IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF NAILS, AND IN APPARATUS USED THEREBY."
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jean Thomas Massiaux, of Nouzon (France), Iron-
master, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
NAILS, AND IN APPARATUS USED THEREBY."
NAILS, AND IN APPARATUS USED THEREBY."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jean Thomas Massiaux
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th May 1861.
I, JEAN THOMAS MASSIAUX, of Nouzon (France), Ironmaster, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF NAILS, AND IN APPARATUS USED THEREBY," to be as follows:-
These improvements relate to the manufacture of cut nails, viz., such nails
as are cut off by suitable machinery from iron or other metal plates, and
afterwards receive a head by means of a suitable die or dies.
The present Invention allows the manufacturing of any description of cut
nails, such, for instance, as those to be employed for naval purposes, for
shoeing horses, &c. The Invention consists in cutting those nails out of plates
or strips of iron or other suitable metal, and of the required width, and pro-
vided by rolling or otherwise on one or both of their longitudinal sides with
proper swells or flanches of a wedger or other suitable form, according to the
shape to be given either to the head or to the blank of the nail. For pro-
ducing certain shapes of nails I also provide the cutting edge of the cutter
block with a suitable projection, acting in combination with a corresponding
recess in or part abraded off from the cutting edge of the cutter.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jean Thomas Massiaux in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 7th November 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JEAN
THOMAS MASSIAUX, of Nouzon (France), Ironmaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign. did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Jean Thomas Massianx. Her special licence that I, the said Jean
Thomas Massiaux, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Jean Thomas Massiaux, 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 ex, "essed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF NAILS, AND IN APPARATUS USED THEREBY,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Jean Thomas Massiaux,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their
or one of their hands and scals, 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 immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE that I. the said Jean Thomas Massiaux, 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 :-
These improvements relate to the manufacture of cut nails or brads, viz.,
such nails as are manufactured by being cut off from suitably rolled iron or
other metal plate by means of suitable cutting presses, and which afterwards
are headed by suitable pressers or dies.
The present Invention allows the manufacture of any description and size
of cut nails, such, for instance, as those made use of for naval purposes, for
horse shoeing; and others.
Hitherto in the manufacture of cut nails the wedge-shaped strips of metal
cut off from the nail plate received the shape shown respectively in front and side
views in the Figures A and A' of the annexed Drawings, the two triangular parts

page_text: shown in hatched lines in Fig. A serving for forming the head of the nail, and
the lower triangular parts for the blank thereof; this method allows not of
giving less width to the head of the nail as that of the upper part of the
wedge-shaped strip, and on attempting to give less width to this head chipped
edges would be formed by the heading die. In order that the strips may
receive a head of either a larger or a smaller width than that these strips offer
themselves, place on the top of the presser or squeezer block, by which the
nail blank is formed. -two moveable pressers, shown in top and in side view
respectively in the Figs. B' and B; these pressers are caused to act in a
horizontal direction towards cach other, and simultaneously with the squeezer
blocks and each of these pressers or pincers is provided with an eye-hole K.
the size and shape of which corresponds with that to be given to the head of
the nail. such, for instance, as shown in Fig. C. These moveable pressers or
horizontal pincers being applied on the presser blocks by which the nail blank
is formed, they are driven towards cach other in the horizontal direction, so
as to take hold between them of the part O situated above the blank of the
nail, and thus press this part into the shape required for the head, while by
the conical shape of the eye-hole K, the upper portions of this head are driven
towards the base of this latter, and at the same time the vertical blow of the
heading die finishes the nail. This system of moveable pressers or pincers
acting in conjunction with the presser blocks in the horizontal direction, and
are provided with a suitable eye-hole, may be applied to the manufacture of
cut nails from thin or from stout sheet or bar iron, or nail plate, provided
either with or without a flanch or swelling on one or on both sides. In Fig. D
are shown presser blocks provided with suitable notches or knicks for
forming the sides of the heads of cut nails of the shape shown in the Figs.
F and F, but which nails may likewise be manufactured by means of the
moveable pressers above described. ' and d show the cross sections of two
sorts of nail plate, provided on each side with a flanch or swelling. The shape
of heads shown in F and F could not be obtained by the hitherto known
methods of manufacturing cut nails. in which the head is formed simply by
the vertical blow of a heading dic.
For manufacturing cut nails provided with heads of the shape exemplified
in the Figs. F. F. F, F, from bar iron or nail plate of the description shown
in cross section in d, d'. and d. I provide the upper surface of the presser
block with projecting parts, shown in end view in z. Fig. E. The ends of
these pressers are provided with an eye-hole (shown by the hatched lines) for
receiving and forming the nail blank. The heading die of an inverted V-shape,
in being pressed down upon the projections Z, bends and presses the iron on

page_text: these latter, and thus forms thereon the head of the nail, the shape of which
may be varied at pleasure. In order to keep the strip from which the nail is
to be manufactured in a fixed position, I use two small holders, cut out in
such manner as to correspond with the projecting and the cutting parts of the
pressers.
For manufacturing cut nails of the shape shown in the Figs. H, J, L, M,
I employ nail plate as shown in cross section in Fig. F, is provided on one
end with a swelling or flanch, whilst the other end is made tapering for
forming the blank of the nail, this blank being either of a wedge or of a
pointed shape; those with a wedge-shaped end are manufactured from nail plate,
with a flanch or swelling at one end, and wedged-shaped at the other, whereas
those with four-sided pointed blank are made by means of the presser blocks
represented in Fig. G, which blocks are formed of two parts, Q and R, which,
in being driven towards each other, leave an aperture S between them; the
knife N enters in this opening S, and cuts off so much of the iron on one side
as is required for giving the pointed shape to the blank. In this mode of
manufacturing cut nails the nail plate is, consequently, after each blow of the
heading die caused to advance on the presser block for the distance required
for making another nail, whereby the reversing of the nail plate after each cut
is dispensed with.
For manufacturing cut horse-shoe nails the nail plate has a flanch on each
side, and is of the shape shown in cross section in Fig. V, and in plan view in
Fig. U, in which latter Fig. the lines x, y, show the shape of the strips to be
cut off from the nail plate, which strips after having been cut off are squeezed
by the pressers into the required shape in the ordinary manner, after which
the knife T cuts the end and the diamond point e to the blank, as shown in
Fig. Y.
Hitherto for cutting off the strip from the double-flanched nail plate a
cutter block and cutter with straight edges (as shown in A' and B2) was made
use of, by which method the cuttings take place as shown in C', and strips of
the shape shown in D' are obtained, presenting in a an obtuse, and in ba
sharp angle, and as the blank is shaped before the beading takes place, that
portion of the strip which is to form the head of the nail is situated in an
oblique direction in respect to the blank, which offers the disadvantage that
the fibres of the iron becoming more or less twisted, broken, and separated
from each other, flaws are generally produced in the nails manufactured in this
manner. In order entirely to prevent this cause of failure, I give to the cutter
block E a projection T¹, and a corresponding receding angular part U to the
cutter F of the width of the flanch of the nail plate; by cutting with this

page_text: cutter and block according to the dotted lines of Fig. G', strips of the shape H¹
are obtained, from which much stronger nails than with strips of the form
of D' are made.
For manufacturing cut horse-shoe nails, I also make use of nail plate pro-
vided at one end with a flanch, as shown in cross section in Fig. J'. and in plan
view in Fig. I; the dotted lines show how the strips are successively cut
off from the plate; K' represents a strip cut off by means of two cutters of a
three-square shape; the wedge-formed parts VI, V¹, are afterwards cut away,
though both operations may, likewise, take place simultaneously.
For manufacturing cut horse-shoe nails, I also make use of nail plate pro-
vided with two flanches, as shown in cross section in Fig. L, and in plan view
in Fig. L', the dotted lines indicating the mode of cutting off the strips; M' is
a side, and N¹ a plan view of one of these strips. By a suitable pressure
exerted on the flat side towards the end of the blank (as shown in R'), the
nail, shown respectively from both sides in O¹ and P¹. is obtained provided
Lowards the point with the diamond point. My method of manufacturing cut
horse-shoc nails dispenses with any further hammering of the point of them.
Having thus described and particularly ascertained the nature of my Inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is or may be carried into effect, I wish it
to be understood that I do not confine myself to the precise shapes of cut
nails herein-before described and illustrated in the Drawings, as such may be
varied or modified without departing from the principles of my modes of
manufacturing such cut nails; neither do I intend to restrain myself to the
precise details of the cutters or pressers and heading dies, or do I claim the
general arrangement of the machines for manufacturing cut nails; but what I
consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the various modes
described of forming the blanks and heads of cut nails from various descriptions
of nail plate.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jean Thomas Massiaux, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of October, Eighteen hundred
and sintu ana
J. THOMAS MASSIAUX. (L.S.)