hammer-block

They reported to the Admiralty accordingly, and in a few days we received an official letter, with an order for a steam hammer having a 50 cwt. hammer-block, together with the appropriate boiler, crane, and forge furnace, so as to equip a complete forge shop at Devonport Dockyard.

James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885

My Steam Hammer as thus first sketched, consisted of, first, a massive anvil on which to rest the work; second, a block of iron constituting the hammer or blow-giving portion; and, third, an inverted steam cylinder to whose piston-rod the hammer-block was attached.

James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885

All that was then required to produce a most effective hammer was simply to admit steam of sufficient pressure into the cylinder, so as to act on the under-side of the piston, and thus to raise the hammer-block attached to the end of the piston rod.

James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885

The shoulder of the pile acts as the sole supporter of the ponderous mass of the hammer-block, cylinder, and guide-box.

James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885

The chief feature of novelty of this pile-driving machine consists in the employment of the direct action of the Steam Hammer as the blow giving agent, and also in the manner in which the dead weight of the entire apparatus, consisting of the hammer-block C, the steam cylinder A, and its guide-case B, is employed to importantly aid the effect of the rapid and energetic blows of the steam hammer.

James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885

Besides showing them my own steam hammer, I took the deputation to the extensive works of Messrs. Rushton and Eckersley, where they saw one of my five-ton hammer-block steam hammers in full action.

James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885

The upward stroke of the piston, with its attached hammer-block C, is arrested at the proper height not only by allowing the steam that raised it to escape, but as soon as the piston passes the escape holes X X, the confined air above the piston at O rebounds, and so aids most effectively in increasing the energy of the fall of the hammer-block C on the pile head.

James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885

When my pile was driven, the hammer-block and guide case were speedily re-hoisted by the small engine that did all the labouring and locomotive work of the machine; the steam hammer portion of which was then lowered on to the shoulders of the next pile in succession.

James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885

The elastic buffer of waste steam also acted as a help to the downward blow of the hammer-block.

James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885

The whole weight of the cylinder, hammer-block, and guide box, supported by the shoulders of the pile, amounting to seven tons in all, rested upon the shoulders of the pile as a "persuader;" and the eighty blows per minute of the four-ton hammer came down with tremendous energy upon the top of the pile head.

James Nasmyth: Engineer, An Autobiography. Nasmyth, James 1885