AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING NAILS
Year: 1790

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
CLIFFORD, of the City of Bristol, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Fourth day of December, in the thirty-first year of
His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Clifford, His especial
licence that I, the said Thomas Clifford, during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of. "AN
IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING NAILS;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Thomas Clifford, under
my hand and seal, to 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 His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after
the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (relation
being thereunto had) may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Clifford, do hereby declare that my said Invention of an Improved
Mode of Manufacturing Nails is described in manner following, that is
to say:-
My Improved Mode of Manufacturing Nails consists :-
First, in drawing the iron or other metal, of which they are to be made,
tapering or in a wedge-like form, according to the length and thickness of the
different sizes of nails to be made.

page_text: Secondly, the nails are to be ent out of those wedge-like or tapering plates
by means of a punch, the face of which is made according to the size, taper,
and form of the nail to be cut out, as also having a hollow boulster (commonly
called a bed) the hollow or aperture of which must also be made to the size
and form of the nail, and consequently to fit and receive the punch above
mentioned; the punch, thus fitted to the bed, and sliding in a frame to keep
exact and steady, doth, by a blow or other prossure, cut and force a part of the
taper plate above mentioned into and through the aperture of the bed fitting
thereto, and by which the nail is formed; this operation is by the manufac
turers of buckles, buttons, (and others) generally called cutting out.
Thirdly, in order to form the heads of those nails commonly called rose
heads, as also some other sorts which have a pretty large head, after the
operation of drawing and cutting out as above, the nail is to be put into a
Leading tool, which I also call a bed, which bed receives the nail, excepting a
small portion at the thick end, of which the head is formed by a kind of punch
commonly called a dye, the end or nose of which die must be made according
to the size and form of the head intended to be made. This dic, by a blow or
other pressure, forms the head as required; and when the nails are made of
hard iron or other metal, after they are cut out as above, I make the
thick end hot before they are put into the bed or heading tool as above
mentioned.
Fourthly, my method of manufacturing some sorts of nails is by cutting
them out of or from plates of equal thickness, and afterwards to point them
either by a haminer or other pressure.
Fifthly, for the making of such nails as are not intended to be square or
right angled, but more of a triangular form, I press or stamp the plate or strip
of iron or other metal into a dic, having impressions cut to the form of such
nails, after which operation I cut them out by a punch in manner before
described.
•
I also make divers sorts of nails by passing the iron or other metal between
two rolls, having impressions according to the different forms cut into the
surface of one or both of the rolls, whereby a sheet is procured, having in
some measure the appearance of nails, and which sail nails are to be cut out
in the manner above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Clifford, have hereunto set my
haud and seal, this Twenty-third day of December, One thousand
seven hundred and ninety.
THOMAS CLIFFORD. (L.S.)

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the said Twenty-third day of
December, in the year above written, the aforesaid Thomas Clifford came
before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifi-
cation 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.