AN IMPROVED SCREW SPANNER
Year: 1878

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COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Jean Baptiste Vernhet at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th September 1878.
JEAN BAPTISTE VERNHET, Contractor of Public Works, of Marseille, France.
AN IMPROVED SCREW SPANNER."
My improved spanner is double-acting, it can be used to put, tighten, and
slacken the screw nuts on bolts, railway fish plates, carriage axles, &c.; it can also
be used to work as a ratchet brace for drilling, particularly for drilling the rails of
railways when in position for the reception of fish plates. My apparatus thus
combines in a single instrument the advantages of several tools.
The annexed Drawing represents my improved spanner; Figures 1 and 3 being
front and back views, and Figure 2, a section; Figure 4 shews it transformed into a
drill or tool for drilling a rail; Figure 5 shews it applied to a nut on a bolt, and
Figure 6 its application for removing a nut from a carriage axle.
On each side of the lever L of the spanner is a disc, the dise A which is on one
side (see Figure 1) has teeth on its circumference to form a ratchet, and be worked
by a double paul or click, which is pivoted upon the axis D of the lever L. The
disc A has an opening E at its centre, which opening has the form of the nut to be
tightened or loosened.
The spanner represented in the Drawing is intended for a nut with six sides.
The paul C has two arins so as to readily serve to work the disc A in one
direction or the other, the spanner being capable of tightening or loosening by a
movement to the right or left. The pawl can take up two different positions upon
the handle of the spanner, according to which of its two arms is put in action. To
fix it in one of these positions I form at the top of the paul lever two small flat
parts a, a¹. As the one or the other arm of the paul is worked, so the one or the
other of these flat parts comes against the piece b which is placed in the box c, and
is pressed by a spring d. This spanner does not leave hold of the nut as do all the
spanners now used; it is not necessary to let go the nut and take hold of it again
at each half turn. The spanner works like a ratchet brace.
The second disc B (Figure 3) holds in its interior by means of the screws e a
hollowed out piece f, and by means of the screw h the movable piece g; nuts of
square or of any other form can thus be tightened up; and in case of need the head

page_text: of a drill can be held in the spanner. This spanner therefore not only takes the
space of several spanners for nuts of different sizes, but also that of a special tool,
the ratchet brace; moreover, the work can be done in half the time now occupied
by other spanners. I can make this spanner of any shape and size, and of any
kind of metal.
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 the improved spanner constructed
substantially as herein-before described, and represented in the annexed Drawings,
the characteristic features of such spanner being,-
First. The combination of the two discs mounted loosely at the head of
the tool.
Secondly. The movement of the two discs by means of the ratchet teeth formed
upon one of them, which teeth are worked by a double paul..
Thirdly. The mode of fitting this paul upon the handle, and of maintaining it in
one of its two positions by means of a spring abutting piece held in a box on the
handle.
And, Fourthly. The mechanism of the disc B with its flat slide piece pushed by
a screw for tightening nuts of square or polygonal form, all substantially as
herein-before described and shewn.
.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jean Baptiste Vernhet, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of August, One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-eight.
J. B. VERNHET. (L.S.)