IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE, OF CHAIN LINKS, BUCKLES, PROAL
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George James Farmer, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Machinist, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE, OF CHAIN LINKS, BUCKLES,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George James Farmer
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st August 1856.
I, GEORGE JAMES FARMER, of Birmingham, in the County of. Warwick,
Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHAIN LINKS, BUCKLES, BUCKLE
SLIDES, RINGS, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES," to be as follows:-
This machinery consists of a frame and bed plate, under which is a spindle
or shaft upon which a fly wheel is hung, and upon which are also fixed any
desired number of chocks, cams, or eccentrics, of any form that may be
required, to actuate the working tools of the machine; vertical bent levers or
arms, the feet of which rest upon the chocks or cams aforesaid, carry in their
heads the shaping tools, which in making chain links; such for instance as
those that are of the form of a figure 8, would consist of two bending pegs,
mounted in the heads of two opposite arms or levers, a bending tool, and a
cutter, also mounted on the heads of two similar arms or levers. The wire of

page_text: which the link is to be made is coiled on a reel supported in front of the
machine, and the end is inserted into a feed guide, actuated also by a chock
upon the shaft, by which it is conducted to the centre of the machine;
one bending peg then advances, over which the wire passes; a second
bending peg is then brought forward over the wire, shaping it into something
of the form of an (S); the bending tool then turns down the head of the (S),
the cutter severs the required length of wire, and whilst the link is thus sup-
ported on the two bending pegs, a pair of clams, each grooved in the jaw to
suit the form of link, close the link round the pegs. On the withdrawal of the
tools, the link, finished to the form of the figure 8, is jerked into an inclined
tray, and falls from the machine. The motions necessary for working all
the parts above described are, as before stated, obtained by using chocks,
cams, or eccentrics upon the driving shaft or spindle, compensating springs
being applied to the levers, which thrust them into their former position on
the completion of every link.
To adapt this machinery for making other forms of links than that described,
the number and form of the shaping tools merely require to be varied, and the
motion of the feed guide suited to supply the necessary length of wire; but in
making buckles and buckle slides, a slight modification is introduced; and in
making buckles of the form of a long link, thus,
These horns are intended to form the ring, and the next motion brings a
peg in between them, bending them outwards in the form of two semicircles,
whilst a second pair of grooves in the jaws of the closing cams shut down the
wire round the peg, and thus the ring is formed; but lest there should
be any roughness at the head of the ring where the wire meets, a finishing

page_text: tool strikes it there whilst it is held in the clams, and thus the article is
completed, and the tools in releasing themselves jerk it into a tray as before
stated.
Buckle slides which are of the same form as just described, with the
exception of the ring, namely, a simple link, which link may also be adapted
for some descriptions of chains, such as jack chains, will not require any of
the parts or tools which have been described as belonging to the manufacture
of the ring before mentioned, but the other parts only of the machine would
be employed; and plain rings may be manufactured by a modification of the
machine first described, used for making links of the form of the figure 8,
only one bending tool being necessary instead of two; and as before stated,
articles of a similar description to those I have mentioned (these being selected
merely as examples) may be made by the same machinery, varying the tools
accordingly.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George James Farmer in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st February 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
JAMES FARMER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Machinist, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George James Farmer, Her special licence that I, the said George James
Farmer, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said George James Farmer, 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 MACHINERY TO BE USED IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHAIN LINKS,
BUCKLES, BUCKLE SLIDES, RINGS, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said George James Farmer, 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 per.

page_text: formed, 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 George James Farmer, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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) :-
This Invention consists in combining certain mechanical tools and appli-
ances in the construction of machinery applicable to the manufacture of the
articles enumerated in the title, and for the more explicit description of which
machinery I shall at once refer to the Drawings appended, merely premising
that I have therein shewn the machines I employ for making two of the above-
-named articles, namely, the chain link and the buckle slide, together with the
tools used in the formation of the said articles represented detached. The
machines I use for making the remainder of the articles named in the title,
vary only in the tools, which require to be altered in form to suit the shape of
the ring, loop, or buckle it is desired to produce, all the general features of the

page_text: wire is thus conducted into the centre of the machine, sufficient to form the
link projecting from the feeder, the length being regulated by a guide stop
opposite the feeder of the form seen at Figure 5, Sheet 3; a bending peg of
the form seen at Figure 1, Sheet 3, fixed in the head of the lever (F), is
caused to advance over the wire, and a second similar bending 'peg in the head
of the lever (F") is brought forward under the wire. The peg (F) has a
slight vertical movement, and as it works downwards, the wire is bent into
something. the shape of the letter S, a bending tool of the form seen at
Figure 9, Sheet 3, closing the upper loop down on the second bending peg,
this bending tool is fixed in the head of the lever (F").
A cutter, of the form seen at Figure 2, Sheet 3, fixed in the lever (F) now
severs the wire at the point where it emerges from the feed guide; and whilst
the link is thus supported on the two bending pegs a pair of clams, seen at
Figure 3, Sheet 3; each grooved in the jaw to suit the form of link, advance
from opposite sides and close the loops of the link round the bending pegs,
and thus complete the form. The next movement is the rapid withdrawal of
the bending pegs, and a throwing off tool or jerker acting as a sheath to the
first bending peg, and attached to the arm (I) disengages the link from the
peg, by which motion the finished link is jerked into an inclined tray, and falls
from the machine. The tools are all now held in a state of suspension with
the exception of the feed guide, which upon the release of the bending peg
instantly supplies the length of wire necessary for a fresh link, and the same
operations are repeated until the entire bundle of wire is cut up. The driving
band is then shifted from the fast to the loose pulley whilst another bundle is
supplied to the reel. The motions above described of the several tools are
almost instantaneous, and to all appearances simultaneous, though in reality
they follow each other in the order in which I have described them.
The machine represented in Sheet 2 is in general construction similar to
that already described, but being intended.to make articles requiring a much
greater length of wire, such, for instance, as the buckle slide seen in Figure 4;
Sheet 3; an alteration in the working of the feed guide is requisite to enable
it to supply such increased length. This is effected partly by employing a
different form of chock or cam, and partly by causing the feeder to work in
the manner seen in the Drawing, in which (K) represents a plate slotted in
the form of a quadrant; a pin upon the lever which works the feeder passes
through the slot, the parallelism of the feeder being maintained by causing it
to work in grooved guides (L). A cam upon the spindle throws back this
feeder for each supply of wire, the balance spring (M) restoring it to its
former position, and thus a to and-fro motion is obtained; but as a considerable

page_text: length of wire is supplied at each throw of the feeder, it is necessary to
provide the means of keeping the wire in the right direction, for this purpose
the machine is provided with two forks of the shape seen at Figure 10,
Sheet 3, the one secured to the lever (N) and the other to the lever (O).
The wire advances from the feeder until it meets the guide stop, seen at
Figure 5, of Sheet 3, fixed on the opposite side to the feeder, when the
shaping tool, seen at Figure 6, Sheet 3, and attached to the part (P), Sheet 2,
is brought over the wire. This shaping tool is of the same girth as the
internal girth of the article to be produced. The next operation is the cutting
off the wire at the requisite length by means of a cutter similar to that in the
machine last described, and which works on the lever (Q). This being done,
a pair of clams Figure 4, Sheet 3, advancing from opposite directions close
the wire round the plate, leaving two horns in the centre of one side, as seen
at Figure 7, Sheet 3; these horns are intended to form the ring. A peg of
the form seen at Figure 1, Sheet 3, attached to the arm (R) is then thrust
between the horns, the grooves in the upper jaws of the clams, Figure 4,
bending each horn into a semicircle, whilst in the clams a hammer on the
lever (S) is brought down upon the head of the ring, and finishes it; the with-
drawal of the die or plate upon which the buckle slide is formed, and the
action of a jerking tool, fixed as seen at (T), as in the last machine, jerks off
the buckle slide, as before described. A plain buckle slide or loop of wire
without the ring in the slide just described, and which form also answers as
a description of chain link chiefly useful for jack chains, can be readily made
by a machine similar in all its parts to that above described, merely omitting
those parts or tools destined for the formation of the ring on the side of the
loop and plain circular rings; and what are termed half-moon buckles can be
made by a machine similar to that shewn in Figure 1, but using only one
bending peg instead of two. Many articles similar in nature to those speci-
fied can be made by this machinery, suitable working tools being employed;
and one machine may readily be adapted to make several of such articles by
attaching the tools in such manner in the heads of the arms or levers that
they may admit of easy removal and replacing.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be carried into effect, I wish it to be clearly understood
that I do not confine myself to these precise details, as the same will admit of
variation without departure from the spirit of my Invention; but that which
I claim, and desire to have secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent, is, the combination of the several mechanical parts berein
described, and shown in Drawings, or the equivalents of such mechanical parts,

page_text: forming machinery to be employed in the manufacture of chain links, buckles,
buckle slides, rings, and other similar articles, as herein more fully set forth
and specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said George James Farmer, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
GEORGE JAMES (L.s.) FARMER.