A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUC- TION AND MANUFACTURE OF VICES
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
WILKINSON, of Dudley, in the County of Worcester, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-first day of
December, Oue thousand eight hundred and forty-eight, in the twelfth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Wilkinson, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, Her especial
license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William
Wilkinson, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said
William Wilkinson, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my
Invention of "A CERTAIN IMPROVEMENT OR CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUC-
TION AND MANUFACTURE OF VICES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a
proviso that I, the said William Wilkinson, should cause a particular descrip-
tion of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar

page_text: months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Wilkinson, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the mauner in which the same is to be performed, are ascertained in and
by the following description thereof, reference being had unto the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to
say:-
The first part of my Invention consists of improvements in the construction
of vices. Fig. 1 is a side view of my improved vice. a is the standing arm
of the vice, and 6 the moveable arm. c is the joint on which the moveable
arm turns. d is the screw; the said screw d works in a concave screw in the
projection or boss on the standing arm a of the vice. The said projection or
boss is formed solid with the standing arm of the vice, and is drilled and
screwed by the machine herein-after described. The said projection or boss not.
only serves as a screw box, but also screens the screw d from any filings or
dust which may fall from the vice. Instead of forming the joint c immediately
on or near the standing arm a, I form horizontal arms or cheeks fon the said
standing arm, and attach the moveable arm of the vice to the said cheeks by
the joint c, the said joint being exterior to the moveable arm b, and not
between the said moveable arm and the fixed or standing arm a, as in the
connon vice. By this method of construction the arm b is thrown out of a
vertical position, that is to say, the lower end of the said arm and the joint c
are more distant from the standing, arm a than the upper end of the said
moveable arm; and when the vice is opened, the chap 61 of the arm b
describes the curve g instead of the curve h, which it would have described
had the joint c been situated at or near i, as in the common vice. When the
screw d works in a fixed screw box, it is desirable that the motion of the
moveable arm should be as nearly in a horizontal line as possible, for in any
deviation from a horizontal motion, the head of the screw d bears only on one
side against the said moveable arm, and thereby occasions a strain on the said
screw d and screw box e. In a vice with a fixed screw box and common
joint, in which the top of the moveable arm describes the curve h, this strain
is much greater than in a vice with my improved joint, in which the moveable
arm moves in a line more nearly resembling a horizontal line (that is to say,
the curve g) than is the case in a vice with the common joint. A vice with a
fixed screw box and common joint can only open to a very limited distance,
owing to the upper part of the hole in the moveable armi coming in contact by

page_text: its descending motion with the screw. By the use of my improved joint tho
strain upon the screw and screw box is much diminished, and the distance to
which the vice can open increased. The said cheeks and joint c are also
applicable to vices having loose screw boxes. Instead of the screw box last
5 described, I sometimes use (both in vices having the common joint as well as
those having my improved joint) a loose screw box made of brass, which said
screw box is inserted in the eye of the standing arm, as in the common vice.
The second part of my Invention consists of an improved method of forging.
the arms and cheeks and bolts or pins of vices. The arms a, b, Fig. 1, of
vices, as well as the bolt or pin on which the scrow d is formed, are commonly
made by forging with hammers, the said hammers being worked by hand.
In my improved method of forging the arms and cheeks and bolts or pins of
vices, I form a pair of dies of cast iron or steel, having impressions in their
interiors corresponding to the forms of the said arms and cheeks and bolts or
pins to be produced. I attach one of the said dies to a tilt hammer, worked
by steam or other power, and I affix the other of the said dies on a firm
support, and I take picces of wrought iron in that state of preparation called
in the ordinary manufacture of vices "vice moulds," and I place the said
"vice moulds," properly heated, in the said fixed die, and subject the same to
the action of the tilt hammer, to which the other die is attached, by which
means the said "vice moulds" are made accurately to assume the form of the
interior of the said dies. I remove the said "vice moulds" from time to time,
in order to reheat them, as the said "vice moulds" cannot be brought to the
required shape by the operation of the said dies and tilt hammer during one
heat. By these means (that is to say, the operation of dies and tilt hammers,
I form the solid standing arm of the vice, with its solid projecting boss (a, c,
Fig. 1), and also the falling or moveable arm with its boss, excepting the
portions a, b, which are made of steel, and which said steel portions are
afterwards attached thereto in the ordinary manner. I also form the bolt or
pin on which the screw d, Fig. 1, is made, as well as the cheeks f, by the
action of dies and tilt hammers.
The last part of my Invention is a machine by the action of which a hole is
drilled in the solid bosses formed on both the fixed and moveable arms of the
vice, (the said holes being for the passage of the screw by which the vice is
opened and closed,) and by the action of which said machine an internal screw
is made in the hole formed in the standing arm a, Fig. 1, of the vice. This
part of my Invention is illustrated by Fig. 2. j represents a horizontal table
or support, on which the arm of the vice to be drilled or screwed is placed
and properly secured. This table has motion in a vertical direction, and is

page_text: guided in its motion by the vertical guides k, k. is a vertical rotating shaft,
in the end of which, when the machine is used for drilling, an ordinary drill is
fixed. The table j, on which the arm of the vice is fixed, is slowly raised
during the rotation of the drill, and the solid boss on the arm of the vice
being thus submitted to the action of the said drill, a hole is made therein.
When the machine is used for making an internal screw in the hole of the
standing arm of the vice, I affix the tool represented at m to the shaft 7 in.
place of the drill. This tool consists of a cylindrical bar of iron, in which a
series of cutters, n, o, p, q, r, s, are placed equidistant from one another. The
several cutters project different distances from the cylinder t, as shown in the
Drawing, the cutter which first enters the hole in the vice arm projecting least,
and the projection of the several cutters increasing from n to s. When I use
this machine for cutting the internal screw the shaft / rotates more slowly,
and the table rises more rapidly than when the said machine is used for
drilling, the table being raised a distance equal to the pitch of the screw to
be formed during the time the shaft / performs one rotation. The cutter n
first cuts a helical groove of a depth nearly equal to the distance it projects
from the cylinder t, and the several cutters as they enter the said groove
gradually deepen it to the required degree. A hole is formed in the middle of
the table j, through. which the end t of the cutting tool passes as the table j rises.
I do not consider it necessary to describe the manner by which the arm of the vice
is fixed on the table j, as the same may be effected in a variety of ways well
known and commonly practised; neither do I consider it necessary to describe
the means by which the slow motion of the table j, when the machine is used
for drilling, and its rapid motion when used for cutting the internal screws,
are effected, nor the means whereby a change in the velocity of the shaft 7 is
effected, nor the means by which the machine is thrown into and out of gear
with the driving shaft, by which motion is communicated to the said machine,
as the said objects may be effected by the means whereby they are effected in
other machines, and the said means constitute no part of my Invention.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to performed, I wish it to be understood that I am aware
that vices have been commonly made in which the screw works in a fixed
screw box instead of the loose vice box of the ordinary vice; and I do not
claim the constructing of the said fixed screw boxes for vices as my Invention;
but the vices hitherto made with fixed screw boxes have not been found to
work well, owing to the defects consequent upon the descending motion of the
moveable arm of the vice, which defects are remedied by my improved joint;
and I claim as. my
Invention,―

page_text: Firstly, the method of forming the joints of vices on checks connected with
the standing arms of the said vices herein-before described, and represented in
Fig. 1 of the accompanying Drawing, or any modification of the same whereby
the moveable arms of the said vices are made to move in a line which
approaches nearer a horizontal line than that in which the moveable arm of a
common vice moves, whether the said joint be used in conjunction with a
fixed or loose screw box.
Secondly, the construction of loose vice boxes of brass, as herein-before
described.
Thirdly, the formation of the arms, cheeks, and bolts or pins, both of my
improved and other vices, by means of dies and tilt hammers, as herein-before
described.
Fourthly, the method of drilling and forming internal screws in screw boxes
for vices herein-before described and illustrated by Fig. 2 of the accompanying
Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Wilkinson, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, this Nineteenth day of June, One thousand eight
hundred and forty-nine.