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FASTENER HISTORY
1997 FIN Calendar – 256 B.C., 1569, 1798, 1813, 1841, 1859, 1883, 1887 & 1892 Fastener Dates From Mel’s Fastener Museum

Each month of the 1997 FIN Calendar featured quotes from books and catalogs collected by Mel Kirsner for his fastener museum. These quotes preserve at least a peak at materials lost in the 2003 Southern California wildfire.
The collection included such items as an 1892 catalogue from Pawtucket Manufacturing Co. and a book, History of the Bolt & Nut Industry, written by W.R. Wilbur in 1905.

Featured in the 1997 FIN Calendar from Mel’s Fastener Museum:

December 1996 in the 1997 FIN Calendar:
6-Spindle Bolt Threader
Each spindle is driven independently, thus making each die a threading machine of itself, as much so as if each spindle were mounted on a separate bed or frame, thus enabling a machine with 6-spindles to have each run at a different speed and each cut a different size iron at the same time. 240 revolutions per minute – 6-spindle, 3,500 pounds.
From: Bolt & Nut Machinery 1892 Catalogue of Pawtucket Manufacturing Co.’s Machinery Department.
Donated to Mel’s Fastener Museum by Pawtucket Fasteners Inc. president David M. Hirsch
December sponsor: EZ Sockets Inc.

January 1997 FIN Calendar:
No. 0 Upright Shear
The Shear has two balance wheels, the driving pulley being one of same. It is geared 5 to 1, very heavy machine-molded gears being used, which practically run noiselessly.
This machine has a clutch on eccentric shaft, and an improved method of applying the same, which brings the lever into the most convenient position possible. It is furnished with gauge to be used on either side of the machine, and an improved attachment for holding the iron down while being cut. Length of blade 10 inches; its thickness, 1 3/16 inches. Pulleys of this machine are 32 inches diameter by 6 inches face, and should run 28 revolutions per minute – 8,000 pounds.”
Bolt & Nut Machinery
January sponsor: Nucor Fastener

February 1997 FIN Calendar:
Birth of the Common Bolt
According to Patent Office records for October 1859, William J. Clark of Mildale, Connecticut, constructed dies and produced carriage bolts made from round iron, having the angular neck under the head of the bolt formed by ‘lateral swaging’ or compression of the dies at the same operation by which the head was formed on the bolt by the upsetting die or plunger. This was the birth of the Pinched Neck on Common Bolt, as it was later called.
History of the Bolt & Nut Industry
By W.R. Wilbur (1905)
February sponsor: Porteous Fastener Co.

March 1997 FIN Calendar:
The Hildwein Bolt Cutter – Robert Hildwein’s Patent, December 4, 1883
This machine is strong and complete and is adapted to all kinds of work from 3/8 to 1 1/2 inches. The head is fitted with the simplest and most effectual lock that has yet been invented.
The dies can be changed with ease in less than one-half minute to cut and fit the correct size at once. It will cut any shape or style of thread. It will cut above, below, and standard sizes with the same set of dies and will finish any shape or style with one cut. The dies are four pieces of steel. Threads can be cut on them with a maste tap and can be easily removed. Speed of Counter Shaft, with 14×4 inch pulleys is 250 revolutions per min.
Iron Works (circa 1887) Howard Bros., Fredonia, New York
March sponsor: Marson/Creative Fastener Group

April 1997 FIN Calendar:
Archimedes and the Screw Thread
Compared with other simple mechanical devises such as the lever and fulcrum, the gear and the wheel, which date back to unknown times, the screw thread may be termed of almost recent origin.
Its discovery is credited to Archimedes, a native of the Greek colony of Syracuse in Sicily (about 256 BC).
On a visit to Egypt, he undertook to improve upon the primitive method of dipping water out of the stream for irrigation. For this purpose, he wrapped a plane of sheet metal around a long rod or cylinder in a coarse spiral, producing a thread the pitch of which made it resemble the turns of a modern twist drill.
Screw Thread Production to Close Limits Howard E. Adt
April sponsor: Semblex

May 1997 FIN Calendar:
First Method of Threading a Screw
So far as is known, the first method of threading a screw was to forge a blank, upset one end to form the head and then cut the thread by filing.
Besson (France, 1569) invented a screw-cutting gauge for the lathe, which was used in practically the form it originated until 1841, when an Englishman (Hindley of York) improved upon it.
Screw Thread Production to Close Limits
May sponsor: Reynolds Fasteners Inc.

June 1997 FIN Calendar:
2 inch Bolt Forging Machine
Similar in design to 1 1/4 inch Forging Machine, though much heavier, about 24,000 pounds, and having large balance wheel pulley at each end of shaft.
Balance wheel pulleys are 44 inches diameter by 10 inches face, and should run 65 revolutions per minute.
Bolt & Nut Machinery
June sponsor: RevCar Fasteners

July 1997 FIN Calendar:
Webb’s Patent Revolving Forge Furnace No. 0
The Revolving Forge Furnace performs all the necessary functions of the helper, and thus enables one man to do the work of two.
A revolving furnace 17 inches diameter inside of fire-pot will equal in capacity a furnace of the ordinary kind 63 inches long, making allowance fire-brick and casting. This furnace has no fire-brick, but simply perforated, cast-iron rings. The No. 0 furnace is 32 inches diameter and is adapted for heating 1 3/4 inch round iron and smaller, or any shape of iron with sectional area not greater than that of 1 3/4 inch round.
Bolt & Nut Machinery
July sponsor: Faspac

August 1997 FIN Calendar:
Early U.S. Fastener Patents
“The first American patent was issued December 14, 1798, to David Wilkinson, a celebrated mechanic of Rhode Island. The next American patent was dated March 23, 1813, and was issued to an equally distinguished mechanic of Massachusetts – Jacob Perkins, of Newburyport. On the fourth day of May of the same year, a patent was granted to Jacob Sloat of Ramapo, N.Y.
Bolt & Nut Industry of America
August sponsor: Brighton-Best

September 1997 FIN Calendar:
3-Spindle Nut Tapper
The 1,100 pound machine illustrated is for tapping all sizes up to and including nuts for 1/2 inch bolts. Pulleys are 8 inches by 3 inches and for tapping 1/2 inch nuts should run about 180 revolutions per minute.
Bolt & Nut Machinery
September sponsor: Earnest Machine Products Co.

October 1997 FIN Calendar:
No. 4 Press
This 26,470 pound machine has compound gearing; it has two sets of pinion gears keyed to balance wheel shaft, which engage with two sets of gears on jack shaft which run on a sleeve and are provided with means of fastening them to the jack shaft.
It will be readily seen that by this means two speeds of the plunger is obtained with one speed of balance wheel. To change from one set to the other requires but a few moments, the device being both simple in construction and durable.
Bolt & Nut Machinery
October sponsor: Bossard

November 1997 FIN Calendar:
Cutting Threads & Removing Burrs
Cullen Whipple, a machinist and “mechanic of skill and inventive genius,” patented a machine for cutting the threads of screws in 1842. He patented a machine for shaving the heads, a device for removing the burrs left in cutting the slots in the heads in 1843.
In the next decade he patented seven other machines or devices to improve manufacture of screws.
1883 Catalogue of American Screw Co., Providence, Rhode Island.
November sponsor: Threaded Rod Company

December 1997 FIN Calendar:
Double Spindle Bolt Pointing Machine
Special Features – Bearings of spindles are made very large, to ensure accuracy and durability. Hangers counter-shaft with tight and loose pulleys, furnished with the machine. Gripping jaws, for holding all kinds of work, furnished to order.
Speed – On the No. 1 machine the tight and loose pulleys of the counter-shaft are 16 inches diameter by 4 inches face, and should run 170 revolutions per minute when pointing 1 1/4 inch or smaller iron, of 225 revolutions when pointing 7/8 or smaller iron.
Bolt & Nut Machinery
December sponsor: E Z Sockets Inc.
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