CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME I CHARLES
LAMBERT of Two mile hill Saint George's near Bristol in the County of
Gloucester Pin maker Send Greeting
WHEREAS Her present Most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria by her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain bearing date at
Westminster the fifth day of January in the eleventh year of her Reign
did for herself her heirs and successors give and grant unto me the said
Charles Lambert her especial Licence full power sole privilege and authority
that I the said Charles Lambert my executors administrators and assigns
and such others as I the said Charles Lambert my executors administrators
or assigns should at any time agree with and no others from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned should and law-
fully might make use exercise and vend within England Wales the Town
of Berwick upon Tweed and in all her Majestys Colonies and Plantations
abroad and in the Islands of Jersey Guernsey Alderney Sark and Man
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me the said
Charles Lambert by an Instrument in writing under my hand and seal parti-
cularly to describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed and to cause the same to be inrolled
in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within Six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent as
in and by the same reference being thereunto had will more fully and at
large appear

page_text: NOW KNOW YE that in compliance with the said Proviso I the said
Charles Lambert 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 in and by the following description thereof reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say)
The Improvements in Machinery for making Nails which form the subjects
of this Patent Consist in the construction and arrangement of certain novel
agents to be applied to a Machine wherein heated rods of iron are by excentric
rollers or rotary Cams formed into approximate wedges or series of connected
wedges ready to be cut into separate Nails. These novel agents are firstly a
pair of moveable guides for conducting forward the end of the rod of heated
iron after it has received from the shaping Rollers its approximate Wedge
forms, secondly the construction and adaptation of cutting and holding dies
the edges of which are employed to slice off horizontally a portion of the shaft
of each nail in order to give it on the upper side an inclined or wedge shape
corresponding or nearly so to the lateral form of the nail produced by the
excentric Rollers. Thirdly a peculiar construction of double Cutter for sepa-
rating the wedge formed shafts of the respective nails from the previously
shaped rod. In describing these improvements and their adaptation it will
be necessary for me to shew the general construction of a Machine for manu-
facturing wrought iron nails from heated rods of Iron by the known process of
excentric Rollers or rotary Cams and in doing so I shall describe my Improve-
ments adapted therewith.
In the accompanying Drawings. Fig: 1; represents a horizontal view as
seen from above of a machine for making Nails my novel improvements
being combined with the old or known Mechanism. Fig: 2. is an elevation of
one side of the same Machine and Fig: 3 is a partial section taken trans-
versely through the machine in a vertical direction in the situation marked by
the dotted lines A. B. of figures 1 and 2 exhibiting the rotary cams or
excentric rollers having each a flange by which the square rod of iron is
pressed laterally into approximate wedges (but flat at top and bottom) for the
formation of separate nails. Fig: 4 represents a detached portion of the
Machine in horizontal section shewing the forms and positions of the rotary
Cams or excentric rollers a, a, by which a square rod of heated iron b, b, is
formed into approximate wedges by the lateral pressure as it passes between
the Rollers the edge view of these rollers with their horizontal flange on each
being seen in Fig: 3. It is unnecessary to describe minutely the forms of or
the manner in which these shaping rollers are driven as that is well under-

page_text: stood and is sufficiently seen by the drawing and may be varied under
circumstances.
Fig 5 is a horizontal representation detached in section of the novel parts
of the machine constituting the three beads of my Invention which are not so
clearly seen in Fig: 1. They are here drawn to shew their positions with
respect to the shaping rollers. Every approximate wedge formed upon the
rod of Iron 6, 6, under operation as soon as it has passed from between the
shaping rollers a, a, is conducted between a pair of moveable guides c, c,
whilst the bevel cutting dies d, e, are by a lever action made to move inward
for the purpose of slicing off horizontally in an inclined direction a portion of
the upper side of the next preceding wedge shaped approximate nail. This
will be seen in the partial longitudinal Section taken vertically through the
middle of the machine shewn at Fig: 20. The dies d, e after slicing the
bevil piece off the wedge hold the wedge firmly whilst it is headed if required
and whilst the double cutters move laterally and cut the advance wedge or
nail off the forward end of the rod.
The particular constructions and operations of these parts I will now
describe.
Fig 6. shews upon an enlarged scale the moveable guides c, c, and their
connection with the shaping rollers a, a, in horizontal section. The end of the
rod of iron b, having advanced from between the shaping rollers passes into a
box or tubular passage below f. Fig: 1. within which the moveable guides c, c,
are placed and operate. These moveable guides consist of two horizontal
levers mounted upon a plate affixed to the frame of the machine. They turn
upon fulcrum pins g. 9, see Fig: 6, and are held open by a spring h, h, with
forked ends taking hold of studs at the outer sides of the moveable guides as
shewn in elevation at Fig: 7. The ends of the moveable guides have beaks
,, which by the force of the spring 4, are made to bear against the peri-
pheries of the cam rollers a, a, and as those cams revolve their larger radii
acting against the beaks cause the levers or guides to collapse, but when the
smaller radii of the cams act against the beaks as seen in the figure then
the levers or guides expand and the channel between them is open for the
free passage of the rod. The rotary movements of the shaping rollers, a, a,
are effected at intervals by a ratchet wheel and click connected with the axle
of one of those rollers and with the driving power from the fly wheel shaft
as represented in the drawings but which forms no part of the present
Improvements hence at every movement of the shaping Roller or cams a. a.
one wedge form is produced by lateral pressure upon the sides of the heated

page_text: rod of Iron passed between them and on each temporary cessation of rotary
motion the other parts of the machinery are brought into action by cams and
levers or other means connected with the main driving axle in the way shewn
in the figure and well understood by Mechanics but not claimed by me as
The rotation of the shaping rollers being supposed to be stopped for
the moment and the moveable guides c, c, having one of the wedge shaped
portions of the rod between them as described, the bevel cutting dies d, e, are
now moved laterally for the purpose of slicing off in an inclined direction a
portion of the top of the next wedge in advance.
new.
The construction of these bevel cutting dies which constitute the second
head of my Invention will be understood by reference to the detached
auxiliary figures 8 to 13 inclusive.
Fig: 8 shews the upper surface of one of the bevel cutting dies e-Fig: 9. a
similar view of the corresponding bevil cutting die. d. Fig: 10 is a face view of
the die Fig: 8. and Fig: 11 an end view of the same -Fig: 12 is a face view of
the die. Fig 9 and Fig: 13 an end view of the same.
:
On the advance of the
rod of heated iron being arrested as said the wedge formed upon that part of
the rod which then lies between the cutters d, e, is acted upon for the purpose
of slicing off a portion of the wedge in a bevil direction to give the inclined
shape of the nail a taper toward the point. The movements of these cutters
are effected by cams on the main shaft foreing out the tails of the levers k, k,
which cause the opposite ends of those levers to which the cutters d, e, are
affixed to collapse and by those means to bring the edges of the dies or cutters
seen at Figures 11 and 13 to act as shears on the upper edge of the nail
shaft and thereby to slice off a portion of the shaft leaving it of the taper
form required. The upper parts of the bevil cutting dies d, e, having per-
formed the slicing operation as described the lower parts of these dies will
now press against the sides of the nail shaft and hold it firmly whilst the
heading operation if required is performed. Or other holding dies placed in
advance of these may be adapted to effect the heading but the particular
intention of these holding dies is to assist the cutting off of the several nails as
they advance-The heading dies may be of various forms suited to the
peculiar shape of head required as represented in figures 14 or 15 or of any
other desired form and they may be connected and brought into operation
as shown in the drawing at Figures 1 and 2. or by any of the. known
mechanism suited to that purpose to which I lay no claim of Invention I
will here remark that if I desire to make broad wedge or chisel formed flat
pointed nails. I dispense with the bevil cutting edges, d, e, and only employ

page_text: their lower parts as holding dies for heading the wedges as they come from the
shaping roller. In this case one of the sides may be made stationary and
the other brought up by leverage to hold the nail shaft whilst heading
The shaft of the nail being thus held between the dies d, d, the third
feature of my Invention comes into operation-viz. the construction and
operation of the double cutters by which each successive nail is cut off from
the end of the rod. The situation of these double cutters in the machine may
be seen in figures 1 and 5 at 7, and m, but their peculiar construction will be
best understood by the enlarged representation of them in figures 16, 17, 18
and 19-These cutters are fixed in the machine to transverse sliding bars
n, n, working in bearings which are made to move by means of double inclined
planes p, p, fixed on the lateral shafts q, q, and acting in mortice holes in the
transverse sliding bars n, n, the lateral shafts q, q, being slidden to and fro :
by means of excentrics r, r, on the main driving shaft as shewn in figures 1
and 2, The cutter or punch 7. figures 17 and 19 may be called the pro-
jecting cutter that at figures 16 and 18 the counter cutter or recess cutter m.
The double Cutters having double cutting edges are used only when other
than clasp or flat headed nails are made. These Cutters 1, and m, are to be
brought together by the operations of the machine as described when the
small part of the rod connecting the point of one nail with the head of the
next nail stands exactly between the cutting edges as shewn at Figures 16
and 17 and the intention of the double cutting edges is that not only shall
the end of the forward nail be cut off clean with a sharp chisel point but that
a small portion of the angular end of the next nail shaft shall be clean cut off
also in order to prepare it better for the heading operation and prevent the
metal being upset in an irregular shape when the header advances to crush
the metal and form the head for if the thin end of the junction were allowed
to remain it would not upset concentrically but be driven on one side and
form an uneven head. The Counter cutter m, is hollowed out in the inside a
little distance from its edges to allow the small piece of Iron which is cut
from between the Junctions of the two nail shafts to drop through
Having now described my Improvements in Machinery for making nails
I desire it to be understood that I do not intend to claim as my invention all
the parts of the nail making machine shewn in the drawing and described
but that which constitutes the subject of my Invention and which I desire to
be secured to me under the above in part recited Letters patent are
Firstly the moveable guides for conducting forward the end of the rod of
Iron after it has received its wedge shape those guides being moved laterally
upon fulcrum pins outwardly by the force of a spring or springs and inwardly

page_text: by their ends or beaks being acted upon by excentric rollers or cams at the
periods required
Secondly the bevil cutting and holding dies, the cutting edges of which are
intended to slice off horizontally portions of the rod to bevil each wedge in a
corresponding shape with that produced by the Rollers and thereby to produce
pointed nails and also to employ the said dies or holders for the heading
operations and for the cutting or separating of the wedges severally from the
Bar as it advances.
Thirdly. the double cutters as I term them for cutting off the wedge from
the rod not only at the point but also a portion at the head of the nail when
required. I claim these separately or conjointly however modified when
employed in a Machine for making nails and
Lastly I claim the arrangement and combination of the whole machine
collectively when set out and worked in the way I have described and
exhibited in the drawings.
In witness whereof I the said Charles Lambert have hereunto set
my hand and seal this third day of July in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and forty eight
Extra' in Chancery.
CHARLES (L.S.) LAMBERT.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED that on the same third day of July in
the year above mentioned the aforesaid Charles Lambert came before our
Lady the Queen in her Chancery and acknowledged the specification
aforesaid and all and every thing therein contained in form above written
and also the specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided
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