented by C D in Figure 8. The heading die C acting upon
that portion of the blank which projects from the die D serves to swage or upset
a head E on one end of the blank as shown in Figures 3 and 4. As represented in
these figures the head is cylindrical in cross-section and has rounded sides a and
flattened top b. The pressure exerted in forming the head by which it is made of

page_text: greater diameter than that of the body of the blank is sufficient to render it
exceedingly tough and homogeneous in structure. The headed blank is then
subjected to the action of a suitable machine which operates to elongate the body
or shank and impart to it a tapering form circular in cross-section throughout its
length. This operation may be performed by any suitable machinery though we
prefer to perform this step in the operation in what is known as wire pointing
machines and for this purpose may use the well known Hopson & Brooks or the
Dayton wire pointing machines, which are adapted to deliver against the periphery
of the body or shank of the blank a multiplicity of blows substantially equally in
number and force upon every portion of the surface of the shank throughout its
length, whereby its density is rendered practically uniform and a perfectly smooth
and highly polished surface.
The blank thus produced is illustrated in Figure 5 in which E represents the
head having rounded sides a flattened top tapering body or shank F provided with a
point G. The head as will be observed, is gradually enlarged from its flattened
upper end to the point c of its greatest diameter from which it is gradually
contracted in diameter, until it merges into or joins with the body of the shank.
The blanks after having been formed as illustrated in Figure 5 are then annealed
and the following process is preferably employed. The blanks are placed in a
muffle from which air is expelled by the introduction of illuminating gas under
pressure. The muffle is then placed in a suitable furnace and heated to a tem-
perature sufficient to impart a cherry red heat to the blanks, when it is removed
from the furnace and allowed to cool gradually. When the blanks have been
sufficiently cooled they are removed from the muffle. The annealing process
renders the blanks quite soft and ductile and prepares them for the final process of
flattening.
The blanks are then subjected to a pressing process by which they are flattened
as represented in Figures 6 and 7. This step in the process may be performed by
machinery of the character set forth in U.S. Letters Patent No. 415,818, granted
to W. W. Miner Nov. 26th, 1889, or any other suitable machinery may be used
for this purpose. The operation of flattening serves to impart to the body or shank
of the nail the requisite degree of hardness and stiffness to insure its being driven
without bending or buckling, while by the annealing process the metal is rendered
sufficiently soft and ductile to allow the nail to be readily clinched.
The flattening of the blank transforms it into a completed nail having flattened
sides d rounded side edges e e and beveled point f, while the entire surface
is rendered perfectly smooth and has imparted thereto a highly finished
appearance.
Instead of swaging the shank to a pointed end it may be swaged to the form
shown in Figure 10 in which it is represented as having a blunt point. Such
blanks may then be subjected to the action of a grinding machine by which the
ends of the shank or body are ground to a conical point as shown in
Figure 11. This operation may be performed on a machine in which the blanks
are placed in the threads of a screw feed by which they are rotated and fed forward
and brought into contact with the upper or lower side of an emery wheel or other
grinding surface and thereby quickly ground to a conical point. After grinding in
blanks may be Hattened in the manner already described.
Instead of using round wire, the nails may be formed from wire blanks which
are square in cross-section as illustrated in Figure 12. These blanks are headed
in suitable heading dies and either the square beveled head shown in Figure 13, or
the elongated rectangular flat top head shown in Figure 14 or any other suitably
shaped head may be produced, according as the shape of the heading die employed
may be varied. The headed blank is then swaged or reduced in the manner
already described, which will result in the production of blanks like those
represented in Figures 15 or 16. The blanks may be then annealed and after-
ward flattened thereby forming the square beveled headed nails illustrated in
side elevation in Figure 17 and in edge view in Figure 18, or the elongated

page_text: rectangular flat top head nail shown in side view in Figure 19 and in edge view in
Figure 20.
Instead of using wire of such small diameter that a considerable length of the
blank requires to be upset to form the head, we may use wire of such greater
diameter that a comparatively short length of the blank will suffice to form the
head. Figure 21 shows a blank of large diameter as compared with the diameter
of the blanks hereinbefore described. This blank is reduced by swaging to the
form shown in Figure 22. It is then headed in suitable dies which result in the
form of blank shown in Figure 23. The head of the blank may be circular in
cross-section as shown in Figure 24, or oval in cross-section as shown in Figure 25,
or the head may be of any other form in cross-section. The blank shown in
Figure 23 is then swaged to the form shown in Figure 26, when it is annealed and
flattened as herein before described.
Another method of making the blanks is shown in Figures 27, 28, 29 and 30.
In Figure 27 we have represented a coil of wire one end of which may be
automatically fed to a swaging or reducing machine and a shank is reduced on its
end as represented in this figure. After the blank has been reduced, it is severed
from the coil by any suitable cutter, which operation may be effected automatically,
and results in the production of the blank shown in Figure 28. The enlarged end
of this blank is then transformed into a head as shown in Figure 29. The shank
or body of the blank is then reduced by swaging or rolling to the tapering form
shown in Figure 30. The blank is then annealed and flattened in the manner
hereinbefore explained.
Another method of making blanks in which the heads and shanks are formed
by swaging is illustrated in Figures 31, 32 and 33. In Figure 31 we have
represented a coil or long piece of wire on the end of which a nail blank is
formed by swaging in the manner indicated in Figure 32, wherein A A' represent
the swaging dies by which the shank is reduced to a tapering, form circular in
cross-section. The head of the blank is formed by the swaging dies B B', which
also serve to point the end of the wire so that it may be readily fed to the swaging
dies again for another operation. After the blank has been swaged to the form
shown it is severed from the coil and results in a blank of the form represented in
Figure 33. This blank is then annealed and flattened in the manner already
explained. The various operations of feeding, swaging and cutting off the blank
may be automatically performed. This method of making horse-shoe nails is quite
simple and economical as it obviates the necessity of employing separate heading
dies for forming the head.
The blanks may be automatically fed to the swaging machine. If the blanks
are not headed before the process of swaging is performed, suitable devices may be
provided for automatically feeding such headless blanks to gripping jaws by which
they are carried to the swaging or reducing machine. If the blanks are headed
before they are swaged, such headed blanks may by suitable feeding mechanism
be automatically fed to the swaging machine.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is :
1. As a new article of manufacture, a horse-shoe nail consisting of a nail made
from wire and having flattened sides and top and rounded side edges, substantially
as set forth.
2. The method of making horse-shoe nails consisting in upsetting a rounded head
on one end of a blank, reducing the shank of the blank to a tapering form circular
in cross-section, annealing the blank and then flattening its head and shank,
substantially as set forth.
3. The method of making horse-shoe nails consisting in forming a head on a
wire-blank, reducing the blank by swaging to tapering form circular in cross-

page_text: section grinding the end of the shank to a conical point, and flattening the blank
thereby producing a nail with flattened sides and rounded side edges.
4. The method of making horse-shoe nails consisting in upsetting one end of a
blank square in cross-section and forming a head on one end thereof which head
may be square or elongated in shape and be formed with a beveled or flat top;
reducing the body or shank of the blank to a tapering form circular in cross-
section, and flattening the shank and beveling its point.
5. The method of making horse-shoe nails consisting in reducing a portion of a
blank to a circular form in cross-section and of less diameter than that of the
blank; then upsetting a head on the enlarged and unreduced portion of the blank,
then reducing the shank to a tapering form circular in cross-section, and then
flattening the head and shank of the blank, substantially as set forth.
6. The method of making horse-shoe nails consisting in reducing the end of a
wire coil or long piece of wire; severing a blank from the coil thereby producing
a blank having a reduced shank and an enlarged end; upsetting the enlarged end
and thereby forming a head; reducing the shank to a tapering form circular in
cross-section from the head to the point, and then flattening the blank throughout
its length.
7. The method of making horse-shoe nails which consists in reducing the end of
a wire coil or length of wire by swaging and forming a blank with a head and a
tapering shank circular in cross-section; severing the blank from the coil or length
of wire and flattening the blank.
Dated this 24th day of January 1893.
R. HADDAN,
% Herbert, Haddan & Co.,
18, Buckingham Street, Strand, London, Agent for Applicants.