IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN APPARATUS FOR MAKING HOLES IN METAL
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles de Bergue at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd
March 1869.
I, CHARLES DE BERGUE, of 10, Strand, in the City of Westminster,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AND IN APPARATUS FOR MAKING HOLES IN METAL," to be as
follows:-
The Invention consists in a mode or modes of making holes in metal
by punching, by so mechanically feeding, guiding, or controlling the
work or presenting it to the action of the punch or punches as to obtain
a regular or other accurate pitch or distance between the holes when
punched, and at the same time to ensure a proper determined distance of
the holes from the edge or edges of the work.
The apparatus may have a series of regulated notches or recesses or
other feed contrivance serving to measure the advance of the work to
the tool for each hole (or it may be set of holes) to be punched, and is
intended to be affixed to the punching machine, a roller or stud also
affixed to the said machine being supplied to gauge the distance from
the edge or edges of the work.

page_text: Also in the making punched holes in metal, and more particularly
metal plates, by mechanically guiding or controlling the work or pre-
senting it to the action of the punch by the use of a plate or template
with a number of bell-mouthed, conical, or tapering holes therein, the
smaller ends of which coincide with the size of the intended punching
tool, the plate or template being intended to be temporarily bolted,
clamped, or connected firmly to the work to be punched, and the holes
therein to guide or bring the work accurately (though presented only
approximately) to the operation of the punch, which is supposed to
occupy a definite position. In performing this improvement the work
when of small dimensions may be offered by hand to the action of the
punch by successively bringing any one hole in the template as nearly
as may be direct under the punch, when the punch as it descends and
works within and along the bell-mouthed or other surface will bring the
work exactly into the required and definite position. And when the
work is of larger dimensions than can be readily managed by hand, it
may be supported or slung in accordance with the the next mentioned
improvement.
Also in the making punched holes in plates or other work by slinging
it from overhead moveable carriages or traversing frames for floating or
supporting the work in any desired position and approximately (if not
exactly) bringing it into position with regard to the punch, whether the
work has not or has the improved plate or template with bell-mouthed
holes in use or not. The slings may be chains or ropes and may rise
vertically or otherwise from the plate to any ordinary or simple traversing
crane erected for the purpose. When the improved template with bell-
mouthed holes is not in use the precise position for punching is to be
given as nearly as may be by hand, the plate being previously marked,
the weight of the plate to be punched being supported as described.
Owing to the difficulty of making a number of holes accurately in
relative position by punching it is becoming the custom to drill, which is
very costly and troublesome, moreover the holes produced by punching
are always taper or somewhat larger at one, side of the plate than the
other. Now the Invention includes the making holes in metal (in plates
and in other forms) by primarily punching the holes of somewhat less
than the intended finished size, and by subsequently boring out or
finishing the holes to the required size and free from taper. By this
process holes irregularily punched may be corrected and completed in

page_text: exact position and uniformly to one exact diameter throughout the
length of hole. To perform this improvement the Invention consists
further in constructing machines for the purpose with a series of rc-
volving spindles, each having a suitable cutter such as afterwards
described or otherwise, and being separately weighted or otherwise
pressed upon and revolving on shoulders while the work is fed up to or
against the cutting tools. This improvement may be performed by
mounting the spindles in a framework and driving them by bevil and
spur gearing or by skew gearing or by a crank action, using a plate with
a number of holes therein for combinedly driving or actuating the
several spindles without interference with their action; or they may be
driven in any other convenient manner. And also further in con-
structing machines for the above purposes with vertical screw spindles
separately weighted as lastly set forth and with differential gearing, for
the purpose of gradually and equally controlling, that is, limiting the
extent of vertical descent or feed action of the tools, but without forcing
the said descent beyond the pressure due to the weight. This may be
accomplished by the application of differential spur pinion gearing
somewhat after the manner ordinarilly practised for giving the feed
motion to a boring bar, but the spindle itself forming the screw. And
also in a cutting or boring tool for metal which turns on its own axis,
and is formed of a parallel or tapered plate with the two corners rounded
or otherwise finished, but with the rim at the said extremity bevilled off
partly in one and partly in the opposite direction, and in addition thereto
with the faces of the tool (or sides of the plate) at the cutting parts
thereof both for the advance forward and for side clearance recessed or
bevilled off or away from the cutting edge so as to obtain a cutting
(rather than a scraping) angle resulting from the recessed bevilled edge
on the face with regard to the immediate portion of the work against
which it is presented. This tool is intended for use more especially in
the improved machines for cutting out lengthwise and in an accurate
position defined by the axis of the tool holes already made, whether in or
out of the accurate intended position, the tool not being self-centering
like an ordinary drill, but acting independently of the position of the
said already made holes. The rounded form, which is the more con-
venient for the working end of the tool, may have each recess or bevil
(on the faces) made concave and produced by first cutting with spherical
cutters, and (after hardening) grinding by means of small spheres (of
somewhat larger diameter) quickly revolved, and the application of fine

page_text: emery and oil or other cutting material, the recess being so situate as in
part (that is at the cutting parts) to coincide with the rounded form,
while the outer cutting bevilled edges are also ground to the required
angles by means of metal grinders of suitable shape with emery
and oil.