AN ENTIRE NEW MODE OF MANU- FACTURING NAILS OF EVERY KIND BY MACHINERY NEVER BEFORE MADE USE OF FOR THAT PURPOSE
Year: 1790

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
CLIFFORD, of the City of Bristol, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Seventeenth day of July, in the thirtieth year of His reign, give
and grant unto me, the said Thomas Clifford, His especial licence that I, the
said Thomas Clifford, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN ENTIRE NEW MODE OF MANU-
FACTURING NAILS OF EVERY KIND BY MACHINERY NEVER BEFORE MADE USE OF FOR
THAT PURPOSE;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Thomas Clifford, under my hand and seal, to cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same (relation being thereunto had) may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Clifford, do hereby declare that my said Invention of an entire new
mode of manufacturing nails of every kind by machinery, never before made
use of for that purpose, is described in manner following, that is to say :-
The principle on which the Invention is founded, and by which it appears
to be altogether new, is, that the nails are to be made by having a die or the

page_text: impression of them cut into one or more pieces of iron, steel, or other metal,
and the iron or other metal of which the nails are to be made drawn or rolled
into a proper form and thickness, and by force pressed into such cavity or die,
so as to form the nails either compleat or so nearly compleated as that they
can be finished with but little labour. The operation of manufacturing the
nails on this principle may be done several different ways. The first that I
shall describe, and what I esteem the best mode, is by the use of rollers, mado
of iron or steel, and worked either by water, steam, wind, cattle, or any other
power. A pair of rollers should be niade of iron cased with steel, each of
the same diameter, and the diameter proportioned to the length and size of
the nail intended to be made. Each roller should have one or moro cog
wheels, and the cogs of one roller should work in the cogs of the other, so
that the rollers may both perform the same exact revolution. One half the
impression of the nail should be cut in one roller, the other half in the other,
so as that the two impressions form a cavity or dye of the exact form of the nail,
extending the lengthways of the nail round or on the circumference of tho
rollers, and as many impressions of the samo kind cut in the rollers, one at the
end of the other, as will compleat their circumference, and. continue the cavity
all round the rollers, the point of one nail joining the head of the next, or
the two points and the two heads joining each other. The rollers must be
made to work very true and exact, and close to each other. A rod of iron or
other metal rolled or drawn to the most convenient size is to be heated, and
while hot the end of it put between the rollers into the cavity or dye which
forms the impression of the nail. The rollers being put in motion, will draw
the iron or other metal through, pressed into the cavity so as to form what
may be called a string of nails, the one joined to the other, which must
afterwards be seperated from each other, and may be seperated by instruments
acting as nippers, shears, chissels, &c. The rollers being made to work closo
to each other where the edge of the nail is formed, will prevent much of the
metal from being pressed out on each side of 'the nail; what is pressed out may
be.cut out by instruments of various kinds, acting as nippers, shears, chissels,
&c. The same operation may be performed by means of three, four, or more
rollers working together, and part of the impression of the nail cut in cach or
several of the rollers. A pair of rollers may have several rows of dyes or
the impression of nails cut on them, so as to form the impression for several
strings of nails, and a rod of iron or other metal being put into each of them
will roll out as many strings of nails with one revolution of the rollers. A
pair of rollers may also have the greater part of their surface.cut. with dyes
or the impression of nails, and a flat bar or piece of iron or other metal be

page_text: made to pass between the rollers, so as to form what may be called a sheet of
nails, the whole of them connected to one another by thin plates of the iron
or other metal of which they are composed, and would require each nail to be
cut out or seperated from the sheet, and which may be done by various
instruments for the purpose. Nails may also be made on this principle by
having the dye or the impression of them cut in one or more pieces of iron,
steel, or other metal, either of a flat, round, or circular surface, and the metal
pressed into such cavity or dye by any mechanical powers by means of levers,
prizes, screws, stamps, or otherwise.
Although I have minutely described one mode of operation for the making
of nails on the principle of my Invention, and have in general terms pointed
out other modes, there are such a variety of alterations which may be made
in the machines used for the purpose, and so many different ways of working
them, that I do not confine this Specification to any particular machine, or
mode of operation described, but include all the various machines, and different
modes of working them, by which nails of every kind and sort may be made
upon the principle of the Invention, as in the foregoing is set forth and
claimed by me.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Clifford, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of July, One thousand seven hundred