CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PLANTATION AND OTHER HOES, AND WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE MANU- FACTURE OF OTHER IMPLEMENTS AND TOOLS
Year: 1867

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Fairley and Alfred Fairley, both of Bir-
mingham, in the County of Warwick, Birmingham Agents for the
Brades Iron, Steel, and Edge Tool Manufacturers, for the Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PLANTATION AND OTHER
HOES, AND WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE MANU-
FACTURE OF OTHER IMPLEMENTS AND TOOLS."
Sealed the 5th November 1867, and dated the 8th May 1867.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Fairley and Alfred
Fairley at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 8th May 1867.
We, JAMES FAIRLEY and ALFRED FAIRLEY, both of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Birmingham Agents for the Brades Iron, Steel, and
Edge Tool Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention
for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PLANTATION AND OTHER
HOES, AND WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE
OF OTHER IMPLEMENTS AND TOOLS," to be as follows (that is to say):
Our Invention consists in making hoe and other blades from sheet, bar, or
plate iron or steel, or iron and steel combined, entirely separate from the..

page_text: means of attachment, or, in other words, in making hoes, we form the blade
separate and distinct by itself, as also the eye separate and distinct, providing
means either by a screw, thumb catch, wedge, cottar, or other equivalent
means for connecting the blade to the eye, by which arrangement a new blade
may be applied or changed at pleasure, and this same principle applies,
whether the means used for holding the blade be an eye, socket, tang, or
langet.
In some cases we purpose dishing, corrugating, or otherwise concaving or
hollowing the upper part of the blades to afford additional strength, thus
allowing thinner iron or steel or steel and iron combined to be used.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Fairley and Alfred Fairley in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 7th November 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
FAIRLEY and ALFRED FAIRLEY, both of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Birmingham Agents for the Brades Iron, Steel, and Edge Tool Manufac-
turers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven, in the thirtieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said James Fairley and Alfred Fairley, Her special license that we, the
said James Fairley and Alfred Fairley, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said James Fairley and Alfred Fairley, our
executors, administrators, or 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF PLANTATION AND OTHER HOES, AND WHICH SAID IMPROVEMENTS ARE
ALSO APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF OTHER IMPLEMENTS AND TOOLS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said James Fairley and Alfred
Fairley, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, 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

page_text: in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Fairley and Alfred Fairley,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement (that is to say) :-
Our Invention consists in making hoe and other blades from strip,
sheet, bar, or plate iron or steel, or iron and steel combined, in a manner
herein-after exhibited and described entirely separate from the means of
attachment, or in other words, in making hoes, we form the blade separate
and distinct by itself, as also the eye separate and distinct, providing means
either by a thumb or other screw, catch, wedge, cottar, or other equivalent
means for securely holding the blade and eye together when connected for
use, by which arrangement the eye being secured to an ordinary handle, a new,
or larger, or smaller, or other formed blade or moveable implement may be
applied or changed at please; and this same principle applies whether the
means used for holding the blade be an eye, socket, tang, langet, or other
equivalents. And in some cases we purpose dishing, corrugating, or otherwise
concaving or bollowing the upper or other part or parts of the said blades,
tools, or implements to afford additional strength, thus allowing thinner iron
or steel, or steel and iron combined, to be used in their manufacture, and
which may be varied according to the purpose or quality required, as for
instance, in commencing our operations for giving effect to our Invention we
purpose so piling our slabs, bars, or ingots, from which we purpose forming
our blades or moveable implements or tools, that when reduced by rolling or
hammering the sheet, strip, or bar presents a surface with steel on one side
and iron on the other, or best steel and common steel similarly combined, or
steel in the middle with iron or common steel on each side, or a slab, bar, or
ingot of iron or common steel may be so prepared by hammering, rolling,
or casting as to have a recess or recesses formed in it, which recess or recesses
we purpose filling up with steel in a manner herein-after described, or we may
reverse this process by using pieces of iron or steel and uniting cast steel with
them by aid of suitable moulds, the ingot or bar thus formed being subse-
quently rolled out, hammered, or reduced into bars, sheets, or strips, from
which we purpose cutting out our blades. The irregular rolling or forming,
above referred to, may with great convenience be also used in the finishing
rolling process for thickening up certain portions of the strips or plates where
additional strength or substance may be required, more particularly for

page_text: receiving the tangs, langets, or sockets when such means are preferred for
connecting the implement with the handle with which it may be used.
The manner in which we purpose forming portable eyes, langs, sockets,
double-strapped eyes, or frames, or langets for plantation or other hoes or like
impliments, consists in forming them wholly or partially by passing bars or
strips of iron through prepared rolls with corresponding recesses formed
therein to the shape required for forming the eye, tang, socket frame, or langet
previous to finishing the same by forging, vicing, or stamping in dies or
moulds, technical operations well known and understood by workmen accus-
tomed to such kind of manufacture, or by casting them in a malleable iron or
other metal, and so fashioning the eye, tang, socket, frame, or langet for
receiving the desired handle by which the implement is to be used, and at the
other part in such a way as to permit of its being readily applied to the
respective blade or blades that may be used with it, and which means of
attachment may be effected in connection, as before stated, with a screw,
catch, wedge, cottar, or other equivalent means, as will be hereafter referred
to, the hoe or other blade or like implement being so fashioned, formed, or
pierced for its ready union with the before-mentioned eye, tang, socket, frame,
or langet; and in order to afford strength to such blades when required we
purpose by means of rolls, stamps, and dies, press or other equivalent means,
to raise or deflect parts of the said blades, that without increasing the weight,
great strength and rigidity may be thereby obtained, such, for instance, in
forming a rake from a flat piece of iron or steel, or iron and steel combined.
The part above the teeth may be raised to give lengthway rigidity, while each
tooth may in like manner be so treated in their lengthway direction as to
produce the same result.
But in order that we may be well and thoroughly understood as to the
extent, object, and purpose of our Invention, we will extend its description
in connection with the Drawings hereunto annexed aided by the figures
and letters thereon, which we will now proceed to describe (that is to
say):
On Sheet 1 we have exhibited in several series blades progressively smaller
in size but all arranged for receiving portable eyes either with one connection,
or eye and frame for two connections, as for instance, Fig. 1 represents 7
different sized hoe blades arranged one behind the other, the eye A being
attached to the blade No. 1 by a projection on the front side of the eye
bit marked B that comes through and slides in a slot formed in the blade as
exhibited at C, Fig. 2, and by means of a screw passed through a hole and

page_text: countersunk recess at the back of the bit (the front end of which screw is
marked D and enters into the nut E); a strong, enduring, and efficient
though simple union is easily effected either by using a turnscrew, one of the
spare blades, or by a key hereafter to be described. Fig. 3 is simply another
series of hoe blades lying one on the other to show their various sizes, as are
also the blades F and G, Fig. 4, with the sides of the eye partially buried by
the configuration of the top part of the blade, which eye we have exhibited in
a sectional view. at Fig. 5 with the head of the screw H lying in a recess
formed in the bit of the eye J, the screw nut being marked a, and in this
view we may explain that after removing the nut and screw H, the eye in
connection with the bit has to be pulled centrally up from the blade until the
part of the bit corresponding in its rectangular form with the slot pierced out
of the blade fully exhibited at c, Figure 4, is free to be withdrawn, as also the
top part of the bit marked d becomes free of the top edge of the blade
marked e; the blade may be removed from the bit of the eye for changing or
renewing, and in the sectional view, Figure 5, it will be readily seen by a nick
formed across the head of the screw, that by means of a turnscrew, hoe blade,
or other strip of metal inserted in the same the screw may be readily with-
drawn, but to make this operation easy and efficient we provide keys for
performing this operation varying the size according to the hoe blades or
other tools or implements so secured, which keys we have exhibited in side
and end views at Figs. 6 and 7 showing the recess for receiving the screw
head square, which form we prefer notwithstanding it may be otherwise, but
if square the nut may be placed where the screw head is now exhibited and
the screw head in place of the nut; but usually the space in the front of the
bit between band d occupied by the nut a we prefer to be the size of the
width of the nut or screw-head as shown at E, B, and d, Figure 1, notwith-
standing the part or neck of the screw immediately below the head may be
made square, which fitting into a corresponding square in the bit of the eye
as well as through the respective blades will enable us to dispense with the
raised stud marked B, Figures 1, and 6 in Figure 5, which would be preferable
for small or shallow hoes or tools, thereby permitting more wearing space in
the hoe or other blades. Figs. 8 and 9 are drawn simply to exhibit that the
part (technically called the "bit" or neck or connection with the eye for
attachment to the blade may be long or short in the neck as required, or
formed into a frame for double connection as exhibited at Fig. 10, marked K
and L, the holes f and 9 lying under corresponding holes in the blades
marked hand i for receiving screws, as before described, or other suitable

page_text: means for securing the blade and frame together; round or square holes may
be used according to the depth of blade or length of frame, and with or
without raised studs, marked B and b, as explained in describing the eye and
bit, Figures 1 and 5, and when preferred the open space as shown in the
frame part of Figure 10 may be filled up or made solid with the other
portion of the frame, and any depth of blade made use of as shewn or marked
on the plate or blade, Figure 10, in dotted lines.
We have not thought it necessary to exhibit the various forms of detachable
eyes with their respective bits or necks as they may be varied, as now
commonly adopted with the ordinary hoes and eyes made solid or rivetted, nor
have we exhibited the different forms of tangs, sockets, frames or langets that
may be used with the plates, nor the blades corrugated, notwithstanding they
may be so treated if required, but for rake blades made and constructed
according to our Invention of combined steel and iron plate it would be
preferable to corrugate them unless made from specially rolled or stamped
steel, or prepared combination of iron and steel sheets or strips and divided up
as herein-before stated or by casting.
At Fig. 11 we have exhibited a front view of a rake blade which may be
produced from an uniform thickness of plate by corrugating or raised the
back in its lengthway direction, and the teeth at right angles with the same,
the raised part at the root of the teeth being swelled and dying way with the
swell or raised part of the back. By these means prepared thin plates of iron
or steel, or steel and iron combined, may be made into rake blades, possessing
great strength and wearing qualities; and these raised parts may be produced
by suitable rolls, or by stamping or pressing; or rake blades may be made
plain on one side and raised on the other, either by the processes of stamping
or rolling, and arranged as here exhibited for attaching the said rake blade to
a suitable eye, socket, tang, frame, or langet, which as before stated may be
readily formed wholly or combinedly by the operations of casting, rolling,
stamping, swaging, hammering, or pressing, operations all well understood by
workmen accustomed to the making of such implements according to the
manner in which the eye, socket, tang, frame, or langet is arranged for
forming an union or connection with the blade or blades to be used with
them. As, for instance, in forming hoe blades with a recess for receiving the
neck of an eye or bit, we purpose rolling such blades between suitable rolls
with a cavity or cavities sunk in them at regular distances, so that a raised
rib or ribs shall be formed on the metal from which the plate or plates or
blades are to be cut, wbich rib or ribs, as will be hereafter seen, may be rolled

page_text: in the same direction of the rolls, or at right angles to their axes, according to
the manner of piling or preparing the iron, steel, or combined iron and steel
from which we purpose dividing them up. A hoe blade and eye combined
with a vertical section of the same and the back side of the blade without the
eye, we have exbibited at Fig. 12, Sheet Two, as also a separate side and
front view of the eye detached at Fig. 13. In this case the part for forming
the rib or the rib itself is opened by punching, sawing, or other suitable
means until a sufficient opening is formed for receiving the neck or bit of the
eye, which being inserted therein the union or connection is made secure by a
screw passed in from the back as here represented at k, the head being
recessed in the countersunk part of the blade for the purpose of having the
back entirely plain, but which, as herein-before stated, may be otherwise
arranged without affecting the means or principle of securing the parts, such
as by a cottar, loop, and wedge, or otherwise. Notwithstanding we have
mentioned the raising (by rolling or otherwise) of thickened parts in or on our
strips, bars, or sheets, from which we purpose cutting or dividing up our
blades for hoes or other like implements, we nevertheless desire to keep in
view the importance of so making or combining our slabs, ingots, or piles, as
to have the best quality of the metal in the wearing part of the implement.
In an ordinary way hoes are cut or divided up from a strip of iron or steel,
and iron combined with or without ribs, as exhibited in a flat view at U, V,
Fig. 14, the oblique dotted lines showing where it is divided, but for pre-
serving the quality of the steel in the wearing parts which is highly important,
we purpose so preparing or making our slabs, ingots, or piles, as exhibited at
Fig. 15, viz., by taking two bars of iron or inferior steel and putting a piece
of suitable tempered, cast, or other steel between them, and by means of
suitable flux and head to unite them together. From such union we roll
out strips or sheets as here shown, or two bars of iron in a heated condition
may be put on each side of the interior of a mould, and cast steel run in a
molten state between them; or best or superior quality of steel may be heated
and placed in a mould, and inferior molten steel poured in on each side of the
said heated bar of good steel; and from such slabs, ingots, or piles we
purpose rolling out strips to the required thickness as before described, and
afterwards dividing through the middle as here represented by the central
dotted lines, and then cut the blades off obliquely or cutting them out in
pairs, and dividing them afterwards, so that each piece shall make two blades
for hoes, rakes, or other like implements. By this means we have the steel
not only in the wearing part of the blade, but in an uninjured condition, the

page_text: fire not having access to the cutting edge, as is the case with blades prepared
from steel or iron and steel combined when the edge of the tool is cut from
the outside or edge of the strip or bar as above referred to at Figure 14, and
with iron or common steel at the back, and as the edges are generally thin,
absorbing time and loss, we purpose in some instances so fashioning one of
our rolls that a trough or reduced part shall be formed centrally through the
strip as exbibited in the end views Figs. 16 and 17, Fig. 18 merely
representing a section of the slab, ingot, or pile before rolling, showing the
steel between the iron. At M, N, Figures 15, we have represented a rib by
way of explaining that when we desire extra substance at the part where the
blade is connected with the eye, socket, tang, langet, or frame (as herein-
before referred to and also exhibited at Figure 12), such parts may be so
raised in and during the process of rolling out or reducing the strip from the
prepared slab, ingot, or pile, and the plan last described at Figures 15, and 16,
and 17 is equally important and applicable to the larger kind of hoes or other
like tools with or without the lengthway groove, and for which simple
illustration Fig. 19 is shewn, the raised ribs O and P being introduced for the
purpose if required as described in Figure 14.
Fig. 20. exhibits a strip of iron and steel combined, or steel of an inferior
quality combined with best steel running in a transverse direction to the
lengthway of the strip, and this may be effected by preparing a suitable sized
bar or plate of iron or inferior steel in such a manner as to form the back
portion for receiving alternately a large piece of iron or inferior steel, and a
small piece of better steel for the edge of the blades, as exhibited in a length-
way section of a slab, ingot, or pile at Fig. 21, either by applying a suitable
flux and heating and welding the slab, pile, or ingot, or by heating the iron or
inferior steel, and after placing it in a mould and pouring cast steel in between
the short pieces of iron, or, if preferred, the iron or inferior steel back marked
Qand R may be omitted altogether or applied on both sides, and such slab,
ingot, or pile. may be rolled into a strip, as exhibited at Figure 20, the
transverse lines showing the position of the steel, and the dotted lines the
manner in which a strip. so made may be economically divided up for hoe
blades; observing that the same new and advantageous effect of troughing or
reducing, as described at Figures 16 and 19, we may obtain in this instance
also, by suitable rolls, reducing the strip transversely where we desire to
divide the cutting edges; and in like manner ribs may be formed as here
shown at S and T, or otherwise, if desired, such as a thick or ribbed back or
thickened up part when required for a frame.

page_text: But before completing this description we may observe that a bar of iron
or inferior steel may be rolled or otherwise produced with a transverse recess
or recesses, as exhibited at Fig. 22, into which pieces of steel may be laid
and welded, or the recess or recesses filled by means of a heated bar or ingot
placed in moulds with cast steel poured into them; thus obtaining the same
effect and result as produced from the preparing or piling described at
Figure 21, or the part that is now represented as of iron may be formed by
means of a suitable mould, short pieces of best or superior steel being laid in
the said mould at proper distances for the inferior common steel to be run
against or partially around them.
Having thus given a general description of our Invention as well as a
general practical way of giving effect to the same, we wish it understood that
we do not purpose limiting ourselves to the precise details herein described
and exhibited, that is to say, firstly, as it relates to the description of the
manner of forming, shaping, combining, or uniting eyes, tangs, sockets, frames,
and langets to their respective blades; and, secondly, to the proportions or
position of steel and iron used in the formation of the blades, nor to the
finishing of the blades so combined, provided the general spirit of our Invention
is preserved, not that we wish to claim the combination of steel and iron in
the blades of agricultural implements generally, as that is old and has been
extensively used, but under many difficulties, attended with loss and bad
results, as, for instance, a hoe blade made wholly of tempered steel secured
to the eye, tang, or socket by rivetting, they frequently break from the
effect of their necessary hammering; and again, hoe blades made with iron
backs and steel edges are common, but nevertheless very defective, as the
process of welding the steel to the iron subjects that portion of the steel that
becomes the edge in the finished blade to the action of the fire so as to destroy
its quality at that important part, viz., the edge, by its losing a portion of its
carbon and imbibing the sulphur of the fuel used, with which it too readily
combines, which defects our Invention entirely obviates; but what we claim
and wish to protect as new and of our Invention these our in part recited
Letters Patent,―
Firstly, preparing, rolling, or otherwise treating combined iron and steel,
from which we purpose making hoe or other blades for plantation, or other
like hoes and tools as herein generally described and exhibited, by which
means we effect great economy, with greatly superior quality in the
production of such tools than could or have been effected by the old mode of
manufacture.

page_text: Secondly, the making of hoe or other tool or implement blades detachable
that they may be changed, altered, or re-applied at pleasure, as herein
described and exhibited.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Fairley and Alfred Fairley,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Sixth day of November, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
Witness,
WILLIAM LOACH,
Clerk to James S. Cockings,
Patent Agent,
Birmingham.
(L.S.)
JAMES FAIRLEY.
ALFRED FAIRLEY. (L.S.)