Improvements in the Manufacture of Horse Shoe Nails.
Year: 1892

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Horse Shoe Nails.'
We, WILLIAM WILSON MINER, of Torrington in the County of Litchfield and
State of Connecticut, Manufacturer and ACHILLE FRANCIS MIGEON, of Torrington
In the County of Litchfield and State of Connecticut, United States of America,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement :—
This invention relates to an improved method of manufacturing horse shoe nails,
the object being to provide a nail perfectly homogeneous in structure, not liable to
split, and having smooth and rounded corners.
With these ends in view this invention consists in the method of operation herein-
after described and pointed out in the claims.
In the accompanying drawings,
Fig. 1 represents a length of wire from which the nail blanks are severed.
Fig. 2 is a severed blank.
Fig. 3 represents the blank of Fig. 2 having a rounded head formed thereon by
swaging or upsetting.
Fig. 4 shows the blank of Fig. 3 after its body or shank has been attenuated and
tapered.
Fig. 5 represents the finished nail, while
Fig. 6 shows the dies for heading the blank.
We first take a length of round wire preferably of Bessemer steel, and by any
suitable machinery cut the same into suitable short lengths and thereby form blanks
like those represented in Fig. 2, the dotted lines in Fig. 1 illustrating the lengths
of the blanks cut from the wire. The short blank 1 thus formed is then by suitable
dies, such for instance as the dies A and B illustrated in Fig. subjected to a
Swaging operation whereby a head is formed on one end thereof as shown in Fig. 3.
The heading die subjects the blank to endwise pressure and forms thereon a head
which is of greater diameter than that of the body of the blank. As represented
in the drawings the head is cylindrical in cross section and hence has rounded sides.
The pressure exerted in the formation of the head is sufficient to render it very
tough and homogeneous in structure. The headed blank of Fig. 3 is then subjected
to the action of a suitable machine, which operates to elongate the body or shank
and impart a tapering form to it from the head to its point, it being circular in cross
section throughout its length. The body or shank may be reduced to a tapering
form having a circular cross section throughout its length by its being subjected to
the action of a wire pointing machine-such for instance as the well known Hopson
and Brooks or the Goodrich machines, or by any other suitable machine, adapted
to deliver against the periphery of the body of the blank a multiplicity of blows
applied substantially equally to every portion of its surface throughout its length
as by so doing the density of the shank throughout its length is rendered practically
uniform and has imparted thereto a perfectly smooth and highly polished surface.
The blank thus produced is illustrated in Fig. 4 in which 2 represents the head,
3 the body or shank and 4 the point. The head, as will be observed, is flattened on
its upper end, and from such flattened portion it is gradually enlarged to the point
of its greatest diameter from which it is gradually contracted in diameter until it.
merges into or joins with the body of the shank. It will thus be seen that the
blank represented in Fig. 4 is circular in cross section throughout its entire length,
and hence its entire periphery is composed of smooth and rounded surfaces.
The blank of the form represented in Fig. 4 is subjected to a swaging or rolling
process by which it is flattened as represented in Fig. 5. This step in the process

page_text: may be performed by machinery of the character set forth in United States Letters
Patent No. 415,818, granted to William Wilson Miner November 26th, 1889, or
any other suitable machinery may be employed for this purpose. The flattening of
the blank operates to transform it into the shape of a completed nail, but it does not
detract from the smoothness of surface and regularity of structure which characterized
the blank. The opposite edges of the nail from its point to its flattened head are
formed of smooth rounded surfaces, and hence the entire surface of the nail has
´ imparted thereto a smooth and highly finished appearance.
The various steps heretofore recited.may be performed in any desired manner,
either by separate machines, or by a single machine constructed and adapted to
automatically perform the different steps in the order set forth.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is:
1st. The method of making horse shoe nails substantially as set forth, which
consists in upsetting a rounded head on one end of a blank, reducing the body or
shank of the blank to a tapering form circular in cross section, and then flattening
the head and shank of the blank, and thereby producing a nail having flattened
sides and rounded edges throughout its length.
2nd. The method of making horse shoe nails substantially as set forth consisting
in upsetting on the end of a blank, a head, circular in cross section and flattened
at its upper end; reducing the body or shank of the blank to a tapered form
circular in cross section throughout its length, then flattening the shank and head
and thereby producing a nail having flattened sides, rounded side edges and a
flattened driving surface on top of its head.
Dated this 6th day of September 1899
HERBERT & Co.,
18, Buckingham Street, Strand, London, W.C., Agents to Applicants..