IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND IN MEANS FOR EFFECTING THE ADJUSTMENT OF THE SPINDLES OF MULTIPLE DRILLING MACHINES, APPLICABLE ALSO TO OTHER APPARATUS WHEREIN THE SIMULTANEOUS ADJUSTMENT OF SEVERAL PARTS IS REQUIRED
Year: 1875

page_text: .
LETTERS PATENT to Edward John Cowling Welch, of Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND IN MEANS FOR EFFECTING THE
ADJUSTMENT OF THE SPINDLES OF MULTIPLE DRILLING MACHINES, APPLICABLE
ALSO TO OTHER APPARATUS WHEREIN THE SIMULTANEOUS ADJUSTMENT OF
SEVERAL PARTS IS REQUIRED."
Sealed the 12th November 1875, and dated the 13th May 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edward John Cowling
Welch at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 13th May 1875.
I, EDWARD JOHN COWLING WELCH, of Manchester, in the County
of Lancaster, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND IN MEANS FOR EFFECTING
THE ADJUSTMENT OF THE SPINDLES OF MULTIPLE DRILLING MACHINES, APPLICABLE

page_text: ALSO TO OTHER APPARATUS WHEREIN THE SIMULTANEOUS ADJUSTMENT OF SEVERAL
PARTS IS REQUIRED," to be as follows :-
My Invention relates principally to multiple drilling machines, and
has for its object to effect the simultaneous adjustment of the drill
spindles of such machines, that is to say, to simultaneously increase or
decrease the distances apart of the axial lines of the said spindles equally
or in any given proportion.
When carrying my said Invention into effect I connect together the
frames in which the spindles are mounted by means of screws, each
screw being formed with right and left hand threads, or with the thread ]
at one end of a different pitch to that at the other. The said screws
work in nuts formed in or fixed to the said frames, so that when the
said screws are rotated the said frames aro caused to approach nearer to
or recede farther from each other, according to the direction of rotation
of the screws; or I form a right or a left-hand thread extending some 1
distance from one end of each screw and fitted to work in a nut in or
on one frame, the other end thereof being connected with the next
frame in such a manner as will permit of the rotation of the said
screw.
The means for effecting the simultaneous rotation of the screws may :
be varied.
In one arrangement the said screws are formed to slide upon and to
rotate with a shaft, and in another arrangement the screws are con-
nected by spur gearing with a common driving shaft, which may be
formed as a pinion shaft, or be provided with fixed or sliding driving
wheels or pinions. One of the said frames, say for example the centre
frame, or the frame nearest to the centre of the series, or one of the
end frames, is fixed, the other frames moving towards and from the said
fixed frame when the screws are rotated.
In a case in which screws sliding upon the shaft are adopted, the
screw nearest to the centre of the series may be keyed permanently on
to the shaft itself, when all the frames will travel towards or away from
that point.
By connecting the frames at more than one point the parallelism of

page_text: each frame may be connected with the next frame on either side by
means of two screws of equal pitch having parallel axes, and driven by
one shaft, or by means of two shafts connected by gearing, so that the
two screws may be rotated in unison.
•
The shaft which imparts rotatory motion to the screws, or a part
which actuates such shaft or shafts may be provided with a divided
scale to facilitate the adjustment of the spindle frames to determined
distances apart.
My said Invention may be employed to effect the adjustment of other
apparatus than the said multiple drilling machines in cases wherein it is
desirable to cause a number of parts to approach each the other, or to
recede the one from the other by simultaneous movements, so as to vary
the distances apart.
I consider screws to be the means best adapted for my purpose, but
the same effect may be produced by cams, levers, racks, or other means,
the principle of the Invention being the repetition between each spindle
frame, and the one next adjacent to it on either side of a separate means
of adjusting the distance between such frames independently of the
others, all such separate adjustments being ultimately geared with a
shaft or other means of imparting simultaneous motion to all, the
principle of gearing being such that the sliding of the drill frames as a
body backwards or forwards in the direction of motion which they have
when being adjusted shall not interfere with the action of the separate
means of adjustment applied as aforesaid between each of the frames.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edward John Cowling Welch in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 18th November 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWARD
JOHN COWLING WELCH, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of May. in the year

page_text: work in nuts formed in or fixed to the said frames, so that when the
said screws are rotated the said frames are caused to approach nearer to
or recede farther from each other, according to the direction of rotation
of the screws; or I form a right or a left hand thread extending some
distance from one end of each screw, and fitted to work in a nut in or
on one frame, the other end thereof being connected with the next
frame in such a manner as will permit of the rotation of the said
Screws.

page_text: .
gearing indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 2, so that the shafts e shall
revolve in onc direction, and the shafts fin the contrary direction. On
one of the shafts e is fixed a spur wheel g, with which gears a pinion
attached to the hand wheel h. By turning the said hand wheel the four
shafts e and ƒ are caused to revolve. Upon the said four shafts arc
mounted screws i and k, which are bored to slide upon the said shafts,
and are provided with keys, which enter key grooves formed in the said
shaft from end to end or thereabouts. This arrangement may be varied;
as for example, the shafts may be provided with fast keys, or be made
of a square or polygonal form in cross section. Each screw is formed
with a right hand and a left hand thread, and cach frame is 'connected
with the next frame by means of two screws, the right-hand threads
.working in corresponding nuts formed in or attached to the one frame,
and the left-hand threads in the other frame, so that when the two
screws are caused to revolve the two frames are caused to approach cach
other or to recede from each other, according to the direction of rotation
of the screws. In the example, each frame is connected with the next
adjacent frame on either side by means of two screws i, i, or k, k, as the
case may be, in order that by reason of the pitches of the two screws
and the speed of the revolution being made equal the parallelism of the
frames may be maintained.. In some cases however one of the two
screws may be dispensed with, and the parallelism of the frames be
maintained by means of slides, or by other suitable mcans. One of the
frames, say for example, the centre frame of the series, may be fixed
either permanently or temporarily by means of a locking bolt or by
other suitable means. This being the case, it will be seen that when
the hand wheel h is rotated in the direction to turn the shafts e and f,
in the directions indicated by the arrows in Fig. 2, the drill frame on
each side of the central frame will move nearer to the central frame,
and when the hand wheel is turned in a contrary direction the said
frames will recede from the central frame. By way of example, I will
suppose the pitch of each screw to be one-quarter of an inch, the hand
wheel to make four turns to one turn of the wheel g, and the pitch or
distance apart of the axes of the drill spindles to be exactly four inches.
In such a case, by simply turning the hand wheel in the direction
indicated to the extent of exactly one revolution, the distances apart of
the said axes will be uniformly reduced to three inches and seven-

page_text: It will be evident that if the periphery of the hand wheel be marked
with a divided scale, or be notched and provided with a catch to engage
with any notch, the distances apart of the said axes may be readily
adjusted to a nicety, or a divided scale or dividing wheel may be
attached to or formed on the wheel g or be otherwise adapted to the.
apparatus, and in some cases a counter to indicate the number of
revolutions of the hand wheel may be employed..
Four shafts e and fare employed in order to obtain a wider rango of
adjustment, but two shafts only may be used. In such a case the
screws marked & would be mounted on the same shafts as the screws i,
but would have to be of a contrary pitch, that is to say, the portions
which would have a right-hand thread in the screws i would have a left-
hand thread in the screws k, and as the holes in the frames or nuts
would have to be tapped with a right-hand thread on one side and a
left-hand thread on the other the range of adjustment would necessarily
be less than half the width of cach frame.
It is not necessary that the shafts e and frovolve in contrary directions
if one screw in each pair of screws i, i, and k, 7, be of reverse threads
to the other in manner as just indicated.
A further modification is indicated in Fig. 3. In this example cach
screw is formed with a right-hand thread or a left-hand thread only,
as the case may be, and is formed with a collar, which is let into a recess
formed in the side of the frame, and is retained therein by means of a
ring plate l, which permits the screw to turn, but prevents sideways
movement of the collar in the recess. This arrangement is suitable for
two shafts, or for one shaft when the parallelism of the frames is
maintained by other means than the screws.
Instead of mounting the screws upon the shafts, 'as in the foregoing
example, I may employ solid screws provided with spur wheels, with
which wheels or pinions mounted on shafts and fitted to slide and be
rotated as in the case of the screws i and I are caused to gear; or I may
employ shafts grooved throughout or thereabouts, so as to act as pinions,
and to impart motion to the said spur wheels.
When sliding screws or pinions are employed one screw or pinion, say
for example the central one on cach shaft, may be fixed or formed on
the shaft if thought to be desirable.

page_text: The screws employed may be of an uniform pitch, or may be of two
or more different pitches, according to the nature of the required
adjustment, or as may be preferred or considered to be suitable in any
case.
The nuts in which the screws work may be formed in the body of the
frame 6, or be formed in separate parts fixed in or to the said bodies,
and this last I consider to be the best arrangement, as each nut may
be fitted to be adjustable in the direction of the axis of the screw.
I consider screws to be the means best adapted for my purpose, but
the same effect may be produced by means of cams, levers, racks, scrolls,
grooved plates, inclined planes, excentric bearings, or other means, the
principal feature of the Invention being the repetetion between each
spindle frame, and the one next adjacent to it on either side of a separate
means of adjusting the distance between such frames independantly of
the others, all such separate adjustments being ultimately geared with a
shaft or other means of imparting simultaneous motion to all, the
principle of gearing being such as that the sliding of the drill frames as
a body backwards or forwards in the direction of motion which they
have when being adjusted shall not interfere with the action of the
separate means of adjustment applied as aforesaid between each of the.
frames.
Arrangements may be made for traversing the whole of the spindle
frames along the slides collectively by means of a rack and pinion or
other appliances in order that their positions may be adjusted relatively
to the work upon which the drills have to operate.
Having now fully set forth and indicated the nature of my said
Invention, and means whereby the same may be carried into effect, I
would remark in conclusion that I do not confine myself to the precise
details as herein set forth and as indicated in the accompanying
Drawings, but that I claim,—
First. The arrangements substantially as and for the purposes herein.
before set forth and indicated.
Secondly. Connecting together the frames or parts in which the
spindles of multiple drills are mounted by means of screws, which can
be simultaneously rotated, substantially as and for the purposes herein-
before set forth and indicated.

page_text: And, lastly. Connecting together the several separate means for
adjusting the distances apart of the said spindles or spindle frames in
order to obtain simultaneous action of the said means, substantially as
and for the purpose herein-before set forth and indicated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edward John Cowling Welch, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-five.
EDWARD J. COWLING WELCH. (L.S.)
Signed and sealed by the said
Edward John Cowling Welch,
in the presence of,
->
EDWARD K. DUTTON,
Agent to the Patentee,
3, Princess Street,
Manchester.