Glascott and Mitchell, December, 1823, for ship nails with rounded heads, by hand labour.
Wilks and Ecroyd, November, 1825, for an engine for cutting wedge-form pieces from plates.
Ledsom and Jones, December 11, 1827, for machinery for cutting brads and sprigs from plates; it does not form heads.
The first nail apparatus to which I shall particularly advert, is due to Dr. Church; it was patented in his absence by his correspondent, Mr. Thomas Tyndall, of Birmingham, in December, 1827. It consists of two parts; the first is a mode of forming nails, and the shafts of screws, by pinching or pressing ignited rods of iron between indented rollers; the second produces the threads on the shafts of the screws previously pressed. The metallic rods, by being passed between a pair of rollers, are rudely shaped, and then cut asunder between a pair of shears; after which they are pointed and headed, or otherwise brought to their finished forms, by the agency of dies placed in a revolving cylinder. The several parts of the mechanism are worked by toothed wheels, cams, and levers. The second part of Dr. Church’s invention consists of a mechanism for cutting the threads of screws to any degree of obliquity or form.[35]
[35] For further details, see Newton’s Journal, 2nd series, vol. iii. p. 184.
Mr. L. W. Wright’s (American) apparatus should have been mentioned before the preceding, as the patent for it was sealed in March of the same year; though an amended patent was obtained in September, 1828. Its object was to form metal screws for wood. I have seen the machinery, but consider it much too complex to be described in the present work.
Mr. Edward Hancorne, of Skinner street, London, nail manufacturer, obtained a patent in October, 1828 for a nail-making machine, of which a brief description may give my readers a conception of this kind of manufacture. Its principles are similar to those of Dr. Church’s more elaborate apparatus.
The rods or bars having been prepared in the usual way, either by rolling or hammering, or by cutting from sheets or plates of iron, called slitting, are then to be made redhot, and in that state passed through the following machine, whereby they are at once cut into suitable lengths, pressed into wedge forms for pointing at the one end, and stamped at the other end to produce the head. A longitudinal view of the machine is shown in [fig. 749.] A strong iron frame-work, of which one side is shown at a a, supports the whole of the mechanism. b is a table capable of sliding to and fro horizontally. Upon this table are the clamps, which lay hold of the sides of the rod as it advances; as also the shears which cut the rod into nail lengths.