IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR FORGING NAILS AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR FORGING
NAILS AND OTHER ARTICLES."-A communication.
Scaled the 3rd September 1857, and dated the 17th June 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton,
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
17th June 1857.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS, IN MACHINERY FOR FORGING
NAILS AND OTHER ARTICLES," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the forging of nails. and other
articles, by imparting thereto swaging blows, at or about .right angles to each.
other, alternately. In carrying out this object two anvil faces and two
hammers are employed, one hammer for each anvil face; and the two anvil
faces are formed on or connected together and with a vibrating or rocking.
shaft, and at such an angle that, by the rocking motion, first one anvil face is
brought under one face of the 'rod, or metal that is carried into the machine to
be forged, and then (as this anvil face recedes) the other anvil face is brought
up against another face of the rod or metal. The movements of these anvil
faces are so arranged with respect to the movements of the two hammers, that.

page_text: one hammer will strike the rod or metal when it is supported by, say, the
horizontal anvil face, and the other when the vertical anvil face is brought into
contact with the metal to be forged.
In this way the forging is effected between hammer and anvil, and by
successive blows at right angles, without the necessity of turning the article
that is being forged; and each blow is struck at the time when the anvil is at
rest.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 17th December 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times thereafter 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR FORGING NAILS AND OTHER ARTICLES," being
a communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 staetment, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-

page_text: The object of this Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign corre-
spondent, is to facilitate the forging of nails and other articles, by imparting
thereto swaging blows, in directions at or about right angles to each other,
alternately. In carrying out this object two anvil faces and two hammers are
employed, one hammer for each anvil face; and the two anvil faces are
formed on or connected together and with a vibrating or rocking shaft, and at
such an angle that, by the rocking motion, first one anvil face is brought under
one face of the article that is being forged, and then (as this anvil face recedes)
the other anvil face is brought up against another face of the article under
operation. The movements of these anvil faces are so timed with respect
to the movement of the two hammers, that one hammer will strike the article.
to be forged on the face opposite to the one which, for the time being, is
supported by one of the anvils; and as this hammer recedes the other hammer.
acts on the said article against the other anvil. In this way the forging
is effected between hammer and anvil, and by successive blows at right angles,
without the necessity of turning the article that is being forged; and each
blow is struck at the time when the anvil is at rest.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is a plan of the machine; Fig. 2,
a side elevation; Fig. 3, a vertical section taken at the line A, a, of Fig. 1;
and Fig. 4 is another vertical section taken at the line B, b, of Fig. 1.
a represents the main framing, and 6 a heavy shaft hung upon adjustable
centres c, c, held by screws in two heads of the frame; but journals may,
if desired, be substituted for such centres. This shaft receives a rocking
or reciprocating rotary motion on its axis from a crank d, on the main shaft
e, by a connecting rod f, which takes hold of a wrist pin on an armg of the
said rock shaft. The end h of this rock shaft is of an enlarged size, depending
on the articles intended to be forged; and a sector is cut out to form two anvil
faces i, j, of about one hundred and thirty-five degrees with each other, more
or less, depending on the extent of the rocking motion; but the angle
presented by the planes of these two faces, and the range of the rocking
motion, must be such that the faces of these two anvils will be brought
alternately against the article to be hammered, first against one face and then
against another face at right angles with the first.
The rod of iron to be hammered is put into a feeder k, which is a flat plato
adapted to slide in suitable ways in one of the heads of the framing a; and the
outer end is sustained and further guided by a rod 7 projecting from the head
of the framing, on which rod a projecting ear m with a hole in it slides;
or this feeder may be guided in any other suitable manner. The rod to
be hammered is laid on the surface of the feeder, and against the face of

page_text: a vertical flanch n, and passes through a hole in another flanch o at the end,
and is projected beyond this end to the distance required for the production of
the article intended to be forged. The operator, after inserting the rod in the
feeder, pushes the feeder in to the required extent to bring the end of the rod.
over the anvils. Thus held, the anvil face i by the rocking motion is brought
against the under face of the rod, as represented by full lines in Fig. 3, and
then the other anvil face j is brought against the edge of the rod, as repre-
sented by red lines in the same Figure: In this way the two anvil' faces are in
succession brought against the rod to be forged, that it may be struck
alternately by the two hammers p and q, but at right angles; and as the anvils
receive motion from a crank they are held against the article that is being
forged at the time the crank passes its' dead points, so that each anvil face is at
rest sufficiently long to receive the blow of the hammer.
The hammer p acts in conjunction with the anvil facé i, and is on an arm p¹,
which projects from a hub s adapted to turn on a rock shaft t, mounted on
adjustable centres held by screws in two heads of the frame, so' that the
hammer face may be properly adjusted longitudinally to the anvil face; and
this hub s has a stud a projecting from it, which enters a mortise of greater
size in an arm v of the rock shaft t, the arm being provided with set screws
w, w, passing through to act on the stud of the hammer arm húb, so that
by turning the said screws the face of the hammer can be made to strike
nearer to or further from the anvil face i. The rock shaft t is provided with
another arma, with a slot y of the form represented, into which plays a crank
pin z of the main shaft to rock the shaft t and give the striking motion to the
hammer; the other hammer q acts against the anvil face j, and is mounted in
the same manner as the hammer p, but on another rock shaft a¹, which receives
motion from the same crank pin z, the pin being long enough to pass through
a slotted arm 2¹ on the rock shaft a¹.. The alternation of the strokes of the
two hammers derived from the same crank pin is due to the relative position
of the two rock shafts.
It will be obvious that the anvil faces and the stock and shaft may be
made of one mass of metal with steel faces welded thereon, or that they may
be made of chilled cast iron; but it is preferred to make the face separate, and
to fit it in dove-tail or other recesses, as in the well-known mode of fitting
dies; and this is the more important, as the anvil and hammer faces in most
cases should be properly shaped, in the manner of swages, as in the Drawing,
where they are represented as adapted to the forging of horse-shoe nails.
After the nail has been formed by the foregoing operation, the operator
draws back the feeder with the rod which has been operated upon until it is

page_text: stopped by a gauge pin 61 (see Fig. 4), and this brings the rod in the proper
position for cutting off the nail with the head. The cutting off is effected by a
moveable cutter c¹ acting against a stationary cutter d₁ which is over the rod,
and under which the feeder slides with the rod.
The moveable cutter is below the feeder, and turns on a stud pin e¹ projecting
from one of the heads of the frame a. To the under side of this cutter there
is hinged a plate f¹ with a spring, the tension of which keeps it in line with
the cutter when the cutter is not to be operated; but when the operator draws
back the feeder with the rod, he pushes a sliding rod g¹ that passes through
the head of the frame and acts on the hinged plate to force it out, so that it will
be struck by a spur h¹ on the end of the anvil shaft, which lifts the cutter to a
sufficient height to cut off the completed nail..
Having now set forth the nature of the Invention of "Improvements
in Machinery for Forging Nails and other Articles," as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, and explained the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I would remark that I do not limit myself to the use of the kind of
feeder and cutters above described, as equivalent devices and arrangements may
be substituted; nor do I wish to be understood as limiting my claim to the
described special construction of anvils and hammers, or arrangement of
mechanism for imparting the motions, as the same results may be obtained
without departing from this Invention, by the substitution of equivalents; but
what I claim under the above in part recited Letters Patent is, the employment
of two anvil faces placed at an angle with each other, and having a rocking
motion to bring them alternately in contact with the article to be forged,
substantially as described, in combination with the hammer, substantially as
and for the purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Seventeenth day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)