CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE NAILS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Evers Swindell and Joseph Russell, trading
under the Style or Firm of Swindell and Company, Nail Manufacturers,
of Withymoor, near Dudley, in the County of Worcestershire, and Joseph
Price, Working Nail Maker, in the employ of the said Firm, also of
Withymoor, aforesaid, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE NAILS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Evers Swindell,
Joseph Russell, and Joseph Price at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 22nd March 1861.
We, CHARLES EVERS SWINDELL and JOSEPH RUSSELL, trading under the
Style or Firm of Swindell & Comp"., Nail Manufacturers, of Withymoor,
near Dudley, in the County of Worcestershire, and JOSEPH PRICE, Working
Nail Maker, in the employ of the said Firm, also of Withymoor, aforesaid, do
hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE NAILS," to be as follows (that is to say):-
-Our Invention consists in the use or application to the partial manufacture
of horse nails of a fixed hammer, commonly called an oliver, worked by means
of the foot in connection with a suitable die or dies, by which means we are
enabled to partially form horse nails with great rapidity and uniformity of size
in the head part, leaving the body or shank of the nail to a subsequent process
ofi finishing, hammering, or drawing out to the length and size of nail
required.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Evers Swindell, Joseph Russell, and Joseph Price
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st September 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
EVERS SWINDELL and JOSEPH RUSSELL, trading under the Style or Firm of
Swindell and Comp., Nail Manufacturers, of Withymoor, near Dudley, in
the County of Worcestershire, and JOSEPH PRICE, Working Nail Maker, in
the employ of the said Firm, also of Withymoor, aforesaid, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Charles Evers Swindell, Joseph Russell, and Joseph. Price, Her. special
license that we, the said Charles Evers Swindell, Joseph Russell, and Joseph
Price, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Charles Evers Swindell, Joseph Russell, and Joseph Price, our 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE
NAILS," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Charles Evers
Swindell, Joseph Russell, and Joseph Price, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal, or hands and seals
of either one or two of us, 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 Joseph Russell, do hereby declare the
nature of our 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 (that is to say):-
The making of horse nails heretofore has been found an art only to be
acquired by long practice, with more or less dexterity and skill on the part of
the workman, who computes the shape and proportion of the head of the nail
desired to be made, as well as the quantity of iron required for the shank, by
his eye; this skill and dexterity in the workmen has made them frequently

page_text: (as a body) capricious and tyrannical, not only as to price required for their
work, but also the time of working, which has frequently caused great
inconvenience to their employers or dealers in such articles, as well as to
themselves as a trade combination or union. To supersede this operative skill;
and to ensure uniformity in the nails made (according to the description
required), is the object and purpose of our Invention, which of itself is very'
limited and simple, but nevertheless of importance, as it fully and effectually
realizes the object intended, namely, that of producing horse nails of regular
and uniform shape with unskilled labour.
And to effect this we use identically the same arrangement or apparatus
commonly employed in the making of horse nails, which consist of a suitable
stand about two feet square, as desired, and elevated to the height for easy
use, on which is placed a small steel-faced table or anvil on which the operative
strikes and beats his heated iron into the desired form by a hand hammer, and
in some cases assisted by a hammer worked with the foot, which he brings
into use for drawing down the rod to form the shank of the nail, sharpening
and finishing it with his hand hammer, and cutting the nails off by laying the
nail and rod across the thin edge of a vertical cutter, by striking it with his
hammer. During the time of forging or forming the nail a strong jet of air
is forced through the nose or delivery pipe of a pair of bellows, conveniently
worked by the foot, or otherwise, in front of the table or anvil on which the
nail is being forged, for the purpose of keeping the iron hot during the process
of forging. And these appliances are in every way suited for giving effect to
our improvements, with the exception that the front edge of the table or anvil
on which the hot end of the rod is laid for forging the nail is bevilled, as also
the corresponding part of the hammer worked with the foot, technically called
an oliver, the two coming together representing in outline the desired form of
the head of the nail intended to be made, so that in practice the rod has to be
heated and laid upon the anvil or table, and the oliver put to work, when four
or five blows, more or less, will be found necessary for forming the head, and
partially draw out the shank by turning the iron from the flat to the edge,
and edge to the flat, at each blow; the oliver or foot hammer is now allowed
to rise back into a perpendicular position, leaving the table free for the operator
to finish the nail by further drawing out the shank into a sharp point and
cutting it off from the rod.
But as our Invention will be more clearly understood by referring to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, I will proceed to describe the same, reference.
being made to the figures and letters marked thereon (that is to say).

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS.
A, A, Fig. 1, represents as much of the top of a nail-making stand necessary
for illustrating our improvements, and B,,B, represents partly in section, a
wood fencing to surround the stand to prevent the nails from falling off; C is
the table or anvil on which the nail is formed, and D, a hammer working on
axes, one of which only is seen in this view, marked E, working through an
eye formed in the standard F. At the reverse end of the axis E the arm G is
secured, partly shown in dotted lines, and which arm terminates in an eye or
hook to be connected (by means of a suitable rod or strap) with a treadle,
which is supposed to be now pressed on to hold the hammer D in the position
shown, as the apparatus is so arranged that when the foot is removed from the
treddle this hammer will rise up into or near a vertical position ready to
descend and strike a blow when required; H, H, is the blast way or bellows
pipe, which may be arranged to work over-head or otherwise as convenient,
the bellows being expanded also by means of a treddle worked by the foot,
leaving the collapsing of the bellows to send forth the requisite amount of
blast at each heat for forming a nail, the blast for this object passing in the
direction of the arrow and surrounding the hot iron under operation; J repre-
sents a side view of the cutter, and the dotted lines and m represent an
intermediate space in the cutter thinned away into a chisel edge for the better
dividing the finished nail from the remaining portion of the rod.
With this general description of the apparatus I will now further illustrate.
the mode of working:-A rod of suitable iron, as represented edge and flat,.
Figs. 2 and 3, is placed into the fire, suitably situated near the apparatus, and
heated at the end, which is next placed on the top of the table or anvil C..
when the hammer or oliver D is brought into rapid operation, the rod being.
turned from the flat to the edge, and edge to the flat, every alternate blow
until the rod is reduced or the nail partly formed, as exhibited at n, o, the
angle of the hammer D marked p, and the angle of the table or anvil C
marked q, defining without any effort on the part of the operator the true
form and bulk of the head of the nail desired to be made. From this stage
the hammer D is allowed to rise by the removal of the foot from the treddle
that controls its motion, and the shank o and n is now drawn out by the
operator with his hand hammer, in the form exhibited at rand s, Figs. 4 and 5,
which finishes the nail as far as its general form is concerned, and it has only
to be laid across the top of the cutter at t and struck with a hand hammer on
the side marked u, when the nail will be disconnected in a finished state;
leaving the rod to be returned to the fire for a fresh heat.

page_text: Having now given a general description of our Invention, and the manner
in which the same may be carried into effect, I wish it understood that we do
not purpose confining ourselves to the exact angle or form of the parts
marked
p and q, Figure 1, as the same will be required to be altered and
diversified for shaping the various formed heads of horse nails that may be
required, and to meet this diversification the face of the anvil C, as also the
hammer D, may be changed (as shown in dotted lines in Figure 1) by the
parts being constructed with a square shank for entering corresponding holes
in the under side of the hammer D and the top side of the anvil C, for
receiving the same; but what we claim, and wish protected by these our in
part recited Letters Patent, is, the use of the surface of the bed or anvil C,
and surface of the hammer D, comprehended within the dotted circle in relation
to the general working face of the anvil C and the hammer D, for the formation
of the heads of horse nails, without confining ourselves to the proportion or
shape as exhibited in the Drawings.
In witness whereof I, the said Joseph Russell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twentieth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
WILLIAM LOACH,
Clerk to James S. Cockings,
Patent Agent,
Birmingham.
JOSEPH RUSSELL. (L.S.)