IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF VICE BOXES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Green, of Stourbridge, in the County of
Worcester, General Smith, and William Henry Glover, of Stourbridge
aforesaid, General Smith, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF VICE BOXES."
Sealed the 4th March 1862, and dated the 14th September 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Green and William
Henry Glover at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 14th September 1861.
We, ALFRED GREEN, of Stourbridge, in the County of Worcester, General
Smith, and WILLIAM HENRY GLOVER, of Stourbridge aforesaid, General Smith,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF VICE BOXES," to be as follows:-
Our Invention consists in manufacturing the vice boxes of those kinds of
vices commonly known as standing vices, which said vices are used by smiths,
engineers, and others. The said vice boxes consist essentially of a hollow
cylinder having a concave screw in a portion of its internal cylindrical surface,
into which concave screw the screwed pin or convex screw of the vice engages,
as is well understood.
We manufacture the said vice boxes in the following manner :-To form
the back chamber of the box we take a strip of iron and bend it into a ferrule
or cylinder, and afterwards weld together the opposed edges of the said ferrule

page_text: or cylinder. We next weld to the front of the ferrule or cylinder a thick strip
of iron, in order to form a collar or boss on the said ferrule or cylinder.
We
make the barrel of the vice box from a strip of iron, and afterwards weld the
rib or ribs on its exterior. The back chamber and barrel are next raised to a
welding beat, and the end of the said barrel introduced the required distance
into the said back chamber. The end of the barrel is then welded to the
collar or boss on the front of the back chamber, and the junction of the two
parts thereby effected. A knob, termination, or plug is finally welded in the
open end of the back chamber, and a solid vice box thus produced. The vice
box is completed by inserting into the barrel of the box the thread or concave
The said thread or concave screw is introduced into the barrel in the
ordinary manner, and is afterwards fixed by brazing to the said barrel. When
worn the said worm or concave screw can be removed by simply heating the
barrel of the vice box, and a fresh one introduced and fixed in its place.
Instead of forming the back chamber and barrel of the vico box separately
and afterwards welding them together, we sometimes make the back chamber
and barrel in one piece by forging, and afterwards weld the collar or boss at
the required distance on the barrel. The essence of our Invention consists in
fixing the worm or concave screw in a solid vice box, that is, a vice box, the
parts of which are made into a solid mass.
screw.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Green and William Henry Glover in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 11th March 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALFRED
GREEN, of Stourbridge, in the County of Worcester, General Smith, and
WILLIAM HENRY GLOVER, of Stourbridge, aforesaid, General Smith, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us
the said Alfred Green and William Henry Glover, Her special licence that
we, the said Alfred Green and William Henry Glover, our executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Alfred Green and
William Henry Glover, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times

page_text: 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF VICE BOXES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Alfred Green and William Henry Glover, our exe-
cutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, or them, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Alfred Green and William Henry
Glover, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
Our Invention consists of the improvements, herein-after described and
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, in manufacturing the vice boxes of
those kinds of vices commonly known as standing vices, which said vices are
used by smiths, engineers, and others. The said vice boxes consist essentially
of a hollow cylinder or cylindrical chamber having a concave or hollow screw
on its internal cylindrical surface, the said screw extending along about one
half of the said box. The screwed pin or convex screw of the vice takes into
or engages in the hollow screw in the vice box, as is well understood.
In manufacturing the said vice boxes according to one of our improvements
we proceed as follows:-
Figure 1 of the Drawing represents in longitudinal section, and Figure 2 in
elevation, a vice box, with reference to which we will illustrate this part of
our Invention.
To form the back chamber a of the vice box we take a strip or plate of
wrought iron of the required length, breadth, and thickness, and after heating
it to a red heat we bend it into a cylindrical or tube-like figure, and afterwards
weld together the opposed or overlapping edges of the said hollow cylinder or
tube. We next weld to one end of the hollow cylinder a, a thick ring or
collar b, constituting the shoulder of the vice box. We make the barrel c of
the vice box from a strip or plate of wrought iron of the required length,
breadth, and thickness, bent into a tubular form and welded; or a piece of
wrought-iron gas tubing may be employed. The tubing to form the barrel c
is of such a size that its end may be introduced into the back chamber a.
Before connecting the barrel c with the back chamber a we weld the rib d on

page_text: the said barrel c. Or two of the said ribs situated one opposite to the other
may be welded on the barrel c. The barrel c being introduced into the back
chamber a so far as to bring the end of the rib d against the shoulder b, the
two parts a and c are welded together, the end of the rib & being also welded
to the shoulder b. The knob, termination, or plug e is finally welded in the
open end of the back chamber a, and a solid vice box, or box in one piece,
but without a screw, is thus produced. We complete the vice box by inserting
and fixing in the barrel c the thread or worm, which constitutes the concave
or hollow screw. Figure 3 represents in elevation the thread or hollow screw,
formed by coiling a narrow strip or rod of iron upon a screwed pin, similar to
that to be used with the vice box. Instead of making the worm or hollow
screw, Figure 3, of a strip of iron, square or nearly square in section, it may
be made of T iron, or iron having the figure represented in section in Figure 4.
In order to insert and fix the screw in the barrel c of the vice box, Figures 1
and 2, the said screw, supported upon the screwed pin, is introduced to the
required distance into the said barrel c, the said screw being cold and the
barrel c heated to redness. The screw pin is unscrewed from the worm or
screw in the barrel, leaving the said screw or worm in the barrel. The screw
or worm is fixed in its placo by brazing. A quantity of scrap brass and scrap
copper is introduced into the barrel c, which is heated to a degree sufficient to
nelt the said brass and copper, the vice box being slowly turned round. After
the brass and copper have been thoroughly melted and made to run all over
the screw the excess is poured out; the screw is thus brazed to the barrel.
The screw may be cleared of excess of brass by a scraping tool, but generally
the screw is sufficiently sinooth to permit of the screwed pin working freely
therein. Brass alone may be used for brazing the screw, but we prefer to
add a little copper.
The advantage of making vice boxes by the method described is, that when
the worm or hollow screw is worn it can be removed by simply heating the
barrel of the vice box, and a fresh one can be introduced and fixed in the
barrel by brazing. We do not, however, limit ourselves to this method of
fixing the worm or concave screw in the barrel, as the said worm may be fixed
by welding, as herein-after described, the essence of our Invention consisting
in fixing the worm or concave screw in a solid vice box, that is, a vice box the
parts of which are made into a solid mass. When we fix the worm or concave
screw by welding we insert the said worm or screw into the barrel by means
of the screwed pin or mandril as herein-before described, and after having
withdrawn the pin or mandril, we raise the barrel with the worm in it to a
welding heat and weld the thread of the worm or screw securely to the barrel

page_text: by means of a "bick iron" of the kind represented in side elevation in Figure 5
and end elevation in Figure 6 of the Drawing, the said "bick iron" consisting
of a screwed pin from which the screw has been removed over about two-
thirds of its circumference. The barrel and screw, heated to a welding heat,
can be readily placed upon the said "bick iron" and the welding of the screw
effected on that portion of the "bick iron" from which the thread or worm is
not removed.
Instead of forming the back chamber and barrel of the vice box separately
and afterwards welding them together, the back chamber and barrel may be
made in one tubular piece, the collar or shoulder of the vice box being welded,
at the required distance, on the said tubular piece, and the screw or worm
afterwards fixed therein by brazing or welding. This method of manufacture
constitutes another of our improvements, and is illustrated in Figure 7 of the
Drawing, which represents in longitudinal section and end elevation a vice
box thus constructed. f is a tube which constitutes the back chamber and
barrel of the box, which said tube f may either be formed by bending a plate
of iron into a tubular form and welding the overlapping edges, or may consist
of a piece of wrought-iron tubing made by rolling or otherwise. We first
weld upon the tube f the rib g, and afterwards weld to the tube f and rib g
the collar or shoulder h. The knob, termination, or plug i, is next welded in
the open end of the back chamber, and finally the worm or screw is brazed or
welded in the barrel end of the tube f, in the manner herein-before explained.
When the screw is welded in the barrel, the vice box, made in either of the
ways before described, may, after the welding of the said screw therein, be
case-hardened by the ordinary case-hardening processes. The fashioning and
welding together of the several parts of which the vice boxes are made may
be effected by hand or by rolling or stamping.
In the sections of the accompanying Drawing we have represented by lines
the junctions of the several parts of the vice box, and have further distin-
guished the several parts of which the box is made up by differently inclined
section lines, but we wish it to be understood that in the completed vice box
the said junctions have no existence, all the parts of the box being welded into
one compact piece or mass.
Having now described the nature of our Invention and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, we wish it to be understood that we do
not limit ourselves to the precise details herein described and represented, as
the same may be varied without departing from the nature of our Invention;
but we claim as our Invention,-
Firstly, the improvement or improvements in the manufacture of vice boxes

page_text: herein-before described and illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying
Drawing; that is to say, making the said vice boxes of the several parts
described and represented in the said Figures 1 and 2, the said parts being
welded together into one mass before the introduction of the worm or screw,
and fixing the worm or screw in the barrel of the vice box by brazing or by
welding.
Secondly, the improvement or improvements in the manufacture of vice
boxes herein-before described and illustrated in Figure 7 of the accompanying
Drawing; that is to say, making the said vice boxes of the several parts
described and represented in the said Figure 7, the said parts being welded
together into one mass before the introduction of tho worm or screw, and
fixing the worm or screw in the barrel of the vice box by brazing or by
welding.
In witness whoreof, we, the said Alfred Green and William Henry Glover
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
ALFRED GREEN.
(1.8.)
WILLIAM HENRY GLOVER. (L.B.)