AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE SHAPE OR FORM OF NAILS, SPIRES, AND BOLTS
Year: 1834

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
JOHN FULLER, of the Commercial Road, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King William the Fourth, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixth day of March now last past,
did give and grant unto me, the said Thomas John Fuller, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas John Fuller,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Thomas
John Fuller, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE SHAPE OR FORM OF NAILS,
SPIRES, AND BOLTS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso obliging me, the said Thomas John Fuller, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of

page_text: my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, and to
cause the same to be inrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto bad
will more fully appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas John Fuller, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof, that is to say:
Figure 1 represents one of my improved nails, fluted on the sides; and
Figure 2 shews one of the common nails, as they aro at present manufactured.
In the common nails it will be seen that the sides are nearly plane surfaces;
and if a section be made across a common nail, and perpendicular to its axis,
the figure of the section produced will be like Figure 3; that is to say, a
simple square, the sides of which offer a very small superficial surface in
proportion to the solid contents, and, as such, a nail will have little or no
power of cutting its way, on account of the obtuseness of its four edges. Any
hole bored in wood for it to be driven into must be nearly as large as the
sectional area, whatever the size of the nail may be, or there will be a great
chance of splitting any wood into which such nails are driven.. But if a
similar section of one of my improved fluted nails be examined, as shewn at
Figure 4, it will be seen that by fluting the four sides in the manner there
shewn, a great increase is produced in the superficial surface, the proportion
being as the curved side of my improved nail is to the straight or right-lined
side of the old nail; and, in addition to this advantage, the four edges produced
by this peculiar form or shape will be found to cut their way, and on that
account they may be driven into a much smaller hole without the liability of
splitting and when they are fairly driven home, the increase of surface will,
by the proportionate friction created, add greatly to the property of holding
fast. This shape or form cannot be well made by hand by the common mode
adopted in the manufacture of nails, but can be more economically and
better manufactured by machinery such as I have invented for making or
manufacturing of nails, and for I obtained His Majesty's Royal Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date the twenty-seventh day of February now last past, a
Specification or Description of which machinery was iurolled in the Petty Bag
Office, in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery, on the Twenty-sixth day of
August now last past, but with such au alteration in the shape or form of

page_text: certain parts of such machinery, called dies, as I shall describe in the
Drawing hereunto annexed. But I do not claim under the said Patent,
dated the Sixth day of March last, any part of such machinery.
Figure 5 represents a vertical section of a pair of dics. The cavities formed
in these may be seen at a, and they are fixed into recesses formed to receive
them in two axes A, B, similar to those described in the Specification or
Description of the machinery above referred to. These are made to receive
a nail of the common form, that is to say, one that, if a section of it be made
similar to Figure 3, the same figure will be produced, namely, a square, the
solid angles thereof being right angles. But in Figure 6 a pair of similar dies
are shewn in section, which, if a nail was rolled through or compressed between
them, would be fluted and receive a shape, the section of which would be the
same as that shewn in Figure 4, the advantages of which I have stated above.
I therefore can only state, that when wrought nails are to be made of
this peculiar form, lengths must be cut off from the rods and heated,
pointed, and carried into the dies by the same means that I have described
in the Specification or Description of the machinery above referred to;
and when the prepared nail enters the heading dies therein described, if
the cavities made to receive the nail be of the shape or form I have shewn
in Figure 6, then the dies being forced together by the means I have
described in the above Specification or Description of the machinery above
referred to, will impress the sides of the nail with flutes, and consequently
produce the shape, and with it the advantages I have described above.
It will therefore be evident, if the Specification or Description of the
machinery above referred to be carefully examined, that nails, spikes, or bolts
may be made by the machinery therein described, and of the improved shape
or form shewn in Figure 1 in the Drawing hereunto annexed, provided the
cavities formed in the dies are made of the shape or form above described, and
that being closed with sufficient power they will indent the four sides of the
nails with hollows or flutes in the manner I have shewn. The same shape or
form may be given to nails, spikes, or bolts that are cast, and the advantages
resulting from the use of them will be proportionate.
And I hereby further declare, that nails, spikes, or bolts, of the peculiar
shape or form I have herein described, namely, with fluted sides, may be made
of any size or length, provided the machinery be made proportionate; and of
course the same observation applies equally to cast nails, spikes, or bolts, there
being in that mode of manufacture no limit as to size in the process of casting.
When very large spikes or bolts are required of the improved shape or form
that I have invented, it will be most economical to have the rods of iron passed

page_text: through rollers that will give them the fluted form, a section of which is
shown in Figure 4; the pointing and heading may then be effected by manual
labour in the usual manner.
And I further declare, that my Improvement in the Shape or Form of Nails,
Spikes, and Bolts, consists in making or constructing them with fluted sides,
by which means a greater degree of strength or stiffness will be obtained from
any given quantity of metal wrought or cast into the form of a nail, spike, or
bolt; and it will also be found, that when so constructed or formed they may
be more readily driven and into a smaller hole; and when so driven, they
will, from the increased superficial surface produced, hold faster than any
nails, spikes, or bolts of the ordinary form or shape heretofore in use.
In witness whereof, 1, the said Thomas John Fuller, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this First day of September, in the year of our