Improvements in Spanners.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 18th July, 1893
Complete Specification Left, 18th Apr., 1894-Accepted, 19th May, 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Spanners.
I, WILLIAM DURANT, of Chapeltown, near Sheffield, in the County of York,
Electrician, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
The object of this invention is to construct a cheap and efficient form of spanner
which can be readily adjusted to suit several sizes of nuts. Attempts have been
made to produce a cheap and reliable adjustable spanner; and screws, ratchets,
racks and similar devices have been employed in connection with a movable jaw;
but these, entailing as they do, trouble and expense appear to have fallen into
comparative disuse.
I attain the object of my present invention by forming the head of a spanner
with a suitable square slot, two opposite sides of which are parallel to the plane of
spanner jaws. Within the slot 1 place or fit any suitable number of parallel
metallic strips or packings each formed with a head or projection at its end so as
to be pulled or pressed by the hand.
The parallel strips or packings are pressed firmly against each other by a flat
or other suitable spring preferably secured at one end to the spanner handle.
Each parallel strip is the length of its head or projection shorter than its neighbour,
each being easily adjusted.
For a nut the full width of the fixed spanner jaws the strips are not brought
into requisition, but for smaller nuts one or more strips, pressed forward, form the
required width of jaw.
The heads or projections at end of strips prevent their being pushed too far
through the slot, and preferably the screw head which secures the spring to the
spanner handle prevents the strips being overdrawn.
I would have it understood that the spanner handle may be formed at any
suitable angle with the head, and that the arrangement of the strips or packings is
equally applicable to a box or other form of spanner.
Dated this 14th day of July 1893
H. F. BOUGHTON, M.I. Mech. E.,
Commercial Street, Sheffield, Agent.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Spanners.
1, WILLIAM DURANT, of Chapeltown, near Sheffield, in the County of York,
Electrician, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement and accompanying drawing, that is to say :-
My present invention has for its object a novel method of constructing the
spanners ordinarily used for tightening nuts or screws, so that the spanner can be
readily and quickly adjusted to fit, within determined limits, different sizes
of nuts.
Many attempts have heretofore been made to effect the said desired object so as
to produce a cheap and reliable adjustable spanner, the device most frequently
adopted being a moveable jaw made to approach or recede from a corresponding
fixed jaw, but these entailing as they do considerable trouble and expense and
possessing inherent weakness, have not come into any general use.

page_text: In order to put my present invention in operation I adopt the novel method of
construction illustrated in the accompanying drawing, in which Figure 1 is a plan
and Figure 2 a side view of my improved spanner.
I form the head a of the spanner with two fixed jaws at a suitable distance
apart, and I make a rectangular slot through the back of the head a, the upper and
lower sides of the slot being parallel with the face of one of the jaws of which
face the upper side of the slot forms a continuation.
Into the slot described I fit a number of parallel metallic strips b, b, (preferably
of steel) each such strip having formed at its outer end a bent up head or
projection c, so that one or more of the strips can be pulled or pressed by hand
through the slot, so as either to project into the space between the jaws of the
spanner or to be withdrawn from such space, the effective distance between the said
jaws being varied according to the number of the strips which are left projecting,
and being greatest when all of them are withdrawn, and the spanner being then
capable of fitting in the ordinary way the largest sized nut for which it is
adapted, whilst for small nuts one or more of the strips are pushed out as may
be required.
The several strips are kept pressed against each other and against the upper
jaw of the spanner by a flat or other suitable spring d, preferably fixed at one
end to the handle e of the spanner by a screw f.
Each successive strip b is longer than the one preceding it by the thickness of
its projecting head c.
. The several strips bare prevented from being pushed out too far by the heads c
at their outer ends, and they are also prevented from being pushed in too far
either by the head of the screw by which the spring d is fixed, as shewn, or by a
separate stop fixed to the handle.
The handle e may be bent or formed at any desired angle with the head a.
The arrangement of the moveable strips b in a slot in the head of the spanner
as described is applicable not only to spanners of the kind shewn, but to other
forms of spanners, as for instance to what are well known as box spanners.
I do not confine myself to the precise method of construction and arrangement,
and proportion of the several parts, which may vary more or less according
to the circumstances and conditions under which the spanner is to be used, but
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In spanners, the combination of a slot in the head of the spanner with a
sufficient number of strips 6 moving in the said slot, by which the effective width
of the opening of the spanner can be varied as desired, substantially as described
and illustrated.
2. In combination with the slot in the spanner head and the adjustable strips b
moving in the said slot, the spring d by which the said strips are held in position
substantially as described and illustrated.
3. The turned up ends c by which the sliding strips 6 are prevented from moving
too far inward, substantially as described and illustrated.
4. The stop by which the sliding strips bare prevented from moving too far
outward, substantially as described and illustrated.
Dated this 18th day of April 1894.
EDWARDS & Co.,
65 & 66, Chancery Lane, London, Agents for the Applicant.