IMPROVEMENTS IN BAYONETS, AND IN THE MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Francis Preston, of the City of Manchester, Machinist,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BAYONETS, AND IN THE MACHINERY
FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME."
Sealed the 22nd June 1855, and dated the 30th December 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis Preston at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th
December 1854.
I, FRANCIS PRESTON, of the City of Manchester, Machinist, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN BAYONETS, AND
IN THE MACHINERY FOR MANUPACTURING THE SAME," to be as follows:-
The socket and stop for the motion of bayonets have hitherto been made in
two pieces, which were afterwards brazed or screwed together; instead of which
I make them of one piece, by means of a punching or stamping machine. The
flutes in the blade are formed by means of swages or blocks, which are so con-
structed as to form the three flutes at the same time. These swages or blocks
I intend to apply to and use on Ryder's patent forging machine. The flutes and
the requisite taper of the blade may be produced by passing the blade under a
roller on a sliding table. The correct shape of the groove in the bayonet
socket, into which the stud at the muzzle end of the gun barrel takes, is cut out
upon a small slotting machine, where a self-acting feeding or guiding appa

page_text: ratus successively presents the socket in the required position to the operation
of the slotting tool. A similar apparatus is used in combination with a small
circular shaping machine, for the purpose of finishing the outside of the socket
and forming the stop for the motion; the turning and filing of the said parts
as hitherto practised is thus dispensed with. The motion or lock ring for the
bayonet I make of run steel, increasing its thickness at the part where
the groove is cut out for the stop, so as to render it of uniform strength, or
nearly so, and therefore less liable to break; this addition of strength is also
applicable to wrought-iron motions or lock rings. The improvements in
machinery above described refer exclusively to those portions which I use for
manufacturing bayonets.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Francis Preston in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th June 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FRANCIS
PRESTON, of the City of Manchester, Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Francis Preston, Her special license that I, the said Francis Preston,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Francis
Preston, 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 expressed, 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 BAYONETS, AND IN
THE MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Francis Preston, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, 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 Francis Preston, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following

page_text: Specification thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings
(that is to say):-
My said Invention of improvements in bayonets consists, first, in making
the stop for the lock ring or motion of bayonets of the same piece as the
socket, instead of brazing or screwing the said stop to the said socket, as
heretofore; secondly, in making the lock ring or motion of bayonets of run
steel; thirdly, in increasing the thickness of the lock ring or motion of
bayonets at that part where the depth thereof is diminished for the stop.
My said Invention of improvements in machinery for manufacturing bayonets
consists, first, in an improved combination of parts for forming or finishing the
flutes in the blade of a bayonet; secondly, in the application of a self-acting
stop motion to the slotting machine for cutting the groove in the socket of
the bayonet; and, thirdly, in the application of a similar stop motion to the
shaping machine for finishing the sockets of bayonets.
I have in the said Drawings given Figures for showing how my improve-
ments may be constructed, similar parts in each of these Figures being marked
with similar letters of reference.
Figure 1 of the said Drawings is a bayonet of the usual shape. a is the
blade; b, the socket; and c, the stop. It has heretofore been customary to
braze or screw the stop into the socket, but as the metal forming the socket is
very thin, it is evident that the stop thus attached is liable to be loosened, and
eventually to fall out, the repeated action of the lock ring or motion. In
order to obviate this defect, I propose to make the stop of one piece with the
socket; and for this purpose the socket, when turned, has a shoulder left all
round it in a line with the stop; most of this shoulder is cut away by hand or
otherwise, but that portion thereof which is required to form the stop is left
projecting from the metal of the socket. Figure 2 is a plan, and Figure 3 a
section, of my improved lock ring or motion, by which the bayonet is held on
the muzzle of the musket barrel in the usual manner. On referring to
Figure 2, it will be seen that that portion of the lock ring between the shoul-
ders d, d, which come against the stop c, in Figure 1, is increased in thickness,
to compensate for the reduction in its depth; by this means the amount of
metal in the circumference of the ring is equalised, and the lock ring is less
liable to break when being put on or taken off the socket than when the lock
ring is constructed in the ordinary manner. These lock rings or motions have
hitherto been made of wrought iron or cast brass, but I now propose to cast
them of the metal known as run steel, which is more elastic than the metals
before used for this purpose.
Figure 4. is a side view, partly in section, of my improved machinery for

page_text: making or finishing the flutes in the blades of bayonets, and Figure 5 is an
end view of the same. e is a strong cast-iron foundation plate, near one end
of which are attached the bearings f, for the crank shaft g; this shaft has a
slow rotary motion given to it by the driving pulley h, pinion i gearing in the
wheel j, and pinion & gearing into the wheel 1, fixed on the crank shaft, or in
any 'other couvenient manner. To the crank shaft g is attached one end of the
connecting rod m, the other end of which is connected to the under side of
the slide or table n, working in bevel grooves in the plate c. To the table n
are fixed two or other convenient number of blocks o, and dies p, and the rack
q, which gears into a pinion r¹, fixed on the cross shaft r, supported in bear-
ings bolted to the bed plate e. To the shaft are fixed the steel bosses s, the
grooves in which are tapered at their sides and convex at the bottom, corre-
sponding to the taper and flute of the bayonet. The dies p are made also with
a taper groove, and with a double convex projection, of the shape required to
form the flutes on the outside of the bayonet.
The mode of operation is as follows:-A bayonet which has been forged in
any convenient manner with the blade projecting at a right angle from the
socket, as shewn in dotted lines in Figure 4, is heated and laid on one of
the dies P; the driving shaft is then put on the driving pulley h, to give motion
to the crank shaft g, and to the slide n and shaft r; by this means the blade
of the bayonet is pressed into the groove in the die p, thereby forming or
finishing the flutes at one half revolution of the crank shaft J.
The groove in the boss s is made to overlap the upper edge of the die P, for
the purpose of cutting away any superabundant metal that might extrude
beyond the die. As soon as one bayonet has been thus operated upon it is
removed, and another one in the rough is put on to the other die, to be acted
upon in the same manner when the crank shaft is performing the second half
of its revolution. The above-described machine may be used for making the
flutes into a triangular blade with flat faces, or to finish the flutes that have
been partially made in the blade by hand or otherwise.
I stated in my Provisional Specification that the flutes in the blade of the
bayonet are formed by means of swages or blocks, which are so constructed as
to form the three flutes at the same time; these swages and blocks I intended
to apply to and use on Ryder's patent forging machine; I wish it to be under-
stood that since the filing of the said Provisional Specification I have found
that such swages or blocks are not new.
Figure 6 is a side elevation, and Figure 7 a back view, of a small slotting
machine, of the ordinary construction, to which my improvements are applied.
t is the main casting; u, the cutting tool, worked up and down by an excentric

page_text: on the shaft u¹; and v is the slide, from which projects a stud v¹, to support
the socket of the bayonet to be slotted; this slide is moved so as to bring the
socket towards the cutting tool u, in the usual manner, by the screw v³, ratchet
wheels, and catch v*. My improvements consist in the mode of stopping the
motion of the slide v when the slot in the bayonet socket is of the required
depth. To the slide v is fixed a cranked stud w, the upper end of which has a
regulating screw w³, for acting on the spring a when the slide has advanced to
the required point; this spring enters into a notch in the sliding bar y, fitting
in a hole in the casting t; to the bar y is fixed a projection y', with a set screw
y through it, and this bar is acted upon by the spring y³, seen in dotted lines
in Figure 7. From the foregoing description, it is apparent that when the
screw w¹ pushes the spring out of the notch in the bar y, the spring y³
pushes the bar y, in the direction of the arrow in Figure 7, sufficiently for the
head of the set screw y³ to lift the catch v out of gear with the ratchet wheel
, thereby arresting the further advance of the slide v; the driving strap is
then moved by the attendant, from the fast to the loose pulley to stop the
machine; the bayonet is then removed from the stud v², and another put on.
The handle in the ratchet wheel is for the attendant to screw the slide back
when a fresh bayonet is put on to be slotted.
My improvements in the circular shaping machine, by which the exterior
of the socket of the bayonet is finished, consists in the application thereto of
a stopping apparatus, similar to that above described in reference to Figures 6
and 7.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, and described the manner
of performing the same, I wish it to be understood that I do not claim any of
the elements of the machinery which I have described as forming any part
of my Invention separately or apart from the combinations and applications
thereof for the purposes above described; and that what I do claim is,-
First, making the stop for the lock ring or motion of bayonets of the same
piece as the socket.
Secondly, making the lock ring or motion of bayonets of run steel.
Thirdly, increasing the thickness of the lock ring or motion of bayonets at
that part where the depth thereof is diminished for the stop.
Fourthly, the improved combination of machinery, shewn and described
in reference to Figs. 4 and 5, for forming or finishing the flutes in the blades
of bayonets.
Fifthly, the application of self-acting stopping apparatus to slotting machines
used in cutting the groove in the sockets of bayonets, as shewn and described
in reference to Figs. 6 and 7.

page_text: And, lastly, the application of self-acting stopping apparatus to shaping
machines used in finishing the sockets of bayonets..
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Preston, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness to the signature,
H. B. BARLOW,
Manchester.
FRANCIS PRESTON. (L.S.)