IMPROVEMENTS IN SPIKES AND BOLTS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Caleb Bloomer, of West Bromwich, in the County
of Stafford, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SPIKES
AND BOLTS."
Sealed the 5th May 1854, and dated the 3rd March 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Caleb Bloomer at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd
March 1854.
I, CALEB BLOOMER, of West Bromwich, in the County of Stafford, Manufac-
turer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SPIKES AND BOLTS" to be as follows, that is to say :-
The Invention consists in making spikes and bolts for railway and other
purposes in such manner as to remedy their springing or rising from concussion
after they have been driven. For this purpose, I split the point or end of the
spike or bolt, and insert into the opening the point of a wedge. This wedge
with the spike is driven into the timber, and in its descent the wedge first
reaching the bottom of the boring in the timber at every subsequent blow
opens out the two halves of the end of the spike, laterally spreading them into
the timber, whence, from their fanged position, they will not rise by any ordinary
concussion.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Caleb Bloomer in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 2nd
September 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CALEB
BLOOMER, of West Bromwich, in the County of Stafford, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Caleb Bloomer, Her special licence that I, the said Caleb Bloomer,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Caleb Bloomer, 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
SPIKES AND BOLTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Caleb Bloomer, 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 Caleb Bloomer, 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,
reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My Invention consists of improvements in spikes, such as those employed
for the purpose of securing railway chairs, and in bolts for ship-building, and
other purposes, with a view to preventing such spikes or bolts from drawing or
becoming loosened and flying out of the sleepers or timbers, into which they
are driven by the constant vibration and percussion to which they are exposed.
My mode of effecting this will be readily understood on reference to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, which Drawings represent longitudinal sections
of various forms of spikes and bolts made according to my improvements, and
driven or partially driven into timber, the only variation in the several
Figures shewn consisting in the number, the form, or the length of the slits in

page_text: the bolt or spike, together with slight corresponding variations in the form of
the wedge or blank.
I will now proceed to describe the manufacture and method of employing
the spikes and bolts. I first make the bolt or spike by any of the ordinary
and well-known methods, such, for instance, as rolling the rod and cutting it
into suitable lengths, and afterwards heading those short pieces where heads
are required, and I then slit the opposite end of each bolt or spike (by the
operation of a circular saw, or any other means equally suitable for that
purpose), either with one or more slits, and to any length in the bolt that I
may consider desirable; and sometimes, as shewn in Figures 5 and 6, I notch
the sides of this slit, to enable the bolt to take a firmer hold of the wedge.
These wedges I cast of any of the forms shewn in the Drawings, not confining
myself to these precise forms; though I find them to be most efficient, they
may be susceptible of some modification. A hole having been bored in the
timber of a sufficient depth to receive the spike or bolt, I drop into it one of
these cast-iron wedges, the butt end of the wedge going to the bottom of the
hole. I then prepare to drive the spike, and when the point of the wedge meets
the slit in the spike, the force of the blows causes the wedge to thrust out the
sides of the spike, until it has become fanged into the timber, in manner shewn
in Figures 2, 4, 6, 8, and 9. From this position no amount of ordinary
vibration or percussion will cause the spike to draw or fly.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be clearly understood that I do not
confine myself to these precise details, either of form or manufacture. But
what I claim is, the improvements described in spikes and bolts by slitting the
points thereof, either with one or more slits, and employing wedges or other
suitably-formed blanks for the purpose of thrusting out the points of the spikes
or bolts, and fanging them into the timber, as in manner herein fully set forth
and specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Caleb Bloomer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
CALEB (L.s.) BLOOMER.