IMPROVEMENTS IN SCREW FASTENINGS
Year: 1855

page_text: Sealed the 7th December 1855, and dated the 22nd June 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux
Bellford at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 22nd June 1855.
I, AUGUSTE EDOUARD LORADOUX BELLFORD, of 32, Essex Street, Strand,
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN SCREW FASTENINGS," (a communication,) to be as follows;
and relates to screw fastenings which are to be used under those conditions in
which a bolt & nut of the common kind are not conveniently applicable.
It consists in constructing either a bolt head or a nut, whereby the screwing
up of the nut or bolt causes it to expand & fit tightly within an opening, by
making the head of a screw bolt of fixed wedges or inclined pieces & loose.
expanding-pieces; or,-what-is-equivalent; making-the-nut with the said fixed-
wedges.or-inclined-pieces & expanding side pieces; also of forming the fixed

page_text: wedges or inclined side pieces of the bolt or nut up the sides of the bolt; also
in confining the expanding pieces to the bolt or nut by means of an elastic
ring; which permits expansion and removal.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed.
by the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 21st December 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, AUGUSTE
EDOUARD LORADOUX BELLFORD, of 32, Essex Street, Strand, London, but now
at Paris, Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day.of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, Her special licence that I, the
said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as l; the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agrée with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, éxercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN SCREW
FASTENINGS," (a communication,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 immediately-after the date of the said Letters Patent._
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford,
do hereby declare the nature of the said 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 screw fastenings which are to be used under those
conditions in which a bolt and nut of the common kind are not conveniently
applicable. It consists in a certain method of constructing either a bolt head
or a nut, as the case may require, whereby the screwing up 'of the nut or

page_text: bolt, as the case may be, causes the bolt head or nut to expand, for the purpose
of making it fit tightly within an opening in which it is received, and prevent
its drawing out. .
Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 in the Drawing give the simplest illustration of
the Invention, representing a. bolt and nut, with the bolt head made to
expand; Fig. 7 showing the application of the bolt to secure an iron bracket
to a piece of masonry. Similar letters refer to like parts in these Figures.
A is the bolt, which is made with two wedges a, one opposite the other, to
form a portion of the head. The form of these wedges is distinctly shown in
Figs. 1, 2, and 3; Fig. 1 showing a longitudinal view of the bolt and nut
complete; Fig. 2, a similar view of the bolt, with the nut and expanding
portions of the head taken off; and Fig. 3, an end view of Fig. 2. b, b, are
the two parts of the expanding collar, which with the wedges a, a, form the
head of the bolt. The two parts b, b, form a centrally divided hollow cylinder,
and when close together, as shown in Fig. 1, they fit so as just to work freely
over the bolt. They are both cut away, beveling on opposite sides, as shown in
Figs. 1 and 4, to fit to the wedges a, a.
It will be seen that the wedges a, a,
extend up the sides of the bolt far enough to terminate in a point, and thus,
allowing the head to be made much smaller, give a greater length of bearing
to the expanding pieces b, b, than if the bolt were formed with a head having
inclined sides, as might be the case. A groove is formed around the expanding
pieces to receive a split ring c of steel. The use of this ring is to confine the
parts of the collar together and to the bolt, so that they may be readily placed
in the holes, and when therein to allow them to expand, as shown in the
outside view Figs. 4, and section Fig. 5. It also, when the nut is unscrewed
and the collar loosened, contracts the collar and, allows the bolt to be
removed. Without the last-named property of the ring the bolts would
be difficult to remove. The application of the ring c is illustrated in
Fig. 6, which is a section in the line x, x, of Fig. 1. B is the nut, which
is of the common kind. The expanding collar must always be of proper size
to fit the opening which is to receive it, and when the bolt is to be employed
the collar must be put on. Suppose the bracket c, shown in Fig. 7, requires
to be secured to a wall or piece of masonry, it has holes drilled or cast in it
'at distances apart to correspond with the holes in the wall or masonry, but
only of sufficient size to allow the screw part of the bolt to pass through.
The bolts, with the expanding pieces drawn together, as shown in Fig. 1, are
placed with their heads in the holes in the masonry with their screw parts
protruding therefrom, the nuts being removed; the bracket is held up to its

page_text: place, and then the, nuts B, B, are put on the screws. The nuts when
screwed up draw on the bolt, and as the wedges a, a, draw out they force
apart the expanding pieces b, b, till they fit tightly within the holes. The
harder the nut is screwed up, the tighter will the bolt head fit the hole.
Instead of making the bolt with only two wedges a, a, as above described,
three or more may be used, and the expanding collar may consist of a corre-
sponding number of expanding pieces b, b.
Fig. 8 exhibits an end view of a bolt with three wedges a, a, a; and
Fig. 9, a section of the bolt and the expanding pieces.
Fig. 10 shows the manner in which we serrate the expanding pieces for
making them hold in wood-work. By making the nut in the form of a
handle, the expanding bolt may be converted into a lefting apparatus. This
is illustrated in Fig. 12, where also, and in Fig. 11, the expanding head is
shown of square form, either to fit a square hole just large enough to receive
it, or to be employed in a large irregular shaped hole with packing pieces.
In Fig. 12, D represents a portion of a heavy iron casting, having a cavity
d, d, which happens to be convenient to receive the bolt head, and two
packing pieces f. f, which are placed between the expanding pieces b, b, and
the opposite sides of the cavity d, d. By screwing the nut B¹ up against the.
contiguous shoulder of the expanding pieces of the bolt head, the bolt is drawn
into the nut, and the wedges a, a, force apart the expanding pieces till the
bolt is secured perfectly tight. In employing the bolt for lifting purposes,
instead of constructing the nut to be taken hold of, we prefer to use a common
nut B, as shown in Fig. 13, and to extend the bolt A, and furnish it with a
ring E, or give its end some other form which will admit of its being taken
hold of by a tackle. This is a safer arrangement, as there is no danger of
the slackening of the nut by any twisting action during the lifting operation.
Fig. 13 also serves to show that many articles requiring to be secured to the
walls of buildings or other structures may be made to form part of the bolt.
.
Figs. 14 & 15 show the expanding principle applied to the nut instead of
to the bolt. Fig. 14 is an end view of the nut E, having wedges a, a, on
opposite sides, like the heads of the bolts A, and having the expanding
pieces b, b, applied to it, with a ring c; in the same manner as those bolts.
The bolt employed in this case is a common screw bolt. Fig. 15 illustrates
the application of this expanding nut with a bolt F to secure an iron G to a
wall. The nut is inserted in a hole made in the wall to receive it, and by
screwing up the bolt the nut is drawn up, and its wedges force apart the
expanding pieces b, b, till they fit tightly in the hole.

page_text: In all the above applications the expanding bolt or nut is loosened, when its
nut or bolt is unscrewed, and by a slight tap on the end of the bolt the
wedges a, a, may be driven inwards to set the expanding pieces free to be.
contracted by the elastic ring; but Fig. 16 shows the manner in which a nut
can be permanently fixed in a hole so as to admit of the insertion and removal
of a screw bolt, without in any way disturbing it. A is a bolt with an
expanding head a, a, b, b, c, just like Fig. 1, but having a nut B², which is
cylindrical externally, and not of greater diameter than the bolt head is when
not expanded. The nut B2 is about twice as. deep as the greatest length
of the screw A it will ever receive. It has a notch h cut in its outer end,
as shown in Fig. 17, to receive a screw-driver. The hole in which the nut is
received is as deep or a little deeper than the whole of the head of the bolt A
and the nut B together. The bolt and nut are placed together entirely
within the hole, and the nut turned by a screw-driver till the bolt head is
sufficiently expanded. This leaves the nut jammed hard against the front
shoulder of the expanding pieces b, b, and entirely within or flush with the
face of the wall or other structure, with a sufficient length unoccupied by
the screw A2 to receive another screw. A hook J is shown screwed into this
nut. Fig. 18 shows a permanent nut B,. applied like B2, but protruding
beyond the hole. For some purposes this protrusion of the nut may be
desirable, as, for instance, in securing a stone cornice or console, when the
nuts entering holes drilled for them in the back of the cornice or console
serve to steady it while the screw A³ which secure the cornice or console
are put in

page_text: Third, confining the expanding pieces b, b, to the bolt or nut by means of an
clastic ring c, substantially as described, which keeps thein always in condition
to use on the bolt or nut, and which allows them to expand and to remain
parallel during their expansion, and contracts the collar when the nut or bolt
is unscrewed, and allows the bolt or nut to be removed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Auguste Edouard Loradoux Bellford,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of December,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
A. E. LORADOUX BELLFORD. (L.S.)