A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE OR MACHINERY FOR BENDING METALS, AND FOR BENDING OR FORMING CLIPS FOR RAIL JOINTS AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Ingall Barber, of Sheffield, in the County
of York, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE OR
MACHINERY FOR BENDING METALS, AND FOR BENDING OR FORMING CLIPS
FOR RAIL JOINTS AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES."-A Communication from
abroad by John Forbes, of Halifax, in the Dominion of Canada.
Sealed the 7th July 1871, and dated the 5th May 1871.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Joseph Ingall Barber
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 5th May 1871, pursuant to the 9th Section
of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
INGALL BARBER, of Sheffield, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED
MACHINE OR MACHINERY FOR BENDING METALS, AND FOR BENDING OR FORMING
CLIPS FOR RAIL JOINTS AND OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES," and have petitioned Her
.

page_text: Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her
Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration
that it has been communicated to me from abroad by John Forbes, of
Halifax, in the Dominion of Canada.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Ingall Barber, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification, under my hand and
seal, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the following
statement:
The object of this Invention is to effect a rapid and economical for-
mation of what are known as clips or scabbards for clipping or gripping
and holding together the ends of angle iron bars or rails, such as
are used in the construction of railways and for similar purposes.
The means by which the above object is carried into effect in practice
are as follows, reference being made to the accompanying Drawing
to which the following explanation refers :-
EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWING.
Fig. 1 is a plan of the machine in which the right-hand cam shaft
and right-hand holding down lever are removed in order to shew more
clearly the tails or forked ends of the bending levers under which
although not visible in plan, are the curved blocks, bearing pieces, or
stationary cams; Fig. 2 is a front elevation and Fig. 3 a back elevation
of the machine as entire; Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 being sectional enlarge-
ments. The same letters where they appear in the different Figures refer
to the same parts of the machine.
It must be borne in mind that both ends of this machine (divided by
the line marked thus × ×, in plan and elevation) are counterparts of
éach other and that both ends work simultaneously.
A is a strong bed plate and frame upon which the standards A¹
are mounted and fixed, from which the heavy ribs A" depend for
strengthening it in the direction in which it has to bear the strain when
in action; B, B, are cam shafts provided with five cams each a", in the
centre, and a, a, and a¹, a¹, towards each end, the latter working in
couples, and the former working singly. Both of these cam shafts are
made to work in unison by the gearing and connections with the

page_text: shaft C and driving pullies C¹, C¹; c, is the main shaft turned by the
pulley Cand extending entirely across the machine. This shaft has a
screw thread cut upon it as shewn at Fig. 4; D, D, are rocking frames
working on centres d, d, passing through the side standards of the machine.
These rocking frames support the bending lever E, E, shewn in plan and
also in dotted lines in front clevation; they are peculiarly shaped and
forked at the ends, as shewn in plan, are bored through and fitted to
swing upon the shafts shewn in section at e, e, Fig. 5; they are con-
nected and continuous and are about twenty inches wide at the end
nearest to the centre of the machine. The shafts are supported in the
rocking frames D, D, and have also rollers e', e¹, mounted them.
upon
These rollers are fitted and revolve in recesses at the junctions of the
forked ends of the said levers, which are also provided with other and
smaller recesses in which are fitted smaller rollers e", e", turning upon
pins passing through them and through the ends of the levers as
shewn in dotted lines in elevation and also in plan views; E, E, are the
bending levers formed and fitted as above described; F are curved blocks
or stationary cams (fixed) on the bed of the machine for controlling
the motion of the outer ends of the lever E, and placed immediately
under the rollers therein; G, G, spur gearing wheels bored so as to
revolve freely upon the ends of the cam shafts B; provision is made for the
simultaneous connection of these gearing wheels with the cam shafts when
required by means of the sliding clutch pin P; H, H, arc rocking levers
working upon centres in the frame of the machine as shewn at Fig. 5;
the outer ends of these rocking levers are provided with shoes for bearing
on the cams a, a. These outer ends or shoes admit of adjustment by
means of a screw d', and they are so placed that when the cam shaft is
being revolved they are brought into contact with and influenced. by
the cams a, a, by these means the outer ends of the levers H, H, are
depressed and brought to bear upon the mandril or former, upon which
the clip or scabbard is intended to be made, the object being not only.
to hold the mandril down while the clip is being bent, but also to:
reinforce the bottom flange of the mandril or former which in some
cases requires to be as thin as the piece of steel from which the clip is
being made; H' is a shaping piece or holding down lever fitted between
the inner and projecting ends of levers H, to bear upon the mandril:
for so much of its length as may be embraced between them;
J is the said mandril or former upon which the clip or scabbard is.

page_text: a Figs. 1 and 4; K is a small shaft working in a carriage L', a hole
being bored therein to receive it; L is a transverse piece, upon which
the carriage slides; L' is a carriage for supporting the end of
the mandril; N' is a staple for holding the mandril in position; Pa
sliding clutch pin provided for simultaneously connecting the gearing
wheels G, G, with the cam shafts. This pin is shewn in section on an
enlarged scale at Fig. 6.
Having thus described the principal parts of the machine, I will now
proceed to explain their action, which is as follows, viz-The mandril
being in its place and a piece of steel or iron of the proper size for the
intended clip being introduced between the mandril and the rest of the
carriage of the machine, immediately over the ends of the hending
levers E, the lever J' is now moved by means of its handle, and the
horizontal shipping bar J" (see Figs. 1 and 3) being then.drawn endwise,
the large spur gear wheels G, G, (by means of the clutch pins before
described) are brought into connection with the cam shafts and cause
them to revolve inwards in the direction shewn by the arrows in Figs. 2
and 3. The first action of the cam shaft is to raise the ends of the
holding down lever H, H, and so depress their inner ends and cause
them to bear upon the mandril and press it down upon the plate to be
bent. The cams a', a¹³, next come into play, and these acting upon the
rollers in the forked ends of the levers E depress them and so raise their
inner ends; this it is obvious will bend up the edges of the plato and
shape or form it like the letter U with a flat bottom. The middle or
main cams a" are next brought into action, and these bearing against
the rollers (working upon the same shafts as the bending levers) press
them forward, thereby rocking forward the frames D, D, in which they
swing; the small rollers in the tails of the bending levers at the same time
coming in contact with the curved blocks F on the bed of the machine,
and being caused to roll upon the said curved blocks or stationary cams,
produces a motion of the inner ends of the said bending levers down-
wards as well as forwards, the inner ends of the said levers being made
of the proper shape, or fitted with removing pieces of such shape, will
by the action just described produce a clip corresponding internally with
that of the mandril externally. This result having been obtained, and
the cam shafts having completed one entire revolution each, the various.

page_text: levers and working parts return to their respective original positions by
means of counterweights and springs, marked W and W' in the several
views upon the Drawing. The clip or scabbard being now formed to
the required section, the next requirement is to withdraw it from the
mandril, the mode of effecting which I will now describe.
By reference to Fig. 4 it will be seen that the main driving shaft
extends entirely across the machine and has a screw formed upon it, a
plain portion being left at the extreme end which fits and revolves in a
hole bored through the carriage L' to receive it. This carriage is fitted to
slide upon the transverse piece L, the new shaft being made to revolve in
a bearing formed in the transverse piece and extending beyond to receive
the small pinion i, fly wheel ", and driving pullies c' for giving the
required motion to the machine. In the carriage L' there is also a smaller
shaft K working in a hole bored to receive it, projecting in front of the
machine where it is fitted with a handlek; the opposite end of this shaft
extends through the carriage and is flattened to a section of about one
and a half inches in width and half an inch in thickness, the extremic end
of this flattened portion being supported and turning in a hole in a plate
attached to the extreme end of the carriage L'; K' is a wrought-iron
box or rather two sides and bottom of a box (shewn in section at Fig. 4)
in the upper part of which and firmly screwed thereto (as shewn at
Fig. 8) is one half of a brass nut m cut to fit the screw thread upon the
shaft c; the other half of this nut m³ is placed in the lower part of the
box and made to slide freely in it, so that it would if not prevented fall
away below clear of the screw shaft; n, n, are spiral springs of steel with
their lower ends resting on a plate provided with pins to receive them,
their upper ends bearing against and tending to lift the box ¹ with the
upper half m of the nut clear above the screw shaft c. The flattened
end of the small shaft K, sec Fig. 8, being situated between the bottom of
the box
and the lower half m¹ of the nut, it is obvious that when the
shaft is turned upon its bearings, by means of the lever handle k, so
as to place the flattened end edgewise between the parts just described,
its effect will be to press down the box with the upper half of the nut,
and also to push upwards the lower half, and cause the two half nuts
to fit into and embrace the screw on the shaft c, which shaft on being
turned to the right will cause the carriage L' to advance or recede.
The forward motion of the carriage L' causes the piece N, which is

page_text: .
· fixed to it, and which embraces and slides freely along the mandril J,
to press against the end of the clip and thus withdraw it, after which
by changing the position of the shaft K by means of its handle the half
nuts m, m³, (see Fig. 8) will fall away from the shaft, when the carriage L'
may be moved back to its original position and made ready for use
again.
The mode in which the spur wheels G, G, are united with or locked
upon the cam shaft B, may be briefly described as follows:-P (see
Figs. 6 and 7) is a sliding clutch pin, upon which is a coiled or spiral
spring, the action of which spring when free is to force out the said pin:
and cause it to project beyond the face of the wheel G; P' is a sliding
lock bolt also fitted with a spring for confining the clutch spring; R (sec
Fig. 3) is a bracket bolted on to the side of the frame of the machine;
this bracket carries a slide bar R' fitted with a spring for pressing it
constantly upwards, the said slide bar is formed at its upper end into a
curved or crescent-shaped cam S, while its lower end is attached by
means of a pin to the end of a small crank arm S¹.
It will now be apparent that by drawing endwise the connecting
bar J by means of the lever J' (which extends to the front of the
machine) the slide bar R' will be depressed and the lock bolt Pupon?
the arm of the wheel G (see Figs. 5 and 6) at the next revolution will
come into contact with the crescent-shaped head S of the said slide bar,
which will then be withdrawn and allow the clutch pin P to enter
a recess formed in the discs upon the cam shaft B and thus connect
them with the spur wheels G, when the action of the machine, as
previously described, will proceed and an entire revolution of both cam
shafts take place simultaneously.
It will be seen on reference to Fig. 3 that one side of the crescent-
shaped head S of the slide bar R³ is cut away so as to form an inclined
plane. Now upon releasing the hand lever J', the spiral springs will cause 3
the slide bears R' to regain their normal positions, then when the spur
wheels G, G, have reached a certain part of their revolution the inclined
planes in the parts R' coming in contact with the clutch pins P, will
disconnect the spur wheels G, G, from the cam shafts B, when the
motion of the former may continue without affecting the latter until 3
both are again connected by the operator.

page_text: Without restricting myself to any particular shape of clip or joint I
claim the machine or machinery constructed and operating substan-
tially as and for the purpose herein described, and the bending and
formation of scabbards and clips for holding together or fishing the ends
or joints of angle bars, railway rails, or metal of like or similar section.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Ingall Barber, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Second day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
JOSEPH INGALL BARBER. (L.S.)