IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOB MANUFACTURING HORSE-SHOE NAILS
Year: 1857

page_text: Inis Invention received Provisional Protection, out notice to proceed with the
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Joshua Butters Bacon at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th September 1857.-A communication.
I, JOSHUA BUTTERS BACON, of 28, Brunswick Square, W.C., do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOB
MANUFACTURING HORSE-SHOE NAILS," to be as follows:-
In order to draw out from a nail rod, or shape suitable for a horse-shoe
nail, free from brittleness and flaws, the iron must receive a rapid succession of
pressures, each succeeding pressure, lateral to the last preceding such action,
being necessary to work the material together. A machine combined
according to this Invention will perform the action above specified by means
of a succession of segments of rolls, the succeeding segments being placed, as to
their line of action, at right angles to the preceding segments. In order to avoid
the complex arrangement of cog wheels, which would be necessary to apply
the mould sides of the segments of rolls to the iron at the right instant in a
continuously revolving motion, I operate small segments of rolls by a vibratory
motion, the whole series (say, composed of twelve sets) moving simultaneously
backward and forward by a crank motion, a little more than the length of the
nail; the segments will be sunk on their faces where they come in contact in
such a manner as to give shape to the metal as it passes between them
successively, each succeeding pressure reducing the iron a little until it

page_text: finally emerges a finished nail. The first segments will receive the end of
the heated rod and cut off a suitable length for a nail, and at the same time
they will partially give it shape and deliver it to the next segments. The first
segments at the succeeding vibration will take another piece of iron from the
heated rod, and so on, repeating the operation, and in like manner the whole
series of segments will be supplied with pieces of iron from the preceding
segments, each piece in a progressive state, till the last segments deposit a
finished nail. Strong rods or bolts confine the layers of girts, thus forming one
complete foundation for the interior machinery and for mounting the driving
shaft and fly wheel. Four rods passing the bottom and top plates confine the
whole series of segments and links together; the links each have two small
shafts or rolls passing horizontally through them, the object of which is to
facilitate and make sure of the rapid delivery of the nail metal from one rail
or segment to the next in order, which is effected by revolving these shafts or
small rolls with a cord pulley, which passes over an excentric upon the driving
shaft, the excentric being just equal in its throw to the throw of the crank
which moves the whole series, consequently the cord will act upon the small
feed rolls just as if the whole were at rest. These feed rolls have springs
behind them, which will allow them to accommodate to the size of the nail
metal as it passes through.