US22073A - photo-litho - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICEo A. GREGORY, OF WASHINGTON, DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.

HAND-HAMMER.

Specification of Letters Patent No. 22,073, dated November 16, 1858.

To all whom 'it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALFRED GREGORY, of the city and county of lVashington, in the District of Columbia, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Hand- Hammers or Their Handles, which improvement is also applicable to the shafts, handles, or helves of other hand-tools having a hammer throw or action, such as hatchets, adzes, axes, or picks; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawing, which forms part of this specification, and in which my improvement is shown as applied to a handhammer proper.

Hand hammers are usually made light or heavy according to the purpose or work for which they are more particularly designed. In many trades, a workman requires, or eX- periences great inconvenience if not having, two, three, or more hammers of different heft, to suit varying work requiring a heavy or light b-low and rapid or slow succession of blows. Thus, a hammer for driving tacks is too light for forcing home nails of medium size, and a hammer suited for working on such nails too heavy to apply with advantage to driving tacks and too light for operating on larger nails or spikes. Also, while it is awkward to use a heavy hammer for light work and difficult to eX- ercise the requisite nicety in its use thereto or on, it is laborious and wasteful of time to use a light hammer for heavy work, and, the same not being adapted to give a heavy blow, it or its handle is very liable to breakage by such use. The necessity then of several hammers, as ordinarily constructed, of different heft, is apparent. Such necessity is very objectionable, not only on account of the expense it puts the workman to, to provide himself with a set of hammers, but also on account of the inconvenience of having so many of the same description of implement to crowd up his stock of tools, which inconvenience is specially felt in doing jobbing work at home and work at a distance requiring him to carry his tools back and forth; besides which, there is the loss of time in searching for and the uncertainty of finding, just at the moment he requires it, the particular hammer he needs.

By my improvement, I make one hand hammer answer more advantageously the purposes of several, and so do away, more or less, with the objections above named, and produce a. hand hammer, proper, of more varied and greater utility t-han is at present known to trade and which will be found of great practical gain, convenience and importance to thousands, if not tov all, both in the workshop and private domicile, using such a common implement as a hand hammer. Thus, while using a length of handle or radius of action neither inconveniently small or great, I sensibly control or vary the heft of the hammer so as to make it effectively deal either a light, medium, or heavy blow, to suit different character of work as specied; by the employment of a reversible loaded handle, or reversible interior stick of a loaded character or auxiliary weight or counterpoise adjustable on, in or along the handle, so arranged as to form no serious or objectionable projection from the handle inclining or facilitating its tip laterally in using the hammer or obstructing the free and steady use of said implement or, to any objectionable extent, clear sight along and run over the length of the handle; and said anXiliary weight or weighted portion not-having its range of action or effect necessarily restricted to the space intervening between the head of the hammer and back or hand holding end portion of the handle, but preferably made capable of adjustment within or through and beyond the hand of the operator, and hammer head, or either, to establish its effectiveness and practicability as a counterpoise to or regulator of the heft. And thus, it will be seen, my invention is of a different nature and has a totally distinctive character and object to or from the article known in trade as a hammer wrench having an adjustable jaw on or along (for a short distance) the shank of a stationary jaw, the function proper of which adjustable and stationary jaws is merely to grip and turn screws and other articles, and, in the performance of which function proper, the implement has not a hammer throw or action; also which adjustable jaw, when the implement is casually, and from the necessary character of its build disadvantageously used as a hand hammer, has none of the elements requisite to make it act or be felt as an auxiliary weight, and not even in theory as a counterpoise, to sensibly control the heft so as to deal light, medium or heavy blows, and for such variation O1' effect said jaw never was designed, and

is practically useless for other than its legitimate function of gripping and turning, for which its weight, size or configuration, position, and limited range of action suit it; but which jaw, in using the wrench as a hammer, is an objectionable lateral protrusion, making the implement awkward to use as a hand hammer and, instead of being advantageous, in such use of the instrument, it forms a positive evil and were better omitted.

To make yet clearer my invention, and the peculiar character thereof, I now proceed to describe it, under various forms, in connection with the accompanying drawing.

Referring to Fig. l, which is a partly sectional longitudinal view of a hand hammer, I show a hollovv handle (A) made of metal, bamboo, or other material, among which may be mentioned many reeds of a tough character and large bore indigenous to America. The one end of this hollow handle has secured on it, in any suitable manner, the hammer head The other end, for the length or distance grasped by the hand, may be covered with india rubber cloth or other substance calculated to give a good hold, or it may be left bare and if necessary cut or roughened. Such tubular handle may or may not be open at its ends to form a clear passage through it. In this figure (l), it is shown open at both ends. Within this handle is a stick, one part (a) of which is of a light structure or material, and the other part (d1) of solid lead or other heavy character. This stick is made reversible and adjustable on, in or along the handle, and may be held, when adjusted, by one or more set screws (Z2), or in any other suitable manner. Said stick may either wholly fill the tubular handle throughout its length and serve to strengthen it, or it may only partially till the handle.

Now, it will be obvious that, on the loaded portion (a) of the interior stick being at or through the head end of the implement, as in Fig. l here referred to, the heft of the hammer will be considerably in- J'creased and the implement made capable of dealing a heavy blow, but, on reversing the stick so as to bring its loaded end (cz) within for through the back or hand grasping end of the handle, the heft will be very sensibly diminished or a counterpoise instead of an auxiliary weight to the hammer head be produced, when working the implement from the wrist as a center of motion, and said weight or loaded end of the stick in such position serve to admit of a series of very light blows or' taps being given by an ordinarily heavy hammer and serve to steady the hand and action generally in giving such blows. Or the loaded end of the stick may be adjusted intermediate of the length of the handle, to facilitate a series of medium blows being given; Ol the weighted stick may be removed, at pleasure, and the implement be thereby reduced to operate in its ordinary capacity or manner. Such a combination of handle, shaft or helve and auxiliary weight or counterpoise acting as an etlicient regulator of the heft to secure, to t-he implement, blows sensibly differing in effect or force, without involving any objectionable protrusion from the handle, necessarily admits of numerous modifications distinctly and legitimately within the range of the peculiar character of my invention, and in the accompanying drawing I show a few of such modilications or differences in construction. And in thisl connection I would specially remark that, the devices for holding and releasing the auxiliary weight or counterpoise, or for adjusting it, may be of the most varied descrip* tion, including, as means, the screw and rack, wedge, spring or springs, thumb latch, and others, for operation by the hand of the operator not grasping the implement, or within easy reach of and for operation by the hand which does grasp it.

Referring to the modifications depicted in the drawing: Fig. Q, shows essentially the same construction as that previously described, excepting that the handle (A) is here supposed to be made of wood hollow or bored for only a portion of its length, or made of a hard reed with a plug (c), iitted and glued in one of its ends, which may then be cut or shaped to fit on the hammer head (B) in the ordinary way. In such construction, the after main portion of the handle serves for the adjustment or reversal of the interior. loaded stick (a 651,), the loaded portion (a2) of which may either be made to occupy the portion of the cavity in the handle nearest to the hammer head, to add to the heft of the latter, or it may be made to project within or through the back end of the handle (as shown), to take olf heft or establishl a counterpoise. Or the loaded stick may be wholly removed, at pleasure, to secure a medium blow.

Surrounding the handle, I show a metal strap which serves as a boX for the holding set screw (Z9) to work through, and likewise answers to brace and strengthen the handle, especially where the screw pressure is applied to hold the stick (a al). Fig. 3 illustrates a like action, but here the weight (al) is assumed to be held by friction or by one or more spring buttons (b) pressing against the interior of the handle (A), and said weight adjustable toward the hammer head (B), or in, through or toward the hand end of the handle, by compressing the spring buttons and moving the weight (a2) by the ngers, through means of a slot (e) or slots made in the handle, and which slots may also serve to give elasticity to and break jar o f the handle,

Fig. 4 shows the regulating weight (al) adjustable within the handle (A), toward or within the back end of the handle, or toward the hammer head (B) by a revolving screw rod (b). Fig. 5 depicts the adjustable weight or loaded stick (a, al) arranged to swing, or turn over from a holding pivot (b) toward the hammer head (B), or vice versa, and which, when adjusted, may be locked by a cross pin passing through holes or f1) in the loaded vstick and handle. Such swinging loaded stick or weight may either occupy a slot in the handle, or be external and occupy a reduced portion of the handle (A), above or below, or (as here shown), on either side of the handle, so as not to form an objectionable protrusion outside the handle, (say) as here indicated at the back end of the handle, which is shown in oblique section. The red lines, in this figure, show the loaded sticks in the act of being reversed. Fig. 6 also shows a reversible loaded stick (a al) arranged externally, but removable for reversal in a straight line (as in Figs. l and 2), by sliding it, either end foremost, on a rod (A) that projects from the hammer head (B) g and securing the stick, when adjusted, by a set screw Fig. 7 illustrates the reversible loaded stick (ay al) also serving as a handle, but held in the hammer head (B) by one or more set screws (Z2), or otherwise held therein or to. Some of these arrangements form extension handles, to work a long or short hammer as required.

It will be obvious that my invention is not restricted to the precise character of the blow given by the implement, which may be a driving, compressing, indenting or cutting one, and hammer heads are frequently made (as shown in the drawing) with their one end shaped to effect a cut, or the tool, having a hammer throw or action, may be wholly of (say) hatchet, adze, aXe, or pick form. A pick for pressing mill stones, having its helve thus constructed, could be easier worked with the requisite accuracy to reduce coarse or iine inequalities of varying hardness.

As a merchantable article or trade product, my invention may either assume the form of the implement complete, or of a mere handle, shaft or helve, for after connection with the cutting or striking part of the tool, and some of the modiiications here shown are applicable to hammer heads now 1n use.

I claim as new and useful and my inven tion- The heft regulating hammer shaft, or helve, substantially as specified, and operating to secure to the implement, of which it forms the handle, an enlarged and variable capacity to deal light or heavy blows as required essentially as herein set forth.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto subscribed my name.

A. GREGORY. )Vitnesses JOSEPH L. SMITH, J. F. CALLAN.

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