IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS, BOLTS, SPIKES, SCREWS, RIVETS, AND SCREW BLANKS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Norris, junior, of New York, in the United
States of America, now of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturer, and George Worstenholm, of Saint Louis, Missouri, in
the United States of America, now also of Birmingham aforesaid,
Machinist, in the employ of the said John Norris, junior, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS, BOLTS, SPIKES,
SCREWS, RIVETS, AND SCREW BLANKS."
Sealed the 18th December 1857, and dated the 22nd June 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Norris and George
Worstenholm at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 22nd June 1857.
We, JOHN NORRIS, junior, of New York, in the United States of America,
now of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and GEORGE
WORSTENHOLM, of Saint Louis, Missouri, in the United States of America,
now also of Birmingham aforesaid, Machinist, in the employ of the sail
John Norris, junior, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS, BOLTS, SPIKES, SCREWS,
RIVETS, AND SCREW BLANKS," to be as follows, that is to say:-
Our Invention refers to the manufacture of the articles enumerated in the
title from bars, rods, or strips of metal. The machine consists of a fram

page_text: under the bed or table of which is mounted transversely in suitable bearings
a driving shaft, upon one end of which is hung a fly wheel and driving
wheel; upon the same shaft and under the top of the frame are fixed cams to
actuate sliding dies or shaping tools, which work to and from the centre of the
machine upon the cams before named. The cams actuate the sliding dies by
direct action without the intervention of levers, the under sides of the sliding
dies being planed out to the requisite form to allow of the cams working them
to and fro by direct action. The form of the sinking on the under sides of
the dies would be represented by two curves thus
jections of the cams being of the form
,
and each of the pro-
of a half turn of a screw.
Upon the shaft being set in motion, a reciprocating to-and-fro motion is thus
imparted to the slides, the inside edges of which are cut into the form
necessary to press or shape a rod of iron into any one of the description of
articles named in the title.
The rod is fed in through a trumpet-mouth guide fixed in front of the
machine, and arriving at the centre is received between the sliding dies, by
which it is shaped, and whilst held pressed between these dies, a heading tool
actuated also by direct motion from a third cam upon the driving shaft, heads
the nail or other similar article if it require heading.
The hammer or heading tool can, if preferred, be attached to an in-
dependent shaft at the back of the machine, motion being imparted to it by
any suitable gear, placing it in connection with the driving shaft.
In order to separate the nail or other article from the rod, a cutter is
attached to the side of one of the dies, or it may be worked independently
from the same cam actuating either of the dies, and by which it will be
worked also by direct action in a line parallel to the dies.
To make machines capable of producing two nails or other similar articles
at one revolution of the driving shaft, I employ a sliding or shaping die
mounted between two stationary dies, motion being given to the sliding die
by cams similar to those already described, or by a crank upon the driving
shaft. One nail would thus be formed on the forward blow of the shaping
die and another by the back blow, suitable heading tools or hammers being
used in connection with each stationary die to head the nail or other article
if required.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Norris and George Worstenholm in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 22nd December 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
NORRIS, junior, of New York; in the United States of America, now of
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, and GEORGE
WORSTENHOLM, of St. Louis, Missouri, in the United States of America, now
also of Birmingham aforesaid, Machinist, in the employ of the said John
Norris, junior, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Ier Letters:
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of June, in the year of our Lord;
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her-
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said John Norris, junior, and George Worstenholm, Her special license that
we, the said John Norris, junior, and George Worstenholm, our executors,.
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John Norris,.
junior, and George Worstenholm, our 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 MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS, BOLTS, SPIKES, SCREWS,
RIVETS, AND SCREW BLANKS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said John Norris, junior, and George Worstenholm, by an instrument in
writing under our hands and seals, 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 Scal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Norris, junior, and George
Worstenholm, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described.
and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the..
Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon..
(that is to say):
Our Invention consists of improvements in machinery for making nails,..
bolts, spikes, screws, rivets, and screw blanks from rods or bars of iron or
other metal, or lengths of wire. The machinery is composed of shaping dies,

page_text: heading tool, and feeder, all working by direct action from the axis of motion
or driving shaft. Each set of these tools may be employed singly in one
machine or in duplicate. Thus, for instance, a nail may be formed by the
employment of two moveable shaping dies advancing to the same centre,
which would be what we have termed using the tools we have named singly,
or by employing one moveable die, shaped suitably on both its sides, working
with a backward and forward motion against or between two stationary dies,
one nail would be formed by the forward and another by the backward throw
of the moveable die; double heading and feeding tools would of course be
requisite this would be what we term working the parts in duplicate in the
same machine. It is this form of machine which we have exhibited in the
Drawings, as the parts of the single machine may very readily be understood
after describing the double one.
To avoid unnecessary repetitions we will proceed to describe the con-
struction and working of our machine with respect to the manufacture of the
articles first named in our title-nails; observing that by so doing it is merely
for convenience, as all the other articles would as readily be made by the
same machine by merely substituting suitably formed dies, except in the case
of manufacturing the description of nail termed the "point de Paris," which
is a nail formed of round wire, and for which wire instead of rod or bar iron
must be employed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a transverse section, and Figure 2 a plan, from the top of one
of our machines. The companion Sheet contains details to a larger scale of
all the more important parts, each diagram being separately entitled or more
particularly referred to in this description. A is the frame of the machine;
(B, B,) fast and loose pulleys, which, with the fly wheel (C), are hung upon
the axis of motion or main driving shaft (D). The eccentrics E, E, which
work the heading slide F and feed apparatus (K), are also fixed upon the
shaft (D), the screw cam (I), which is upon the same axis, works the centre
slide (J), with an oscillating motion to and from each of the fixed dies
(H, H). To the slide (J) are secured the moveable dies (G, G), which are
advanced at every half turn of the driving shaft into contact with one or other
of the fixed dies (H, H,) forming at each blow the shaft of a nail. The
shaft being gripped between the moveable and fixed dies, the heading tool (N)
mounted in the heading slide (F), and worked by one of the eccentrics (E)
upon the main shaft, strikes a forcible blow upon that part of the blank or
shaft of the nail which is left projecting beyond the grip of the dies, and

page_text: shapes it into a bead; the dies retiring by the motion of the screw cam, the
nail drops out finished.
Figure 3 is an enlarged detail of the heading slide F, the heading tool (N),
the feeder L (shewn also in fuller detail with the rest of the feed apparatus at
Figures 6 and 7), and the guides M, M, which are worked by the eccentrics
E. Figure 4 is a plan of the under side of the centre cr moveable slide (J),
shewing the steel surfaces against which the screw cam (I) works; and
Figure 5 is a top plan of the same slide, shewing the sinkings for the dies
(G, G).
On reference to Figures 1 and 2, it will be seen that the rod or bar (X)
enters the machine on either side under a roller and ratchet (O), passing
thence through the feed box into the part (K), seen more clearly at Figure 7,
when the wedge block (L) raises a pin (S), which pin presses the rod against
the screw (T); thus the rod is drawn towards the centre of the machine, a
spring P keeping it in position until it passes into the guide (U); the rod is.
then met by the moveable die (G), and pressed against the fixed die (H), and
these dies having suitable grooves cut in the sides which come in contact,
and one die slightly passing or overlapping the other, the desired form is
given to the shaft of the nail, and it is cut off from the rod or bar at one
operation by the edge of the guide (U). At the same moment, and whilst the
shaft is thus gripped between the two dies, the withdrawal of the feed
apparatus, which, as will be seen on referring to Figure 3, is connected to
the heading tool, causes the heading tool to advance and finish the nail by
forming the head from the portion of rod or bar which is left projecting from
the dies. The centre die being withdrawn by the action of the screw cam (I)
and the heading tool. retiring upon the next advance of the feeder, the finished
nail drops from the machine. We propose, if necessary, to use adjusting
screws to the fixed dies (II) in manner similar to those shewn in the
Drawings attached to the heading slide, which arrangement will admit of
our setting the fixed dies in different positions should it be desirable.
Figure 8 is a detail of a cam which we can employ for working the
heading tool in place of the eccentric (E), and which would cause the header
to strike a more sudden blow. And we sometimes modify the order in which
the operations above named take place, by causing the rod or bar to advance
in the first instance a short distance only out of the feeder (which for this
purpose is made stronger and heavier), leaving sufficient metal projecting to
form the head'; the heading tool is the next to advance, heading the blank,
which is then forced onwards between the dies, and shaped and cut off. This

page_text: inodification merely makes the heading of the nail the first operation instead
of the last.
To adapt the machine herein described to the purpose of making the other
articles named in our title, it would be necessary that the edges of the shaping
dies, which come in contact, should have sinkings of the form requisite to
produce the screw, rivet, or other article required.
Having thus described the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that we do
not confine ourselves to these precise details; but that which we claim, and
desire to have secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is, the arrangement and combination of the several parts herein
described and illustrated, constituting machinery for the manufacture of nails,
bolts, spikes, screws, rivets, and screw blanks, and in which machinery the
various dies or tools are actuated directly from the axis of motion or driving
shaft, together with the modified arrangements of the several parts, as herein
more fully set forth and specified.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Norris, junior, and George
Worstenholm, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-
first day of December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-seven.
JOHN NORRIS, J
(L.S.)
GEORGE WORSTENHOLM. (L.S.)
JOHN NORRIS, J
(L.S.)
GEORGE WORSTENHOLM. (L.S.)