IMPROVEMENTS IN PROCESSES AND MACHINERY A communication from FOR MANUFACTURING CUT NAILS AND TACKS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills, of the Firm of Harris
"
and Mills, of 23, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN PROCESSES AND MACHINERY
A communication from
FOR MANUFACTURING CUT NAILS AND TACKS."
abroad by David Job Farmer, John Plant Farmer, and Samuel Farmer, all of
Penn Yan, in the County of Yates and State of New York, United States of
America Machinists and Cut Nail Manufacturers.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Joseph Barnard
Mills at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th July 1881.
BENJAMIN JOSEPH BARNARD MILLS, of the Firm of Harris and Mills, of
23, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex. Patent Agent.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PROCESSES AND MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING CUT
NAILS AND TACKS." A communication from abroad by David Job Farmer, John
Plant Farmer, and Samuel Farmer, all of Penn Yan, in the County of Yates and
State of New York, United States of America, Machinists and Cut Nail
Manufacturers.
The Invention relates to the manufacture of cut nails or tacks by the use of
what are generally known as cut nail machines, where nails are made from the
flat plate.
Cut nails are now made from flat sheets rolled of uniform thickness and cut into
strips of the length of the nail with additional length for the head, which strips
are fed into the machine by hand labour or expensive mechanism, and are oscillated
or inverted in order to give the required taper to the nail. In some machines
having two sets of cutting knives the strips are changed from one set of cutters to
another in order to give the required taper.
The improvements forming the subject of the present application consist in part
in rolling sheets with a succession of transverse ridges forming inclined planes,
cutting them up into nail plates converging from side to side in a direction
longitudinal to the fibre of the metal, cutting up the said plates (without the
usual oscillation or inversion) into tapered nail or tack blanks with the fibre
lengthwise of the blank, and heading said blanks with customary or suitable cut
nail or tack machinery. The improvements further consist in machinery for rolling
nail plates so as to produce a taper therein which will be lengthwise of nail blanks
to be cut therefrom.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Benjamin Joseph Barnard, Mills in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 4th January 1882.
BENJAMIN JOSEPH BARNARD MILLS, of the Firm of Harris and Mills, of
23, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PROCESSES AND MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING CUT
NAILS AND TACKS." A communication from abroad by David Job Farmer, John
Plant Farner, and Samuel Farmer, all of Penn Yan, in the County of Yates and
State of New York, United States of America, Machinists and Cut Nail
Manufacturers.
The Invention relates to the manufacture of cut nails or tacks by the use of
what are generally known as cut nail machines, where nails are made from the
flat plate.
Cut nails are now made from flat sheets rolled of uniform thickness and cut into
strips of the length of nail with additional length for the head, which strips are
fed into the machine by hand labour or expensive mechanism, and are oscillated
or inverted in order to give the required taper to the nail blank. In some
machines having two sets of cutting knives the strips are changed from one set of
cutters to another in order to give the required taper.
The present Invention consists in part in rolling sheets with a succession of
transverse ridges forming inclined planes, cutting them up into nail plates
converging from side to side in a direction longitudinal to the fibre of the metal,
cutting up the said plates (without the usual oscillation or inversion) into tapered
nail or tack blanks with the fibre lengthwise of the blank, and heading said blanks
with customary or suitable cut nail or tack machinery.
The improvements further consist in suitable machinery for rolling nail plates so
as to produce a taper therein which will be lengthwise of nail blanks to be cut
therefrom.
And in order that the said Invention may be more clearly understood and
readily carried into effect I will proceed, aided by the accompanying Drawings,
more fully to describe the same.

page_text: in both directions, as shown from the lines a, a, of greatest thickness to the
lines b, b, of least thickness, but if preferred the taper may be made in one
direction only, as illustrated in Figures 3 and 4, in which case an abrupt or
perpendicular shoulder is formed at each line a¹, a', as represented in Figure 4.
The plates rolled in either mode are cut up into sections on the lines 6 or b', and
in the case of the oppositely tapered plate, shewn in Figures and 2 on the
lines a, a, also. These plate sections are intended to represent in width the length
of the nail with additional length for the upsetting of the head, unless otherwise
desired. The taper desired for the nail being formed in the plate or iron before it
is fed into the machine, it is obvious that it is only necessary, as before stated, to
make a straight cut crosswise from the plate for each blank or each nail made, so
that in feeding the plate to the machine all that is required is to move the plate
forward in a straight line to the cutters of the machine, which may be done by
weight, spring, or otherwise, as found desirable. In the manufacture of the nails,
the nails are cut and headed on the machine in the ordinary manner, cutting and
heading the nails at each operation or revolution of the machine. Suitable forms
of rolls for producing the ridged plates are shewn in Figures 6, 7, 8, and 9.
roll C may be of common cylindrical shape, as in Figures 6 and 7. In Figure 6
the other roll is shown with longitudinal ridges & which may form arcs concentric,
or nearly so, with the axis of the roll, as here illustrated, and disappear in the
intermediate depressions e, which latter form plane or nearly plane surfaces
tangential, or nearly so, to the arcs d.
One
In Figure 7 the salient portions d of the roll form helical curves and terminate
in abrupt shoulders adapted to form the depressions and shoulders in the plate, as
seen in Figure 4.
Similar salient and depressed portions may be formed on each roll of the pair, as
illustrated in Figures 8 and 9.
No particular nail machinery, is described because suitable forms of nail machines
are well known. The forms and mechanism of nail machines are numerous and
subject to change, and the present Invention is not confined to any particular form
thereof.
The severing of the succesisve nail blanks from the end of a tapered plate by
parallel transverse cuts will be readily understood to obviate the necessity
heretofore existing of turning over the plate at each cut, or oscillating it or
changing it from one pair of knives to another, or employing any similar expedient
to impart the taper to the blank. The improvement thus saves one operation in
the machine while making the nail.
The Invention does not relate to a mode heretofore employed of making forged
nails by forming plates in a series of tapering sections or ridges, cutting up said
plates transversely of the ridges so as to produce strings of blanks point to head,
or point to point and head to head, and subsequently severing into separate blanks,
and finishing by hand forging or otherwise.
Neither does the Invention refer to the cutting of tapering blanks from bars
rolled with a transverse taper from edge to edge which has before been proposed.
It is manifest that with blanks cut from a plate of fibrous iron tapered transversely
to the direction in which it is rolled, the grain or fibre will be transverse to the
blank, and hence cut nails can be successfully made by the process last referred
to only by the use of homogeneous steel or iron of the highest quality. The
improved mode herein described of rolling plates with transverse ridges and
depressions, cutting these plates up into transversely tapered plates, and cutting
these up into blanks produces nails with the grain or fibre lengthwise, as is
necessary with the kind and quality of iron commonly employed for making
ordinary cut nails.
In the manufacture of horse shoe nails iron has been rolled into plates with
ridges on one or both of their outer edges, especially adapted in shape and
proportion to form the heads and shanks of the horse nails, and with the fibre of
the iron transverse to the plate or lengthwise with the nail, but such plates would

page_text: not answer the purpose of the Invention herein described, and could not be used
to form a properly tapered cut nail.
Such iron is especially adapted in shape and proportion to the formation of
horse shoe nails only. The thinner part of the iron forming the shank and the
raised part the head, which would be an impediment and could not be used for
the manufacture of cut nails.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention and the mode in which
the same is carried into effect, I would have it understood that what I claim is,-
First. As an improvement in the art of making cut nails and tacks, the process
of rolling plates with transverse ridges and depressions, cutting these up into
transversely tapered nail plates, with the fibre produced by previous rolling
crosswise to said nail plates, feeding such nail plates to the nail machine without
the usual oscillation or alternate inversion, and heading in customary cut nail or
tack machinery, all substantially as set forth.
Second. The rolls constructed and combined, substantially as herein described
for producing nail plates required in carrying out the process above specified.
Third. A transversely tapered plate for the manufacture of cut nails and tacks
having the fibre crosswise of said plate and in-direction of the tapër.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fourth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty two.