AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE-SHOE NAILS
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morgan Brown, of the Firm of
Brandon and Morgan Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of
38, Southampton Buildings, London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
HORSE-SHOE NAILS."-A communication from abroad by Thomas
House Fuller, of Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America.
Scaled the 13th December 1872, and dated the 1st July 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Morgan Brown
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 1st July 1872.
I, WILLIAM MORGAN BROWN, of the Firm of Brandon and Morgan
Brown, Engineers and Patent Agents, of 38, Southampton Buildings,
London, and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE-
SHOE NAILS," to be as follows:-
:-
This Invention has for its object an improvement in the manufacture
of horse-shoe nails, and relates to that class of horse-shoe nails in which

page_text: the blanks are punched or cut from plate metal and have their shanks
drawn. In making one kind of such nails the plates are rolled so as to
leave thick head-forming ribs or ridges for the heads and thin web
portions for the shanks, the heads being wholly formed in punching out
the blanks, and the shanks being subsequently formed to shape by cold
rolling.
In this Invention the rolling operation for the head-forming rib is
dispensed with and the nail blanks are punched from a plate of uniform
thickness, cutting the heads of width greater than the shanks and
preferably slightly in excess of the width of the finished head (cutting
the blank heads and points to utilize all the metal), and these heads,
uniform in thickness with the shanks, are upset in or by suitable dies
and punches or plungers to obtain the necessary or most desirable
forms. The shanks are (by preference subsequently) drawn down by
rolling or otherwise to obtain the length, taper, and quality desirable for
the shank of the finished nail.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Morgan Brown in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 17th December 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MORGAN BROWN, of the -Firm of Brandon_ and. Morgan Brown,
Engineers and Patent Agents, of 33, Southampton Buildings, London,
and 13, Rue Gaillon, Paris, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the First day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said William Morgan Brown, Her special license
that I, the said William Morgan Brown, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Morgan Brown, 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 Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,

page_text: shape for the nail head and its shank drawn to suitable length and taper
for the finished nail shank.
In practice it is considered preferable to proceed as follows:-Having
a plate of metal of suitable quality for the nails, and of uniform thickness
throughout, strips are cut therefrom of a width to embrace a double
series of blanks, each edge of the strip making one series of heads, and
the space between the head-forming edges constituting the material for
the shanks of the two opposite series of heads. From such strip these
two series of blanks are cut or punched, and each blank is then a short
shank with a head of uniform thickness with it. Such head is upset
when cold by means of die jaws, which close upon its opposite edges (its
back being supported against a plate) and a plunger or plungers that
.strike the head, two plungers being preferably used, one smaller than the
finished head and the other of the size of the head, the first leaving fins
or projecting edges which the second presses down upon the top of the
head and imparts a flat form and finish thereto. In this head upsetting
operation the head is contracted in width, is increased in thickness, and
shaped both as to its width and as to its thickness, being preferably
-made narrowest and thickest at the top and with a bevelled top surface.
The head being thus cold upset into finished form the short shank is
cold drawn between suitable rolls to elongate, shape, and rigidify it, and
the nail is thus finished as to form and condition of material, the nails
being simply "tumbled," if necessary, to brighten them and remove
fins.
In the Drawings attached, by which the Invention will be more easily
understood,-
A shews a plate to be cut up into strips, from which strips blanks are
to be punched, the dotted lines a denoting the lines of separation to form
the strips and the other dotted lines denoting the edges of the punched
blanks, the fibres of the metal running crosswise of the strip. B shews
the plate in edge view; C is a top view and D an edge view of the blank;
E and F shew the blank after the head is upset and before the shank is
rolled; G and H shew the finished nail.
In working the blank the head is preferably first upset, as the finished
head forms the best index from which to draw the shank, but the shank
'may be first drawn.

page_text: In the upsetting and drawing operations the back of the head and the
back of the shank are preferably left or kept flush, as seen at H, while
the front of the head projects beyond the front of the shank, as scen
at H, and the side edges from the side of the shank, as seen at G, but the
head may be upset so as to extend from the back as well as from the
front face, it being in fact brought to any desirable shape by the shape
of the dies and plungers which effect the upsetting.
For making the upset head from the blank C, D, mechanism such as
is shewn at I and K may be used.
a denotes a stationary jaw having in one edge a recess 6 corresponding
in form to half of the shank of the nail blank c; d denotes a movable
jaw having a recess e corresponding to the recess b. The blank being
laid upon a plate f, and one edge of the shank introduced into the
recess b, the jaw d is moved up against the blank, thereby griping the
shank in the two recesses b, e.
g, h, denote two die plates, each having at its inner end a die recess i;
the two recesses when the die plates are slid in forming a die socket
having the shape to be imparted to the head. denotes a plunger or
header at the end of a slide m, moving at a right angle to the movement
of the die slides I, h.
The shank being griped between the plates a, d, and the slides g, h,
being thrown in to form the die socket (the head of the blank projecting
into this socket), the plunger is driven in against the top of the blank,
upsetting the end of the blank so that it fills the licad-forming socket
space of the two dies g, h, thereby imparting to the head the shape
shewn at E, F, G, H.
The shank of the blank may be then formed and finished by any
suitable drawing, shaping, pointing, and trimming mechanism.
Having now described and particularly set forth the nature of the said
Invention, and the manner of carrying the same into effect, I would
have it understood that what I claim is,―
In the manufacture of horse-shoe nails the process of forming thọ nail
by cutting from a plate of uniform thickness a blank, upsetting one end
of this blank to form the head, and drawing the blank from the head to
clongate and form the shank, substantially as described.

page_text: Also a nail formed from a cut blank by upsetting the head and
drawing the shank, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Morgan Brown, have here-
unto set my band and seal, this Thirteenth day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two
WILLIAM MORGAN BROWN. (L.S.)