Untitled record

(Application filed Apr. 15, 1898.)

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THE NORRIS PETERS CO.. PHOTO-LITHO.. WASHINGTON. D. C.

United States Patent Office.

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HENRY II. CUMMINGS, OF MALDEN, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR TO AMOS L. PRESCOTT, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

METHOD OF MAKING SPIKES.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 618,786, dated January 31,1899.

Application filed April 15> 1898. Serial No. 677,643. (No specimens.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, Henry H. Cummings, of Malden, county of Middlesex, State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Methods of Making Spikes, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

My invention is an improvement in the method of manufacturingspikes, particularly railroad-spikes, and has for its object the production of a spike of unusual tenacity and toughness of material and strength in general.

Various kinds of spikes have been produced in various forms; but it is the general experience that spikes have usually had their grain or fiber offset and more or less fractured and crystallized in the process of manufacture, it being frequently the case also that spikes as heretofore made have jagged edges, where the swaging has actually ruptured the iron or steel to an extent visible to the eye.

It is evident that the faults mentioned are serious ones, not only requiring that a spike shall be unduly large and heavy for the requisite strength, but also occasioning an unevenness of strength in different spikes, inasmuch as one spike will have more fractures or places of weakness than another. Accordingly I have invented the hereinafter-described process or method of manufacture whereby all these faults are effectually obviated. Furthermore, a spike of the special form of my improved spike if made according to the usual method would be expensive, whereas by my improved method the spike is not only stronger, but is inexpensive.

The details of my invention will be more fully comprehended in the course of the following description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, illustrative of the successive steps thereof.

In the drawings, Figure 1 is a broken detail, in side elevation, of a bar of steel or iron to be manufactured into spikes. Fig. 2 is a portion thereof cut from the bar and also indicating the lines of cut necessary to make two spike-blanks. Figs. 3, 4, and 5 are side ele- I vations illustrating the successive forms assumed by one of these blanks in the process of manufacture. Fig. 6 is a cross-section on the line 6 6, Fig. 5, looking upward.

In carrying out my method or process of 55 manufacture I take a usuaBrectangular bar a of the metal which it is desired to convert into spikes and preferably shear it on the diagonal lines a', thereby producing a rhomboidal block of the contour shown in Fig. 2. 60 This piece of metal is then heated in a furnace and brought under shearing-dies, which cut the block into two blanks cP on the lines a³a⁴. I then while the metal is still red-hot lift the projecting hook-like spur a⁵, thereby de- 65 fleeting the head portion, as indicated at a³, and bringing its apex a⁷ into substantial alinement with the adjacent or back edge a⁸ of the body a⁹ of the spike; also, the point is deflected or centered from the position shown in 70 dotted lines to the position shown in full lines at a¹⁰, Fig. 3. All this is accomplished while the metal is in its heated condition, so that thereby there is no possibility of fracturing the grain, but instead thereof the metal is some- 75 what compressed and toughened by the process. The partly-formed blank is then passed to a swaging tool or die, and while yet hot it is swaged bya downward pressure into theshape shown in Fig. 4, the result being that a broad, 80 heavy, solid, and compact driving-head a¹¹ is formed in the position shown, the projecting brace portion a¹³ is thickened and strengthened, and a slightly-depending end a¹³ is formed thereon. This formation is due to 85 the fact that the metal is swaged while hot and that the blank was originally cut on the diagonal line a', or at least was deflected into the inclined position substantially as shown in Fig. 3, thereby providing a maximum 90 amount of metal adjacent the back edge of the blank and a minimum amount of metal overhanging the opposite or forward edge thereof. The flow of the metal under the swaging action (it being understood that an opposite swaging or resistance is provided at the under side a¹⁴ of the brace a¹²) takes place readily and tends to arrange the grain of the head in parallelism to the direction thereof, at the same time compressing and toughening

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618,786 the head and absolutely preventing any possible rupture of the grain or crystallization thereof. The head having been formed as stated and as shown in Fig. 4, it is next sub5 jected to proper pressure to form the portion a¹³ of the brace into a relatively thin tapering prong, as indicated at a¹³, Fig. 5, this figure showing the spike in its completed form.

The result of my method is that instead of io there being any ragged or furred edges, particularly at the head, such as are commonly found in ordinary spikes, the head is entirely smooth and uniform at its edges and is exceedingly dense and tough.

Besides the features of advantage and superiority last alluded to the head of the spike is brought to the required shape without any point of weakness therein, whereas if this spike had been formed in the usual manner 20 it would have been practically impossible to have formed the spike without the practical destruction or serious weakening thereof, and, moreover, the cost of manufacture in the old way would be practically prohibitive. In25 deed this matter of lessening the expense of manufacture is one principal object of my method.

By observing Fig. 2 it will be evident that the lines of cut are such that there is no waste of material. The depending spur portion a^sof the head and the beveled edge or side of the point of the adjacent blank are formed by one cut, and this spur is in a position that requires the least deflection in order to bring 35 it into the desired form of the brace, as shown in Fig. 5.

If the blank were originally cut in the form shown in Fig. 4 or in the form shown in Fig. 5, there would not only be necessarily a con40 siderable waste of the material of the original stock, but also the grain of the brace a¹²would run transversely thereof instead of longi tudinally, as it does according to my method.

By my method the cost of manufacturing 45 is reduced to a minimum and it is possible to put out these superior spikes commercially in competition with the old style of cheap spikes.

While I have herein explained my inven50 tion in its details, I do not intend to limit myself otherwise than as hereinafter expressed in the claims.