Improvements in Devices for Securing or Locking Nuts upon Screw- threaded Bolts.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 15th Apr., 1890-Accepted, 17th May, 1890
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by OSCAR KNAPP, of 375, Kent Avenue, Brooklyn,
County of Kings, State of New York, United States of America, Manufacturer.]
Improvements in Devices for Securing or Locking Nuts upon Screw-
threaded Bolts.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE of the firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings in the County of Middlesex do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to means for locking nuts on screw-bolts, and it has for its
object the devising of an implement whereby the nuts may be securely fastened to the
bolts without the use of any extraneous fastening means, and by an implement
removable after the locking has been effected, and which can be manipulated by the
same tool which is used by the workman to screw the nut home on the bolt.
The invention consists in the implement hereinafter described and claimed.
In the accompanying drawing which forms a part of this specification, and in
which like features are indicated by like figures of reference in the several views,
Figure 1 is a perspective view of an implement constructed in accordance with this
invention. Figure 2 is a plan view of said implement. Figure 3 is a section through
line of figure 2. Figure 4 is a plan view of a nut which has been operated upon
by the nut-locking implement. Figure 5 is a cross-section through line yy of
figure 4, and Figure 6 is a plan view looking at the exposed face of the nut
when in position on the bolt the end of the bolt being cut off and hence shown in
section.
Heretofore nuts have been locked on bolts by the use of a permanent conoidal
washer provided with a rib extending entirely around its inner edge and projecting a
uniform distance laterally therefrom so as to impinge upon the face of the nut,
whereby when the nut is being screwed home said conoidal washer is flattened out
against the surface of the object through which the bolt is inserted and a portion of
the metal of the nut is by the impingement of the rib displaced and forced conver-
gently against the bolt. The washer of course remains fixedly attached to the bolt
along with the nut. As a modification of the locking means just described there has
also been employed a conoidal washer provided with one or more projections with
apices spirally inclined in opposite directions from that of the pitch of the bolt and nut
screw-threads. In this case also the conoidal washer is a permanent feature of the
locking means. The present invention dispenses with the cost of these locking
washers.
There has also been devised a tool for locking nuts to bolts comprising a hammer-
head, an eye for the insertion of a handle and having at the end opposite the hammer-
head a recessed face provided with sharp penetrating edges arranged concentric to the
recess of the face. In using such a tool its recessed face is centered over the end of
the bolt and held against the nut on the bolt and struck by a hammer, the blow
crimping the metal of the threads of the nut into the threads of the bolt and thus
locking the nut on the bolt. Aside from the objections oftentimes to a blow on the
nut, it will be readily understood that when the threads of the nut are crowded into
the threads of the bolt, to any depth, the nut must be wholly re-tapped before being
again used if it should be removed for purposes of repairs to the structure in which
the bolt and nut are employed. Moreover, to use this tool the workman must possess
some degree of skill to properly center the same on the nut in order to upset the metal
uniformly at opposite points by the blow of the hammer. Furthermore, the tool by
which the nut is screwed home cannot be used to effect the locking, and in place of the

page_text: wrench, the workman is required to take up two independent tools, the nut locker and
a hammer.
In making use of the present nut-locking implement it is screwed on the end of the
bolt the same as the nut and centers and adjusts itself to position to be operated upon
by the wrench which screwed the nut home. An inexperienced person can lock the
nut as safely as a skilled workman, and as the implement is self-centering every nut
will be locked uniformly-and a single implement will lock a large number of nuts
with no expense for locking means outside of the first cost of the implement.
Referring now to the drawing, 7 indicates the nut-locking implement which consists
of hardened steel properly tempered to make it tough. This implement is screw-threaded
internally as shown, and it will be made of various sizes corresponding to the standard
sizes of nuts and bolts-the aim being to have an implement or implements readily
adapted for cooperating with the screw-threads on the various sizes of bolts that are
made use of; and the tool may be square or hexagonal externally.
On one or both faces of implement 7, preferably both faces, it is provided with
a pair of short ribs 8 which conform in pitch to the pitch of the screw threads of
the nuts with which the particular tool is to cooperate in locking the nuts on the
bolts. The ribs 8 are bevelled on their inner surfaces as at 9, which renders the
implement more effective in upsetting the metal of the nut. The ribs inay be arranged
uniformly on both sides of the implement 7 but that of course is not indispensible, the
sole object in providing both faces of the implement with operating ribs 8 being to
save the time of the workman in adjusting the same on the bolt, since when both faces
are alike it is immaterial which face is placed downward.
While ordinarily the implement 7 will be used without being secured in a stock
it may nevertheless be so secured and employed after the manner of a die.
In locking nuts with this implement, the nut is first placed on the bolt to be made
fast, and by means of the usual wrench the nut is screwed home. The nut-locking
implement 7, of the required gauge, is then placed on the projecting end of the bolt and
turned in contact with the exposed surface of the nut, and the workman applies the
nut-wrench to the implement 7 and gives it a single turn of the requisite force, and
immediately releases it and removes it from the bolt end. This operation produces an
impression in the exposed surface of the nut such as shown in figure 4, which
illustrates a nut 10 that has been operated upon and removed from its bolt. In this
view 11 indicates the curved depressions made in the surface of the nut by the plowing
action of ribs 8 of the nut-locking implement. The deepest point of these depressions
is at 12 at the end thereof. As the implement 7 is turned by the nut-wrench its ribs 8
begin to plow into the metal of the nut 10 in close contact with the threads of the
bolt, the metal of the nut adjacent to the bolt being thereby upset and forced into that
thread only of the bolt which lies at or near the top surface of the nut, as indicated in
dotted lines figure 6, in which view 13 designates the bolt cut off close to the surface
of the nut 10 to better illustrate the point just referred to.
The plowing action of implement 7 is rendered easy because of the fact that the
metal of said implement is much harder than the metal of which the nut is made.
The upsetting is therefore readily accomplished and with a comparatively slight turn
of the nut-locking implement.
This implement is adapted for locking nuts on bolts in wood-work in carriage and
car building &c., as well as for locking nuts in general metal work-and in railroad
work.
Nuts locked by this implement, in the manner explained are not liable to become
loose, and as already stated the entire expense for the locking means is simply that of
the implement itself, and one implement will last sufficiently long to lock a great
number of nuts.
In U.S. patents of J. E. Withers, No. 172,815, and R. Howarth, No. 321,500 the
locking of the nut is made to depend upon certain peculiarities of the nut itself, which
when in position on the bolt is locked by a chisel and hammer, or by a "set." In the
use of the present invention there is employed the ordinary nut without any alteration
whatever in its construction, and the locking of the nut is effected by means of an

page_text: independent implement cooperating with the bolt, and which when the locking
has been accomplished is removed from the bolt. In the present instance the nut
is not altered nor is it specially constructed to enable it to be locked by a hammer
and chisel. Nor are tools such as hammers and chisels made use of in effecting
the locking operation, since this implement is designed to be manipulated by the
usual wrench by which the nut itself is screwed home on the bolt; in other
words, this invention comprises an implement which cooperates with the bolt and
nut to lock the nut, and is then removed from the holt, the implement being
manipulated by the usual wrench. It is not a part of the permanent locking means.
Neither of the patents mentioned shows a locking implement; that is, a tool which
when it has locked the nut is removed from the holt, and may be employed for locking
an unlimited number of nuts.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is :-
A nut-locking implement consisting of a nut provided with sharpened upsetting
ribs or plows whose edges lie adjacent to and substantially tangential to the bolt-hole,
substantially as set forth.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, Agents for the Applicant.