CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF WOOD SCREWS, A PORTION OF WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE IN THE MANIACTURING OR CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF NATZS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Haddon, of the firm of Haddon and Hitchin,,
Screw Manufacturers, Glover Street Works, Birmingham, in the County
of Warwick, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF WOOD SCREWS, A PORTION OF WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE IN THE
MANIACTURING OR CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF NATZS"
Sealed the 8th June 1858, and dated the 9th December 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Haddon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th December 1857.
I, JOHN HADDON, of the firm of Haddon and Hitchin, Screw Manu-
facturers, Glover Street Works, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOD SCREWS, A PORTION OF WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE
IN THE MANUFACTURING OF CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF NAILS," to be as follows
(that is to say):-
My Invention relates, first, to a new arrangement for feeding or supplying
wood screw blanks to the several operations of turning, nicking, pointing, and
worming, and which apparatus is also applicable to the feeding or supplying
of nail blanks to the operation of pointing or other finishing processes; and,
secondly, to the mode of making or forming the cutters for worming such
kinds of screws, which cutters heretofore have been of such a size as only to
be able to cut out the portion from thread to thread at one time, such cutter
being moved along the barrel of the screw under operation, according to the

page_text: pitch of the thread desired desired to be cut, and the velocity with which the
screw blank may be turned around.
And my improvements consist in forming such cutter or cutters that they
shall compass two or more threads at the same time, by which means tho
operation of worming the screws may be greatly facilitated, and the form and
character of the thread greatly improved. And the manner in which I supply
or feed the screw or other blanks to the apparatus for performing the several
operations herein-before named will be understood by the following descrip-
tion I construct a squaro or oblong hopper with its bottom inclined down-
ward to a long open slot, in which I place in a edge or vertical position two
segmental plates of steel secured together by rivets, leaving a space between
them of the thickness of the barrel of the scrow or other blanks I wish to
operato on. The back and front of that part of the hopper that forms the
ends of the slot or opening before referred to, are curved to suit the external
and internal radius of the segmental plates, so that, as the top edges of theso
plates which are horizontal when down on the bottom of the hopper, shall
form an inclination when lifted up. The screw or other blanks placed in the
hopper will naturally fall with their barrels downward into the opening
between the two segmental plates on which the heads of the screw or other
blanks rest, and when these plates are lifted up they will carry with them as
many screw or other blanks as they may have gathered when down on the
bottom of the hopper and these plates being lifted into an inclined position,
the blanks will slido from between them into a channel, and be carried down
or forward to the several apparatus for performing the various operations
before named, and which oparations being well known and forming no part of
my Invention it is unnecessary to describe.
The segmental plates are lifted up and down by a connecting rod, attached
to a cam or other eccentric fixed upon the shaft (or otherwise) of the machine
to which it is annliad
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Haddon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
9th June 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HADDON, of the firm of Haddon and Hitchin, Screw Manufacturers, Glover
Street Works, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of December, in the year of our

page_text: 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 me, the said John Haddon, Her special license, that I, the
said John Haddon, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said John Haddon, my exccutors, administrators, or 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 "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WOOD SCREWS, A PORTION OF WHICH 18
ALSO APPLICABLE IN THE MANUFACTURING OF CERTAIN DESCRIPTIONS OF NAILS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Haddon, 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 John Haddon, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, (that is to say):-
My Invention has for its object, first, the application to the several
machines required in performing the various operations known in the pro-
duction of wood screws as turning, nicking, pointing, and worming, as also
the pointing of round-headed nails, of a novel and simple self-acting feed
apparatus, which consists of a segmental plate composed of two thin plates of
iron held apart the required distance according to the size screw or nail
blanks intended to be operated on, and which segmental plate works through
a slot in the bottom of an hopper, and which bottom should be parallel or
nearly so with the centre of the internal and external area of the segmental
plate before named, which plate works in end guides of corresponding cur-
vature, so that as the segment is lifted up and down (at regular intervals) by
a tippet or eccentric and connecting rod, the top edge of the segment when
up will assume an angle of about twenty-five degrees, more or less, as may be
required. Thus it will be seen that when the segment is pulled down and
the hopper filled with screw or nail blanks, some of them will necessarily fall
in such a position as to allow their heads to rest on the plates of the segment
with the barrels or bodies of the blanks hanging vertically between the plates,
so that as the segment rises it carries the blanks that it has so
gathered up

page_text: with it until it assumes the angle before named, when the blanks will descend
down the inclination thus given to the segment, and pass from the hopper on
to an inclined plane composed of two plates of iron or other suitable material
placed at or about the same angle, as the top edge of the segment is made 'to
take, and from the bottom of this inclined plane the screw or nail blauk is
siezed or held by suitable means (worked either horizontally or vertically) for
performing the various operations herein-before named. Thus, the hopper
has only to be tended and kept well supplied with blanks, and they will by
the means herein described be regularly raised and allowed to descend down
the inclined planes as required.
The second part of my improvements in the manufacturing of wood screws
relates to the entter for cutting or forming the thread on the barrel of such
screws, and which consists in simply forming the cutter that it shall be capable
of compassing two, three, or more threads at the same time, which not only
enables me to worm such screws with greater facility, but also to worm
them more regular and true than is generally done by the use of cutters as
heretofore applied to such machines.
But in order that I may be well and thoroughly understood as to the truc
nature and character of my said Invention, I will proceed to describe the
Drawings hereunto annexed (which are made at or about the full proportions
they would be required for actual use), reference being also made to the
Guse and lations maylead tharan

page_text: a circular direction between the vertical guides h, h, and j, j. The segment A
is supposed to be raised and lowered by being connected to an eccentric and
connecting rod, the top end of which as here shown is attached to the
segmental plate marked K, but broken off for convenience of space. This
Figure represents a transverse section of Figure 1, taken through the dotted
lines 1, 1, showing the segment A in an elevated position, a part of the near
plate (as at n, n,) being broken away to show the screw blank passing down
between the two plates of which it is composed. Tho outer curved guide piece e
is shown in section, as also the front one marked m, the top end of which has
an opening formed in it to allow the screw or nail blanks to pass through in
their descent from the seginental plate to the inclined plane marked O, which is
broken off for convenience of space sufficiently short to show the corre-
sponding plate P, with a screw blank partly shown in dotted lines passing
between. The parts O and P are also represented in Figure 1, marked
with the same letters; the dotted lines marked q, q, and r, r, represents
the position of the segment when down in the position shown in Figures
1 and 2; the connecting rod K is also represented in dotted lines;
and the dotted lines marked 8, s, and t, t, show the form I prefer making the
pieces that divide, form, or regulate the opening in the segmental plate.
The small circles marked u, u, u, &c., are the rivets by which the sides or
plates are held together. The space between the segmental plates must be
varied according to the size of the blanks on which we purpose to operate;
and although there is a great variety in the sizes of screws and nails manu-
factured, nevertheless I think that I could confine the difference of the
opening between the segmental plates to about six or seven sizes, as the
segmental plates for feeding the smaller sized blanks have no occasion to be
put closer together than would be required for the heads to rest on them, so
that
many various sized screws or nails may be fed from one plate constructed
as here exhibited, as, for instance, a screw blank with its head of the diameter,
shown at V, Figure 1, could as well be lifted up and conveyed to the various
operations with the slot or opening in the plate, as here shown, as the other
screw blanks.
Before finishing the description of this part of my improvements,
I will observe that I have found it advantageous to thicken the upper inner
edges of the opening in the segmental plate, somewhat in the manner
exhibited at x, x, Figure 2, as it allows the blanks to slide down with more
freedom.
Figs. 4 and 5 represent a side and edge view of a cutter made according
to my improvements for worming screws. The angle of the top or cutting
part of Figure 5 defines the pitch of the thread, which thread would be formed

page_text: by the four projections marked y, y, y, y, cutting away the substance of the
barrel of the intended screw, while the raised part or thread would be formed
in the sunken grooves marked ≈, ≈, ≈. The opposite side of Figure 5 is ex-
hibited in Figure 10, placed in the inclination it would assume when worming
a screw as there represented. And as those cutters are required to be pro-
duced not only with facility, but with great accuracy, in their size and proportions
(which must always be varied according to the pitch and size of the scrow
required,) I have deemed it prudent to exhibit a way in which they may be
readily produced, confining myself simply to the size of cutter herein-before
exhibited. I take a piece of steel properly annealed, and turn it to the shape
and size, sny, as exhibited in a side view at Figure 8, and by means of an
angular file, I cut the projections into teeth in the manner as exhibited at
Figure 9, which is an end view of the bottom part of Figure 8, and such
tool being hardened and tempered and applied to a common lathe, and made,
to revolvo in the direction of the arrow (as at Figure 8); it is then in
condition to produce the result I desire to obtain, and being, as it were, the
master tool, it will endure for a very long time, thus ensuring and defining
the size of thread produced from the cutters made by its means, which I do
in the following way:-The cutter, Figure 8, as before explained, being set
in motion, I take a strip of anuealed or softened steel of the proper size and
secure it to the bed of a slide rest or such like shifting apparatus, and by
gradually passing it under the operation of the cutter I produce a result as
exhibited at Figure 6, and in an end view at Figure 7, from which, after
duo hardening and tempering, we may presume that the cutter, as
exhibited at Figures 4, 5, and 10, has been produced. A similar result
may be produced by means of a planing machine, but I think the way
as bere exhibited, both simple and efficient, and equally convenient, by a
proper variation of size, for worming all sizes of wood screws.
Having thus described the nature and character of my Invention and the
manner in which they same may be carried into effect, I wish it under-
stood that I do not purpose confining myself to the size or proportions of the
parts as here exhibited, as they may be varied without departing from the
spirit of my Invention, and which in fact will require to bo varied in some
particulars to adapt it to the variation of different sized screws or nails which
I may wish to produce; but what I do claim and wish protected by these my
in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
The segmental plate, with its side and end guides, and its rising and falling
action, as exhibited in Figures 1, 2, and 3, without reference to the means by
which it may be raised or lowered, the same being used for feeding wood

page_text: screw and round headed nail blanks, to the several operations in their
production known as turning, pointing, nicking, and worming.
Secondly, I claim the principle and use of cutters for worming wood screws,
such cutters being so made or formed as to compass two or more threads at
one time, whether such cutters be made as herein described and exhibited, or
by single cutters united together for the same purpose.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Haddon, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
JAMES S. COCKINGS, Patent Agent,
Birmingham.
JOHN HADDON. (L.S.)