IMPROVEMENTS IN NAILS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Leigh at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 20th November 1878.
RICHARD LEIGH, of Bolton, in the County of Lancaster, Iron Manufacturer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN NAILS."
One part of my Invention refers to the manufacture of nails for boots and shoes
commonly known as "bills" or "sparrow bills," and consists in making nails of the
same shape as hand made or "beaten bills." The peculiarity of the hand made nail
is that all its four sides converge to the point, whilst ordinary cut bills have two
sides parallel and the other two sides meet to form a chisel edge. In cutting a bill
which shall have all its sides converging, I first cut by means of an ordinary nail
cutting machine from a strip of metal of wedge shaped section a "bill" with a
chisel edge, which is then pressed on the parallel sides by the dies in the usual way,
and drops from the machine the same shape as the hand made "bill." In this case
the strip is not turned over, but fed under the cutter in a straight line. My im-
provement further consists in producing the same shape of nail by using the same
wedge shaped section of metal, and by feeding the strip into the machine at such
an angle as will give a square head and a sharp converging point. In this case
however I turn the strip, first cutting a nail and then a blank. My improvement
further consists in producing the same shape of nail as the hand made nail by
casting them in "malleable "iron in the ordinary way, which enables me to imitate the
peculiar shape of the wide end of the nail which serves instead of a head. The
second part of my Invention relates to improvements in the nails used for fastening
the uppers of clogs to the wooden soles and similar purposes; these nails are
commonly called "clog nails" or "welt" nails. The nails which have been almost
exclusively used for this purpose up to the present time are cut from strips of fine
charcoal sheet iron, and my improvement consists in substituting for them nails
made from iron or steel wire. By using a very good quality of wire I am able to
make the heads of wire nails round, smooth, and tough enough for this purpose.
These wire nails are less liable to split the wooden sole in driving; they drive more
easily, and having no projection under the head they drive "home" with less effort
than cut nails. I make nails for this purpose of round, square, oval, or other
071

page_text: section of iron or steel wire, or iron or steel wire coated or covered with brass,
copper, or tin; or I coat the nails after they are made.
A further part of my Invention relates to double pointed nails for securing the
ends of leather or other driving belts. I insert such double pointed nails in a
flexible material, such as leather, rubber, rubber cloth, metal, or the like, in such a
manner as to have one point on each side of the flexible material. These double
pointed nails I produce in the ordinary way, or I make them from wire, but I some-
times produce them in malleable cast iron, either of the same shape as the wire
nails or with a thin flat head in the centre of the nail. These double pointed nails
with the head in the centre I either insert in a flexible material or use them singly
without such material.