IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE-SHOE NAILS, AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR."
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th January 1877. A communication
from abroad by Joseph M. Laughlin, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States
of America.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
HORSE-SHOE NAILS, AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR." A communication from abroad
by Joseph M. Laughlin, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
According to this Invention I first manufacture nail plates from which nails with
a hardened point may be struck by a punching machine. The nail plate is first
hot rolled from homogeneous metal, the under surface being smooth or level; a ridge
for the head of the nail is made on the upper part of the plate on each side thereof,
and the plate is then cold rolled between two rollers, one of which has a smooth
cylindrical surface, while the other one has an annular projection or ridge midway
between the ends of the rollers, which annular projection makes a continuous de-
pression in the plate and hardens it under the action of the rollers. This depression
in the plate constitutes the bevel of the nail points, being most hardened where the
point of each nail will be punched out, and this plate may then be subjected to the
action of a punching machine, and the nail struck therefrom finished and ready
for use.
.
Instead of a roller having an annular ridge or projection the roller may have a
series of projecting burrs, each one of which in the revolution of the roller forms a
depression in the plate, which depression constitutes the inclined spot from which
will be punched the hardened beveled point of the nail; by means of two rows of
these projecting burrs on the roller a great saving of the metal may be effected.
In this case the plate is made of a width less than double the length of the nail,
and the nail points thus formed by a roller having a double row of burrs interlap
the two opposite adjacent nails, thus utilizing a large portion of the plate which is
cut away when the nail points are directly opposite each other.
The continuous groove may not only be made by rolling, but by milling or
planing, or any other suitable manner so conducted as to give the requisite hardness
to the point of the plate which forms the point of the nail.
I employ machines for beveling and punching nails, and combine in one machine
beveling rollers and punching mechanism, my object being to punch from a nail

page_text: plate a complete and finished nail at one operation or passage of the plate through
the machine. The nail plate is inserted between two beveling rollers; these
beveling rollers are adjustable vertically, and one of them is cylindrical; the other
roller is provided with a double row of projecting burrs, as herein before described,
and these alternate burrs on the roller, as it revolves, make a depression or indenta-
tion in the nail plate, which depression constitutes the beveled point of the nail.
In order that the nail plate may be held stationary during the operation of the
punch, I give to these beveling rollers, which also serve to feed the plate along to the
punch, a positive intermittent motion. This object is effected by means of an ex-
centric or other suitable device set on the main shaft of the machine, and suitably
connected to a lever which operates upon the teeth of a ratchet wheel; the move-
ment of this excentric, and the parts connected thereto, are so gauged relative to
the driving mechanism of the punch that each revolution of the excentric causes
the rollers to revolve through an arc equal to the width of the nail, and hence carry
the plate along an equal distance so that at each revolution of the shaft and excen-
tric the nail plate is subjected to the alternate action of a burr of the roller and a
punch which strikes from the plate the finished nail.
The punch operates in the usual manner, descending into a disc, over the face of
which the nail plate is fed; on one side of the punch holder I attach a cutting tool
which trims off the waste metal from the plate.
Instead of a roller having a double row of projecting burrs the roller may have
an annular projection forming a groove in the plate for the points of the nails, but I
prefer the former roller as it requires less power to drive it, and utilizes more of the
plate than a roller having an annular projection.
It will be observed that two distinct, separate, or independent functions are per-
formed by this machine, that of forming a point for the nail in the plate, and that
of punching therefrom a finished and complete nail.
The preparing and beveling rollers may be separated from the punching machine,
and the same result be accomplished by a suitable feed, or the beveling and pre-
paring rolls may be operated in a machine by themselves to prepare the plate before
it is subjected to the action of the punching machine.