IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PUNCHING AND FOR MARKING PLATES IN WHICH HOLES ARE TO BE PUNCHED
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Matthew Hodgson Lishman, of Stockton-on-Tees,
in the County of Durham, Accountant, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PUNCHING AND FOR MARKING PLATES IN WHICH
HOLES ARE TO BE PUNCHED."
Sealed the 12th February 1864, and dated the 14th August 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Matthew Hodgson Lishman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th August 1863.
I, MATTHEW HODGSON LISHMAN, of Stockton-on-Tees, in the County of
Durham, Accountant, do hereby declare. the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN. MACHINERY FOR PUNCHING AND FOR MARKING PLATES IN:
WHICH HOLES ARE TO BE PUNCHED," to be as follows:-
In punching holes in metal plates for ships, boilers, and other purposes, it
has hitherto been usual to mark on the plates by hand all the spots where-
holes are to be punched. In punching plates for ships a great difficulty also
exists from their curved shape necessitating the punching of the holes in the.
various plates at different distances apart.
Now my Invention consists in punching holes in manner and by the machi-
nery hereafter described. Upon standards in front of the machine I fit a
table free to travel to and fro, upon which the plate to be punched is laid; the
plate must previously be marked at the two spots where holes are to be
punched for the rivets which secure the plate to the ribs of the ship. Above
the plate, and bolted to or forming part of the punching machine, is:a bed plate;

page_text: having fixed thereto a frame or apparatus by which the space between the two
marked spots is divided, as hereafter described, into as many equal distances as
there are holes to be punched. This frame or apparatus is composed of two
longitudinal bars free to move upon pins as fixed centres near one end thereof.
The shorter arms of these longitudinal bars are connected by a slotted trans-
verse bar placed at a given distance, say three inches, more or less, from the
fixed centres; the longer arms are divided into spaces of three inches or each
equal to the given distance just mentioned, and at each division there are holes
for securing another slotted movable transverse bar, the position of which is
regulated by the distance between the first and last of the series of holes to be
punched. The bed plate to which this frame or apparatus is secured is slotted
longitudinally to receive two sliding pieces which are also free to slide one in
each of the transverse bars. The sliding piece which takes into the transverse
bar, sécond above mentioned, is furnished with a point or tool which must be
placed upon one of the two marks on the plate to be punched, the other mark
having been previously brought underneath the punch; this sliding piece may
be furnished with a screw to which a hand wheel is connected by means of
which the longitudinal bars are drawn out of a straight line or into a position
where they form an angle with the line of holes to be punched when it is
necessary to reduce the distance between the holes. When the punching
machine is set in motion. it punches a hole in the plate where marked, the
'table is then made to travel by any suitable mechanism until the hole comes
underneath a pin which drops into it, throws the mechanism out of gear, and
stops the table, when the punch again descends to punch another hole, the pin
rising at the same time. The same operations are repeated until all the holes
are punched, the pin always falling into the hole last punched. Instead of
fitting the dividing or regulating apparatus above described to a punching
machine, it may, slightly modified, be employed simply for marking the spots
where holes are to be punched and the punching may then be performed by
any ordinary method.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Matthew Hodgson Lishman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 13th February 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MATTHEW
HODGSON LISHMAN, of Stockton-on-Tees, in the County of Durham, Accountant,
send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her, reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Matthew Hodgson Lishman, Her special licence that I, the said
Matthew Hodgson Lishman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or suel
others as I, the said Matthew Hodgson Lishman, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed; should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man,
an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PUNCHING AND FOR MARKING
PLATES IN WHICH HOLES ARE TO BE PUNCHED," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Matthew Hodgson Lishman, my executors or administrators,.
by an instrument in writing under my, 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 imme-.
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Matthew Hodgson Lishman, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the.
following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto.
annexed, that is to say:-
.
In punching holes in metal plates for ships, boilers, and other purposes
it has hitherto been usual to mark on the plates by hand all the spots where.
holes are to be punched. In punching plates for ships a great difficulty also
exists from their curved shape necessitating the punching of the holes in the
various plates at different distances apart.
Now my Invention consists in punching holes in manner and by the
machinery hereafter described. Upon standards in front of the machine I
fit a table free to travel to and fro upon which the plate. to be punched
is laid; the plate must previously be marked at the two spots between which
holes are to be punched, for instance, for the holes for the rivets which secure-
a-plate to the ribs of 'a ship: Above the plate and bolted to or forming part-
of the punching machine is a bed plate having fixed thereto a frame or
apparatus by which the space between the two marked spots is divided, as
hereafter described, into. as many equal distances as there are holes to be
punched. This frame or apparatus is: composed of two longitudinal bars, free:
.

page_text: to move upon pins as fixed centres, near one end thereof. The shorter arms
of these longitudinal bars are connected by a slotted transverse bar placed at a
given distance, say three inches, more or less, from the fixed centrés; the longer
arms are divided into spaces of three inches, or each equal to the, given
distance just mentioned, and at each division there are holes for securing
another slotted movable transverse bar or a wire. The longitudinal bars are
drawn out of a straight line or into a position where they form an angle with
the line of holes to be punched when it is necessary to reduce the distance
between the holes. When the punching machine is set in motion it punches
a hole in the plate where marked; the table is then made to travel by
suitable mechanism until the hole comes underneath a pin which should be
about the same diameter as the punch, this pin drops into the hole, throws the
mechanism out of gear, and stops the table, when the punch descends to
punch another hole, after which the pin again rises,. the same operations are
repeated until all the holes are punched, the pin always falling into the hole
last punched. Instead of fitting the dividing or regulating apparatus above
described to a punching machine, it may, slightly modified, be employed
simply for marking the spots where holes are to be punched, and the punching
may then be performed by any ordinary method.
Figure 1. of the accompanying Drawings is a front elevation, and Figure 2
a side clevation, with the travelling table in section, of a punching machine
constructed according to my Invention. Figure 3 is a plan of the dividing
frame or apparatus.
A is the shaft which actuates the punch; B is a cam on the end of this
shaft; C is a lever working upon a fixed centre at a, and lifted at its other
end by the cam B on the end of the shaft A. When the lever C is forced up
by the cam, the rod D, to which a pin E is attached, is lifted, and the belt F is
shifted by, another rod G from a loose pulley H to a fast pulley. I, thus giving
motion to the table J. When a hole has been punched by the punch K,
and the punch is just being freed from the plate, the pin E, by its connection
with the rod D and the lever C is also raised, and the table J to which
the plate is secured moves forward until the hole just punched comes under
the pin E, which is pointed in order to facilitate its entrance. In order to
force the pin E, quickly into its place there is a weight L on the top of the
rod D, and simultaneously with the fall of the pin this weight also by its
action on the lever C and the rod. G-stops the table by shifting the belt from
the fast pulley I to the loose pulley H. To remove the pin E there is a recess
M in the slide N, so that the rod D can be raised until the pin is clear of the
slide when it is easily withdrawn, from the eye at the bottom of the rod. D.

page_text: Instead of the weight L a spring may be fitted. P is a stopper of the ordinary.
tumbler description, worked by a hand lever Q, and intended to prevent the
punch from making a hole, without at the same time stopping the machine.
In this arrangement, however, the stopper is also thrown out by a shoulder
plate R on the rod D, so that no hole can be punched until the pin E has
entered its "berth," because when the slide N (in which the stopper P is
fitted) is raised, the pin E and the rod D are also raised, and as soon as the
plate moves forward and the 'cam B after lifting has cleared the lever C, the
pin E rests upon the surface of the plate which is being punched, consequently
if the pin does not enter a hole 'before the stopper P on the downward journey
of the slide, N comes in contact with the shoulder plate R, the stopper is
thrown back and no hole punched. Figure 4 is an end view of the stopper P,
showing the manner in which it is thrown out by the shoulder plate R. The
pin E is resting on the plate to be punched, consequently, as the shaft of
the punching machinė revolves and the slide in which the stopper P is fitted
comes down, that part of the stopper marked t comes in contact with the point u
of the shoulder plate R and the stopper is thrown into the position indicated
by the dotted lines. This self-acting stopper is arranged so that in case the
table in consequence of a belt breaking, or from any other cause, should not
have travelled the proper distance, or the plate should have been shifted out of
its proper position, a hole would not be punched. If, however, it is required to
punch a hole independent of the pin, the stopper P is pulled to the right to the
position indicated by the dotted line b, and is thus brought clear of the rod D.,
and can be put either in or out of gear by the hand lever Q. The fast and
loose pulleys I and H are mounted on a shaft S, which carries at its other
end a pinion T in gear with a wheel U on a shaft V, the inner end of
this shaft carries a pinion W in gear with a wheel X mounted on the
same shaft as a pinion Y in gear with a rack Z at the under side of the
table J.
A' is the dividing apparatus; B' is the frame or bed plate upon which the
dividing apparatus works; C³, C¹, are two longitudinal bars' moving upon fixéd
centres c, c; d, is a hole in the slide O through which the pin E works and
is guided. The punch K works in the recess e and is in a line transversely
with the centres c, c, and longitudinally with the pin E or pin hole d and the
front edge of the bed plate B¹; f, f, are bolt holes by which the longitudinal
bars C, C, are secured to a transverse slotted plate or bar, 9, and the centres
of these bolt holes are in a line, with the centre of the pin hole d; h, h, are
wires or bars bolted or secured at their ends to the longitudinal bars C', C',
they may be secured to those bars in any suitable manner, but they must be

page_text: .
.
free to move upon their ends as centres, and those centres must be in a line
'with the centres of the bolt bole f, the fixed centre c, and the bolt hole i in the
longitudinal bars C', C. The frame or bed plate B', instead of being as shewn
in Figure 3, may be as represented in Figure 5. The difference consists. in
'cutting a piece out of the front of the frame and inserting a wire k secured at
each end by a bolt. The wire is at the under side' of the bed plate, and
the bolts are put in from the under side and fastened at the upper 'by
nuts. By adopting this plan by unscrewing the nuts the wire may be let
down so as to rest upon the plate on which the machine was operating.
Besides being used for punching a series of holes within a given distance, as
before described, this machine may be used for punching holes where the
distances aro equal, and for this purpose that portion of the frame or bed plate
'parallel to the wire k may be engraved on a one-inch scale, and as the distance
between the punch and the pin is always the same as between the punch and
the first of the transverse wires, the distance between the holes would always
be shewn by the position of this wire on the frame. If desired the second wire
may be used for this purpose, and as the distance between it and the punch is
always twice the distance between the punch and the pin,. the scale engraved
upon the frame would require to be two inches to one inch, thus giving the
advantage of a large and legible scale. If the third wire is used the scale will
be three inches to one inch, if the fourth, four inches to one inch, and so on.
The slide O can only move (by the action against it of the transverse slotted
bar g) in a dire.tion parallel with the table J, it cannot move towards either
of the points f,f, because of its shoulders working against the two arms 1, 1, of
the frame or bed plate. The frame of the dividing apparatus is attached to
the machine and supported in its place by a block D¹. This block is fitted
into a planed recess formed by checks E', E', and may be fastened by a screw
bolt F. It is fitted in this manner so that it can be shifted to bring the fixed
centres c, c, of the dividing apparatus in a line with the punch when the latter
bas by any means got out of its correct position; G¹ is a handle for
'driving the table by hand when required; or instead of or in addition to
this hand motion the machine may be provided with a back motion for the
table...
I now proceed to describe, by way of example, the manner in which my
Invention is employed for punching the shell plates of iron ships, plates of iron
'masts, and other plates where it is necessary frequently to increase and decrease
the space between the holes, for instance, in the shell plate of a vessel, the first
€7 or 8 holes may be within a space of 21 inches, the next 7 or 8 in 21 inches,
the next in 22 inches, and so on..

page_text: A shell plate when brought to this machine to be punched would be marked
as shewn in Figure 6, and would require to be punched for example, say as
represented in Figure 7. The holes marked in Figure 6 are what are techni-
cally called the frame holes, and those of the frame holes that are next to the
edges of the plate, viz., a, b, c, d, and e, and f, g, h, i, and k are called the
joint holes. The marking of the frame holes is obtained by using any ordinary
template. The distances between the joint holes vary according to the
curve of the plate, which must conform to the shape of the vessel, and the
distances apart of the intermediate holes (those between a b, bc, cd, and de,.
in Figure 7) are or ought to be made greater or less in exactly the same
proportion as the distance between the joint holes a, b, is increased or
diminished.
b
1 ..
Now in punching a plate it must be first secured to the table J, and the
mark a, Figure 6, brought under the punch K; care must be taken that the
second frame hole 6 is put in a line longitudinally with the front edge of the
bed plate B', because this edge is in a line with the centre of the punch and of
the pin E.. (If the bed plate B' is of the shape shewn in Figure 5 the centre
of the mark 6 must be put under the wire k). The dividing apparatus must
next be drawn outward at the point m (say, for example, as far out as shown by
the dotted lines) until one of the transverse wires h intersects the mark b. The
machine is then put in motion, that is to say, the stopper P is put into gear,
and the table gearing put in motion, when the hole a is punched and the table
with the plate moves forward until stopped by the pin E entering the hole first
punched, thereby allowing the weight Land the rod G to shift the belt T; the
second hole is then made and so on until the first set of holes including, b is
punched. The dividing apparatus is next adjusted so that one of the trans-
verse wires shall cut the mark c; this alters the travelling of the table
(by moving the pin E) to suit the distance of the new set of holes. The pro
cess is repeated on coming to d, and until the plate is finished. The butts or
ends of the plate are punched by putting the mark f¹ under the
under one of the wires of the dividing apparatus.
punch and g
L
It will be seen that in Figure 7 there are, besides the holes between.
a b, bc, cd, and de, three holes before a and three after e; the positions of
these holes depend, the former upon the last franie or joint hole in the pre-
ceding plate, and the latter upon the first frame hole in the following plate. In
order to obtain these marks. (the three before a and the three after e) the end
of the one plate is brought against the other as represented in Figure 8, and
the dividing apparatus, modified as represented in Figure 9, is used as a marking

page_text: plate. The dotted lines in this Figure represent a frame upon which the
dividing apparatus formed by the two longitudinal and seven transverse bars
(drawn in full lines) works from the fixed centres n, o; p, p, are holes through
the frame of the same size as the rivet holes, and their centres are in a line
with the spaces q, q. These spaces are the full length of the frame and of the
same breadth as the diameter of the rivet holes. There are two holes p, p,
and two spaces q, q, provided to be used in cases of double rivetting; in single
rivetting of course only one would be necessary, and in treble rivetting three
would be required.
Now to arrive at the proper places for the holes in the shell plate before a
and after e one of the holes p must be placed over the mark e in the first plate
and the dividing apparatus drawn at the point r until the mark a in the second
plate is covered by the transverse plate r, s, or any other of the transverse
plates, and when this is effected the remaining transverse bars will intersect
the spaces at the points where the intermediate holes are to be formed. The
transverse bars or plates are slotted their entire length, and the slots are of the
same breadth as the spaces q, so that wherever they intersect those spaces a
square hole is formed, through which the mark is made on the plate. Instead
of being thus made to circumscribe the hole, or rather the place where the
hole is to be formed, they may, if preferred, be made as plain straight bars to
"take" one side of the hole only, or they may be of wire. The dis-
tances apart of the transverse bars in the dividing apparatus, both of the
punching machine and the marking plate, depend upon the distance it is
desired the rivets should be from each other, and the transverse bars may be
secured to either side of the longitudinal bars, in many cases it may be better
to secure them to the under and upper side alternately.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as my "Improve-
ments in Machinery for Punching and for Marking Plates in which Holes are
to be Punched,"-
First, the general arrangement of machinery, constructed, arranged, and
operating as herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings.
Second, the dividing frame or apparatus, whether used to govern the travel-
ling of the table or for marking, constructed, arranged, and operating sub-
stantially in manner and for the purposes herein-before described and illustrated
in the accompanying Drawings.
3.
Third, the employment.in punching machines of the pin marked E in the

page_text: accompanying Drawings, arranged and operated substantially in manner and.
for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Matthew Hodgson Lishman, have hereunto
set, my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of February, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-four.