IMPROVEMENTS IN FORMING MOULDS FOR CASTING IN METAL STUDS, BUTTONS, NAILS, TACKS, AND A VARIETY OF OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HOLMES, of Saint John's Terrace, in the County of Worcester, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Thirteenth day of November, in the second year of Her reign, and
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Holmes,
Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and authority that I, the said
John Holmes, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as
I, the said John Holmes, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN FORMING MOULDS FOR CASTING IN METAL STUDS,
BUTTONS, NAILS, TACKS, AND A VARIETY OF OTHER ARTICLES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said John Holmes, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately

page_text: after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Holmes, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon
(that is to say):
:-
My improvements in forming moulds for casting in metal studs, buttons,
nails, tack, and a variety of other articles, consist in the employment of a pair
of parallel plates fitted to each mould, and peculiarly formed with elevations
and depressions in or upon their faces suited to the desired figures of the
articles to be cast. The inner surfaces of these plates are made perfectly level,
so as to come in close contact, with each other between the two frames forming
the box in which the sand is held and moulded for casting. The outer surfaces
of these plates have the elevations and depressions so formed as to give the
upper and under figures of the heads of the nails, studs, buttons, or articles to
be cast, and the shanks, of whatever form required, are provided by suitable
spikes or shafts extending from the inner surface of one of the plates, and
passed through perforations in the other plate at parts exactly corresponding to
the situations of the centers of the heads or bosses of the nail, stud, or other
article. The mould is made by pressing sand, as in the ordinary operations of
moulding; but in this instance the two faces of the mould are made upon the
outer faces of these two plates confined in the middle of the mould box between
the moulding frames; and when such mould has been so produced the two
parts of the moulding frame are taken asunder with the plates separated at
their inner surfaces. The plates are then respectively withdrawn, from the
faces of the moulds, and the frames holding the moulded sand being put
together and made fast the mould is ready for casting. The forms of the
elevations and depressions to be made in or upon the plates must depend upon
the desired shape of the head of the article to be cast; so much also the forms
of the spikes or shafts depend upon the required shape of the shank.,
In order, however, to give such information respecting my Invention as
shall render the manner of carrying it into effect perfectly, evident, I have
hereunto appended Drawings of portions of a pair of plates and moulds suited
for moulding nails for coffius or for ornamental furniture; but I wish it to be
understood that though I am about to describe the best manner with which
I am acquainted of producing or forming such plates, yet I do not intend to

page_text: confine myself to that presise manner, but intend to avail myself of any other
mode by which plates may be made to answer the purpose above described
when applied to moulds in the way above pointed out.
Figure 1 represents a portion of the outer face of a plate A; and Figure 2
a portion of the outer face of the corresponding plate B suited for moulding
coffin nails; Figure 3 is a section taken vertically through the plate, Figure 1;
Figure 4 is a similar section taken through the plate, Figure 2; and Figure 5
is a section of the plate B taken at right angles to Fig. 4. These plates are
produced by rolling metal or by any other suitable means
which they may
be måde flat and parallel (their thickness is of no consequence, provided they
are sufficiently strong and stiff to retain their flat surfaces); one of these
plates is to be accurately set out on its face in divisions according to the number.
and size of the intended nails (or a gage plate may be applied upon its surface
to mark the points or centers; this plate is then drilled through at the centres,
and a series of large holes formed of the sizes of the heads of the intended
nails; this plate may be supposed to be represented by B, Figures 2, 4, and 5.
This and the former plate A, shewň at Figures 1 and 3, are then brought face
to face and fastened together, and by means of a small drill, having a
cylindrical plug fitting the holes of the plate B, Figure 2, the plate A, Figure 1,
is drilled, and small holes thereby produced through that plate, which will be
properly concentric with the larger holes previously made in the former plate.
The two plates A and B are then taken apart, and with a suitable drill a con-
centric recess a, a, a, Figures 1 and 3, is made round each hole in the outer
face of the plate A, Figures 1 and 3, which recesses are to produce in the
mould the forms of the under parts of the heads of the intended nails. I then
form plugs b, b, b, from stout wire cut off into short pieces suited to fit the
larger holes made in the plate B, Figures 2 and 4. In the centre of cach of
these plugs I then drill a hole and insert into it a steel spike, shank, or pin c;
I then place the plugs singly in a lathe and grind their outer ends to a hemi-
spherical or other required shape corresponding with the desired form of the
outer part of the head of the intended nail. These plugs, with their spikes,
I then fix firmly in the holes of the plate B, Figure 2, as shewn in the section,
Figure 4, and on the outer surface of the plate B, Figure 2, I affix ribs, as
shewn at d, d, which are to form in the mould the channels or gutters for con-
ducting the melted metal, these ribs having small side or branch elevations to
produce gates for the metal to run from the gutters into the moulded recesses for
casting the nails. The two plates A and B being thus prepared, are put together
face to face, as at Figure 6, which represents a part of the mould box formed

page_text: by the frames C and D, with the plates A and B between them. The mould
box is then filled with sand, as in the ordinary mode of moulding for castings,
and rammed tight against each of the outer surfaces of the plates; when this
has been done completely, in a workmanlike manner, the two parts of the
mould are separated at the middle, between the inner surfaces of the plates A
and B, by carefully raising the upper frame C, with the plate A, perpen-
dicularly, so that the spikes c may not disturb the sand in the mould above.
The plates A and B are then lifted off the faces of the two moulds, and the
frames being again put together without the plates, the mould will be ready
for pouring, having the recesses formed in it for the nails to be cast in, as shewn
in the vertical sections of the mould at Figures 7 and 8, which two sections
are taken at right angles to each other, the latter shewing the passages e for
the fluid metal formed by the ribs d on the plate B, the fluid metal being
poured through suitable apertures in the mould box which lead to the
channels e, e.
The nails when cast will be taken out of the sand in sprays,
and are to be broken off from the gates in the usual way; they may be then
annealed and afterwards tinned, and their heads may be laquered or japanned
as shall be required, or they may be coated by discs of brass or other metal by
the machinery and means already known, which coating of the heads of nails
or tacks forms no part of my present Invention. If I desire to cast nails with
any other shaped heads or shanks different from those above described, it
would be necessary to change the forms of the recesses a in the plate A, and
also the ends of the plugs b in the plate B, and of the spikes c inserted into the
plugs, which will be readily understood. And if I wish to cast studs or blank
shafts for making screws, instead of the thin spikes c I should insert in the
plate B stout projecting plugs, according to the required substance of the stem
or shaft of the stud, or screw blank, or button, or any other article of that
kind, and form corresponding holes in the plate A. And I would lastly
observe, that I do not intend to confine myself to casting in any one particular
metal, as the same mode of forming moulds for casting studs, buttons, nails,
tacks, and other articles, by means of plates with elevations and depressions on
or in their surfaces, will apply in a great variety of situations, whatever may be
the kind of metal employed.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Holmes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine.
JOHN (L.S.) HOLMES.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of May, in the second
year of the reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, the said John Holmes came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the instru
ment aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the instrument aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth year of the reign of His late
Majesty King George the Third.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of May, One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-nine.