IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SPURS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Oakes, of Exeter Row, Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Spur Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SPURS."
Sealed the 11th January 1859, and dated the 18th November 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Oakes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th November 1858.
I, JOHN OAKES, of Exeter Row, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Spur Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SPURS," to be as follows, that is to say:-
These improvements consist in manufacturing military and other spurs by
the process of striking or stamping them into form in suitable dies, instead of
forging them into shape in manner hitherto practised. For this purpose I
employ any number of pairs of dies that may be requisite, such dies having
the required forms or sinkings in them to produce the bends or shapes of the
various parts of a spur.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Oakes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th
May 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
OAKES, of Exeter Row, Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Spur
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Oakes, Her special license that I, the said John Oakes, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Oakes, 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 MANU-
FACTURE OF SPURS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
John Oakes, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 John Oakes, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My Invention consists in manufacturing military and other spurs by the
process of striking or stamping them into form in suitable dies, instead of
forging them into shape in manner hitherto practised. For this purpose I
employ any number of pairs of dies that may be requisite, such dies having
the required forms or sinkings in them to produce the bends or shapes of the
various parts of a spur.
The several forms of these dies and also of the blanks they produce will be
clearly seen in the accompanying Drawings, and in their employment I
proceed in the following manner :-I take a bar of iron, flat, half round, or of
any suitable section, and weld on to it at right angles, and about midway of its

page_text: length a piece of iron to form the neck of the spur, or that part in which the
rowel is mounted; this blank heated to a red heat is then placed in a die of
the form seen in the Drawings, (Figures 1, 2, 3,) (Sheet A,) which represents
the several views of the bottom die, the upper die shewn at (Figures 4, 5, 6,)
being fixed in the stamp or force; the blank is struck into the form seen at
(Figures 7 and 8,) but with a flange or feather edge upon the sides of the
blank, which must be removed by placing the blank in the under die, shewn
by (Figures 9 to 12,) and employing an upper die of the form seen at
(Figures 13, 14, 15,) the result of which operation will be the shape seen at
(Figures 16 and 17.) The blank is now ready to be bent into the form
requisite to fit the heel, prior to which it has to be reheated. It is then
placed in the bending or shaping tool seen in the Drawing (Figures 18 to 21),
and struck with the die of the form shewn at (Figures 22 to 24), by which
the shape represented at (Figures 25 and 26) will be attained. The next
operation is that of shaping or curving the neck, for which the blank is to be
reheated and placed in the die shewn by (Figures 27 to 29, Sheet B,) the
upper die being of the form seen at (Figures 30 to 32), the form it will then
assume being represented by the (Figures 33, 34,) and, as in a former
instance, it will be found that there will be a fin or feather edge around the
neck piece of the blank, which will have to be removed by employing another
pair of dies or trimming tools of the form shewn at (Figures 35 to 41,
Sheet C,) by which the blank is cleaned off, as shewn at (Figures 42, 43,
Sheet B,) and is ready for the operations of dressing and finishing; these
processes forming no part of my Invention need no description.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I would remark that I do not confine
myself to these precise details, nor to the exact forms of the several dies or
tools herein described; but that I claim the improved mode of manufacturing
military and other spurs by the process of striking or stamping them into
form, by means of dies, in place of shaping them by hand, substantially as
herein set forth and specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Oakes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
JOHN OAKES. (L.S.)