IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BOLTS
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd
May 1860. A communication from abroad by Alexandre Joseph and
Jean Rémy Maré, of Bogny-sur-Meuse, Ardennes, France.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the firm of John Gedge and Son, of No 11,
Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF BOLTS," communicated to me from abroad by Alexandre Joseph and Jean
Rémy Maré, of Bogny-sur-Meuse, Ardennes, France, to be as follows:-
To roughwork the bolts issuing from the forge I purpose employing a press
composed of an iron platform in the centre of which is left an opening.
On this platform is fixed an iron arcade and there is a nut to receive a
screw which raises or lowers the piston which slides between the guides. This
piston is composed of a principal piece of iron hollowed or pierced interiorly so
that the discharge piece also of iron shall not interfere with its rise and fall, the
piston being in position and the discharge arrested at the guide by the aid
of nuts, it will be readily understood that the first operates while the second
is stationary. A cast steel cutter, which I term a knife, having the form
of a truncated cone pierced from top to bottom, is set in the opening of the
knife-bearer and thus connected they are fixed by screws to the lower part
of the piston. On the before-mentioned platform are two puppets, each of
which is placed in a diametrically opposite position and receives a screw.

page_text: To begin the work there now remains but to join the cast steel matrix to the
false iron matrix and thus united to place them above the opening in the
platform, so that on lowering the piston the knife or cutter enters the matrix,
then the piston being in this position I fasten matrix and false matrix
by screws and that so strongly that during the work the piston and the
matrix preserve their respective position. Taking the bolts from the forge
I place one of them in the matrix and immediately lower the piston by the
lever, the knife following the same movement comes down upon the head of
the bolt to give it a regular form and a diameter the same as those which will
be afterwards rough worked. Then lifting the piston the bolt adheres to the
knife and rises with it until its head meets the discharge piece which makes the
bolt fall with the form and proportions desired, another bolt is then substituted
and the work continued in the same manner. The apparatus by which I'
machine-turn the bolts consists as in an ordinary lathe of a puppet which by the
aid of a cone or pulley transmits the movement to a shaft to which is adapted
a tool which I term a knife-holder and which is pierced with a cylindrical hole
provided with four openings, two of which receive the knife and the key, which
keeps it in its place, and the two others permit the escape of the chips or
shavings removed by the knife while allowing the water always used in such
circumstances to cool, the piece being turned as well as the operating tool.
The knife should be made so as produce differently formed heads, such as
convex or flat, or bolts with heads of the shape of a drop of tallow. It is
essential that this tool, or rotating knife, intended to turn the bolts, should
present at each of its fore and back parts a cutting surface and that these
parts should be such as to give to the head of the bolt the form or shape
required. It is very important not to give too fine an edge to the knife, so that
it may not require frequent resetting; and on the other hand it must not be too
dull or the work will not be effected with sufficient quickness. Two cheeks
or side beams are fixed on one side to the framing of the puppet and on the
other to a support, and are embraced by pieces on which rests a second
puppet terminating in a wormed tail piece, which by the aid of a nut serves
to tie these picces strongly together. This tail piece traverses both the checks
and the pieces by which they are embraced and is further perfectly adjusted
in the grooves. These two conditions being well observed all oscillation of
these two united pieces is impossible and they nevertheless slide perfectly in
the grooves. Two puppets support and maintain a second shaft and the bolt-
bearer, which is cast and wormed to receive two small pieces which are the
real bolt-holders. At each extremity of this shaft is a rochet wheel, intended
by the aid of springs, to permit the instant placement of the bolt-holder

page_text: in the axle of the knife-bearer when a slight rotatory movement must be iven
to the bolt-holder on the puppets; fixed to the cheek pieces is a shaft and
pinion moved by a crank by which and a rack the bolt-holder is set in motion.
This lathe being set at work by any power that may be found most convenient
a rotatory movement is given to the knife. I then place a rough worked bolt
in the small piece of the bolt-holder; then, making this latter turn upon itself,
I bring it opposite the knife-bearer where it is held by a spring, at the extre-
mity of which is a stay, which takes into a notch, then advancing the bolt-
holder by the aid of the crank the head of the bolt penetrates the knife-bearer
continuing to advance and meeting the knife is turned rapidly and with
precision. In this interval the bolt-holder should be fed with another rough
wrought bolt and then the bolt-bearer brought back, so that in turning a
second bolt is brought opposite the knife, when the turned bolts arrive in the
lower part of the wheel they fall of themselves and leave their place free for
the next ones.