IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CUT NAILS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Heathfield, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CUT NAILS."-A com-
munication from abroad by Cyrus Dexter Hunt, of Fairhaven,
Massachusetts, United States of America.
Sealed the 2nd October 1868, and dated the 29th April 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Heathfield at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
. the 29th April 1868.
I, RICHARD HEATHFIELD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick;
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CUT NAILS," to be
as follows:-
The said Invention consists of the arrangement or combination of the
parts herein-after described of mechanism for feeding and turning over
the nail plate or strip from which nails are to be cut in nail-cutting
machines, by which said mechanism a motion very similar to that given

page_text: by the human hand in hand-fed nail-cutting machines is given to the
said nail plate or strip.
For the purpose of making the said Invention the better understood
I remark that the motions communicated to the nail plate or strip are
as follows: After the cutting off of a nail from the end of the strip
the said strip is slightly withdrawn so as to be clear of the cutters; it
is then turned over, that is to say, it is made to perform a semi-rotation,
and is then advanced again between the cutters, when another nail
is cut off.
The mechanism constructed according to this Invention for feeding
and turning over the nail plate or strip consists essentially of the
following parts:-A hollow cylinder supported on bearings in which
it is capable of performing a rotary motion carries at its front end a
pair of guides or nose pieces through which the strip passes to the
cutters. This cylinder is supported upon a table or support, which
support is jointed to the frame of the machine so as to be capable of
moving in the vertical plane in which the axis of the hollow cylinder is
situated. A connecting rod and crank, taking motion from the principal
shaft, communicate to the cylinder table or support a reciprocating
motion about the joint described. An alternating rotary motion through
half a circle is communicated to the hollow cylinder by means of a
toothed wheel gearing with teeth on the said cylinder. The requisite
motion is communicated to the said toothed wheel by means of a rocking
shaft driven from the principal shaft of the machine. An arm on the
rocking shaft engages with a toothed sector and the latter with a pinion
on the shaft of the before-mentioned toothed wheel. By the action of
the rocking shaft the requisite reciprocating rotary motion is given to
the hollow cylinder, and the nail plate or strip is thereby turned over
at the required times.
The advance of the nail plate or strip is effected as follows:-The
distant end of the rod of the nail plate tongs is supported in a spring-
forked support and passes between two discs mounted on an axis and
pressed together by springs. The tongs rod is gripped between the
two discs and takes motion from them. On the outer side of each disc
is a ratchet wheel, and a spring pall jointed to a fixed support engages
with each of the said ratchet wheels. The bearings or supports of the
discs and ratchet wheels are fixed to the cylinder table or support
hercin-before described and partake of the motion of the said table

page_text: or support. On the retiring of the hollow cylinder and its table after
the cutting of a nail the palls described slip over the ratchet wheels
and the nail plate is carried back, but as the cylinder and table advance
the palls engage with the ratchet wheels, and a rotary motion being
communicated to them and the discs the nail plate is advanced the
required distance between the cutters. Instead of the toothed wheels
described, driving bands and pulleys or other gearing may be employed
to communicate motion from the rocking shaft to the hollow cylinder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Heathfield in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 24th October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
HEATHFIELD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer,
send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the year
of our. Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Richard Heathfield, Her special licence
that I, the said Richard Heathfield, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard Heathfield, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and 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 FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF CUT NAILS," a communication to me
from abroad by Cyrus Dexter Hunt, of Fairhaven, Massachusetts, United
States of America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Richard Heathfield, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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

page_text: calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Heathfield, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
The said Invention consists of the arrangement or combination of the
parts herein-after described of mechanism for feeding and turning over
the nail plate or strip from which nails are to be cut in nail-cutting
machines, by which said mechanism a motion very similar to that given
by the human hand in hand-fed nail-cutting machines is given to the
said nail plate or strip.
For the purpose of making the nature of the said Invention the better
understood I remark that the motions communicated to the nail plate or
strip are as follows:-After the cutting off of a nail from the end of the
strip the said strip is slightly withdrawn so as to be clear of the cutters;
it is then turned over, that is to say, it is made to perform a semi-
rotation, and is then advanced again between the cutters, when another
nail is cut off.
The mechanism constructed according to this Invention for feeding
and turning over the nail plate or strip consists essentially of the
following parts:-A hollow cylinder supported on bearings in which it is
capable of performing a rotary motion carries at its front end a pair of
guides or nose pieces through which the strip passes to the cutters.
This cylinder is supported upon a table or support, which support is
jointed to the frame of the machine so as to be capable of moving in
the vertical plane in which the axis of the hollow cylinder is situated.
A connecting rod and crank taking motion from the principal shaft
communicate to the cylinder table or support a reciprocating motion
about the joint described. An alternating rotary motion through half
a circle is communicated to the hollow cylinder by means of a toothed
wheel gearing with teeth on the said cylinder. The requisite motion
is communicated to the said toothed wheel by means of a rocking shaft
driven from the principal shaft of the machine. An arm on the rocking
shaft engages with a toothed sector and the latter with a pinion on
the shaft of the before-mentioned toothed wheel. By the action of the
rocking shaft the requisite reciprocating rotary motion is given to the

page_text: hollow cylinder, and the nail plate or strip is thereby turned over at
the required times.
The advance of the plate or strip is effected as follows:-The distant
end of the rod of the nail plate tongs is supported in a spring-forked
support and passes between two disks mounted on an axis and pressed
together by springs. The tongs rod is gripped between the two disks
and takes motion from them. On the outer side of each disk is a ratchet
wheel, and a spring pall jointed to a fixed support engages with each
of the said ratchet wheels. The bearings or supports of the disks and
ratchet wheels are fixed to the cylinder table or support herein-before
described and partake of the motion of the said table or support. On
the retiring of the hollow cylinder and its table after the cutting of a
nail the palls described slip over the ratchet wheels and the nail plate is
carried back, but as the cylinder and table advance the palls engage with
the ratchet wheels, and a rotary motion being communicated to them
and the disks the nail plate is advanced the required distance between
the cutters. Instead of toothed wheels described, driving bands and
pulleys or other gearing may be employed to communicate motion from
the rocking shaft to the hollow cylinder.
Having explained the nature of the said Invention, I will proceed to
describe with reference to the accompanying Drawing the manner in
which the same is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in side elevation a machine for the manufacture
of cut nails provided with mechanism for feeding and turning over the
nail plate or strip, the said mechanism being constructed according to
the said Invention; Figure 2 is a plan of the same; and Figures 3,.4,
and 5 are parts of the same separately. The same letters of reference
are employed to indicate the same parts in cach Figure of the
Drawing.
a is the framing of the machine, supported on the legs b; c is the
moveable cutter; and d is the fixed cutter supported on the bed e.
Nearly over the said bed e is a hollow cylinder f, supported in
bearings ff, in which it is capable of performing a rotary motion,
as hercin-after described. The said cylinder f carries at its front end
a pair of guides or nose pieces 9, g, through which the nail plate or
strip h passes to the cutters c, d. The guides or nose pieces g, g, are
made of the funnel shape represented, by which construction the nail
plates or strips can be introduced into the feeder without stopping the

page_text: said feeder. The nail plate h is gripped or held by a pair of tongs,
the rod i of which tongs passes through the axis of and beyond the
rear end of the said hollow cylinder f, as represented in the Drawing.
The hollow cylinder is supported upon a table or support %, which
support is connected to another support jointed at ³ to the feeder
bed (see Figure 1), the said table and parts carried by it being
capable of moving in a vertical plane 'upon the joint . The jointed
end of the support is pressed upon by springs, which tend to
withdraw the table k from the cutters. A reciprocating motion about
the joint is communicated to the table k so as to advance the
-nail plate between or withdraw it from the cutters c, d, by the
following mechanism, the said reciprocating motion also effects the
feeding forward of the nail plate in the cylinder f, as herein-after
described is the main shaft of the machine; m, n, are the fast and
loose pulleys; and o is the fly wheel. A toothed. wheel p on the
shaft gears with another toothed wheel q on the short parallel
shaft r.
On the inner end of the shaft is a crank plate or disk 1³, to
the crank pin 3 of which one end of the connecting rods is jointed,
the other end of the said rod s being jointed at to the cylinder rest or
table k. The motion transmitted through the toothed wheels p, q,
shaft r, and connecting rod & to the support or table k communicates
to the said table or support a reciprocating motion about the joint k³.
In order to turn over the nail plate or strip h in the hollow cylinder f
at the proper times an alternating rotary motion through half a
circle is communicated to the said hollow cylinder f by means of
mechanism constructed and arranged as follows:-On the hollow
cylinder f is a toothed wheel with which a toothed wheel 2 under-
neath the said cylinder gears. The said toothed wheel 2 is carried by the
shaft 3, on the end of which is a pinion 4. The shaft 3 of the toothed
wheel 2 and pinion 4 is supported by bearings carried by the cylinder
table or support k, so that the said wheel and pinion partake of the
reciprocating motion of the said table or support. A toothed sector y
gears with the pinion 4 in the manner represented in the Drawing.
A front elevation of the toothed sector y and pinion 4 is repre-
sented in Figure 4. The said sector y turns on a joint at y³ (see
Figure 1) on the lower part of the upright or support 4*.
oscillatory motion on the centre y is given to the toothed sector y in
the following manner :- is an arm on a rocking shaft w passing under
the framing of the machine, the said arm & carrying at its upper end a
.
An

page_text: pin which works in a slot (see Figure 4) in the said sector y. The
said sector y is capable of a slight sliding motion on the said pin x².
The rocking shaft w is driven from the main shaft 2 by the following
arrangement of parts:-The toothed wheel p on the main shaft gears
with a large toothed wheelt on one end of the shaft t²; the opposite
end of the said shaft t' carries a crank plate or disc t³ to the crank
pin t, of which a connecting rod u is jointed; the lower end of the
connecting rod u is jointed to the free end of a lever v keyed on the
rocking shaft 10. The rod u can be lengthened or shortened by the
screws at its middle. Figure 3 represents a front elevation of a portion
of the shaft t, crank plate t³, rod u, and lever v. By the action of the
crank t³, rod u, and lever va rocking motion is given to the shaft 20,
the motion of which shaft is transmitted through the arm x, pin a³,
toothed sector y, pinion 4, shaft 3, and toothed wheels 2 and to the
hollow cylinder f, and the required reciprocating motion through half
a circle given to the said hollow cylinder, and the nail plate or strip /
thereby turned over at the required times. After each nail has been'
cut from the end of the nail plate or strip it is necessary to advance
the said nail plate or strip in the hollow cylinder f. This advance
motion of the nail plate is effected through the reciprocating motion
of the cylinder table or support k in the following manner:-The
distant end of the tongs rod i is supported in a spring-forked
support 5 (shown separately in Figure 5). The said end of the
tongs rod is gripped between two disks 6, 7, and takes motion from the
said disks. The said disks are pressed together by springs within their
hollow bushes to make them grip or bite the rod placed between them.
On the outer side of each of the disks 6, 7, is a ratchet wheel 8,
with which a spring pall 10 engages (see Figure 1). The said spring
palls 10 are jointed to a lever 11 turning loosely on the axis of the
disks 6, 7. The bearings or supports of the disks 6, 7, ratchet wheels 8,
and forked rod 5 are fixed to the prolongation
and partake of the motions of the said support.
of the pall lever 11 is situated and confined between the forked end 12
of the fixed rod 12. The manner in which the rod 12 is fixed to the
framing of the machine is represented in Figure 2. By the recipro-
cating motion of the cylinder rest or table k, k, that part of the pall
lever 11 carrying the palls 10 is made to oscillate upon the axis of the
ratchet wheels 8, 8, by means of the fixed fork 12° confining the lower
end of the said lever, so that on the retiring of the hollow cylinder f
of the support 4*,
The lower free end

page_text: and table k, k', after the cutting of a nail the palls 10 slip over the
teeth of the ratchet wheels 8, and no motion is communicated to the
disks 6, 7, and tongs rod i, but as the cylinder and table k, k*,
advance towards the cutters c, d, the pall lever 11 advances the
palls 10, 10, which engaging with the ratchet wheels 8, 8, communicate
to them and to the disks 6, 7, a motion of partial rotation. By the
rotation of the disks 6, 7, the tongs rod i, 3, is carried forward between
them, and the nail plate is thereby advanced the required distance
between the cutters c, d.
By the action of the several parts described the nail plate or strip /
is after the cutting off of a nail from the end of it withdrawn from and
again advanced to the cutters, the nail plate or strip being turned over
or made to perform a semi-rotation during the said withdrawing and
advancing motions. The motions given to the said nail plate are similar
to those given by the hand in hand-fed nail-cutting machines. By means
of the screw the table can be fixed at any required angle and the
taper of the nail regulated at pleasure. Instead of transmitting the
motion of the rocking shaft w to the hollow cylinder ƒ by means of the
toothed sector y and pinion and toothed wheels 4, 2, 2, driving bands and
pulleys or other gearing may be employed to effect the same object, but
I prefer the arrangement herein-before described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing. 13 is a lever carrying the moveable gripping
tool, between which and the fixed gripping tool the blank or piece cut
from the nail plate is held while it is being headed by the heading
punch 14. The said gripping tool and heading punch, as well as the 2
moveable cutter c, are worked in the ordinary manner.
The said parts
constitute no part of the said Invention. The feeder bed k' is connected
to the framing of the machine by screws ³, and by means of slots
through which the said screws pass the said bed can be moved laterally
so as to admit of its adjustment for making nails of different lengths.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood
that I do not limit myself to the precise details herein described and
illustrated, as the same may be varied without departing from the nature
of the said Invention; but I claim as the said Invention of improve- 3
ments in machinery for the manufacture of cut nails,-
Firstly. The construction and arrangement or combination of the
parts of mechanism herein-beforé described and illustrated in the accom-

page_text: panying Drawing for turning over at the proper times the nail plate
or strip from which nails are to be cut, that is to say, mechanism
cousisting essentially of a hollow cylinder through guides on which the
nail plate or strip passes, the said cylinder being carried by a recipro-
cating table or support, and having an alternating motion given to it
through half a circle (which motion is communicated to the nail plate
or strip) by means of a rocking shaft worked in the manner described,
the motion of the rocking shaft being transmitted to the said hollow
cylinder through toothed gearing or driving bands and pulleys or other
equivalent gearing, substantially as described and illustrated.
Secondly. The construction and arrangement or combination of the
parts of mechanism herein-before described and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing for advancing or feeding the nail plate or strip
to the cutters, that is to say, by means of two disks carried by a table
or support having a reciprocating motion, between which disks the rod
of the nail plate tongs is gripped or held, the said disks having a motion
of partial rotation given to them in the direction proper to advance the
nail plate or strip to the cutters by mechanism constructed and actuated
substantially as described and illustrated.
Thirdly. The arrangement or combination of parts herein-before
described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing for giving a
reciprocating motion to the table or support carrying the turning over
and feeding mechanism of the machine.
Fourthly. The funnel-like nose pieces for the feeders of nail-cutting
machines for the purpose and substantially as described and represented.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Heathfield, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
0 Witness,
ARTHUR EDW. WINDUS,
12, Reservoir Retreat,
Birmingham..
RICHARD HEATHFIELD. (L.S.)