CERTAIN MACHINERY FOR THE BETTER AND MORE EXPEDITIOUS MANUFACTURING OF FILES
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
NICHOLSON, of Soho Square, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster on or about the Fourteenth day of August, in the forty-second year of
His said Majesty's reign, did give and grant unto me, the said William
Nicholson, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said William Nicholson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
every of them, by myself and themselves, or by his and their deputy or
deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said William Nicholson,
my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, from
time to time during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend my Invention of "CERTAIN MACHINERY
FOR THE BETTER AND MORE EXPEDITIOUS MANUFACTURING OF FILES," within that
part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England,
the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner
as to me, the said William Nicholson, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should seem meet; in which said Letters Patent there is contained a
proviso whereby it is declared that if I, the said William Nicholson, should
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in the High Court
of Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately after the date

page_text: of the said Letters Patent, that then the same should cease and become
void.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said provisoe, I, the said
William Nicholson, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
manner following, that is to say:
My machinery consists in four essential parts, suitably constructed and
combined together, namely,―
First, a carriage or apparatus, in or by which the file is fixed or held, and
moved along for the purpose of receiving the successive strokes of a cutter or
chizel.
Secondly, the anvil by which the file is supported beneath the part which
receives the stroke.
Thirdly, the regulating gear by which the distance between stroke and
stroke is determined and governed; and,
Fourthly, the apparatus for giving the stroke or cut.
The four several parts aforesaid are supported by, or attached to, a frame
or platform of solid and secure workmanship, either of wood or metal; or
both, according to the nature of the work intended to be performed, or the
judgment and choice of the engineer.
At
The carriage is a long block of wood or metal of the figure of a paralleli-
pidon or nearly so, having a portion cut out between its upper and lower surfaces
to admit the anvil to stand therein without coming into contact with the
carriage itself, and the said carriage is made of such a length that the exca-
vation here described shall be considerably longer than the longest files
intended to be cut, and it is supported upon strait bearers from the platform,
upon which, by projecting pieces or sliders, or wheels or friction rollers, it can
be moved endwise in a strait lined direction without shake or deviation.
one end of the said excavation is fixed a clip, resembling an hand vice, for
holding the file by its tail or tang, and in the opposite end of the said excava-
tion there is a sliding block or piece, which, being brought up to the other
end of the file, does by means of a notch or other obvious contrivance prevent
it from being moved sideways. The said clip is so fixed at its head or shank by
means of an horizontal axis or gudgeons and sockets that the file is at liberty
to move up and down, but not sideways or atwist. In this manner it is that
the file, being fixed in the carriage, is pressed down upon the anvil by a lever
and weight proceeding from the platform and bearing upon the face of the
file by a small roller of wood, ivory, bone, or soft metal.
The anvil is solidly
fixed on the platform, and may be of any suitable figure which shall be
sufficiently massy to receive and resist the blow, but its upper part must be so

page_text: contracted as to stand up in the excavation of the carriage, and support the
file, and the upper part of all must be constructed in such a manner that it
shall fairly apply itself to the under surface of the file, and support it without
leaving any hollow space notwithstanding any casual irregularities of the said
surface. I produce this effect by making a cavity in the anvil of the figure
of a portion of a sphere not much less than an hemisphere, and in this cavity I
place (with grease between) a piece of iron or steel made exactly to fit, but
of which the lower surface is a greater portion of the same sphere, and the
upper surface flat or plane. The file rests upon this last flat or plane surface,
which is either faced with lead, or (in preference) a slip of lead is put under
the file, and turned round the tang thereof so as to move along with it. It is
evident that the upper or moveable piece of the said anvil will, by sliding in
it's socket, accommodate and apply itself constantly to the surface of the file
which is pressed and struck against it; or otherwise I make the concavity in
the upper moveable piece, and make the fixed part convex; or otherwise I
support the upper part, or in some cases the whole, of my anvil upon opposite
gudgeons in the manner of the jimbals of sea compasses; or otherwise I form
the upper part of my anvil cylindrical, of a large diameter, supported on thick
gudgeons, the axis of the said cylinder being short, and at right angles to the
motion of the carriage; or otherwise form only a small portion, namely, the
upper extremity of my anvil, of a cylindrical form as aforesaid, and cause the
same to continue motionless by fashioning the same out of the same mass as
the rest of the anvil, or fixing the same thereto. And in both the last--
mentioned cases of the cylindrical structure I fix the head or shank of the
clip (by which the tang is held), not by a single axis or pair of gudgeons, but
by an universal joint or ball and socket, so that the file becomes at liberty to
adopt itself, not only upwards and downwards, but also in the way of rotation
or atwist, and supplies the want of motion in the anvil by the facility with
which itself can be moved in the last-mentioned manner.
The regulating gear is that part of the machinery by which the carriage,.
and consequently the file, is drawn along. It consists of a screw revolving
between cocks and centers fixed to the platform, and acting upon a nut
attached to the carriage, with the usual and well-known precautions for
working of measuring screws, and the nut being made to open by a joint when
the carriage is required to be disengaged and slided back. And the said
screw is moved either constantly by a slow motion from the first mover, or
which is better) by interrupted equal motions, so as to draw the carriage
during the interval between stroke and stroke. And the quantities of these
respective equal motions may be produced and governed at pleasure by wheel-

page_text: work applied to the head of the skrew, or by the well-known apparatus used
in the mathematical dividing engine for circles, or by various other contri-
vances well known to workmen of competent skill, and therefore unnecessary
to be described at large; or otherwise the motion of the carriage may be
produced by a toothed rack from the carriage drawn by a pinion, and this
pinion moved by a ratchet wheel on the same arbor moved by a click lever,
which shall gather up and drive a greater or less number of teeth, according
to the coarseness or fineness of the file, and the click lever itself may be
moved by a tripping piece from the first mover, or by various other evident
means of connection, or otherwise the said carriage may be moved by a small
cylinder and rope or chain constantly acting; or otherwise the said motion
may be effected by a train of two or more wheels suffered to move by any of
the escapements used in time pieces, and the fineness of stroke may be regu-
lated either by changing the wheels, as in the common fusee-engine, or by the
greater or less frequency of escape during each turn of the first mover. And
in every case I prefer a counterweight to the carriage acting either constantly
against or constantly in the direction of its motion, tho' this is not absolutely
necessary when the work is well executed. I may also observe that it is
possible to construct my said machinery for fixing and rendering motionless
that part which I have called the carriage, provided the other three principal
parts be made to move instead of the carriage itself, but I consider this dispo-
sition as less eligible than that which requires the carriage to be moved.
The apparatus for giving the stroke or cut consists of a chizel which is held
between the jaws of a mouthpiece or clams resembling a strong hand vice
without teeth. One of the jaws is made very stout, and the chizel is formed
narrow from edge to back, and wide from side to side, and has a semicircular
protuberance on its back which rests in a circular notch in the strong jaw
aforesaid, and there are two or three bended flat rings or washers of iron or
metal under the thumb screw of the said mouthpiece or clams which prevent
the chizel from becoming loose by the stroke; or otherwise the said chizel
may have a notch or an hole (instead of a protuberance) to meet a cor-
respondent part in the mouthpiece or clam, but I prefer the first-mentioned
construction.
By the constructions of the chizel as here mentioned and fixed the edge of
the said instrument is at liberty to apply itself fairly from side to side of the
file notwithstanding any winding or irregularity, and whatever may be the
fineness of the cut upon a broad surface. The mouthpiece, with its chizel, is
firmly fixed in another piece, which by its motion gives the stroke. This last-
mentioned piece may either be a lever, or a moveable carriage between

page_text: upright sliders, but I greatly prefer the lever. The chizel must be so fixed that
the moving piece shall carry it fairly edge-onwards to the file without scraping or
slapping in the least, and the obliquity of the stroke may be adjusted by fixing
the centres of the lever either higher or lower at pleasure, or by inclining the
last-mentioned sliders. The lever may be raised and let fall (or the other
chizel apparatus moved) by a tripping piece or snail work, or other usual con-
nection, with the first mover, and its power of stroke may be increased by the
addition of a weight, or by the action of a spring, which last-mentioned
method is of excellent use, and may (if required from the varying breadth of
the file) be made to increase or diminish its power during the run by several
easy and commonly used methods or contrivances for pressing more or less
against the spring. Or otherwise the lever or holding piece may be kept
immediately above the file by the reaction of a slight spring or weight, and be
struck by an hammer moved and acted upon by the first mover as aforesaid;
and to this method I give the preference, because the lever will then have less
strain upon its pivots; or the said lever may even be supported by spring
joints without any pivots or centers at all. Or, instead of a hammer, the blow
may be given by a ram, or a fly and screw, though I give the preference to
the hammer. The lever may move in a vertical circle immediately over
the file, or in an oblique circle at right angles to it, or at any intermediate
angle consistant with the aforegoing instructions, and the chizel may be set
with its edge at any angle whatever with the line of the length of the lever;
but general I have set the lever in the first-mentioned position, and have
varied the angle between the chizel edge and the lever according to the
intended slope of the cut upon the face of the file. The edge of the chizel
must be sharpened to such an angle as the intended cut and strength of bur
may require.
Lastly, I describe the general action of the said machinery as follows:-
(1.) The file, being prepared as usual for cutting, must be fixed in the clip
of the carriage, and the sliding block brought up and fixed to steady its other
extremity. (2.) The nutt of the screw being then opened (or the other regu-
lating gear disengaged), the carriage is slided to its place, so that the chizel
may be situated over that part of the file which is to receive the first stroke.
(3.) The nutt is then closed (or the other regulating gear connected), and the
small roller of the pressing lever is made to bear upon the face of the filc.
(4.) The first mover being then put into action raises and lets fall the
apparatus for giving the stroke by which the file receives a cut, and (5)
immediately afterwards, or during the same action, as the case may be
(according to the construction, as before described), the regulating gear moves

page_text: the carriage, and consequently the file, thro' a determinate space. (6.) The cut
is then again given, and in this manner (the strength of the cut being duly
proportioned to the space between cut and cut) the file becomes cut through-
out. (7.) The file is then taken out and cut on the other side. (8.) The
bur is then taken off or not as the artist may think best, and the cross strokes
are given over the surfaces as before. And the said machinery, by certain
slight, necessary, and obvious changes in the structure and dispositions of the
chizels and some other of the parts thereof, is adapted to manufacture all
other forms and descriptions of files, whether floats, rasps, half-round, three-
square, or of any other figure or denomination.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Nicholson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and two.
Sealed and delivered (being first duly
stampt) in the presence of
M. MIDGLEY.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fourteenth day of Sep-
tember, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid William Nicholson came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of