CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN AUGERS OR TOOLS FOR BORING
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ASH, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of June, in the fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Ash, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said William Ash, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said William Ash, my executors, adminis-
trators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, an Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN AUGERS OR TOOLS FOR
BORING," being a communication made to me by a Foreigner residing abroad;
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said
William Ash, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly
to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by
the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Ash, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say:-
These improvements in augers, or tools for boring, are designed to afford the
means of producing by one instrument holes or borings of various diameters,
which may be effected by detaching and changing the cutting and guiding
parts, and attaching other cutting and guiding parts of various sizes suited to
the particular diameter of the hole required. These improvements also allow
of the cutters being readily sharpened, or in case of being broken other cutters
may be applied to the same instrument. In the accompanying Drawings,
Figs. 1, 2, and 3, represent the improved auger complete in three different
positions, and Fig. 4 shews the appearance of its end. a is the shaft, shank,
or spindle, having a conical screw 6 cut on its point (the thread of the screw
may be made to suit the kind of wood intended to be wrought). Fig. 5 is the
spindle or shank alone; and Fig. 6 represents the helical or worm-shaped piece
c, c, c, detached from the spindle. This worm is to be fitted on to the spindle
as in Figs. 1, 2, and 3, for the purpose of constituting a guide to the auger,
while in the act of boring, and also for conducting and discharging the chips.
The upper end of the worm piece, when attached to the shank or spindle, is
made to bear against a stop d, fixed into the spindle. Through the shank near
its lower end a mortice e is made for the reception of the cutter f, and the
wedge piece g, by which the cutter is made fast in the shank. The cutter fis
shewn detached in four positions at Figs. 7, in order to exhibit its form
perfectly. When inserted into the mortice e in the shank, the cutter is secured
by the wedge g driven into the mortice through the shank above the cutter,
the lower end of the worm piece bears against the back part of the cutter, and
it is further confined by the wedge g, which rests in a notch cut in the face
of the worm piece at h. On the withdrawing this wedge g the cutter may be
taken out of the mortice, and the worm piece c may also be removed, when
another worm piece and cutter of larger or smaller size may be attached to
the shank or spindle for boring holes of other diameters; and this mode of
attaching and detaching the cutter will allow also of its being sharpened upon
an ordinary grindstone, whenever the cutting edge shall require it. Instead
of the worm piece or guide c, I sometimes substitute a guide shewn in
Fig. 8, which is a vertical section, and Fig. 9, a horizontal view of the
same. This guide, it will be perceived, consists of a ring k, k, having a screw

page_text: thread slightly conical on its outside, from which two wings i, i, extend, for the
purpose of supporting a thimble or tube . Though this thimble the spindle a
of the auger must be passed, and the cutter being applied to that part of
the wood in which a hole is required to be bored, the commencement or
opening only of the orifice is to be cut in the first instance, and then the
ring of the guide screwed firmly into that orifice. In the progress of the
operation of boring the cutter will, as it advances, be directed by the spindle
sliding through the thimble. In the first described apparatus the chips from
the cutter will be conducted out of the hole or boring by the rotation
of the worm guide; in the second described apparatus the chips will fall
or rise through the opening between the ring k and the thimble 1. In
case it should not be required to bore various-sized holes by the same auger,
the guide worm may be fixed to the shank by brazing or otherwise, which
variation, though limiting the diameter of the cutter, will still allow of the
cutter being withdrawn for the purpose of sharpening. I claim as my Invention
the peculiar construction of the different parts, as shewn in the Drawings,
(that is to say) the application of moveable cutters and guides of different
sizes, which may be adapted to or detached from, and others added to, the
spindle according to circumstances, in order to bore holes of different diameters
and to facilitate the sharpening of the cutters when required.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Ash, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Tenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty.