AN IMPROVED FORM OF NAIL OR DRIVING ARTICLE
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Montague Wigzell, of Friar's Green, Exeter, in the
County of Devon, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED FORM OF NAIL OR
DRIVING ARTICLE."
Sealed the 28th June 1859, and dated the 1st January 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Montague Wigzell at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st January 1859.
I, MONTAGUE WIGZELL, of Friar's Green, Exeter, in the County of Devon,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED FORM
OF NAIL OR DRIVING ARTICLE," to be as follows:-
The improvement is chiefly in the form which will give strength, and enable
them to be made much lighter, and cause the nail or other driving article to
revolve whilst being driven home, making it unnecessary for any hole to be
previously made, and will cause it to offer a much greater resistance than any
other article of the kind.
They are to be twisted or made in a spiral or screw form, either fluted or
plain, of any shape, size, or thickness, either sharp or blunt, and to be made
whilst hot or cold in any kind of metal, by being rolled, cut, stamped,
cast, forged, pressed, turned, or by any other method by which they can be
produced.

page_text: The accompanying Drawings show the principle of the spiral form, slightly
fluted, applied to two sizes of two kinds of ordinary shaped nails.
I claim the right of applying the above Invention or improvement to every
description of driving nail, spike, holdfast, and every other kind of driving
article.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Montague Wigzell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th June 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MONTAGUE
WIGZELL, of Friars Green, Exeter, in the County of Devon, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Montague Wigzell, Her special licence that I, the said Montague Wigzell,
my executors, administrators, and assigns; or such others as I, the said
Montague Wigzell, 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 "AN IMPROVED
FORM OF NAIL OR DRIVING ARTICLE," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Montague Wigzell, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Montague Wigzell, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
My Invention consists in making nails or driving articles used in the same
way as nails, of the forms herein-after described and shewn in the Drawings.
The forms are wholly or partly twisted, or spiral, and are such that nails made
as described offer a greater resistance to drawing than the ordinary nails or

page_text: other driving articles, as they cannot when driven be withdrawn by a direct
strain without tearing the wood or other substance into which they are driven,
at the same time the angle of the spiral is such as not to offer a resistance too
great to be overcome by the direct blow of a hammer, but it allows the nail
when struck to turn on its longitudinal axis, and enter the wood or other
substance into which it is driven without splitting or tearing its fibres or
particles. My nails or driving articles may be made much lighter than
ordinary nails, and the necessity of making holes to receive them before
being driven is obviated; their spiral twisted form causes them to turn round
their longitudinal axis while they are being driven, and prevents as far as
possible the substance into which they penetrate from being split.
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20,
21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, are Drawings of my improved
nails or driving articles. Figures 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44,
45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59, 60, 61, 62, shew
various sectional forms which I adopt. I give to the nails or driving articles
a twisted or spiral figure, as shown in the Drawings. The nails are made
with the sides or surfaces flat, fluted, grooved, or indented throughout or partly
so, and may have any number of turns, and be twisted throughout or in part;
the sectional forms may have any number of sides and edges that may be con-
venient in practice, either sharp or blunt, of any requisite shape or size in
diameter, thickness, or length, viz., triangular (with the sides making any
angle with each other), flat, square, circular, oblong, or polygonal, either
tapered throughout or partly tapered in the middle or at its end; they may
be made with or without points, that is to say, the end or ends may be made
pointed, flat, round, or angular, either sharp or blunt, and they may be made
with or without a head, shoulder, edge, overlap, or projection of any shape,
size, or thickness that may be required, and with or without a slot, groove,
hole, or projection for the purpose of twisting the nail or other driving article
whilst placing it in or withdrawing the same. They may be manufactured of
iron, steel, copper, or any suitable metal or metallic alloy by hand or machinery,
by being formed, or shaped, or twisted by apparatus having the requisite
mechanical motions given by suitable machinery. Bars or rods formed of
suitable thickness and twisted by suitable mechanical means may be cut into
lengths and formed into the nails or driving articles described; or nails already
made or hereafter manufactured may be twisted or otherwise made into my
improved forms. The fluted form, groove, or indentation may be cut, or
chased, or stamped in the nails by suitable cutting, stamping, forging, twisting,
or rolling, or drawing machinery, made as such machines are ordinarily made

page_text: for cutting or working metal, when hot or cold. And I would here have it
understood that the mechanical or other means employed in giving the requisite
shape or configuration to the nails or driving articles described form no part
of this my Invention but what I claim is, the application to every description
of driving nail, spike, holdfast, or other driving article of a like nature, the
spiral twisted, fluted, grooved, and bevilled forms, as herein described and
shewn in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Montague Wigzell, have hereunto set
my
hand and seal, this 29th day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
MONTAGUE WIGZELL. (L.S.)