US40051A - Improvement in removing spikes from guns - Google Patents

Description

UNITED STATES PATnNT Uri-Ionio AUGUSTUS LAFEVER, OF BATTLE CREEK, MICHIGAN.

IMPROVEMENT IN REMOVING SPIKES FROM GUNS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 40,05 L dated September 22, 1863.

To all whom, t may concern:

Be it known that I, AUGUSTUS LAFEVER, of Battle Creek, in the county of Calhoun, in the State of Michigan, have invented a new and useful Mode and Machine for Unspiking Guns; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof, reference .being had to the accompanying drawings, and

. mode or process of unspiking guns by means of an annular bit which drills around the spike, leaving it as a core, until the spike is drilled free, or exposed sufficiently to admit of being grasped and drawn out; also, in the construction and operation of the adjustable frame which supports and guides the bit; also, in the combination and arrangement of the self-adjusting socket with the adjustable plate, so as to drill at any desired angle.

In the drawings, A A represent the adjust.- able frame. This frame consists of a strong base-plate curved so as to saddle the gun, and is hinged in the center at a, so as to be adapted to guns of different sizes. The arms of the frame, which are pivoted at their lower ends by screw-bolts b and pin c, are secured at their upper ends to a plate or bracket by means of screw-bolts d, the base-plate, arms or standards, and bracket-plate together composing what I term the adjustable frame A.77 ecare metallic straps pivoted to the base-plate. They are provided with lugs ff, through which pass the tension screw-hooks g g. A dat chain, h, of suitable strength, is passed around the gun and caught by the hooks g. This device is applicable to all kinds of drilling.

B is the adjustable plate which guides and supports the drill-socket, and is secured in the desired position by means of the clamping set-screw i, which clamps it against the bracket-plate.

C is the self-adjusting socket, which is supported by its neck, which works loosely in a collar, o, ofthe plate B. The neck ofthe socket C is provided with a bead or pin to keep it from falling out of the collar, in which it plays so freely as to be adjusted to any desired angle or direction.

m is the hollow feed-screw, through which the stem of the bit freely passes. This screw works in the socket C, (see Fig. 3,) and is provided with radiating arms for operating it with the left hand.

It will be noticed that the stem of the bit D is pierced with a number of holes at short intervals apart. These holes are for the insertion of the pin n, which supports the fixed and movable washers s, upon which the lower part of the feed-screw presses in order to feed the bit downward as it cuts.

D is the bit. It will be seen that this is a hollow or annular rose-bit provided with spi- .ral grooves for feeding out the chips.

In the operation of my invention I place the saddle or base-plate A upon the gun, over the spike, and pass the chain around the gun, and secure the frame to the gun as tightly as possible by means of the tension screw-hooks g g. The frameis then adjusted, and the screwbolts b and d are tightened. The bit is then placed over the spike, if it project, (if not, a conntersunk holeis made to guide the bit at the start, and the clamping-screw t' is loosened,

so as to admit of the adjustment of the upper end of the bit-stem to any desired angle, asindicated by red lines in Fig. 3. Screw z' is then tightened, and the plate B is rmly clamped to the frame. I now revolve the cutter or bit by means of a driving-crank upon its upper end, at the same time feeding the bit downward by means of the feed-screw m, which is operated by the left hand.

Y The common and most effective mode of spiking or disabling cannons is to drive tightly into the touch-hole a rat-tail file of the hardest steel. This mode is so perfectly effective that guns thus spiked are frequently provided with a new vent. There is not now in use any simple, rapid, and effective means for removing a spike of this kind when driven tightly into a tapered touch-hole, for it has been found mpossible to remove such spikes by the ordinary drill, for the ile is at least as hard as the drill,

-or by driving them into the gun, or by blowing them out.

It is now a common practice, in making cannous, to provide them with a busl1,77 in which the touch-hole is drilled. In View of this fact, I use a bit of the usual diameter of a bush,

-(about one inch,) and after the hole is drilled and the spike removed a bush is let in in the usual manner, and the gun is as good as before it. was. .spjkerLt V4It. V4will seldom be necessaryY t0 drill more than an inch or two in order to enable me to get a grasp upon the spike sufficient to draw it out.

I do not broadly claim an annular bit as new of itself7 for I am aware that such a bit has AUGUSTUS LAFEVER. Witnesses: f

OLIVER COX,

Jo. C. CLAYTON.

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