IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS AND SPIKES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Loughborough
Park, Brixton, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS AND SPIKES."-A communication
from abroad by Carl Gustaf Gustafsgon, residing at Hellstorp, near
Yönköping, in the Kingdom of Sweden."
Sealed the 8th July 1862, and dated the 21st January 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st January 1862.
I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in the
County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS AND SPIKES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of nails and spikes made of iron
or other malleable metals, and consists in a novel arrangement of machine to
be employed for the purpose, which is constructed and used as follows:-A
bar of iron heated red hot, or of other suitable metal more or less heated or
not heated as the different metals may require, is passed between two pair
of rollers, which have a reciprocating movement forwards and backwards, and
which rollers contain a sunk groove in and round each roller for forming the
shape of the nail. One pair of these rollers is constructed so that each roller

page_text: .
is made in halves like two rings, and each of these halves contains along and
round the one of its edges the half part of one of the said grooves. Both
of these roller halves are fitted together and keyed fast on a rolling shaft,
and strongly held together by a screw or other means in order to form one
solid roller. This construction is used in order to be able easier to repair
the rollers and grooves without diminishing the diameters of the rollers. The
other pair of rollers which can be made either in. halves, as described above,
or solid, as being not so much exposed to be worn out, and which also contain
one groove round a part of each roller, are arranged to act on the bar's end
only when the bar is going backwards out from the machine in order to
re-point the end of the bar which is obtuse, after a nail has been cut off from
the bar in the machine. In order to guide the bar right, the machinery
contains guiding apparatus or "guides," viz, one guide to the first pair of
rollers, one "guide" between the two pair of rollers, and one "guide" from
the last pair of rollers. The construction of the first of these guides is of
less consequence, but the two other guides are each of them hollow and made
in two parts, of which one part is immoveable and the other part is made to
yield or give way by means of springs, and thereby to make the hole of
the guide larger when necessary in consequence of some irregularity in
the form of the metal bar, or in the produced form of a nail. The said bar
continues to pass from the guide behind the last pair of rollers into a pair
of "dies," which are fitted into a part of the machine resembling the two
jaws of a pair of tongs, where the dies are kept fast in their right position by
regulating or set screws. In these dies a straight groove is made to fit the
shape which the bar's end has got by the rollers, and this groove is constructed
so that the dies can open sufficiently to allow the bar's end easily to enter
into the groove, but still keep the bar end enclosed within the dies till they
close, and a cutting apparatus or "cutter," has cut off from the bar the end
which is enclosed in the dies leaving a portion outside the dies sufficient
to be formed into a head on the nail. This cutter cuts against the last-
named guide which therefore is fitted with a piece of hardened steel. The
tongs keeping the nail enclosed, are then moving a little sideways till the
nail comes opposite a lever or "header," which header then strikes the head
on the nail after the tongs and dies have shut themselves. In order to
regulate nicely the last-described movement of the tongs, the one side of
the tongs stops against a regulating pin, on which a spring or a combined.
apparatus of lever and spring is pressing, which spring or apparatus yields.
and thereby prevents the breaking of parts in the machinery, in case the iron
or the nail is wrong. After the head of the nail is struck the tongs are

page_text: fully opened, but the nail still sticks to one of the dies in consequence of
some small marks being sunk in this one die, in which marks the iron is
pressed in when the head is struck till the nail is pulled. out. by a hook in
the machine.
The advantages of these improvements are that nails can be manufactured
from metal bars with greater speed and economy, and when iron bars are used
with less loss of weight by the heating of the iron, as the iron can be heated
less, and is converted into nails faster than by forging, and that nails can
advantageously be made of different other forms than the ordinary square
shape, especially with fluted sides which do not split wood so. easily, can be
driven in easier but still hold very fast in consequence of their great surface
of friction, and generally a little jagged edges, and will be comparatively
stiffer with less. materials..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st July 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in the County of
Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most. Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, Her special licence that I, the
said George Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, my 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 AND SPIKES," a communication to me from abroad by Carl Gustav
Gustafsgon, a person resident at Hellstorp, near Yönköping, in the Kingdom
of Sweden, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Tomlin-
son Bousfield, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly

page_text: 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 George Tomlinson Bousfield, do hereby.
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention relates to a novel arrangement of parts, constituting an
improved nail-making machine, in which two pairs of compressing rollers
are used for tapering the ends of the metal rods fed into the machine to
a suitable shape for forming nails or spikes, in combination with a cutter for
severing such tapered ends from the rods, and a heading die for striking up
the heads of the nails or spikes while the same are held firmly between
nipping dies, the object being to effect in a rapid and economical manner
the conversion of rods or bars of iron, or other suitable metal into nails or

page_text: which is fixed means of a screw and nut on the end of the pin, in
order to allow for the regulation of the stroke, for different sizes of nails.
On this crank pin, works a cog bar B, which slides on a piece of steel B',
that is adjustable by screws A' and A. This cog bar B, gives motion to
a cog wheel C¹, fastened on a shaft C, one end of which, turns in a bearing
on a bracket A2, screwed fast to the extending part As of the frame A,
while the other end and middle of the shaft are carried by bearings C².
and C³ fitted into the upright frame standards A4 and A5. This shaft C.
also carries a smaller cog wheel C, which gears into a cog wheel D¹ on a
shaft D, which turns in bearings D2, D3, (in the same standards A4 and A5,).
that are pressed down on the upper side of the shaft D by the wedge D*,
which regulated by the screw D³ presses on flat iron bits D6, R7, D8, and Dº,
on the top of the said bearings D³ and D³. These bearings are also kept
fast in the recesses made for them in the standards A4 and As, by means.
of iron parts F1 and F2, which are screwed fast to the inside of the said
standards, and have projecting parts extending in between each pair of the
said bearings. The two shafts C, D, are prevented from moving endways by set
screws E¹, E, and N1, N2, the former passing through the bent iron E, which
is screwed fast to the frame and its standard A' by the screws E³, E, E, and E,
and the latter passing through the iron part N, which is screwed fast to the
side of the standard A5. On the shafts C and D, are fixed the two rollers G
and H respectively, each roller consisting of two parts as shewn at G¹ and G²
and Hand H2. G3 and H3 are collars on the shafts where the rollers are
keyed fast by the keys Go and H. The rings composing the divided or com-
pound rollers are screwed tightly together by the round nuts G* and H* in
which are bored the holes Go and He to receive a locking pin. The grooves
in these rollers are made by filing off the contact edges of the roller rings
to suit the shape of the intended nail. The rollers are afterwards hardened.
When wanted to be repaired, the rings are taken from the shaft, and either
annealed, filed, and rehardened, or only ground on a stone. The diminished
thickness of the rings may be compensated for by the introduction of a
washer between the roller and the collar on the roller shaft. Besides admit-
last for a long
ting of being very easily repaired, these compound rollers will
time, as their diameters are not thereby diminished. I. prefer to form the
edges of the rings composing the rollers in such manner, that when they come
together, they may have such grooves as will produce a hole, such as is
shewn at g, in Figure 8. I consider it desirable to make the sides of the.
grooves in the rollers a little rounded, in order to produce the sides of the nail
Auted

page_text: In front of the machine, and attached to the standards A4 and A5, is
a bent iron J formed with a groove J¹, and carrying a pair of springs J and J³,
which form the first guide for the end of the metal bar, that is intended to
be converted into nails or spikes. This bar is held at one end by a workman,
and its forward end being pointed, it is slidden in the said groove J¹ between J2
and J³ to the grooves in the first rollers, which rollers roll the end of the
bar out to the intended shape and pass it through a second guide K situate
between the rollers G, H, and the rollers L', M¹ hereafter more particularly
referred to. This guide K is made in two parts K and K2, which are fitted
together at the line h, l. The part K₁ is screwed fast by the screw K³ to the
before named iron J, and by the screw K' to the standard As. The other
part K slides in a square recess in the above named iron part F¹, and is
held fast there by a flat piece of iron K, which is screwed on to the part F¹,
by the screws K, K, K, and K. Bearing against the end K¹ is a
spring K", which yields when any irregularity in the metal bar, or the partly
produced nail, prevents it from passing through the guide, and permits of the
temporary expansion of the guide K". This guide is shaped to fit the periphery
of the four rollers between which it is placed. Where it fits to the rollers G and
Hit has a raised elevation h on the surface to enter the grooves of the rollers,
and prevent the iron bar from passing between the rollers and the guide.
The continued motion of the shafts C and D will cause the rolled end of the
metal bar to pass forward between the rollers L' and M', which have around
a part of their circumference diminishing grooves. These rollers L', M³, remain
stationary during the time the pointed end of the metal bar is passing between'
them, at which time the widest parts of the grooves are towards the rollers.
G and H, the rolled end of the metal bar will therefore pass betweem them
unaltered. These rollers (which can be made each in one ring as being less
exposed to wear out than the rollers G, H,) are fitted on the shafts L and M,
which move in two bearings P and Ps in the iron part P, which is screwed
on the above named iron part N, and two bearings L' and M², which are
resting in a projection of the above named iron part F2, and where a set
screw F³ keeps down the bearing L2, which bearing is supported from the
one side by a flat piece of iron F', which is fastened to F2 by two screws F
and F. The shaft L carries a cog wheel L² gearing into a similar cog wheel
M² on the shaft M. This cog wheel M2 gears into a segment rack R¹ on the
lever R, which lever consists of the parts R² connected with the segment, and
R³ connected by screws with the excentric bows R4 and R. A pin R joins
the parts R and R³ together, and this pin I prefer to make of wood, in order
that it can break if an unsound metal bar splits, or any other similar thing

page_text: happens which otherwise would break the teeth of the segment rack or cog-
wheels L and M². The whole so connected rocks on its fulcrum it being
carried by a shaft R', the pointed end of which bears against the projecting
frame part A, while its other end is supported in a bearing R³ screwed to
the frame A, through which bearing a screw R presses on the flat end of the
shaft R. The rocking movement of the segment rack is derived from the
excentric S, which works against the bow R; and the small part S¹ screwed
to S by a screw S2, which part S¹ works against the bow R. The time when
the rollers L and M¹ are by these means moved will be described below.
From the rollers L', M³, the metal bar passes the third guide T, which is also
made in halves, viz., one half T¹ screwed fast in the machine by the screws.
T and T, and regulated by the set screw Ts; and one half T2 loose and
yielding, being hung on the round point T which has a head, and is screwed
fast in the above named flat iron part F. The spring T presses against the
loose half T2, and thereby keeps it close against the half T. The holes through
both the guides K and T are made tapering, and of the form shewn in Figures
9, 10, 11, and 12. The rolled end of the bar passes from the third guide into
the holding dies U', which are carried by the tongs' U, and are at that time a
little open as represented at U2, Figure 15; this form of the hole which is
adapted to suit the shape of nail which I prefer, allows the bar end easily to
enter. The dies are let into recesses in the jaws of the tongs U, and held
fast there by four set screws. One of the dies can also be regulated endways
by the wedge U³ and sideways by the set screws U and U10. The jaws of
the tongs U move (in opening and shutting) on the pin U. The whole tongs
have a motion on the pin Us, which pin is fastened in a plate W, which rests
the one end on a part A rising from the frame A, and the other end on a
part A, which projects from the frame A at the bottom of the standard A³.
One of the jaws of the tongs is elongated into a bent shaft or tail U6, which is
moved in one direction by a bowl Box on a pin projecting laterally from the
driving shaft B, and in the opposite direction by a pin B' fixed underneath the
tongs tail U travelling in a cam groove B₁ on the shaft B. A spring W¹ pressing
on the shorter jaw of the tongs tends to shut this shorter jaw against the other.
V is a hooking apparatus or "catcher" moving round a pin V¹, screwed down
in a separate piece V7, which is fastened to the elevated frame standard A¹s by
a dovetail and the screw Vs, and. regulated by the set screw V6. The catcher
V has a forked end V2 which embraces the roller shaft C. This fork has a
projecting heel Va which is pressed against by another heel C on a ring C³,
fastened on the roller shaft C. The other end of the catcher V is hook shaped
to enable it to seize alternately one square and one round pin U' and Us car-

page_text: A
ried by the short jaw. A spring V presses on one side of the catcher.
combination of levers X, X' and X2 is put in motion by the cam B fixed on
the driving shaft B, bearing against an inclined surface on the end of the
lever X, whereby motion is imparted to the cutting apparatus or cutter X³, for
severing from the compressed bar into suitable lengths for making nails or
spikes. The cutter consists of a flat piece of steeled iron, whose motion is
horizontal by means of the rectangular slot X in the cutter gliding along a
square pin screwed in the iron part F2. A spring ✗³ presses against the cutter
X³ and thereby holds it close up against the guide .T, where it cuts against
a dovetailed piece of hardened steel T' which is fitted into the part T of the
guide T.
.Y is a lever. forming the "header." It. has a movement on the shaft Y',
which moves, with its pointed end in a dovetailed bearing Y2 fitted in the pro-
jecting frame part No, and with its other end through a hole in a square
bearing Y³, let in partly through the frame A, and partly on the frame standard
A, and adjusted by wedges or keys Y¹ and Y13 on two sides. Outside the
last-named frame and standard is screwed on a cover Y', through which a screw
Y is screwed pressing on the other end of the shaft Y'. The one end of this
header is pressed down by the excentric B', (on the driving shaft B) which
bears on the bowle Y of the tail of the header Y, and thereby depresses it to
produce the blow for, striking up the head of the nail. The header is returned
to its quiescent position by means of the spring Y' which is by two pins YB and Y
fastened to the foundation. The end Y10 of the header which is raised up by
the above-mentioned action of the excentric B' as high as the dies U has a
screw Y, the head of which is made of hardened steel, and is countersunk to
suit the head of the nail; it may also be engraved to mark the nail's head.
Z (Figure 6) is a lever formed as a bow fixed at one end to the frame standard
A by means of the screwed ear Z' with its pin Z. The other end forms a
hook Z³, which, by the square ring Z*, communicates with the spring Z
(Figure 1); the pressure of which can be regulated by the set screw Z.
Through the frame standard A¹ is passed a pin Z', which can slide easily;
this pin regulates the distance the tongs may move in this direction, so that
when a nail happens to come wrongly into the holding dies, the risk of injury
from this cause to the machinery is avoided, the pin Z', lever bow Z, and
spring Z yielding sufficiently. In ordinary cases there will be very little or
no greater pressure than what this spring apparatus will resist without allow-
ing the tongs to move further than is just right. The screw Z and nut Z³ are
for effecting the accurate adjustment of the lever bow.
. In using this machine, the square bar which is to be formed into nails.or

page_text: spikes is, if it be of iron or other metal requiring to be rolled hot, to be heated
to the proper degree, and it is to be presented to the rollers G, H, on the angle
and not on the flat. The bar is to be turned half way round after each time
of passing the end between the rollers G, H, in order that a different angle
may come upwards and downwards each time of introducing the end of the
bar between the roller dies. The bar is held by the workman, and the heated
end, properly pointed, is presented to the grooves of the rollers G, H, which
by their rotation draw in a portion of the bar, and roll it to the desired form;
the rolled end of the bar then passes between the rollers L', M', which do not
then act on the bar. The end of the bar next enters the holding dies in the
tongs, which stand a little open, as before described, the catcher V holding the
shorter jaw by the pin U³. The tongs then begin to be moved by the bowle
Bex closing the longer jaw against the shorter, and the cutter X³ cuts off a
little more than the length of a nail from the bar. The machine is shown on
the Drawing in the position it would assume at this moment. The rocking
movement of the tongs is now continued, during which the pin U' pushes
away the catcher V, the hook of which thereby, and by the spring V₁ is
carried over the pin U, and the tongs stop against the pin Z. The header
Y" on the lever Y then strikes against the piece of metal in the dies U',
thereby forming a head on the nail from the portion of metal which the cutter
has left outside the dies. The longer jaw of the tongs is then carried back to
its original position, the shorter jaw, by means of the spring W', following till
the pin U' stops against the hook of the catcher, whereby a thin hook or
claw U12 fixed on the top of the longer jaw (and being down before the die of
the shorter jaw) seizes the head of the nail, and pulls it out from the die in
the shorter jaw, to which, although the dies have been for a moment-open, the
nail has been sticking in consequence of some small marks being stamped in
this die, into which marks the metal has been pressed by the blow of the
header; from the hook the nail falls on the floor, or in a box underneath
the machine. The shorter jaw is then carried back to its original position
by the spring W¹, when the heel C6 rocks the catcher, causing it to leave the
pin U' and catch on the pin U³. Just as the piece for a nail has been cut off
from the end of the bar the axial motion motion of the rollers G, H, is reversed
by reason of the throw of the crank pin B' and its connections; these rollers,
therefore, draw back the metal bar, and at the same time the small piece S¹
on the excentric S gives through the segment rack apparatus a backward
motion to the small rollers L', M', which roll or forge to a point the end of
the bar, which being obtuse after the cutting, would otherwise be too thick
to enter the proper part of the groove between the rollers G, H. The small

page_text: rollers L', M', the header and the cutter are brought back to their original
position, the rollers by the excentric S, the header by the spring Y', and
the cutter by the end of the lever X falling back on the driving shaft B
by the weight of the lever's end, to which some additional weight may be
added if necessary. Just as the metal bar comes out from the machine,
and before it enters the machine again, the workman turns the bar so that
the two edges which last have been in the bottom of the grooves next time
come horizontal between the rollers. Before a bar is the first time put in
between the rollers the end must be drawn out and pointed a little by means
of a hammer, or otherwise to bring it to the shape the bar receives from the
pointing rollers, or the last remaining end of a bar worked on in the machine
is welded to the end of a new bar.
The machine as herein drawn and described is constructed for making four-
inch nails from half-inch square bars; but the machine, by proper adjust-
ment, can also make shorter nails, and produce nails from metal bars of a.
little larger or smaller size, but of course not smaller than the thickest part of
the nail.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention of improvements
in machinery for making nails and spikes, and explained the manner in
which the same is to be carried into effect, I would have it understood that
under the above in part recited Letters Patent, I claim the combined arrange-
ment of mechanism, herein-before described, for effecting the rapid conversion
of rods or bars of metal into nails and spikes.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
GEO. T. BOUSTIELD. (L.B.)