Improvement in Nut-lock.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 28th Nov., 1899-Accepted, 10th Feb., 1900
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvement in Nut-lock.
I, CONSTANT FRANCIS DE REDON, Inventor, of 210, West 88th Street, in the
Borough of Manhattan, County, City, and State of New York, United States of
America, do hereby declare the nature of my invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
The object of this invention is a nut-lock by means of which a nut and its bolt
when located in their proper relative positions may be held there and any tendency
of the parts to work loose positively prevented.
The principal feature of my invention is the employment, in connection with
the bolt and its nut, of a resilient locking member having in its holding face
a recess adapted to receive a corner of the part it engages-which, of course, will
ordinarily be the nut. Usually the locking member will be a coiled spring having
in its nut-engaging face a series or circuit of recesses into any one of which a
corner of the nut niay pass to permit the walls of such recess to obtain a firm hold
upon the sides of the nut.
A spiral spring is preferable to a helical spring, for the reason that in the former
all of the coils lie in a common plane, and when the free end of the spring is
pulled taut and tension is applied thereto the holding effect is applied directly
and most effectively to the inner coil. On the other hand, in a helical spring
there is no overlapping of the coils, and hence the nut-engaging coil is not held
positively by the others, but instead depends for its holding effect principally
upon the endwise hold of the walls of its recesses.
In the drawings Figure 1 is a front elevation of one form of a nut-lock illus-
trating my invention. Fig. 2 is a sectional plan of the same, with part of the
outer coil of the spring broken away. Fig. 3 is a detail illustrating means for
holding the free end of the spring. Fig. 4 is a detail of the locking member
or spring shown in Figs. 1 and 2. Fig. 5 is a front elevation of a modification
illustrating two nuts locked in place by an S-shaped member having spiral
springs at its opposite ends. Fig. 6 is an underside sectional view of the left-
hand end of the device shown in Fig. 5. Fig. 7 is a front elevation of another
modification illustrating a helical wire spring. Fig. 8 is a plan of the same.
Fig. 9 is a front elevation of another modification illustrating a spiral, wire spring.
Fig. 10 is a plan of the same. Fig. 11 is a front elevation, on a smaller scale,
illustrating a series of springs held in place by a common locking-rod. Fig. 12
is a detail illustrating, on an enlarged scale, one end of a serrated, wire rod from
which the wire locking-spring may be formed.
In Figs. 1 to 4, inclusive, I have shown one of the strongest and most effective
nut-locks embodying my invention, the locking member being a wide, strong
band-springs, which is intended to hold in its proper place a nut n, threaded
on to a bolt b, carrying a washer w, and passing through two members to be held
together, such as a fish-plate 2 and a rail 3. Here the band-spring encircles the
-

page_text: nut and has in its inner coil a circuit of notches 4, formed by corrugating the
inner coil of the spring, the walls of the notches being designated by 4. A por-
tion or the whole of the inner coil may be corrugated, as may be desired. Of
course when tension is applied to the spring the outer coils will bind the inner
coil firmly in place and the arches of the corrugations will resist any crushing
force likely to be applied thereto.
Usually the hand-spring will have an eye or loop 5 in which a pin 6 may be
held to permit the band to be fastened to some fixed part, such as the bolt b.
One side of this pin is slabbed off at 61 to form a holding face for engaging the
inner wall of the head of a cotter-pin 7. This pin will usually be seated in a
transverse opening in the bolt.b.
Figs. 5 and 6 illustrate a modification in which the parts 2 and 3 are held
together by nuts and bolts »¹, 11, 61, and 11, the nuts being connected by an
S-shaped spring having spiral coils and 11 at both ends thereof. Each coil
when in position is tensioned and located in place by the pull of the other. This
result is attained by passing the bolt through elongated openings 8 and 8¹ in
the plates 2 and 3, and forcing such bolt away from the bolt just before
tightening up its nut.
Each coil of this locking-spring is recessed by filing or cutting away the inner
face of the inner coil and the spring as a whole is formed from a heavy wire or
rod.
Figs. 7 and 8 show a helical spring formed from wire and held at its free end
by direct engagement with the bolt 3. The spring rests against a washer,
and the free end 10 of the spring passes through a notch or key-slot 9 in the
point of the bolt, this end portion 10 being slipped into the slot 9 sidewise and the
coils tightened by a slight turn after it is in place.
The springs shown in Figs. 9 and 10 is a spiral one, similar in other respects
to that shown at 3. It surrounds the nut n³ and the free end 10¹ thereof passes
through the key-slot 9 in the bolt 3.
In Figs. 12 I have illustrated in detail, on an enlarged scale, the manner in
which the wire rod is notched or serrated before it is bent to form the inner coil
of one of the wire springs.
Fig. 11 shows another modification in which a series of locking springs have
eyes or loops 5 through which passes a common locking-rod 12, having a hook 121
engaging one end of the fish-plate, and a hook 12" engaging an S-shaped hook 13,
which in turn engages the other end of said fish-plate.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. In a nut-lock, the combination, with a nut and a bolt, of a resilient locking
member having in its inner face a recess for receiving a corner of one of such
coacting parts.
2. In a nut-lock, the combination, with a nut, of a coiled nut-encircling locking-
spring having in its nut-engaging face a plurality of recesses for receiving corners
of the nut.
3. In a nut-lock, the combination, with a nut, of a wide spiral nut-encircling
hand-spring having a corrugated nut engaging coil for engaging corners of the
nut.
4. In a nut-lock, the combination, with a nut, of a coiled nut-encircling locking
spring having in its nut-engaging face a recess for receiving a corner of the nut,
and means for holding the spring in position.
5. In a nut-lock, the combination, with a nut, of a bolt carrying said nut, and
a coiled nut-encircling locking-spring secured to said bolt and having in its inner
face a recess for receiving a corner of the nut.
6. In a nut-lock, the combination, with a nut, of a transversely-recessed bolt

page_text: carrying said nut, and a coiled nut-encircling locking-spring scated at its free
end in the recess in the bolt and having in its inner face a recess for receiving a
corner of the nut.
Dated this 15th day of November 1899.
J. E. EVANS-JACKSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.