AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING CERTAIN PARTS OF PLOUGHS
Year: 1835

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
SPRINGALL, of Oulton, in the County, of Suffolk, Iron Founder, and ROBERT
RANSOME, of Ipswich, in the same County, Iron Founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Second day of November, in the sixth year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
John Springall and Robert Ransome, His especial license, that we, the said
John Springall and Robert Ransome, our exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said John Springall and Robert Ransome, our exors,
adiiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time
to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, our Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF
MANUFACTURING CERTAIN PARTS OF PLOUGHS;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso obliging us, the said John Springall and Robert Ransome,
by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
John Springall and Robert Ransome, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention to consist in making the ploughshare, or the wing, or blade, or
whatever that part of a plough marked x in Figure 1 of the Drawing marked A
may be called, and which makes the horizontal cut in the land in the work
called ploughing, of wrought iron or steel, either or both, stamped or pressed,
or partly stamped or pressed, and partly hammered into the various forms
required. And in further compliance with the said proviso, we, the said John
Springall and Robert Ransome, do hereby describe the manner in which our
said Invention is to be performed, by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings annexed, and to the Figures and letters marked
Figure 2, in the Drawing marked A, is a blank or thin flat piece of iron
or steel (say about one eighth of an inch thick), shaped, as here shown, by
any ordinary means before it is stamped. Figure 3 is the plan of one of the
faces of this same piece of metal after it has been stamped in dies into the
form here shown, and thus formed into a blade; a, a, a, being a rib turned up
at the land side of the blade to give strength to it; and e, e, e, a concave arc
stamped in the blade, in order to raise a convex arc on the opposite side,
which serves as a shoulder for the chaps to butt against, while it adds
strength to the blade. Figure 4 is a plan of the opposite face of the same
blade, shewing the convex side of the arc c, e, c; and Figure 5 is a perspec-
tive view of the blade, showing more clearly than could be shown in the plan
the side rib a, a, a, turned up by the stamp, as has been before described,
in order to give strength to the land side of the blade. Figure 6 is a
blade stamped out of another shaped blank, the edges of which are afterwards
to be drawn out under tilt or other hammers to the shape shown by the dotted
lines; in this latter case the blank should be somewhat thicker than when the
edge is formed at once in the dies. Figure 7 is a plan of the matrix or lower
and stationary die; and Figure 8 a view of the stamping or upper die used
to form the blade, herein-before described at Figure 3, the face or under
side of the upper die presenting exactly the same surface as that shown at
Figure 4, which is here supposed to have been created by it. Figure 9 is an
end view of Figure 7, shewing the rise or raised side of the die which
forms the side rib on the blade. Figure 10 is a section of the top and bottom
die in the position of pressing or stamping the blank, the dark blue line
representing the blank, which should, in all cases, be made red hot for the

page_text: operations of stamping or pressing, and the dotted line represents the side rib;
r is a key slot to fix the die in the fly press, shewn at Figure 11, where the
dies are shewn in the position they would be when ready to receive a blank.
Figure 12 represents a pair of rollers between which a blank may be pressed
into the form required for a blade, instead of being stamped as represented in
the fly press. Figure 13 is the shaped blank required for making a plough-
share by stamping or rolling, which differs only from the plough blade by
having a shank or socket, commonly called a box in the trade, added to or
rather made one with it, and may be made precisely in the same manner as
the blade, the different shape being obtained by the difference in the shape
only of the blank and of the dies. Figure 14 is a perspective view of the
upper side of the share, and Figure 15 a perspective view of the under side of
the share. Figure 16 is the upper, and Figure 17 the lower die for making
the share just described. In the Drawing marked B, Figure 18 is another
shaped blank for making a ploughshare by stamping or rolling in dies, in
which share the box is made four-sided, and the blade of double thickness;
this blank must first be placed in the dies shewn at Figures 20 and 21, of
which 20 is the under and 21 the upper die, and stamped while red hot into
the shape shown at Figure 19; the two sides are then to be folded over, as
shown at Figure 22, and the two wings welded together in the ordinary way,
when it will assume the appearance shown at Figure 23; the share must then
be heated again red hot; the plug, Figure 24, must be forced into the box
and the share placed in the lower die of another pair of dies, as shewn at
Figure 25, with the plug in the box; and it should here be noticed that the
outer end of the shank or handle of the plug is narrower than the inner,
and so that the blow from the upper die, which should now be given, may not
force it out when the operation of stamping is performed. Figure 26 is the
upper die of Figure 25, and Figure 27 is the ploughshare complete after it
leaves the dies.
Having found from experience that the said shares and blades, when
made of steel and formed by stamping or pressing, are apt to break or
split in the dies or rollers, we have, in many instances, adopted the plan
of making the share or blade complete entirely of wrought iron first, and
afterwards subjecting the manufactured article in its complete [state to the
process of converting iron into steel, which we have found highly advan-
tageous, inasmuch as it gives us every facility required for shaping the metal
in the dies, while it enables us to obtain a temper in the article for use, which
is of the greatest importance, in some cases, to the plough.
Now whereas we claim as our Invention the manufacturing of ploughshares

page_text: and blades, or wings, or whatever that part of the plough may be called
which makes the horizontal cut in the land in the work called ploughing, as
before described, of wrought iron or steel, either or both, stamped or pressed
into the form required by means of dies and presses, or stamps, or by rollers,
or any the like suitable machinery. And whereas further we claim forming
the said shares and blades or wings complete of wrought iron only, and then
subjecting them, in their finished state, to such known processes as will convert
the iron of which they are made into steel. And such our Invention being,
to the best of our knowledge and belief, entirely new, and never before used
within that part of His said Majesty's United Kingdom of. Great Britain and
Ireland called England, His said Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, nor, in any of His said Majesty's Colonics or Plantations abroad;
we do hereby declare this to be our Specification of the same, and that we do
verily believe this our said Specification doth comply in all respects fully and
without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent contained, wherefore we do hereby claim to maintain
exclusive right and privilege to our said Invention.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Springall and Robert Ransome,
have hereunto set their hands and seals, this Twenty-ninth day of April,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-six.