IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHOVELS or Spades, AND APPARATUS THEREFOR
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 20, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHOVELS or Spades,
AND APPARATUS THEREFOR."-A communication from abroad by
Thomas Jefferson Blake, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, United States
of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 18th May 1875.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
SHOVELS OR SPADES, AND APPARATUS THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the manipulation of shovels or spades, and
their straps in securing the handles thereto, and consists,-
First. In setting up or forming and shaping the sockets and straps
while in a heated state and previous to the insertion of the handle,

page_text: whereby the integrity of the shovel is preserved, and all liability of
injury to the socket or straps is avoided.
And, Secondly. In the use of a mandril and dies for setting up or
forming and shaping the socket and straps, as aforesaid.
.
In attaching the handlo to a spade or shovel it is usual to drive the 5
handle into the socket, and then force the flat straps down upon the
handle, and secure them by the usual rivets, after which that portion of
the handle held between the straps is passed between grooved rolls,
which shape the straps round it. By this method of operating it
frequently happens that the straps are cracked or otherwise injured, and 1
that the socket is not closed down on to the end of the handle.
The present Invention has for its object to obviate these defects. For
this purpose a mandril having the configuration of that part of the
handle which is to be enclosed in the socket and straps is inserted
between these while they are heated, and the spade or shovel is then 1
placed on a die or swage having the configuration of the under side
thereof, and of the under strap or a portion thereof, whereupon a second
dic having the concave configuration which the upper strap is required
to assume is placed over the latter, and the whole is then subjected to
pressure, whereby the socket and straps are closed down and bent, so as
to assume the shape of the mandril. After this operation the mandril is
withdrawn, and the handle is inserted and secured by rivetting in the
usual manner.
In cases where the straps are of soft pliable metal the dies and
mandril need only extend somewhat beyond the socket, and the ends of
the straps may be closed down on to the handle subsequently by passing
them between grooved rolls in the usual way, but when the straps are
made of cast steel, which cannot be successfully moulded on to the
handle in a cold state, it is preferred to make the mandril and dies
extend the whole length of the straps.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 5th November 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Ohancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Denton Abel,
Her special license that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Denton
Abel, 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
“IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHOVELS OR SPADES, AND Apparatus
THEREFOR, a communication to me from abroad by Thomas Jefferson
Blake, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, United States of America, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Denton Abel,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly
3 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 Charles Denton Abel, 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 thereof, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings and to the figures and letters marked theron,
that is to say :—

page_text: This Invention relates to the manipulation of shovels or spades, and
their straps in securing the handles thereto, and consists,—
First. In setting up or forming and shaping the sockets and straps
while in a heated state and previous to the insertion of the handle,
whereby the integrity of the shovel is preserved, and all liability of
injury to the socket or straps is avoided.
And, Secondly. In the use of a mandril and dies for setting up or
forming and shaping the socket and straps as aforosaid.
In attaching the handle to a spade or shovel it is usual to drive the
handle into the socket, and then force the flat straps down upon the
handle, and secure them by the usual rivets, after which that portion of
the handle held between the straps is passed between grooved rolls,
which shape the straps round it. By this method of operating it
frequently happens that the straps are cracked or otherwise injured, and
that the socket is not closed down on to the end of the handle.
-
The present Invention has for its object to obviate these defects. For
this purpose a mandril having the configuration of that part of the
handle which is to be enclosed in the socket, and straps is inserted
between these while they are heated, and the spade or shovel is then
placed on a die or swage having the configuration of the under sido
thereof, and of the under strap or a portion thereof, whereupon a second
die having the concave configuration which the upper strap is required
to assume is placed over the latter, and the whole is then subjected to
pressure, whereby the socket and straps are closed down and bent so as
to assume the shape of the mandril. After this operation the mandril is
withdrawn, and the handle is inscrted and secured by rivetting in the
usual manner.
In cases where the straps are of soft pliable metal the dies and mandril
need only extend somewhat beyond the socket, and the ends of the straps
may be closed down on to the handle subsequently by passing them
between grooved rolls in the usual way, but when the straps are made of
cast steel which cannot be successfully moulded on to the handle in the
cold state it is preferred to make the mandril and dies extend the whole
length of the straps.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 is a perspective view of a set of dies or formers applied to a
shovel or spade according to this Invention; and Fig. 2 is a longitu-
dinal section through the same.
A is the upper die or swage, which is concave at the back part a, and
convex at the sides d; it may be made of such size as to extend over
the whole face of the shovel, but this is not necessary; B is the lower
die or swage, having a face shaped to suit the under side of the shovel,
with a slot cut out at 6 to admit the lower strap; O is the mandril ·
corresponding in size and form to the intended handle, and, having a
curve at c to suit the bend of the handle, above the, blade, and another
curve at the heel of the socket c'.
1
For ordinary wrought-iron shovels, or for cast steel shovels having
wrought-iron straps, the dies and mandril above described will generally
suffice, as it is only necessary in such cases to shape and set up the
socket and part of the straps when the metal has to be spread as well as -
ben't, after which the rest of the soft metal straps which have only to be
bent can be finished by rolls in the usual way.
For cast-steel shovels and spades having their straps also cast steel,
the setting up of the straps throughout their whole length at one
operation is provided for by extending the upper die, as shewn by the
dotted lines A' (Fig. 2), and the lower die as shown at B¹. When the
shovel has been plated, and is ready for the formation of the socket,
while it is in a heated condition, the socket is set out by driving in the
mandril C, and then the socket and straps are squeezed between the
dies A and B (pressure being applied in any known manner), so that
they are shaped to the mandril throughout such part of their length as
the dies extend. When the pressure is relieved the straps spring suffi-
ciently apart to admit of the withdrawal of the mandril.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I claim,-
First. The method substantially as herein described, of forming the
socket and shaping the straps of a shovel or spade by inserting a mandril
between the straps, and subjecting them to pressure between dies.

page_text: Second. The use of a pair of dies and a mandril shaped and applied
substantially as herein described for forming the socket and shaping the
straps of a shovel or spade.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of October, in 5
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.