IMPROVE- MENTS IN FORGING RAILWAY SPIKES, SCREW BOLTS, NUTS, AND THE LIKE, AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel of N° 28. Southampton Buildings
Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex for an Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN FORGING RAILWAY SPIKES, SCREW BOLTS, NUTS, AND THE LIKE,
AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR" communicated to him from abroad by
A. Urban und Söhne, of Vienna in the Austrian Empire, Manufacturers
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd July 1883.
"
CHARLES DENTON ABEL of N° 28 Southampton Buildings Chancery Lane in
the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN FORGING RAILWAY SPIKES, SCREW
BOLTS, NUTS, AND THE LIKE, AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR [communicated to
him from abroad by A. Urban und Söhne, of Vienna in the Austrian Empire,
Manufacturers]
This invention has for its object the automatic forging of railway spikes, screw
bolts, nuts and the like in such manner that no loss of materials by the formation
of fins can take place, each article being delivered perfect from the machine.
The invention consists mainly in subjecting the blank or rod. for forming the
spike or bolt, while being held in a socket, to the consecutive actions of a heading
die and two or more sets of opposite facing dies, the blank being pushed slightly
forward from the socket by a mandril at the end of each stroke of the heading die,
and the strokes of the dies are repeated two or more times until the formation of
the head is completed, after which the finished article is projected entirely from
the socket by the mandril.
For these purposes a framing carrying the socket for the blank has, facing the
socket, a slide carrying the heading die, which slide is connected to a lever actuated
by a tappet wheel so as to force the slide backwards against a spring, so that when
the tappet releases the lever the spring throws the slide forward with force, thus
causing the heading die to act upon the projecting end of the blank in the socket.
The slide is then at once moved back again by another tappet on the wheel, ready

page_text: for the next blow, tlie tappets being made of varying heights so as to move the
slide farther back and compress the spring to a greater extent each time, thus
increasing the force of the successive blows.
Round the end of the socket, in the same plane as the projecting end of the
. blank, are arranged two or more sets of opposite radial slides having facing dies.
These slides are connected to levers extending backwards and having their rear
ends presented to two or more sets of tappets on another tappet wheel, the
rotation of which is so timed with the rotation of the tappet wheel for
the heading die, that on the backward motion of the latter as described
and after the blank has been slightly projected as will be presently explained
a pair of opposite facing dies are made to advance and act upon two
opposite faces of the blank, after which these are made to recede and two other
opposite facing dies are made to advance and act upon two other faces of the
blank. Into the rear end of the socket carrying the blank projects a mandril,
against which the rear end of the blank rests while being operated upon. This
mandril is carried by a slide which is acted upon by levers and a third tappet
wheel, the rotation of which is so timed relatively to the other two by means of
suitable gearing that after the heading die has effected its stroke, the slide of the
mandril is moved forward slightly, thereby causing the partially formed blank to
be projected to a slightly greater extent from the socket, whereupon the facing
dies perform their strokes, and the series of operations are then repeated, When
the forging operations have been completed an increased motion of the mandril
slide caused by the action of a large tappet on its tappet wheel, effects the expulsion
of the finished spike or bolt from the socket

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th December 1883.
CHARLES DENTON ABEL of N° 28 Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane in
the county of Middlesex "IMPROVEMENTS IN FORGING RAILWAY SPIKES, SCREW
BOLTS, NUTS, AND THE LIKE, AND IN MACHINERY THEREFOR." A communication
to me from abroad by A. Urban und' Söhne of Vienna in the Austrian Empire,
Manufacturers
This invention has for its object the automatic forging of railway spikes, screw
bolts nuts and the like in such manner that no loss of inaterials by the formation
of fins can take place, each article being delivered perfect from the machine.
The invention consists mainly in subjecting the blank or rod for forming the
spike or bolt, while being held in a socket, to the consecutive actions of a heading
die and two or more sets of opposite facing dies, the blank being pushed slightly
forward from the socket by a mandril at the end of each stroke of the heading
die, and the strokes of the dies, are repeated two or more times until the formation
of the head is completed, after which the finished article is projected entirely from
the socket by the mandril.
For these purposes, a framing carrying the socket for the blank, has, facing the
socket, a slide carrying the heading die, which slide is connected to a lever
actuated by a tappet wheel so as to force the slide backwards against a spring so
that when the tappet releases the lever, the spring throws the slide forward with
force, thus causing the heading die to act upon the projecting end of the blank in
the socket. The slide is then at once moved back again by another tappet on the
wheel, ready for the next blow, the tappets being made of varying heights, so as
to move the slide farther back and compress the spring to a greater extent each.
time, thus increasing the force of the successive blows.
Round the end of the socket, in the same plane as the projecting end of the
blank, are arranged two or more sets of opposite radial slides having facing dies.
These slides are connected to levers extending backwards, and having their rear
ends presented to two or more sets of tappets on another tappet wheel, the rotation
of which is so timed with the rotation of the tappet wheel for the heading die that
on the backward motion of the latter as described, and after the-blank has been
slightly projected as will be presently explained, a pair of opposite facing.dies are
made to advance and act upon two opposite faces of the blank, after which these
are made to recede and two other opposite facing dies are made to advance and act
upon two other faces of the blank. Into the rear end of the socket carrying the
blank projects a mandril, against which the rear end of the blank rests while
being operated upon. This mandril is carried by a slido which is acted upon by
levers and a third tappet wheel, the rotation of which is so timed relatively to the
other two by means of suitable gearing, that after the beading die has effected its
stroke, the slide of the mandril is moved forward slightly, thereby causing the
partially formed blank to be projected to a slightly greater extent from the socket,
whereupon the facing dies perform their strokes, and the series of operations are
then repeated. When the forging operations have been completed, an. increased
motion of the mandril slide caused by the action of a large tappet on its tappet
wheel, effects the expulsion of the finished spike or bolt from the socket.
On the accompanying drawings Figs 1 to 12 shew various positions of the dies
or tools of the machine and the different forms of the forged article at the
successive stages of of manufacture, according to the present invention.

page_text: In these figures the operation is shewn as applied to the production of rail
spikes. Figs. 13, 14 and 15 shew the finished spike. Figs 16 to 20 shew the
complete machine Fig. 21 shews the tappet disc o³ with lever p and tappet
lever p²; Figs. 22 and 23 shew the engaging and disengaging gear. The action of
the machine is as follows:-
The iron rod a for forming the spike having been introduced into the die f, the
'downward movement of the hand lever i* causes a key i to be pushed into the
loose driving wheel u so as to set the toothed wheels in motion. For this purpose,
the wheel, which always rotates, is loose on the shaft on which is fixed the
toothed wheel k. The sleeve u is fixed, the key i being moveable therein. For
setting the machine in motion, the lever i* is pressed down, the arms and i³
being thus raised out of the recesses, whereby the key i; which was made to bear
against, is made free, and is forced by the two helical springs into the recess of
the boss of the wheel w, thus coupling the sleeveux with the wheel u and setting
the machine in motion.
The attendant depresses the lever until the recess on the boss t has passed,
from which point both arm 12 and are raised during 7/8 of a revolution,
during which time the spike is completed, until the arm 2 again drops into the
recess of the boss t, the arm is being thus brought on to the surface of the sleeve u*.
The key is then pushed out of the recess of the boss u by means of inclines formed
upon it and upon the lever is.
The motion is imparted by wheels k n to the dise o¹, which actuates the side
dies; by wheels ml to the disc 02 which pushes the blank forward; and lastly by
the wheels its q to the tappet disc os for producing the heading strokes.
The tappets of the disc o move the levers p p backwards, whereby the slide pl
with its heading die g is made to compress the spring r, so that when the tappets
release the slide, this is thrown forward by the spring r, so as to cause the die g to
act upon the blank a situated in the die f. The arrangement of the tappets on the
several discs is such that after the heading stroke has been effected, the one set of
tappets on disce o' act upon the diagonally arranged levers 6 d², moving them
outwards, whereby the slides b¹ & carrying the lateral dies b d are moved inwards,
so as to act upon two sides of the head of the blank a.
On the tappets releasing the levers, bd, the slides b' d' are moved backwards,
by the action of the helical springs i¹, which draw the rear ends of the levers
together, whereupon the second set of diagonal leyers c² e² are caused by other
tappets on o to advance another set of lateral slides c¹ e¹ with dies ce so as to act
upon the two other sides of the head.
During this operation, the slide p¹ will have been moved back again by the
tappets of o and levers ? p², so as to effect another heading stroke, and so on in
rotation.
The blank a in the die f is pushed forwards by degree by the mandril h, this
being acted upon by the slide h¹, levers h² ³ and tappet disc o².
The number of tappets on the discs, and the speed of the driving gear can be
made variable by changing these parts, so as to vary the number of blows in a
given time. The tappets of the disc o being made of succesively increasing height;
the strength of the successive blows of the heading die g is made to increase in a
corresponding manner. When the tappet discs o and o³ have made 7/8ths of a
revolution, the finished spike is pushed out of the die by the mandril h.
Having thus described the nature of the said invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondents,
I claim
--
"
First Forging railway spikes, screw, bolts, and the like by subjecting the
blanks to the successive action of a heading die g and the lateral dies b c d e
operating thereon in combination with the hollow die f and mandril, substantially
as herein described.
Second: In forging machines for railway spikes, "screw bolts, and the like, the

page_text: combination of the heading die g, slide pl, lovers 2 2 tappet disc o3 and spring r
arranged and operating as herein described.
Third: The combination of the opposite diagonal dies b c d c, slides b¹ c¹ d¹ e¹,
levers 2 c d e² and tappet disc o¹, arranged and operating as herein described for
operating alternately in pairs on opposite sides of the blank.
Fourth. The engaging and disengaging mechanism herein described with
reference to Figs 22 and 23 of the drawings.
In witness whereof I the said Charles Denton Abel have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this twenty seventh day of December in the year of our Lord, one thousand,
eight hundred and eighty three. '
CHAP. D ABEL
(L.S.)