AN IMPROVED MACHINE TO BE USED FOR CUTTING NAILS AND DRIVING THEM INTO THE SHOE
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to.. Philippe Latour and Maurice Latour, of Paris,
(France,) and of 32, Essex Street, Strand, London; Manufacturers, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED MACHINE TO BE USED FOR CUTTING NAILS AND
DRIVING THEM INTO THE SHOE."
Sealed the 1st February 1856, and dated the 10th August 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Philippe Latour and
Maurice Latour at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 10th August 1855.
We, PHILIPPE LATOUR and MAURICE LATOUR, of Paris (France), and of
32, Essex Street, Strand (London), Manufacturers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MACHINE TO BE USED FOR
CUTTING NAILS AND DRIVING THEM INTO THE SHOE" to be as follows; and consists
chiefly in working with the same machine the cutting of the nail and driving
it into the shoe. To get this double result, we use various mechanical pro-
cesses which cause various movements. Those movements are four in
number: 1st, the movement of the shoe; 2nd, the movement of the piece
supporting the plate that is to be cut out for making the nails; 3rd, the
movement of the cutter; 4th, the movement of the hammer or puncheon
intended to drive the nail into the shoe.

page_text: The first movement is worked by means of a hooped eccentric placed on the
motive shaft, which, by means of a connecting rod, a ratchet wheel, and a
bevelled tooth wheel, gives the impulse to a little spring wheel, throwing
into gear an internal rack of the same shape with the shoe. This rack is
placed under a slide moving on the machine table. On this slide the shoe to
be nailed is laid. The second movement is worked in the same manner by
means of a hooped eccentric giving an alternate impulse to a rod or arm on
which the sheet iron to be cut is placed. This sheet iron at every oscillation
lays its edge on a small flange projecting on a double tube funnel-shaped
placed beneath. The third movement is worked by a fixed cutter behind the
sheet iron plate, and before it there is another unfixed cutter moved by two
cogs. The two cogs are alternately acting on a roller that the unfixed knife
bears at its end, causing it to advance towards the fixed knife. The former
either cuts the nail, or recedes to allow the rod or arm to oscillate. The nail
drops on either one side or the other of the double tube, and with its sharp
end downwards, its oscillation being caused by a small projection, which causes
its thickest end to stand upwards, and thence descends into a simple tube that
leads it on the shoe. At that time an eccentric allows a rod urged by a strong
spring to pass through its grooved part. This rod bears at its end a puncheon,
that drives the nail into the shoe, and is immediately raised up by the eccentric,
the shoe then advances, yielding to the first movement, above described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Philippe Latour and Maurice Latour in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 7th February 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, PHILIPPE
LATOUR and MAURICE LATOUR, of Paris, France, and of 32, Essex Street,
Strand, London, Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Philippe Latour and Maurice Latour, Her special licence that we, the
said Philippe Latour and Maurice Latour, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Philippe Latour and Maurice Latour,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the

page_text: 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. "AN.. IMPROVED MACHINE TO BE
USED FOR CUTTING NAILS AND DRIVING THEM INTO THE SHOE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Philippe Latour and Maurice Latour,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, 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 we, the said Philippe Latour and Maurice Latour,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
Our Invention relates to a new or improved machinery by which the nail
is made and driven into the shoe. This double result is obtained through a
series of movements, which will be hereafter specified and illustrated.
On the annexed Sheet of Drawings, Fig. 1 is a front view of the machine,
showing only the driving pieces; Figs. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, & 7 are front views of
the excentrics, shown also sidewise at Fig. 1; Figs. 8 & 9 are a bottom view
and a front view of the slide conveying the shoe; Fig. 10 is the shoe holder
secured on the slide; Figs. 11 & 12 are two sections of the machine, a front
and side view, showing the mechanism by which the shoe is moved; Fig. 13
is a top view of the machine, showing the mechanism by which the nail is
made; Fig. 14 is a plan of the nail cutters; and Fig. 15, a front view of the
beam, shown in its two positions, and also of the ducts through which the nail
drops down with its sharp end downwards; Fig. 16 is a section, cut parallelly
to the plan of Fig. 1, showing the cutters, the beam, the ducts, and the funnel;
Figs. 17 & 18 are front and side views of the nail-driving apparatus.
In this apparatus, B is the driving shaft, set in motion by the fly wheel v
and the crank v', or by the fixed and loose pullies A, A¹. There are also two
cams I & J, having two projections i, j, on their surface, as shown at Figs. 2
& 3. Between the two excentrics, and in consequence of their rotary motion,
the roller R is made to turn, which transmits an alternate to and fro motion
to the piece Q, jointed at q to the framing of the machine. On shaft Ba
pinion D is secured, that gears into D' & transmits its motion to the shaft C,
supporting the excentrics K, L, shown at Figs. 4 & 5. The excentric K, by
means of its projection k, lifts the knee S¹ of the rod S, Figs. 17 & 18, which

page_text: is forced back to its former position by the spring S", fixed on the framing.
The excentric Lacts upon the roller U of the rod T, going through the box T¹
with spring W; said rod having a puncheon T", that moves up and down into
the funnel u". The roller U, the rod T, and the puncheon T", forced down
by the spring W, are made to pass through the groove 7 of the excentric. By
this movement, the nail that is in the funnel u" with its sharp end downward'
and resting upon the shoe is actually driven into it, and to complete this work
the arm S that holds the funnel u¹¹ rises at the moment when the cam has
just struck. This upward movement of the arm S also relieves the shoe, which
moves one notch. E is a sliding excentric or cam, shown at Fig. 6; and
actuating the rollers G, H, caught between two cheeks secured at the end of
a connecting rod F. This has at its other end an arm jointed beneath the
plate P at e, Figs. 11 & 12, which arm is provided with a ratchet ƒ actuating
the wheel g. The latter is prevented from drawing back by the spring f¹, and-
transmits its motion to the pinion h' through the shaft g' and the pinion h.
Upon the pinion shaft h¹ the pinion m is fitted, which drives the slide X,
Figs. 8 & 9, by gearing into the inner rack z, made out of an added or joined
piece Y. The slide X is provided with four rollers a, a, a, a, moving now on
the guide Q, now on the guide Q', according to the side of the rack z that
the pinión m' gears into. This rack might well be fitted outside instead of
being inside, which would then actuate a cutter for cutting the leather, and
another suitable tool for polishing purpose; in this case the shoe would be
made to turn round the pivot of the rack.
The shoe holder d is provided with a cast-iron mandrel d', which is in-
serted into the shoe in order to keep it steady; the shoe holder is then secured
to the slide by means of screws b, b, & nuts b¹, 6. We shall now describe
the way in which the nail is made up. In a beam p, elbowed at p¹, and
provided with a guard v, a sheet-iron reglet is inserted, resting on a flanch
contrived upon the double duct u, Figs. 15 & 16. A to and fro motion is
given to the beam by means of a sliding excentric E¹, wedged on the pinion N,
set in motion by the pinion M, which is wedged upon the driving shaft, Figs. 1
& 13. This excentric moving in a groove, is provided with a small connecting
rod n, jointed to a crank o on the shaft p¹, on the other end of which the beam
is supported.
Р
It will be understood that the beam p, on being thus made to oscillate, will
carry along with it the iron reglet. The extent of the oscillation must be
calculated so that one end of the reglet after one run or revolving of the
beam may still reach the flanch of the duct u. Supposing the reglet beveled,
a small part of the same is cut horizontally, forming a pyramid, the top of

page_text: which is the sharp end, and the basis, still kept in, contact with the flanch, is
the head of the nail;ias shown at Fig. 15.The nail, after oscillating round;
this said point of contact, will drop with its sharp end downwards! into the
duct y or 'y', and froin thence into u', and the funnel or funnel-shaped tube'u".
At Fig 15 it may be seen that the end of the reglet, which formed the point
or sharp end of the nail at first, will presently form the head of the next nail.
The nail is cut in the following manner:-A cutters, on the upper part of
which the beam moves, and beneath which the iron: reglet is depressed; at
each oscillation (Fig. 16) is secured to the framing.01% its height being regu
lated by the screwt. Another cutter r, fitted beneath the arm: Q; has its-lower
surface on a same level with the upper surface of: the cutters, and forms with
the latter a pair of horizontal shears, between the shanks of.. which is inserted;
a fit part of the iron réglet for a nail being made of: The spring ; secured
on the arm Q, acts upon the pin of a small slide stop w, the end of which
would, reach the lower part of the iron reglet, were it. not kept back by a
screw; but when by means of the cam Iracting upon the roller R, the
arm Qcomes forwards, the extreme end of the stop piece advances too,
and, being pressed back by the spring a³, it will uphold the iron reglet in a fit
position for being cut, regularly; The screw t¹ serves to regulate the size of
the nail by raising or depressing the double tube or duct or y, y¹. Fig. 15
is a cut-through-the line, of Fig. 16-The-line a, b,-shows-the-arc
described by the lower part of the beam'; and b, c, shows the line on which
the two'sharp edges of the cutters meet, when comes near to s. The driving
pieces are fitted upon a framing o, o, and the pieces acted upon are fitted upon
a framing O¹.
.'
We shall now describe the manner in which the machine works. Upon a
sheet-iron reglet being inserted into the beam p (supposing a nail has just been
driven into the shoe), the arm S is lifted by the excentric K, and the connecting
rod F is lifted by arm E. A little motion of the pinion m will cause the slide
to move, and the shoe will present beneath the funnel u¹¹ a new spot to be
nailed. At this time the beam has been oscillating, and actually occupies an
opposite position to that it had in the foregoing operation. The arm Q being
now acted upon by the cam I, causes the cutter r to come near to the cutter 8,
and another nail is cut, which drops, as has been already described, through
either of the ducts y or y¹ into u³, and from thence into the funnel u". At
this instant the excentric L, which has been holding the roller U, uplifted by
its circular part acting upon it, will present its grooved part. The rod T urged
by the spring w falls abruptly, and the puncheon strikes the nail. The next
movement in the grooved part of the excentric L causes a slighter stroke on.

page_text: the head of the nail, which is thereby completely driven in. The arm S rises
again, the shoe moves forwards, and so on, till another shoe is substituted for
that which is nailed up.
Having thus set forth the nature of our Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be carried into effect, we wish it to be distinctly understood that
what we claim as novel, and being secured to us by the herein-before in parts
recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, combining in a same machine the cutting off of the nail and the
driving of it into the shoe.
Second, the means above specified of obtaining this double result, yet not 1
limiting ourselves to the exact size and arrangement herein set forth and
illustrated, but merely claiming the principle upon which this our Inven-
tion is grounded, whatever may be the alterations brought in the mode
of construction.
In witness whereof, we, the said Philippe Latour and Maurice Latour,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Sixth day of February,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
PHILIPPE LATOUR. (L.B.)
MAURICE LATOUR. (L.S.)