IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CUT NAILS AND TACKS."
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alfred Jones at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 11th July 1879.
«
ALFRED JONES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Builder and
Contractor. IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CUT
NAILS AND TACKS."
My Invention has reference to that part of machinery for the manufacture of cut
nails and tacks by which the plate or strip from which the nails or tacks are cut is
turned over and fed into the machine, and my said Invention consists of the
mechanical arrangement or combination of parts herein after described, for giving
the alternate semi-rotation to the barrel through which the plate or strip is fed to
the cutters so as to turn over the said plate or strip at the proper times, and also of
the arrangement or combination of parts herein after described for withdrawing the
end of the plate or strip from the cutters during the semi-rotation of the feeding
barrel and the turning over the plate or strip.
My Invention consists further of the improved nose piece herein after described
for the feeding barrels of nail or tack cutting machines.
The mechanism constituting part of my Invention for giving the alternate semi-
rotation to the feeding barrel for turning over the nail, plate, or strip, at the
required times is constructed essentially as follows:-On the feeding barrel of the
machine, a pulley is keyed and over the said pulley a driving band works, the said
band having a reciprocating motion given to it. To the opposite ends of the said
band short rods are jointed, the said jointed rods being fixed to and capable of
adjustment in the ends of two levers one on each side of the machine. These levers
are so worked that while one of them is rising, the other is falling, so that a
reciprocating or backward and forward motion is given to the driving band and the
required alternate semi-rotation imparted to the feeding barrel for turning over the
nail, plate, or strip. A period of rest takes place after each forward or backward
motion of the driving band so that the barrel is stationary during the cutting off of
the nail or tack.
The reciprocating motion of the levers to which the ends of the driving band are
respectively connected, is effected by connecting rods jointed to a crank plate,
driven by gearing from the main shaft of the machine.
Or the said levers may be moved by eccentrics or other mechanical equivalents
from the main shaft of the machine.

page_text: The mechanism for withdrawing the nail, plate, or strip, from the lower cutter
during the turning over-of-the-said nail, plate, or strip, is constructed as follows:-
The clams' rod to which the clams are affixed and by which the nail, plate, or strip,
_ is gripped, turns freely in a tube supported in any convenient manner, the said tube
having by preference a hexagonal figure externally. This tube is capable only of a
sliding motion. The clams' rod is so conncted with the said tube that while the
sliding motion of the latter is imparted to the former the semi-rotation of the clams'
rod is not communicated to the said tube. This connection of the two parts may
be effected by collars or other equivalent arrangement. On the upper face of the
hexagonal sliding tube, a toothed rack is made. Supported by brackets over the
feeding barrel is an inclined reciprocating sliding bar the lower end of which is
pointed and is jointed to the other part of the bar, the jointed part being situated
over the highest end of the feeding barrel. By means of a spring in the joint of the
pointed end of the said bar, the said end is pressed down so as to cause it to engage
at the proper times with the toothed rack on the sliding tube of the clams' rod.
After a nail or tack bss been cut, and just before the semi-rotation of the feeding
barrel takes place the sliding bar described makes its forward motion and its
pointed end is made to engage with the rack of the tube, and draw back the said tube
from the the feeding barrel, and with it the clans' rod and parts carried by it. The
end of the nail plate is thereby withdrawn from the cutters. On the feeding barrel
coming to rest, the sliding bar makes its back motion and its pointed end is
withdrawn from the toothed rack, when the nail, plate, or strip, is moved forward
in the feeding barrel, and the end of the said plate or strip advanced to the cutters
by a weighted cord as usual.
The advance motion of the reciprocating pointed bar is effected by a cam on the
main shaft of the machine, the said cam operating upon a lever, and the latter on
the end of the said bar. The return or back motion of the said bar is effected by a
coiled spring.
The jointed end of the reciprocating bar permits it to be turned back for the
placing of a fresh strip or plate in the feeding barrel.
I make the nose piece of the feeding barrel of a rectangular block of wrought
steel having in its middle a slit or opening tapering from the back face to the front
or outer face where it narrowest, the narrow end of the taper slit being of a size
proper for the passage through it of the nail plate or strip. The back face of the
rectangular nose piece has at its upper part an inclined leg or fixing flange, and at
its lower part a longer inclined leg or fixing. The end of the feeding barrel is
clipped by the said inclined legs or flanges and by means of a collar made to
embrace the barrel and the longer leg of the nose piece, and fixed by screw pins and
nuts; the nose piece is firmly connected to the barrel.