IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Wickens, of No. 4, Tokenhouse Yard, Bank,
in the City of London, Solicitor, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS."-Partly a communication from abroad
by William Wickersham, of Boston, in the County of Suffolk, and State
of Massachusetts, in the United States of America, Engineer.
Sealed the 13th April 1863, and dated the 17th October 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Wickens at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
October 1862.
I, HENRY WICKENS, of No. 4, Tokenhouse Yard, Bank, in the City of
London, Solicitor, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING NAILS," to be as follows:-
My said improvements consist in the combination and arrangement of parts
into a machine for cutting nails from sheets of iron or other suitable metal,
and for that purpose the sheet of metal is placed between feed rolls, so that a
revolving cylinder shall bring the rotary cutters fixed thereon on to the metallic
sheet in such manner that the first of such cutters as the cylinder is turned
will cut off a nail from the metal sheet by passing through it and close by
the edge of a bed cutter to cut the side of the nail, and close by the end edge
of the cutter to make the end of the nail. Immediately after the said first

page_text: cutter cuts the sheet, another cutter cuts off a nail therefrom by cutting the
metal from one end of the nail previously cut off to the other end thereof, and
forms the end of such nail, and the feed rolls are moved longitudinally, so as
to carry the nail sheet the distance of the width of two cutters, and parallel
with its first position, so that when the cutters pass by the bed cutters they
cut off two nails from the sheet. After the nail sheet has been moved in
towards the cutters far enough for the width of a nail and two nails have been
cut from it, as the cylinder continues to turn one tooth of a ratchet gear is
caused to slip' along on the edge of a plate from the narrowest to the widest
end, thereby causing such ratchet gear as it moves out from the machine to turn
to the extent of one tooth and cause the feed rolls to feed the nail sheet in
towards the cutters far enough for the width of a nail, and so two more nails
are cut. When the machine is extended so as to admit a sheet wide enough
for the length of many nails, alternate cutter in the cylinder is also extended,
so that the cutting edge may be further from the centre of the cylinder than
the intermediate cutters, and the cutters thus extended cut off the metal
forming the ends of all the nails which the machine cuts, except the out ends
of those at the edge of the sheet, and in this manner a broad sheet of metal
can be cut into nails without being previously cut into strips. Each cutter
is a little inclined to the axis of the cylinder, in order to make the taper of
the nail.
In some cases instead of having the moving cutters fixed on a revolving
cylinder, they are placed at the end of a lever, which has a vibratory move-
ment communicated to it by means of a crank through a connecting rod or
other suitable means. On the raising of the moving cutters the sheet is
moved laterally until it is over the bed cutters and passed towards the moving
cutters far enough for the width of a nail, and then the moving cutters come
down and two or more nails are cut off. By the proper adjustment of the
cutters nails may be cut with or without heads, and of different sizes and forms.
For making horse-shoe nails the sheets can be made with ridges on each
side, so as to form two sides of the heads, and the other two sides of the heads
would be cut by the machinery, and the feeding rolls adapted accordingly.
By my improvements the sheet of metal to be cut into nails can be shifted
or moved, laterally the distance of the length of two or more nails for each
series of nails cut from. such sheet, and the sheet can be fed far enough
towards the cutters for the width of a nail while it is moving laterally..

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Wickens in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th April 1863...
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
WICKENS, of No. 4, Tokenhouse Yard, Bank, in the City of London,
Solicitor, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty, Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Wickens, Her special licence, that I, the said Henry Wickens,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Wickens, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agreo'
with, and no others, froni 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
FOR MAKING NAILS," the result partly of a communication to me from abroad
by William Wickersham, of Boston, in the County of Suffolk, and State of
Massachussetts, in the United States of America, and partly of Invention and
discovery made by me, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Henry Wickens, my exécutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 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 Henry Wickens, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner.the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
My Invention will be understood by reference to the several Drawings and
figures and letters of reference therein, and the following description:-
Figure 1 is a top view of my machine, showing the cylinder containing the
revolving cutters, the cam to shift the bar or 'sheet of metal from one set of
cutters to another, the bed cutters, feed motion, &c.; Figure 2 is a side
sectional view, showing several parts of the machine, and especially the feed
rolls which feed the sheets of metal into the machine to be cut into nails;.

page_text: Figure 3 is an end view of the said machine; Figure 4, shows the opposite
end to Figure 3; Figure 5 is a perpendicular sectional view passing through
the sheet of iron, and parallel to the length of it, showing the bed piece, the
cylinder with one of its cutters, one of the bed cutters, and the two feed rolls;
Figure 6 is a sectional view similar to Figure 5, of a machine differently
arranged; Figure 7, shows the plan of arranging the bed cutters relatively to
the moving cutters; Figure 8, shows the form of the nails, which are cut from
a wide sheet of metal; Figure 9, shows a side view of a sheet of iron rolled,
with ridges r, r, to form the heads of horse-shoe nails to be cut therefrom.
The same letters designate the same parts in the different Drawings.
A, represents the cast-iron bed or table to which the machinery is attached;
B is the cylinder, which contains the rotary cutters; C is a cam, which moves
the arm D on the shaft or axle E by means of the pin a; F and G are two rolls
to feed the sheet of metal H into the machine as it is being cut into nails; I is
a connection of the arm D with the feed rolls F and G; J is a slide moving
with the feed rolls, and supporting one end of the nail bar or sheet II, so as
to keep its position in one place parallel to its position in other places;
b, c, d, and e, are four bed cutters screwed on to the bed of the machine, and
so arranged that the rotary cutters f, g, h, i, will come close to their edges as
the cylinder B turns round; k and I are two plates of metal, having one edge
of each bent round, so as to fit on to the rods or. studs m and n, the other
edge is made to incline at one end towards said rod, and to fit into the notches
of the ratchet gear); o is a spring to keep the plate k into the notches of the
ratchet gearj; p is a spring to keep the plate into the ratchet gear j.
Having designated the different parts of my machine, I will now explain
its operation-Supposing the different parts of the said machine to be in the
position indicated by the Drawings; the sheet of iron or other metal H is
placed between the feed rolls F and G, as shewn in Figure 1, where a portion
of the said sheet between the feed rolls and the cylinder B is made transparent
in the Drawings to show the positions of the bed cutters & and e. When the
sheet H is thus placed the cylinder B is turned in the direction indicated by
the arrow points, by means of which the cutters h and i are brought on to the
metallic sheet H in such manner that the revolving cutter i, as the cylinder B
turns, will cut off a nail from said sheet by passing through it and close by the
edge of the bed cutter c, to cut the side of the nail, and close by the end edge of
the cutter d to make the end of the nail. Immediately after the cutter i cuts the
sheet, the cutter h cuts off a nail by merely cutting the metal from one end to
the other of the nail, as the part of the metal was previously cut off which
forms the end of the nail. By turning the cylinder B half round in the same

page_text: direction, the edge of the cutter g comes down to and passes close by the edge
of the bed cutter c, and also the edge of the cutter f. passes by the bed
cutter b, but in the meantime the cam C being fastened upon the same shaft
as the cylinder B, has turned half round, and through the medium of the pin a,
the arm D and the connection I has moved the feed rolls F and G longi-
tudinally so as to carry the nail sheet the distance of the width of two cutters,
that is from its position in the Drawings immediately over the bed cutters d and e
to a position immediately over the bed cutters 6 and c, and its position when
moved is kept parallel with its first position by means of a slide J, which is
moved by the arm D, which is on the same shaft E with the arm D, so that
when the cutters fand 9, pass by the bed cutters b and c, as above described,
they cut off two nails from the sheet H, but while the nail sheet His moved
from the position d and e, to that of b and c, it is also moved towards the
cylinder B by means of the feed rolls F and G turning or rolling together,
while they are kept sufficiently close on each side of the sheet H as to gripe it
and move it as they turn, and the said feed rolls are caused to work together
by means of the two gears 9 and r on their ends working into each other.
Outside of the gear'q on the feed roll F is a ratchet gear j. There are
two plates k and 1, arranged so that they will freely turn on their studs
m and n, by having one edge bent round the stud and the other edge.
of each to work in the teeth of the ratchet gear j. One of these plates
has the edge which works in the ratchet teeth inclined towards the stud
at the end from the machine, that is, the end of the said plate from the
machine is as much narrower than the end next to it as the width of a tooth
in the ratchet gear j, so that when the feed rolls are moved from the position
shown in the Drawings, so as to carry the nail sheet H over the cutters b
and c, one of the teeth of the ratchet gear is caused to slip along on the edge
of the inclined plate 7, from the narrowest end to the widest, thereby causing
the ratchet gear to turn the distance of one tooth, which causes the feed rolls
to feed the nail sheet in towards the cutters far enough for the width of a nail;
in like manner after the nail bar has been moved to the position just described,.
and two nails been cut from it as the cylinder B continues to turn, one tooth
of the ratchet gear is caused to slip along on the edge of the plate k from the
narrowest to the widest end, and thereby causing the said ratchet gear, as it
moves out from the machine, to turn round one, tooth, causing the feed rolls
to feed the nail sheet in towards the cutters far enough for the width of a nail,
when two more nails are cut as above described. The middle of the edge of.
the cutters cand e should be the same distance from the cylinder B. Also
the middle of the edges of the cutters 6 and d should be the same distance

page_text: from the cylinder B, but the cutters 6 and d should be far enough from the
cylinder B than the cutters c and e, to allow the cutters f and h to cut the
metal off which forms one end of the nails cut off by the cutters g and i, as
shown in the Drawings, when the sheet of metal is only wide enough for the
length of two nails, but when the machine is extended so as to admit a sheet
wide enough for the length of many nails each alternate cutter in the cylinder
is extended as seen at f, h, and v, Figure 7, so that the cutting edge is further
from the centre of said cylinder than the intermediate cutters, and the cutters
thus extended cut off the metals forming the ends of all the nails which the
In this
machine cuts, except the out ends of those at the end of the sheet.
manner a broad sheet of metal may be cut into nails without first being cut
into strips; it will be seen that each cutter is a little inclined to the axis of the
cylinder B, this is to make the taper of the nail. The part of the sheet of
metal which is cut off even with the edge of the cutter e is carried to the
cutter c, the edge of which has the same inclination to the cylinder as the
cutter e though a reverse inclination. Nails are then cut by the revolving
cutters, so that one half of the taper of the nail is made by the cutter, which
cuts off each side of it.
In this
At Figure 6 is a sectional view. of a machine arranged in some respects
differently from that shewn at Figure 5. Instead of the moving cutters being
fixed in a revolving cylinder they are placed in the end of lever N, which is a
vibratory movement and turns on the fulcrum or bearing indicated by the
dotted circular line about the letter N. This motion is given to the lever by
the crank O through the connecting rod B or other suitable means.
machine the bed cutters are arranged as shewn at b, c, d, e, t, u, Figure 7,
just as they are in the machine first described with two additional ones, and
those f, g, h, i, v, w, fastened in the lever N are made to match them. The
dark or shaded part which covers over the bed cutters b, c, d and e; represents
the metallic sheet off of which has been cut a series of four nails by the
cutters f, g, h, i; on the raising up of the moving cutters the said sheet is
moved laterally in the direction of the dotted line x, till it is over the bed
cutters d, e, t, u, and passed towards the moving cutters far enough for the
width of a nail, and then the moving cutters come down, and four of them,
h, i, v, w, cut off four more nails. The machine first described makes a nail
like the one shown, example 3, Figure 8, with a square point and without a
head, but by making the cutters as shown at Figure 7, nails are cut as seen
at Figure 8, examples 1, 2, and 5. Example 4 shows how a wide sheet is
cut into nails of that form.
In Sheet 2, Figure 1 is a front elevation, and Figure 2 an end elevation of

page_text: my improved nail cutting machine, with conical bearings A, B, in lieu of the
mode of driving the cutters shewn in the Drawings, Sheet 1, and the descrip-.
tion thereof herein-before contained. For making horse-shoe nails the sheets
of iron should be formed with ridges », r, on each side, as in Figure 9, to form
two sides of the heads, and the other two sides of the heads, and the other
portions of the nails will be cut by the machinery. as before-mentioned, but
for such headed unils, the rolls must have grooves to admit the ridges in such
grooves in their passage between the rolls.
Having described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood, that I do not claim
any of the parts taken separately, but that what I claim as my Invention is
the combination and arrangement of machinery for making nails as herein-
before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Wickens, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
H. WICKENS. (L.S.)