Improvements in or relating to Hand Tackers for Use in the Manufacture of Boots and Shoes.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Feb., 1896
Complete Specification Left, 10th Nov., 1896-Accepted, 12th Dec., 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Hand Tackers for Use in the
Manufacture of Boots and Shoes.
I, FREDERICK CUTLAN of Castle Hill, Wellingborough in the County of
Northampton, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as
follows:-
This invention relates to hand tackers suitable for use in the manufacture of
boots and shoes. Hitherto the plunger employed in instruments of this description
for driving the tacks has been operated usually by striking its outer end or head
with a hammer or "bunter," or in some cases it has been operated by compressed
air. In my present invention I dispense with these appliances and operate the
plunger by the same hand which holds the instrument, thus enabling the operator's
other hand to be used for the pincers with which he tightens the upper upon the
last, or for other purposes.
In carrying out this invention I dispense with the head of the plunger and connect
to it a handle of any convenient form by which the instrument is held and the
plunger operated, the operator pulling the plunger down by means of the handle
after he has applied the tacking point to the part into which the tack is to be
driven, or simultaneously with such application. If the instrument be made in a
well known form with the plunger extending beyond the body of the instrument
and a helical spring placed around that projecting portion of the plunger, I may
provide the handle with an extension turned over at its end or otherwise connected
to the end of the plunger, the extension passing down approximately parallel with
the plunger so as to clear the spring and the body of the instrument and the
handle commencing at the free end of the extension, the handle itself lying
parallel with the body of the instrument. By this means the instrument may
be held in a position about mid-way or central of the total length, a convenient
arrangement, if the weight be placed more at one end of the instrument than the
other.
Instead of forming the handle in the manner above described, a suitable
provision may be made in the form preferably of a knob or tube engaging with
the end of the plunger by which the instrument may be held. Or again instead of
connecting the operating handle with the outer end of the plunger beyond the
spring, the handle or handles may project from the plunger at any suitable portion
of its length, slots or equivalent being made if necessary in the body of the
instrument to allow of the passage of the portion connecting the handle or
handles with the plunger; the handle or handles may entirely or partly surround
the body of the instrument. Or again the handle may be joined to the plunger a
short distance outside the body and the spring connected further up. If desired
the extension of the plunger may be removed and the spring applied inside the.
body.
Tind this 10th day of February 1896
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.

page_text: Improvements in or relating to Hand Tackers for Use in the
Manufacture of Boots and Shoes.
I, FREDERICK CUTLAN of Castle Hill, Wellingborough, in the County of
Northampton, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to hand tackers suitable for use in the manufacture of
boots and shoes. Hitherto the plunger employed in instruments of this description
for driving the tacks has been operated usually by striking its outer end or head
with a hammer or "bunter," or in some cases has been operated by compressed
air. In my present invention I dispense with these appliances and operate the
plunger by the same hand which holds the instrument, thus enabling the operator's
other hand to be used for the pincers with which he tightens the upper upon the
last, or for other purposes.
In the accompanying drawings
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a tacker fitted with one form of plunger-controlling
apparatus according to this invention;
Fig. 2 is a view similar to Fig. 1 but with part of the apparatus in longitudinal
central section.
.
Fig. 3 is a transverse section on the line 3, 3 of Fig. 2.
Like letters indicate like parts throughout the drawings.
A is a plunger and B is the body of the instrument in which the plunger slides
end wise in the usual manner. A' is a cross-key extending transversely through a
slot made in the plunger A in which it fits, and through a longer slot B¹ the body,
in which it slides, and is guided when moving with the plunger in the manner
hereinafter described. One end of this cross-key carries a part A³ of the
plunger handle which is approximately a half tube and is in one piece with
the key A¹, the other end having attached to it the companion part A³ of the
handle.
C is a helical spring encircling the plunger A and in compression between the
upper end A of the same and the upper end of the body B, so as to tend always
to maintain the plunger at the upper extremity of its travel. It will be seen that
the two semi-tubular portions A A constituting the handle of the plunger partly
encircle the body, and are in such a position thereon that the operator's hand
grasping the handle is in a position in which it can conveniently handle the whole
instrument.
The operator depresses the plunger A by means of the handle A2 A3 to drive
the tack by sliding the handle down along the body after he has applied the
tacking point B to the part into which the tack is to be driven or simultaneously
with such application, thereby depressing the plunger A against the resistance of
the spring C, which returns handle and plunger to the normal position as soon as
the downward pressure on the handle is released.
Instead of the handle being connected to some point midway in the length of
the plunger A it may be attached to any other part, for instance, the upper end A
of the plunger may be extended downward approximately parallel with the same,
so as to clear the spring and the body of the instrument, which latter it need not
encircle. Or it may be made in the form of a knob or tube engaging with the end
of the plunger, by which the instrument may be held. Or again, instead of
connecting the operating handle with the outer end of the plunger beyond the
spring, the handle or handles may project from the plunger at any suitable portion

page_text: of its length, slots or equivalent being made if necessary in the body of the
instrument to allow of the passage of the portion connecting the handle or
handles with the plunger; the handle or handles may entirely or partly surround
the body of the instrument. Or again the handle may be joined to the plunger
a short distance outside the body and the spring connected further up. If desired
the extension of the plunger may be removed and the spring applied inside the
body.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that I am aware
that it has been proposed to use single handed hand-tackers in which the plunger
is indirectly under the control of the hand in which the instrument is held through
the medium of a valve and fluid pressure governed by that valve, and to such
device I make no claim, but what I claim is ;-
1. A hand-tacker the plunger of which can be directly operated by the hand in
which the instrument is held.
2. In a hand-tacker the combination with a plunger A of a handle connected
therewith and serving both for the holding of the instrument and the direct
operation of its plunger.
3. A hand-tacker in which the part gripped by the hand forms part of or is
rigidly connected to the plunger for the purpose of operating it.
4. In a hand-tacker the combination and arrangement of parts constituting the
plunger-controlling apparatus substantially as described and illustrated in the
accompanying drawings.
Dated this 6th day of November 1896.
F. CUTLAN.
Boult & Wade,
Agents for the Applicant.