CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DRIVING PILES, PART OR PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE ALSO TO FORGING AND STAMPING METALE, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
NASMYTH, of Patricroft, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the seventh year of Her reign,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-three, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said James
Nasmyth, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said James Nasmyth, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such
othersas I, the said James Nasmyth, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times, during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, and also within all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
FOR DRIVING PILES, PART OR PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE ALSO TO
FORGING AND STAMPING METALE, AND OTHER SUBSTANCES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said James Nasmyth, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
Price

page_text: the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Nasmyth, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereto annexed, and the following
explanation thereof (that is to say):-
My improvements in machinery or apparatus for driving piles consist, firstly,
of a certain arrangement of apparatus, by means of which I cause the elastic
force of steam to lift or raise up a block of iron or other suitable material,
letting the same fall down again on the head of a pile for the purpose of
driving it into the ground. This lifting and falling motion of the block of iron
(or ram as it is generally called) being obtained by means of my said Inven-
tion without the aid or use of any wheel work or rotatory motion whatsoever
so far as the motion of the said ram or block is concerned.
Secondly, of the means by which I cause the weight of the block or ram,
together with the weight of the apparatus thereunto attached, to aid and assist
by its continual pressure in predisposing the pile to sink into the ground,
thereby causing the blow from the ram to be very much more effective in
driving the pile.
Thirdly, of the means by which I give considerable additional energy to the
descent of the ram by the elasticity of compressed steam or air superadded
to the force of gravity (which is the chief blow-giving power to the ram).
Fourthly, of certain means by which I cause the valve which admits the
steam (that lifts the ram or block) to be itself opened by means of the direct
action of the elastic force of the said steam as shall be herein-after more
particularly described, as also certain parts of the apparatus by which the
said valve is enabled or caused to pass through its required motions so as to
cause this pile-driving machine to be self-acting in so far as the production of
a series of blows is concerned; these parts of the apparatus being applicable
to certain machinery employed in forging and stamping metals and other
substances.
In order more clearly to describe the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I have attached hereunto two
Sheets of Drawings, exhibiting several views of my improved machinery, and
have marked the same with figures and letters of reference, placing similar
letters upon correspending parts in all the Figures. Sheet 1 is confined to the
pile-driving machinery, and Sheet 2 shews its further application. In Sheet 1,
Figure 1 exhibits the general arrangement of the apparatus, as employed in

page_text: driving piles. It consists of a steam cylinder A, sliding between two upright
wooden guides a¹, a¹; this steam cylinder A being mounted on a suitable plat-
form 61,61,61, either resting on the ground or on a barge or boat in the case of
driving piles out in a river or harbour, as the case may require, supplied with
high pressure steam from a boiler B by means of a zig-zag or other suitably
jointed pipe P, P, together with a windlass and hoisting geer for the purpose
of raising the cylinder A and its ram, tube, and socket R, D, E, on to the top
of the pile, the windlass chain being kept slack during the driving of the pile,
so that the weight of the cylinder A, guide tube D, and socket tube E, may
rest entirely on the pile, the pall G, G, preventing it from slipping down too
far. Figures 2, 3, and 4, are enlarged sections of the steam cylinder A, in
which it will be seen there is a piston Cand piston rod D*, which latter passes
out at the bottom of the cylinder, and is finally attached to the block or
ram R, by a certain means of union more particularly described herein-after.
The steam cylinder A is fixed on the top of an iron case or tube D, which also
serves as a guide to the ram R; this wrought-iron case or tube is in like manner
fixed on the top of another smaller tube E, which is made of such a size as
to fit easily over the body of the pile to be driven. The entire weight of the
cylinder A, ram R, tube D, and socket tube E, being supported by the catch
palls G, G, whose points rest for that purpose in a rough notch cut in the pile
at G, G. Thus it is that the pile has a predisposition to sink into the ground
by the effect of all the superincumbent weight of the above-named parts of
the apparatus.
In order to describe the action of the apparatus, we shall suppose the wind-
lass chain to be left slack and the steam to enter freely by the steam passage
X, X, and so press upon the under side of the piston C (Figure 3); in this
position the steam acting with all its elastic force on the under side of the said
piston raises or lifts up the ram R (to which, as before said, it is attached) by
the piston rod I*, the steam continues to force the piston upwards until the
edge of the ram R comes in contact with the pall O, which it raises from the
position, as seen at O, Figure 3, to that of O', Figure 2, in doing which it
will be evident, as the pall O is attached to the valve rod T (which has an
elastic junction at T', for the purpose of removing the jerk from the slide valve,
as the edge of the ram moves up the pall O, it also, at the same time, slides
the valve K up into the situation as in Figure 2, in doing which the
shoulder S at the lower end of the valve rod is lifted above the point of the
trigger or catch N, which, by means of the spring behind at n, causes the
point of the trigger to retain the valve rod and valve in the position in which
the ram has placed it by its coming in contact with the pall O, as before

page_text: described. Now it will be seen, on inspecting Figure 2, that the consequence
of the valve being placed in this position is, not only to let the point of the
trigger N pass under the shoulder S, but also to cut off the communication
between the boiler and the underside of the piston, by reason of the valve face
sliding over the opening X, X, and further, as a consequence of the motion of
the valve there is now a free passage opened for the steam to escape from
under the piston out into the open air by the passage Z, Z, Z, the immediate
result of this is the fall of the piston C and ram R, which descends with all
due energy on the top of the pile, thereby assuming the position as seen in
Figure 3; the instant consequence of this fall is a blow on the head of the
pile, which is driven down in due proportion to the energy of the blow,
together with and assisted by the predisposing action of the superincumbent
weight as before named. Immediately after the blow, the catch palls G, G,
resume their original position in the notches, as in Figure 2. Another effect
of the blow or concussion is the starting down of the end of the latch L(which
is placed in or on a convenient part of the body of the ram R), and being
retained before the blow was given in the elevated position, as seen at L,
Figure 2, by means of a small spring knob resting on the pin W, the con-
cussion of the blow jerks the end L down into the position L, Figure 3, the
result of which is that the other extremity M of the said latch is made to
protrude (by its segmental motion around the centre pin Q), and in so pro-
truding the point M comes in contact with the bar V, which it presses back
from the position, as seen in Figure 2, to that as seen in Figure 3; the result
of this is the withdrawing of the point of the trigger N from under the
shoulder S or lip on the valve rod. The instant this is done, the pressure of
steam on the top of the small piston I, which is placed in the cylinder Y on
the upper end of the valve rod T, and thus forces the valve K down again into
the position as seen in Figure 3, thus instantly readmitting the steam from the
boiler through the passage X, X, which conducts it under the piston C; this
is immediately followed by the rise of the ram as before. The rise of the ram
causes the poiut M of the latch L to come in contact with the side of the tube
or case D and D', which causes it to be replaced on the retaining knob W, as
at Figure 2, and so made ready for the next concussion to jerk it off and
unlock the trigger S, as before described.
I here desire it to be most particularly understood that I declare, as a
peculiar part of my Invention, the trigger as a means of retaining the valve in
that position which permits of a free escape of the steam from under the
piston, in opposition to the constant opening tendency which is given to the
valve by the small steam cylinder and piston I and Y, as seen in Figures 2

page_text: and 3, as a most important feature in the means of rendering this pile-driving
machine self-acting, together with the system by which I cause the concussion
(arising from the blow given by the ram) to unlock the said trigger, by the
transmission of the motion of the latch L to that of the trigger N, either by
the latch placed in the ram, or by a connection with the pall G, which
transmits in like manner the effect of the blow to the trigger, and so jerks it
out below the lip or shoulder S, as may be found most convenient, either by
the pall G and its connecting rod q, or by the latch L, as before described.
There are several modes of transmitting the effects of the concussion to the
trigger which it would be here superfluous to name. I prefer the latch
arrangement as exhibited in the Drawings, and as already described.
In Sheet 2, the above trigger and latch apparatus is shewn as an improve.
ment applied to a machine for forging, cutting, and stamping iron and other
materials, (as exhibited and described in the Specification of a Patent granted
to me, and dated Ninth day of June, One thousand eight hundred and forty-
two, which was duly enrolled for the same object, as in the pile-driving
apparatus, namely, as a means of deriving the self-acting motion from the
concussion arising from the blow of the ram or block R, whether it be
employed to drive piles or to forge, cut, and stamp iron or other materials,
as the case may be. In the case of its application to such a machine as shewn
in Sheet 2, Figure 5, for forging iron, a bar P, P, is employed, so that the
segmental protrusion of the point M of the latch L may unlock the trigger N¹,
on the ram giving a blow to a mass of iron of any thickness within the range
of the fall of the ram. This is attained in the pile-driving machine as required
by the length of the part or bar marked V, Figures 2 and 3, in Sheet 1, by
means of the parallel apparatus P, P.
I also wish to direct particular attention to the means by which I cause the
steam to open the valve, namely, the placing or fixing a small piston I, moving
in a cylinder Y, supplied with steam through the small pipe f, on the upper
side of which piston the steam is made to press, when the ram raises the
pall O into the position as seen in Figure 2, in doing which the top of the
piston I comes in contact with the tail of the small steam valve v, and lifts it.
up off its seat, and so admits the steam to press upon the piston I, so that the
instant the trigger is jerked out under the shoulder S, as in Sheet 1,
or from off the shoulder S, as in Sheet 2, the force of this steam above
the piston I instantly comes into action and forces down the valve, and so
opens a free
passage for the entrance of steam under the piston C, as before
described. The descent of the piston I permits the valve to close, and at
the same time the steam which had been admitted is allowed to escape at the

page_text: pipe j, simply by the piston I passing it; thus the piston I acts as a valve, as well as
a piston, and is in that respect self-acting, and to this also I wish to direct parti-
cular attention. It will be observed that the upward motion of the pall O is not
materially impeded by the pressure of the steam on the piston 1, as no steam
is admitted into the cylinder Y until at the very last part of the motion, when
the piston I begins to come in contact with the tail of the small valve V.
Lastly, I will describe another feature in this my Invention, shewing the
means by which I give increased energy to the descent of the ram R, namely,
by having the top or upper part of the cylinder A made perfectly steam and
air tight, while a row of openings or holes are made in the upper part of the
cylinder A at c, c, c, c, which is equally applicable to all the above-named
arrangements. The action of which arrangement is as follows:-The piston C,
in its rapid ascent towards the top of the cylinder, would, but for those holes
c, c, c, c, accumulate a counter pressure above the piston, by reason of their
being no egress for the confined air or steam; these holes prevent this, by
permitting the otherwise confined air or steam to escape until the piston has
passed them, then it is that the remaining portion of steam or air is rapidly
compressed, and gives a perfect elastic resistance, which defines the length of
the upward stroke; on the instant of the piston passing above the holes, the
steam which lifted the piston is partially allowed to escape, while at the same
instant the elastic action of the compressed air or steam above the piston
rebounds and gives it at that important moment a most energetic commence-
ment of the return or downward stroke, which materially enhances the effect
and force of the blow, which is an important means of giving increased energy
and rapidity to the action of the ram, either as applied to the pile-driving
apparatus or to that of the several parts before named as applicable to
machinery employed in forging, cutting, and stamping of iron and other
material, as exhibited in Figure 6, Sheet 2.
In conclusion, I will point out the means employed for connecting the
piston rod to the ram, namely, by two catters or bolts, which I cause to be
driven across the ram on each side of the piston rod, as seen at H, H,
Figure 2, 3, Sheet 1, and Fig. 6, Sheet 2; these bolts are so driven across
the ram over and against the upper side of a ring of metal h, h, as to confine
the elastic materials in the well at w, and also to resist the jerk of the action of
the steam without the use or acquirement of any screws or other means.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Nasmyth have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this fourth day of January, One thousand eight hundred
and forty-four.
JAMES NASMYTH. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Fourth day of January,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid James Nasmyth came before our
Lady the Queen in HerChancery,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 the Statute
in that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year above written.