IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL SHOVELS, SPADES, SCOOPS, AND SUCH LIKE IMPLEMENTS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 20, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF STEEL SHOVELS,
SPADES, SCOOPS, AND SUCH LIKE IMPLEMENTS."-A communication from
abroad by Thomas Jefferson Blake, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania,
United States of America.
Scaled the 6th November 1874, and dated the 26th May 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton
Abel at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 26th May 1874.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF STEEL SHOVELS, SPADES, SCOOPS, AND SUCH LIKE IMPLEMENTS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in making the blanks for shovels, spades,
scoops, and such like implements of a cast steel ingot for the blade, to

page_text: which straps or shanks of soft steel or wrought iron are united by cast-
ing the ingot thereon, whereby a blank for a shovel, spade, or scoop is
produced having the blade and straps or shanks formed of one piece of
metal compounded of steel of differing temper, or partly of steel and
partly of wrought iron, so that in either case the said compound shall
exist in union independent of the use of welding or of rivets or other
fastening, the shovel being shaped from the blank by rolling in the
usual manner.
For the above purpose a bar of soft steel or wrought iron for forming
the straps or shanks is bent into a loop, the ends which are to be united to
the blade being flattened out, and is placed in a narrow part of an ingot
mould with the flattened ends projecting into a wider part thereof. The
sides of the narrow part of the mould may either fit against the faces of
the straps, or if it be desired to coat the straps with steel of the same
description as the blade a space is left between the sides of the mould
and the straps, into which the metal from the wide part of the mould
can run. Cast steel is then run into the wide part of the mould for
forming the blade, the.metal uniting firmly with the ends of the straps,
so as practically to form one piece therewith. The blank being removed
from the mould the loop of the straps is. cut through so as to separate
them for the reception of the handle between them. Or in place of
forming the straps of a looped bar as described a solid bar may be
employed which is afterwards split in two by a saw or otherwise. The
blank is then rolled to the proper gauge, width, and length, is afterwards
sheared, and the straps and socket punched and shaped for the reception
of the handle.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 9th November. 1874. 3
TO ALL' TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES 3
DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, send greeting.

page_text: of our Lord One thousand eight 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 Charles Denton Abel, Her
special license that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles
Denton Abel, 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 MANUFACTURE OF STEEL SHOVELS,
SPADES, SCOOPS, AND SUCH LIKE IMPLEMENTS," a communication to me from
abroad by Thomas Jefferson Blake, of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, United
States of America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Charles Denton Abel, 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent,
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thercon, that is to say:
-
This Invention consists in making the blanks for shovels, spades,
scoops, and such like implements of a cast steel ingot for the blade, to
which straps or shanks of soft steel or wrought iron are united by cast-
ing the ingot thereon, whereby a blank for a shovel, spade, or scoop is
produced having the blade and straps or shanks formed of one piece of
metal compounded of steel of differing temper, or partly of steel and
partly of wrought iron, so that in either case the said compound shall
exist in union independent of the use of welding or of rivets or other
fastening, the shovel being shaped from the blank by rolling in the
usual manner.

page_text: For the above purpose a bar of soft steel or wrought iron for forming
the straps or shanks is bent into a loop, the ends which are to be united
to the blade being flattened out, and is placed in a narrow part of an
ingot mould with the flattened ends projecting into a wider part thereof.
The sides of the narrow part of the mould may either fit against the
faces of the straps, or if it be desired to coat the straps with steel of the
same description as the blade a space is left between the sides of the
mould and the straps into which the metal from the wide part of the
mould can run. Cast steel is then run into the wide part of the mould
for forming the blade, the metal uniting firmly with the ends of the
The blank being
straps so as practically to form one piece therewith.
removed from the mould, the loop of the straps is cut through so as to
separate them for the reception of the handle between them. Or in
place of forming the straps of a looped bar, as described, a solid bar may
be employed, which is afterwards split in two by a saw or otherwise.
The blank is then rolled to the proper gauge, width, and length, is
afterwards sheared, and the straps and socket punched and shaped for
the recention of the handle.

page_text: To enable others skilled in the art to make and use this Invention I
will now describe it in detail.
A bar of wrought iron or soft steel of sufficient thickness and width
to form the strap, as shown at a, Fig. 1, is bent, as at c, to form the
loop d. The loose ends of the bent bar are then spread by forging to a
tapering portion e wider than the strap but not so thick. Or the strap
may be made from a bar as wide as the spread portion c, or nearly so,
hammered down to the desired width along the shank a, and bent to a
loop.
The strap formed as above described, and in either a hot or cold state,
is then placed in a mould f, Fig. 2, the spread end e extending beyond
the narrow portion of the mould about halfway along the wider portion,
and molten cast steel is poured into the mould on to the end of the
strap a, uniting with it and filling the body of the mould f.
If desired the straps may be coated with steel at the time the blank is
cast. This is done by placing pieces of iron i in the end of the mould
on opposite sides of the strap, so that the molten steel fills the spaces n
on each side of the straps. When rolled out the straps will then have
an outer surface of cast steel and an inner one of soft metal.
The taper parts e instead of being closed together, as shewn in Figs. 3
and 4, may be spread out, as shewn in Fig. 5, so as to enclose between
them a portion of the cast steel in the form of a wedge. Or a bar of
wrought iron or soft steel being placed in the mould, extending about
halfway along it, and being therein united with the cast steel, as
described above, and shewn at Fig. 6, may be afterwards split by sawing
or otherwise to form the straps. The necessary object to be attained in
this step of the process, whatever may be the, method adopted for form-
ing the straps, is to effect the union or welding of the soft metal
constituting the straps to the cast steel ingot which is to form the
blade.
From a blank produced as above described a shovel is formed in the
following manner :-If the portion of the blank which is to form the
strap has been made by bending or looping the loop is cut, or if a solid bar
has been used it is sawn or separated down to the ingot which is to form
the blade a (as indicated by the dotted line in Fig. 6); and in this caso
a socket cavity is punched in the centre of the ingot between the straps.

page_text: The blank is then rolled to the proper gauge, width, and length, and
shorn to shape, the straps are punched with nail holes, the socket is
opened, and the blade and straps are set to shape for receiving the
handle.
In rolling the blanks the portions forming the straps do not unite,
but retain their relative position without union; but when a
bar has been split to form the straps and a socket punched, it is
advantageous to fill the socket with scale or similar material so as to
prevent the socket from being closed by the rolls employed in forming
the shovel.
It is believed that in uniting at the time of casting, as described
above, the strap to the ingot which is to form the blade, a molecular
union takes place between the different grades of metal used, and not
simply a weld as commonly understood; that is to say, when the molten
steel which is to form the blade is poured on to the end of the strap in the
mould the metal at the point of union is intermediate between the soft
and the hard, the strap, for instance, being wrought iron and the blade cast
steel; there is a point between the two at their union which is of a third
grade, intermediate between wrought iron and cast steel, the one metal
shading off into the other, as it were, so that in fact the blade and the
strap constitute in reality one piece of metal, simply differing at different
points in temper or quality, having a hard durable metal where required
in the blade and a softer and more ductile metal where required in the
strap.
In Figs. 7 and 8, o is the blade and o' are the straps of the completed
shovel. The blade and strap united, as above described, form a single
piece consisting of two grades of steel, the blade harder than the strap,
or of a blade of cast steel with a strap of wrought iron, the point of
union in both cases being only distinguishable by the different colors
of the two grades of metal. The shovel so formed has a smooth back
without rivets or the appearance of having been welded, as in shovels
where a soft metal strap has been united to the blade by the common
method of pressure welding. It is superior to these in strength
and is quite as durable, whilst the manufacture is very materially
cheapened.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I claim,—

page_text: First. The method substantially as herein described of producing the
blanks for shovels, spades, and such like implements, by placing in a
mould a strap of soft steel or wrought iron, and casting thereon a steel
ingot to form the blade.
Second. The use of shovels, spades, and such like implements having
a cast steel blade united to straps of softer steel or wrought iron, by
casting the ingot for the blade on to the metal of the straps, substan-
tially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Ninth day of November,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.