IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR FORGING NAILS PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1858

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 "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR FORGING NAILS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd August 1858.
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 "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR FORGING NAILS
AND OTHER ARTICLES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has reference to that class of forging machines in which
pairs of hammers, operated by a single cam, are employed for bringing the
heated metal to the required form, the hammers receiving a forward impetus
from the pressure of springs.
The Invention consists, firstly, in causing the coiled springs which operate
the hammers to vibrate upon centres, independent of the pivots of the hammer
helves, and sufficiently far removed therefrom that the position of the bearing
points of the springs upon the helves will vary according to the position of the
helves themselves, so that at the instant when the latter are about to pass off*

page_text: the point of the cam, the springs will bear upon them sufficiently far from
their pivots to throw them quickly together, and prevent them from being
again caught by the cam before they have effected their blow. At the moment
when the hammers come together, the springs will bear upon the helves at a
point much nearer to their pivots, and thus exert much less power, whereby
the required elasticity of the blow will be preserved.
The coiled spring used consists of two barrels, connected together by a
tongue-shaped projection of the wire, on the end of which a roller is mounted.
Through these barrels a fixed centre pin is passed, and the ends of the wires
are straightened out and brought under an adjustable plate bolted to the
framing of the machine. By shifting the position of this plate, the strength
of the spring is regulated, and this capability of adjusting the springs is very
essential, as it is absolutely necessary that the hammers meet upon a central
line, passing through the axis of the cam shaft.
To ensure the movement of the pairs of hammers in the same plane, with-
out which perfect work cannot be attained, the side pieces which support the
hammer helves upon either side are faced with check pieces which rest against
the helves, and are set up to them by screws, thus as either of the helves or their
side bearings wear from use, the hammers may be brought up into position..
In order that each nail as, it is formed may be cut off the rod by the
machine itself, the table over which the heated nail rod is fed into the
machine is made capable of receiving a lateral motion, and thus of bringing
the rod under a pair of cutters, while at the same time the hammers are
retained in an open position.
The side motion of the table is effected as follows:-Beneath the bed of the
machine is a rock shaft which carries an arm that is caused to vibrato
constantly up and down in a short arc while the machine is in operation,
and through this arm the moveable cutter is set in motion. The cutter is
mounted on a lever which is linked to a vertical bar that slides in ways in the
main framing, and these moveable parts are held up by a tension spring. The
-stationary cutter is secured to the framework, a little to the left of the path of
the vertical hammers, and in such a position that when the table is vibrated,
as before mentioned, the nail rod shall be brought directly over it.
Through a mortice in the lower end of the vertical sliding bar, a short bar
is passed to receive the pressure of the arm of the rock shaft, when the bar is
thrust sufficiently far forward by the pressure of a hand lever provided for that
purpose. On the arm of the rock shaft coming into contact with this bar, the
movable cutter will be depressed and brought into action.
Before the descent of the cutter, it is necessary that the nail rod be vibrated

page_text: so as to bring it between the cutters. This is effected by the descent of the
sliding bar in the following manner :-Against the inner end of the table
which carries the rod rests the upper extremity of a lever pivoted to the frame-
work. This lever is connected by a link with a rock lever, that has on its
fulcrum a pin projecting from an adjustable block attached to the framework
by screws.
To the lower extremity of the vertical sliding bar is secured a block, the
upper portion of which, as it descends, strikes against a roll upon the lower
end of the rock lever, and thus as the vertical bar descends, this lever is
vibrated, and communicates to the table the vibratory motion for bringing the
nail rod over the fixed cutter. At the same time a roll upon the block of the
vertical sliding bar strikes against the foot of a forked rock lever, which in
moving forward causes two stops pivoted thereto to protrude through the
framework, and intercept the path of the side hammers, and hold them
clear of the path of the cutter, which then descends and severs the nail
from the rod.
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 29th January 1859.
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 Third day of August, in the year of our Lord
1858, in the twenty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton,
Her especial 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 "IMPROVED 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

page_text: 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 statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the machine; Figs. 2, 3, and 4, details to be
referred to hereafter.
The hammers A are arranged as in the Letters Patent granted to me on
the 25th November 1856, and are operated in pairs by a single cam B upon
a shaft C. They are pivoted to the framework upon bolts D, passing through
the extremity of their helves, and are thrown towards each other to give the
blow by springs, which are arranged and operated in a peculiar manner, for a
In machines of this class it is necessary,
purpose that will now be described.
in order that the hammers may perform their work in the best manner, that
they give what is known amongst mechanics as an elastic blow; this may be
accomplished by the use of coiled springs, which are wound around the bolts or
centres upon which the hammers vibrate, and bear upon the hammer helves
not far from their pivots. Such an arrangement of springs might answer a
good purpose where the machine is run only at a low rate of speed, but it is
entirely inapplicable where a high rate of speed is required, as in such case an
increased pressure is required upon the hammers at the moment they leave
the cam, in order to prevent them from bounding or flying off, and to ensure
their immediate fall after passing off the cam, that they may not be caught by
it again before they have come together. If the power of the spring were
sufficiently increased to accomplish this end, it would be too great for the force
of blow required, and would also soon destroy the hammers; and on the other
hand,
if-the-springs-were-made-to-bear-upon-the-hammers-at-a-point-farther
from their axes of vibration, and nearer to the face of the hammers, for the
purpose of increasing their power at the moment when the hammer's pass off
the point of the cam, then the elasticity of the blow would be impaired, and, as
before stated, imperfect work would result.
To reconcile these opposing difficulties is the object of the first part of iny
Invention, which consists in causing the springs to vibrate upon centres
independent of the pivots of the hammer helves, and sufficiently far removed
therefrom to cause the bearing points of the springs upon the helves to vary

page_text: according to the position of the helves themselves, so that at the instant when
the latter are about to pass off-the point of the cam, the springs shall bear
upon them sufficiently far from their pivots to throw them quickly together,
and prevent them from being again caught by the can before they have
effected their blow, and at the moment when the hammers come together, that
the springs may bear upon the helves at a point much nearer to their pivots,
and thus exert much less power, whereby the required elasticity of the blow
will be preserved.
The arrangement and operation of the spring for actuating the upper
hammer of the set will now be described; the others are similar in all respects
thereto, except so far as relates to their relative position and inclination, and
need not therefore be further described. The spring E seen detached in
Fig. 4 is wound upon the bolt G, around which it is coiled loosely several
times, its extreme ends c passing beneath the "set plate" F. This plate may
be set up to tighten the spring by the screw b, by which means more or less
tension is put upon the spring, and the force with which it bears upon the
hammer helve is adjusted. This capability of adjustment of the springs is very
essential, as it is absolutely necessary that the hammers meet upon a central
line, passing through the axis of the shaft C. It will be observed that the
position of the bolt G¹ which carries the spring is such, with respect to the
pivot D of the hammer helve, that as the latter is raised by the cam B, the
roller a carries the bearing point of the spring out towards the end of the
hammer, and thus at the moment when the helve passes off the point of the
cam, the spring exerts its greatest force upon it, and it is thrown quickly as
required, and completes its blow before it is again taken up by the cam. As,
however, the hammer descends the roller a rolls back towards the pivot D,
and at the instant when the hammer strikes, the spring exerts a far less power
upon it, owing to the nearness of the roll a to the pivot D. By thus hanging
the spring upon an axis independent of the axis of vibration of the hammer,
and so placing it with respect to the hammer as above described, that its
bearing point shall be nearer to the axis of vibration at the instant when the
blow is struck than when the hammer passes off the cam, I am enabled to
run the machine at a high rate of speed, and at the same time to preserve the
elasticity of blow required. When forging hammers are arranged to operate
in pairs, it becomes necessary that they move always in the same undeviating
plane, and that they be not allowed to sag or deviate from.this plane by any
wear of the side pieces between which they vibrate; and this accuracy of
action is particularly necessary where the hammer faces. are indented with dies
of the form of the article to be made, as the least deviation from corro-

page_text: spondence of the two halves of the die will form imperfect work. To ensure
this end the side pieces H which support the hammer helves upon either side
are faced with check pieces I, which rest against the helves, and are set up to
them by screws f; thus, as either the helves or their side bearings wear from
use, the hammers may be brought into position and caused to operate con-
stantly in the same undeviating plane, the slightest want of correspondence
between the two halves of the die being instantly corrected. The machine
represented in the accompanying Drawings is designed for the manufacture of
horse-shoe nails, there being suitable dies in the faces of the hammers (not
shown in the Drawings) for the purpose.
For the more perfect and rapid action of this machine it becomes necessary
that each nail as it is formed be cut off the rod by the machine itself; for this
purpose I have contrived the following cut off:-The heated nail rod K is
entered into the machine upon a table L, and is held during the operation of
forging a nail by the eccentric dog M, and fed forward previous to the forming
of each nail by the hand of the attendant, the dog M being held down upon
the rod by a spring y (Fig. 1). It will be observed on an inspection of Fig. 1
that the pivots round which the hammers vibrate are placed at a considerable
distance from each other, and from the axis of rotation of the cam B; this
gives a peculiar drawing motion to the hammers, very essential to the manu-
facture of a good wrought nail; when thus arranged, however, the ends of the
haminers require more room for their vibration in the direction of the nail rod,
and it becomes necessary, in order to cut off the finished nail from the rod, not
only to move it to one side out of the reach of the vertical pair of hammers,
but also to catch and hold stationary the side hammers while the movable
cutter is in the act of descending and returning from its cut, this cutter being
so arranged that it shall remain stationary except when it is brought into
action by the attendant. The table L is furnished at its inner end with a guide
or nozzle N through which the nail rod passes, and at its opposite end it is
allowed to turn freely upon a pivot i on the top of a post or standard 0; the
nozzle N passes through an oblong inclined mortise Q in the framework P, to
the upper end of which mortise-it-is-held-by-the-spring-d, whilst the hammers
are operating upon the iron, as seen in Fig. 1. When the nail is finished
and to be cut off, it is moved to one side out of the reach of the vertical
hammers and within range of the cutters, the side hammers being caught and
held stationary until the cutting off is completed. The side motion of the
table L is effected as follows:-Beneath the bed of the machine is a shaft R,
to which is communicated a vibratory motion in a short arc by means of an
eccentric F2 upon a driving shaft C, which is connected by means of a strap

page_text: G2 and a connecting arm with an arm H2 upon the shaft R, the connecting
arm and a portion of the arm H* not being seen in the Drawings. The shaft
R carries an arm S, which is thus made to vibrate constantly up and down in
a short are whenever the machine is in operation, and through this arm the
movable cutter X is set in motion as follows:-In suitable ways in the
framework P slides the vertical bar Y, which is connected at its upper
extremity by the link h with the cutter lever A², and together with the bar Y
is retained in the position seen in Fig. 2 by a spring B2 (Fig. 2), the cutter.
X being elevated and ready to be brought into action against the stationary
cutter C²; this latter cutter C² is secured to the framework P a little to the
left of the path of the vertical hammers, and in such a position that when the
table L is vibrated as before mentioned, the nail rod shall be brought directly
over it. Through a mortise in the lower end of the bar Y slides a short bar
U, which is drawn in the direction of its arrow, and retained out of the reach
of the arm S by a spring V. Against one end of the bar U rests the foot of
a band lever T, which is pivoted at g to the framework, and on this lever
being drawn in the direction of its arrow, the slide U is projected, as seen in
Fig. 2, in the direction contrary to its arrow and beneath the vibrating arm S,
whereby upon the next vibration of this arm the bar Y is caused to descend,
and with it the lever A2 and cutter X. When the lever T is released, it is
drawn back in a direction contrary to its arrow by a spring E2, and the slide
U is retracted by its spring V, and the cutter is no longer influenced by the
vibration of the arm S.
Before the descent of the cutter it is necessary that the nail rod be vibrated
so as to bring it between the cutters C² and X, and this is effected by the
descent of the bar Y in the following manner, the motions being so timed that
the rod shall have completed its sidewise motion before the movable cutter
reaches it. It has before been stated that the table L is held in the position
seen in Fig. 1 by the spring d; against the inner end of this table rests the
upper extremity of a lever L2, which is pivoted to the framework at m
(Fig. 3); this lever is connected with another lever M2 by a rod N2, the
lever M being pivoted at h¹ to an adjustable block 0%, which is confined to
the framework by screws c. To the lower extremity of the bar Y is secured
a block I, the upper portion Z of which as it descends strikes against a roll g₁₁
upon the lower end of the lever M², and thus as the bar Y descends this lever
is vibrated in the direction of its arrow, and the lever L vibrates the table,
so as to bring the nail rod over the cutter C². At the same time that this.
takes place a roll upon the block 1ª strikes against the foot of a lever P
pivoted at g, to the forked extremity of which are pivoted two stops R³,

page_text: which are thus caused to protrude through the framework and to intercept
the path of the side hammers (seen in red at A in Fig. 2); these hammers are
thus held stationary clear of the path of the cutter X, which then descends
and severs the nail from the rod; the lever T being then released the bar U
is drawn back by its spring V; the stops R2 are withdrawn by the spring S²,
and the nail rod is restored to its position in the centre of the hammers by the
spring d. It is evident that the amount of vibration of the table L which
carries the nail rod should be at all times equal, and to avoid any variation of
this motion the following device is employed :-The lever M, through which
motion is communicated to the lever L, is pivoted at h¹ to the adjustable
block O, which is secured to the framework P by screws e passing through
slots i, and is adjusted in position by the screw t, and thus the wear of the
pivots and bearing surfaces may be compensated by adjusting the block O2;
in lieu of thus adjusting the position of the block O the lever L2 may be
adjusted, or any of the parts intermediate between it and the part which gives
motion to the lever M². The roller k serves to prevent the friction of the
slide U in the bar Y, and the roller serves to ensure the rising of this bar
on each upward vibration of the arm S, should the spring B² at any time prove
insufficient for the purpose.
I do not wish to limit myself to interrupting the motion of the horizontal
hammers while the nail is being cut off, as under certain circumstances the
vertical pair may be held stationary, or even all four of the hammers may be
caught while the nail or other article is being cut off.
Thus far I have spoken of my improvements as particularly applicable to
machines for making horse-shoe nails, but it is evident that they are equally
applicable to machinery for forging a great variety of other articles, and I do
not therefore limit my claims to machinery for any particular class of forging,
but intend to apply them to forging machinery wherever they may be
applicable.
Having now set forth the nature of this Invention, and explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under
the above recited Letters Patent I claim,
1st, hanging the springs which actuate the haminers at points independent
of the pivots upon which the helves vibrate, and so far removed therefrom
that they shall bear upon the helves nearer to the hammer faces when the
hammers are raised than at the instant when the blow is given, as set forth
for the purpose specified.
2nd, I claim the spring E for actuating the hammers in combination with the
set plates F and screws for regulating the tension of the same, as set forth.

page_text: 3rd, in combination with the hammers A and side pieces HI, I claim
the adjusting checks I, operating in the manner described for the purpose
specified.
4th, and in combination with a mechanical cut off, I claim holding the
hammers out of action and without the reach of the cutters whilst the nail is
being cut off, as set forth.
5th, I claim pivoting the lever M² to an adjustable block 0%, for the
purpose of regulating the motion of the nail rod, as set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-ninth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON.
(L.S.)