NEW OR IMPROVED MA- CHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED IN PUNCHING METALS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joshua Horton, of Smethwick, in the County of
Stafford, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "NEW OR IMPROVED MA-
CHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED IN PUNCHING METALS."
Sealed the 17th September 1858, and dated the 29th March 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joshua Horton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 29th
March 1858.
I, JOSHUA HORTON, of Smethwick, in the County of Stafford, Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "NEW OR IMPROVED
MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED IN PUNCHING METALS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the machinery herein after described for punching
metals, the said machinery having for its object the guiding of the metal
to be punched, so that the holes punched therein shall be at the required dis-
tances from each other. My Invention is especially applicable to the punching
of the plates used in the manufacture of gasholders, boilers, tanks, and girders.
The plate or bar to be punched is fixed in any convenient manner upon a table
capable of an intermitting sliding motion. In order to determine the precise
distance to which the table shall move at each motion, I fix underneath the
said table and on the bed of the machine a template or plate having a row of
holes therein, the said holes being at distances from each other equal to the
distances which it is intended the holes to be punched shall have. A spring
catch fixed on the table bears upon the template, and when the table has

page_text: moved through a distance equal to the distance between two adjacent holes the
said catch is pressed into one of the holes in the template; the table is thereby
fixed, and a hole is punched in the plate. The spring catch is disengaged
from the template, and the table set again into motion, the catch being allowed
to press upon the template as soon as the motion of the table has commenced.
When the table has brought the spring catch over the next hole in the tem
plate, the said catch engages with the said hole, and the motion of the table
is again arrested. The second hole is then punched in the plate, and the
operations described are continued until a row of holes is punched at the same
distances from each other as those in the template. Instead of a spring catch
other mechanical contrivances may be employed to engage the moving table with
the template. The said template may be fixed upon the table, and the
engaging mechanism upon the bed of the machine with the same or nearly
the same effect.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joshua Horton in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
27th September 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSHUA
HORTON, of Smethwick, in the County of Stafford, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Joshua Horton, Her special licence that I, the said Joshua Horton,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Joshua Horton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "NEW OR
IMPROVED MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED IN PUNCHING METALS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Joshua Horton, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,

page_text: 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 Joshua Horton, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the machinery herein-after particularly described
and represented in the accompanying Drawing, to be employed in punching
metals, the said machinery having for its object the guiding of the metal to be
punched, so that the holes punched therein shall be punched exactly at the
required distances from each other.
My Invention is especially applicable to the punching of the plates used in
the manufacture of gasholders, boilers, tanks, and girders; but my said Inven-
tion may be applied generally to the punching of metals where a series of
punchings at determinate distances are required.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents in side elevation, and
Figure 2 in end elevation, a machine constructed according to my Inven-
tion; Figure 3 represents the same in plan. The same letters are employed
to indicate the same parts in the several Figures.
a is a table, having a sliding motion upon the bars b, b, on the bed of the
machine. The motion of the said table a is effected by pinions c engaging in
the racks d on the under side of the said table a. Motion is communicated
to the pinions c by the hand wheel e, fixed on the axis f of the pinions c. The
plate, sheet, or bar, to be punched is fixed in any convenient manner upon the
table a.
In punching plates or sheets, I prefer to adjust the said plates or
sheets in the following manner :-The plate or sheet being adjusted on the
table a so that the edge to be punched is parallel with and overhangs the
edge a of the table a, the said plate or sheet is fixed on the said table by
means of the clamps 9 and h; a row of holes having been punched in the
overhanging edge of the plate or sheet, the said plate or sheet is liberated from
the table and turned so that the end or adjacent edge is brought over the
edge a of the table a, the exact position of the plate or sheet being deter-
mined by the pins a and as, which are adjusted to take into two of the holes
first punched in the sheet or plate. The plate or sheet being again fixed by
one or both of the clamps g and h, a row of holes is punched in the second
edge. The other edges are adjusted and punched in a similar manner, the
pins a² and as being employed to adjust the plate or sheet for punching the third
edge, and the pins af and as being employed to adjust the plate or sheet for

page_text: punching the fourth edge. The pins a², a³, a, a, are capable of exact adjust-
ment by means of the screws on which they are supported, as represented. In
punching the first edge the table a moves in the direction of the arrow,
Figure 3; and in punching the second edge in the contrary direction, tho
direction of the table's motion being changed when a fresh edge is about to
be punched. The mechanism by which the punching of the holes is effected,
differing in no respect from that ordinarily employed, I have not repre-
sented the said punching mechanism in the Drawing; the object of my
Invention being to secure the accurate moving of the metal to be punched
under the punching mechanism.
In order to determine the precise distance to which the table a shall move
prior to each of the intervals of rest during which the punching is effected, I
fix on the bed of the machine a template i, that is to say, a plate or bar
having a row of holes k therein, the said holes being at distances from each
other equal to the distances which it is intended the holes shall have in the
plate to be punched upon the table a. A steel peg m is pressed upon the
template by means of a helical or coiled spring in the box m' (see Figure 2),
in which the said peg m slides. A lever engages in a slot in the peg m.
When the steel peg m is over one of the holes k in the template i, the said
peg m is pressed into the said hole and the table a is fixed. In using my
machine a workman is stationed at the wheel e, for the purpose of giving
a rotary motion thereto, and an assistant is stationed at the lever l. The
assistant presses upon the lever 1, thereby raising the peg m from the
template i, and permitting of the motion of the table a. The workman at the
wheel e, by giving a partial rotation to the said wheel e, causes the table a to
slide on the bed of the machine.
The assistant loosing the lever 1, the peg m is again pressed upon the
template. As soon as the table a has been moved so far as to bring the peg
m over that hole in the template i next to the one in which the said peg m
had been last engaged, the said peg m is forced into the said next hole, and
the table a arrested in its motion. The punching mechanism now punches a
hole in the plate upon the table a, and the punching tool having been raised
from the hole punched, the operations described are repeated, that is to say,
the assistant depresses the lever 1, thereby liberating the table a from the
template i, and the workman operating upon the wheel e, moves the table a
until the peg m is brought over the next hole in the template i, and the table
a again brought to rest. Another hole is punched, and so on, until a row of
holes has been punched along one edge of the plate. The plate is liberated
from the table a by unscrewing the clamps g and h, and the said plate having

page_text: been replaced and fixed upon the table a so as to present another of its edges
to the punching mechanism, the punching of a row of holes in the second edge
is effected, and so on with regard to the other edges.
Although I have only described one template i and one lever 1, yet other
templates may be fixed upon the bed of the machine in the positions i², ³,
and, the said templates at 2, 3, and it having rows of holes, the distance of
which from one another differs from the distance between the holes on the
template i. For each template a lever and steel peg, similar to the lever
and peg m, are employed, the said levers being marked P, P, 1, respectively.
The peg m is represented in Figure 2, and the positions of the pegs worked
by the levers 1³, 1, are indicated by the bosses m³, m', respectively in which
the pegs work. As only one template is used at a time, it is necessary to lock
all the levers 1, 1, P, 1, excepting that one which engages with the template
it is wished to use; this locking of the levers is effected by means of bolts
n, o, the said bolts being provided with cross tail pieces n², o², respectively.
Any or all of the levers may be locked so as to prevent their engagement
with the templates by means of the bolts n, o. When the bolt o is in the
position indicated in the Drawing, it fixes the lever in the depressed position
shown in Figure 2. By pushing the bolt o further to the right it may be
made to hold down or lock both the levers 7 and ; and by pushing it further
still, the cross piece of may be made to pass off and liberate the lever P.
a similar way the bolt n nay be made to lock either or both of the levers 13, 1.
Any desired number of templates may be fixed on the bed of the machine for
the purpose of punching rows of holes having such distances as may be
required. The templates are adjusted and fixed by means of the nuts q, the
said nuts engaging on the screws formed on the ends of the templates.
Instead of making the table a engage with the templates by means of the
levers and steel pegs described, other mechanical arrangements may be
employed to make the table engage with the holes in the template. And
although I prefer to fix the template upon the bed of the machine, and to
place the mechanism for engaging the moving table with the template upon
the said table, yet the engaging mechanism may be connected to the bed of
the machine and the template be fixed on the moving table with the same or
nearly the same effect.
In
Having now described the nature of my said Invention and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described, as the same may be varied
without departing from the nature of my Invention; but I claim as my
Invention the new or improved machinery to be employed in punching metals,

page_text: herein-before described, and represented in the accompanying Drawing, that
is to say, machinery in which the metal to be punched is moved under the
punching machine by being fixed on a travelling table, the said travelling
table moving with an intermittent motion, the distance through which the said
table travels between the periods of rest during which the punching is effected
being regulated by a template or series of pattern holes, which template, in
conjunction with engaging mechanism, brings the travelling table to rest in
the required positions.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joshua Horton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
JOSHUA HORTON. (L.S.)