IMPROVE- MENTS IN RIVETTING AND OTHER APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONSTRUCTING SHIPS. BRIDGES, AND OTHER METALLIC STRUCTURES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Purdie, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN RIVETTING AND OTHER APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONSTRUCTING
SHIPS. BRIDGES, AND OTHER METALLIC STRUCTURES.”

page_text: - The rivetting instrument and dolly used in carrying out the Invention
may be made as described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted
to John McFarlane Gray, No. 1095, of 1863, or in any other suitable
known way; it is however by the present Invention proposed to support
the apparatus in an improved manner, and so that the operation of
rivetting may be proceeded with rapidly and conveniently, a strong
double centre is bolted to the plating so as to project therefrom at both
sides, and two radial arms are fitted to turn on this centre, one on each
side of the plating and each sweeping round a circle in a plane parallel
or nearly so to the plating. The rivetter is mounted on a radial arm and
is capable of radial adjustment whilst the dolly is similarly fitted to the
other radial arm, and each can be fixed at any required point on its arm
whilst the arms can be fixed in any required angular position on the
centre. The radial arms may be made of such lengths as may be found
suitable in practice, but assuming a length of five feet as convenient for
ordinary cases, it is obvious that with it a circular area of that radius
will be commanded without shifting the centre, and a large number of
rivets can be operated upon with the least possible adjustment of the
holding apparatus between each. The radial arms are by preference
made tubular and the rivetter and dolly can be adjusted angularly on
them when required.
It is in many cases necessary for the rivet to be cut off flush or nearly
so at one end, and this is best done whilst the rivet is still hot; and for
this purpose a cutting instrument is by this Invention provided for
being inserted between the rivet and the rivetter, and which is made to
act by one or more blows of the rivetter. This cutting instrument
consists of a box with a handle and fitted with two cutters with wedge-
shaped backs, which are combined with two wedges arranged to receive the
blows of the rivetter. When the instrument is placed over the rivet the
cutters are apart, but the stroke of the rivetter on the wedges causes
them to meet and in doing so to remove the projecting part of the
rivet

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Purdic in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 24th October 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
PURDIE, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineer,
send greeting.
-
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said James Purdie, Her special
licence that I, the said James Purdie, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Purdie,
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 Ircland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RIVETTING AND OTHER APPARATUS TO BE USED IN CONSTRUCTING
SHIPS, BRIDGES, AND OTHER METALLIC STRUCTURES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said James Purdie, my exccutors or admi-
nistrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, 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 James Purdie, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to bo
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say :—
My said Invention has for its object to render what is called portable
rivetting apparatus more satisfactorily and bencficially available than
heretofore in constructing metallic structures, such as ships and
bridges.

page_text: The rivetting instrument and dolly used in carrying out my Invention
may be made as described in the Specification of Letters Patent granted
to John MoFarlane Gray, No. 1095, of 1863, or in any other suitable
known way; I however by the present Invention provide for the
support of the apparatus in an improved manner, and so that the
operation of rivetting may be proceeded with rapidly and conveniently.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hercunto append a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to and representing my
improved arrangements and apparatus. In these Drawings the same
reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts wherever
they are repeated.
Figure 1 of the Drawings is a section as at right angles to the plating 1
for rivetting which my improved apparatus is shown as set.
Figure 2 is an elevation of the dolly 2 and rivetter 8, as viewed from
the left-hand side of Figure 1, and Figure 3 comprises detached views
of certain parts concerned in the angular adjustment of the rivetter.
A general face view of a quantity of rivetted plating is shown in
Figure 7; to illustrate the mode of applying my improved apparatus, as
the rivetter 3 is itself constructed and acts essentially in the manner 2
described in Mr. Gray's earlier Specification herein-before referred to, it
is unnecessary for me to here give a very minute description of it. It may
be briefly stated that a bolt 4 actuated by steam acting and controlled as
in a steam hammer,reciprocates within the cylindrical interior of the
rivetter 3, and strikes a steel rivetting head 5 held on the inner end of 2
the rivetter 3, the blow being resisted by a steel head or die 6 at the end
of the dolly bar 7; this dolly bar 7 is pressed towards the plating 1 by a
helical spring within the dolly tube 2, and the compression of this
spring can be adjusted by a nut 8 acted on by a screw spindle 9 having
a hand wheel on its outer end. A thin tube attached to the dolly bar 7 3
encloses the spring and has a ring fixed within its other end, by
encountering which the nut 8 can draw in the dolly bar, when the
spindle 9 is screwed far enough. A pin fixed on the nut 8 and projecting
through a slot in the spring tube, and into a groove or through a slot in
the dolly tube 2 prevents the nut from turning (but is not shown in the a
Drawing). This screw adjustment constitutes a slight improvement
which I have made on the dolly.

page_text: In carrying out the main part of my Invention I bolt a strong double
centre 10, 11, to the plating so as to project therefrom at both sides, and
I fit two radial arms 12, 13, to turn on this centre, one on each side of
the plating 1 and each sweeping round a circle in a plane parallel or
nearly so to the plating. The rivetter 3 is mounted on one radial arm 13,
and is capable of radial adjustment, whilst the dolly 2 is similarly
mounted on the other radial arm 12, and each can be fixed at any
required distance from the centre 10, 11, whilst the arms 12, 13, can be
fixed in any required angular position on the centre. The radial
arms 12, 13, may be made of such length as may be found suitable in
practice; but assuming an effective length of two and a half feet as
convenient for ordinary cases, it is obvious that with it a circular area of
that radius will be commanded without shifting the centre, and a large
number of rivets can be operated upon with the least possible adjustment
of the holding apparatus between each. The red circles in Figure 7
serve to show with how few shifts of the centres 10, 11, a large area of
rivetting can be accomplished. The radial arms 12, 13, are by preference
made tubular as shown, and provision may be made in various ways for
adjusting the rivetter 3 and dolly 2 angularly on them when required.
The arms 12, 13, may be connected to the centres 10, 11, also in various
ways, but I prefer the arrangement shown because of its simplicity,
convenience, and efficiency. There is in each case an intermediate
piece 14 formed, with tubular parts at right angles to each other to fit
respectively on the centres 10, 11, and on the arms 12, 13, and these
tubular parts are slit at one side and are encirled by bands 15 which can
be tightened by screw bolts. The parts are adjusted angularly or
otherwise as required when the bands 15 are slack, and these are then
tightened and grip and securely hold the parts as adjusted. The dolly 2
is held in the end of its arm 12 in a similar manner.
To admit of the rivetter 3 being set angularly in a plane passing
through the axis of the arm 13, it is shown in Figures 1 and 2 as held
between jaws 16 formed on a piece fixed in the end of the arm. In
Figure 3 these jaws are shown in section as at right angles to the view
of them in Figure 1; also in end view and also in side view. One of the
jaws 16 is formed with a slotted segment 17, and a screw bolt fixes the
rivetter 3 which can turn on pins in the jaws in any position on those
pins that may be required. By way of example the rivetter 3 is in
Figure 4 shown in one inclined position obtained by turning the

page_text: arm (13) as being used for striking a cutting tool 18 to be held by hand,
and it can be adjusted for a similar purpose in other angular positions
by turning it in the jaws 16.
Figure 5 shows in side view and in section as at right angles thereto,
other modes of obtaining the two angular adjustments referred to. In
this modification a saddle piece 19 fitted to turn on the arm 13, and
which can be fixed in any position thereon by a pinching screw is formed
with a circular face plate against which a similar face plate 20 fixed on
the rivetter 3 can be fixed in any angular position.
In Figures 5 and 6 are shown simple provisions for giving increased
steadiness to the rivetter 3 and dolly 2 should this be required in any
case. Extensions 21, 22, are formed on the arms 12, 13, on the opposite
side of the centre 10, 11, and struts 23, 24, which can be adjusted by
hand screws or wedges, or other means are applied between the ends of
these arms and the plating 1 to resist any strain tending to make the
arms 12, 13, turn outwards.
It is in many cases necessary for the rivet to be cut off flush or nearly
so at one end, and this is best done whilst the rivet is still hot. For
this purpose I provide the cutting instrument shown in Figures 8, 9, 10,
11, which are respectively a side elevation, a longitudinal section, a 3
transverse section, and a plan. This [instrument consists of a kind of
box or block 25 with a handle 26, and fitted with two steel cutters 27
with wedge-shaped bolders or backs 28, which are combined with two
wedges 29 arranged to receive the blows of the rivetter head (5) through
a block 30. The handle 26 is arranged so as by a crank lever to lift up
the block 30, and this by means of a wedge 31 separates the cutters
after the stroke. When the instrument is placed over the rivet the
cutters 27 are apart, but the stroke of the rivetter on the block 30
acts through the wedges 29 so as to make the cutters meet and in doing
so remove the projecting part of the rivet.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated; but that what I believe
to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The arranging and combining together of parts for supporting or

page_text: holding, rivetting, and such like apparatus in the improved manner
substantially as herein-before described.
2. The constructing and combining together of the parts of rivet
cutting apparatus in the improved manner substantially as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Purdie, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
0 Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JAMES PURDIE. (L.S.)