IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF PUDDLED BALLS AND APPARATUS THEREFOR
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles William Siemens, of No. 3, Great George
Street, Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF PUDDLED BALLS AND APPARATUS
THEREFOR."
Sealed the 24th March 1874, and dated the 3rd February 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles William
Siemens at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 3rd February 1874.
I, CHARLES WILLIAM SIEMENS, of No. 3, Great George Street,
Westminster, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF PUDDLED
BALLS AND APPARATUS THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
1
Balls formed in a puddling furnace or produced by the method
described in the Specification of a Patent granted to me on the 3rd
December, 1872, No. 3642, and in a Provisional Specification filed by
me on the 11 December, 1873, No. 4075, consist of an aggregation of

page_text: metallic particles loosely held together, with large interstices filled with
fluid cinder. The removal of this fluid cinder and the solidification by
welding of the metallic particles are effected by shingling. This is
usually accomplished either by hammering the spongy ball or passing it
through squeezing apparatus. In none of the apparatus used for this
purpose is the ball subjected to more than instantaneous pressure in any
definite direction, and if the cinder is of such a nature as to prevent the
ready union of adjoining particles of metal the ball frequently breaks up
wholly or partially under the operation.
My present Invention has for its object to effect the process of
shingling in such a manner that the cinder has time and opportunity to
ooze out in all directions, while a steady pressure applied simultaneously
in several directions causes the particles of metal to unite more
thoroughly. For this purpose I arrange three or more hydraulic presses
round a common centre with their axes radiating in one horizontal
plane, their rams being directed towards the centre where the puddled
ball is placed on a turntable. The rams of the hydraulic presses are
urged simultaneously forward so as to press on the ball, and on the
pressure being relieved they are caused to recede by counterweights or
springs. The turntable is then turned partly round so as to present fresh
portions of the circumference of the ball to receive the pressure, and
this action is several times repeated so as to effect the lateral compression
of the ball in all directions. It is necessary however that the mass
should be compressed also in a vertical direction, and for this purpose a
hydraulic cylinder is placed vertically over the centre of the turntable in
order to act upon the ball downwards at the same time as the lateral
pressure is applied. But instead of using hydraulic pressure vertically
it is sufficient to lower a plunger or head by means of a quick screw
action in order to confine the metal in a vertical sense between the
turntable and the head while the lateral hydraulic pressure is applied.
In order to economize power I provide two sources of hydraulic
pressure, the one being of moderate degree such as may be obtained
from an elevated cistern, and the other of higher degree as from a
weighted accumulator.
On introducing the puddled ball into the
machine the lower hydraulic pressure is applied simultaneously in the
several cylinders by opening a cock or valve in a pipe connecting them
with the cistern, and thus the heads are caused to compress the spongy
mass to a moderate degree. This cock or valve being closed and an

page_text: exit cock or valve being opened the hydraulic heads are withdrawn by
the counterweights or springs, and the turntable supporting the ball is
moved through half the angle or thereabouts between the adjoining
cylinders, whereupon the low pressure hydraulic force is again applied,
and this may be repeated if necessary. The mass having been thus
caused to assume an elongated prismatic form the vertical plunger or
head is brought to bear upon it. The low-pressure hydraulic valve is
now closed and the high-pressure valve opened so that the mass is
subjected to a sufficient pressure to cause the fluid cinder to be
thoroughly expressed and the metallic particles to unite firmly and
permanently in all directions. After this maximum pressure has been
allowed to operate for a period of about half a minute, which is accom-
plished at a very small expenditure of water from the high-pressure
accumulator the pressure valve is closed and the exit valve opened, the
vertical plunger or head is withdrawn and the compressed prism of
metal is transferred to the rolling mill or to a steel melting furnace, as
the case may be.
In carrying out the process described above it may be readily under<
stood that instead of applying a separate hydraulic cylinder for each
pressure head one large hydraulic cylinder placed vertically below the
centre of the machine may be used, and its force may be transferred to
the different pressure heads by means of levers, inclined planes, or other
mechanical connections. Or steam power instead of hydraulic force
may be employed, or the pressure heads may be moved by cranks, levers,
or screws worked by a steam engine. I prefer however the direct
application of hydraulic power as herein-before described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles William Siemens in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 31st July 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
WILLIAM SIEMENS, of No. 3, Great George Street, Westminster, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of February, in the year of

page_text: our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Charles William Siemens, Her special
license that I, the said Charles William Siemens, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles
William Siemens, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time, and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE TREATMENT OF PUDDLED BALLS AND APPARATUS
THEREFOR," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles
William Siemens, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles William Siemens, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheets of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
Balls formed in a puddling furnace or produced by the method
described in the Specifications of Patents granted to me on the 3rd
December, 1872, No. 3642, and on the 11th December, 1873, No. 4075,
consist of an aggregation of metallic particles loosely held together with
large interstices filled with fluid cinder. The removal of this fluid cinder
and the solidification by welding of the metallic particles are effected by
shingling. This is usually accomplished either by hammering the
spongy ball or passing it through squeezing apparatus. In none of the
apparatus used for this purpose is the ball subjected to more than
instantaneous pressure in any definite direction, and if the cinder is of
such a nature as to prevent the ready union of adjoining particles of
metal the ball frequently breaks up wholly or partially under the
operation.

page_text: My present Invention has for its object to effect the process of
shingling in such a manner that the cinder has time and opportunity to
ooze out in all directions, while a steady pressure applied simultaneously
in several directions causes the particles of metal to unite more
thoroughly. For this purpose I arrange three or more hydraulic presses
round a common centre with their axes radiating in one horizontal
plane, their rams being directed towards the centre where the puddled
ball is placed on a turntable. The rams of the hydraulic presses aro
urged simultaneously forward so as to press on the ball, and on the
pressure being relieved they are caused to recede by counterweights or
springs, or by atmospheric pressure. The turntable is then turned partly
round so as to present fresh portions of the circumference of the ball to
receive the pressure, and this action may be several times repeated so as
to effect the lateral compression of the ball in all directions. It is
necessary however that the mass shall be compressed also in a vertical
direction, and for this purpose a hydraulic cylinder is placed vertically
over the centre of the turntable in order to act upon the ball downwards
at the same time as the lateral pressure is applied. But instead of
using hydraulic pressure vertically it is sufficient to lower a plunger or
head by means of a quick screw action in order to confine the metal in
a vertical sense between the turntable and the head while the lateral
hydraulic pressure is applied.
In order to economise power I provide two sources of hydraulic
pressure, the one being of moderate degree such as may be obtained
from an elevated cistern, and the other of higher degree, as from a
weighted accumulator. On introducing the puddled ball into the
machine the lower hydraulic pressure is applied simultaneously in the
several cylinders by opening a cock or valve in a pipe connecting them
with the cistern, and thus the heads are caused to compress the spongy
mass to a moderate degree. This cock or valve being closed and an
exit cock or valve being opened the hydraulic heads are withdrawn by
the counterweights or springs and the turntable supporting the ball is
moved through half the angle or thereabouts between the adjoining
cylinders, whereupon the low-pressure hydraulic force is again applied,
and this may be repeated if necessary. The mass having been thus
caused to assume an elongated prismatic form the vertical plunger or
head is brought to bear upon it. The low-pressure hydraulic valve is now
closed and the high-pressure valve opened so that the mass is subjected

page_text: to a sufficient pressure to cause the fluid cinder to be thoroughly
expressed and the metallic particles to unite firmly and permanently in
all directions. After this maximum pressure has been allowed to
operate for a period of about half a minute, which is accomplished at a
very small expenditure of water from the high-pressure accumulator,
the pressure valve is closed and the exit valve opened, the vertical
plunger or head is withdrawn and the compressed prism of metal is
transferred to the rolling mill or to a steel melting furnace, as the case
may be. In the former case it is preferable before rolling to re-heat the
compressed prism.
In carrying out the process described above it may be readily under-
stood that instead of applying a separate hydraulic cylinder for each
pressure head one large hydraulic cylinder placed vertically below the
centre of the machine may be used, and its force may be transferred to
the different pressure heads by means of levers, inclined planes, or other
mechanical connections. Or steam power instead of hydraulic force
may be employed. I prefer however the direct application of hydraulic
power as herein-before described, using the steam power to furnish or
vary the hydraulic pressure.
Fig. 1 represents a plan partly in section, and Fig. 2 a vertical section
of apparatus for shingling constructed according to my Invention. A is
the turntable mounted on the ram of a hydraulic press B which is fixed
to the under side of a strong framing or bed plate C. On this framing
are fixed several hydraulic presses D the ram heads E of which can all
be forced simultaneously towards the centre so as to compress between
them the ball laid on the table A. For convenience of manipulation the
pipes to the several hydraulic cylinders D are all led to one valve box G
in which there are slide valves worked by a hand lever H so as to
subject the several rams to pressure or to relieve them of pressure. Each
ram is provided with a crosshead E¹ against which bears a roller mounted
on a bent lever loaded with a weight F. When the pressure in the
cylinders D is relieved the weights F descending draw, back the rams.
In a framing above the hydraulic cylinders is fixed the nut of the
screw K which can be run down by turning a hand wheel so that its
head k can be brought to bear upon the ball lying on the table A.

page_text: A modified form of the apparatus, according to which the movement
of a steam piston is employed to apply or to relieve the hydraulic
pressure, is shewn in vertical section at Fig. 3, in side view at Fig. 4,
and in plan at Fig. 5; Fig. 6 being a longitudinal section of the con-
denser used for the working steam. In this case instead of the screw K
I employ the ram of a vertical hydraulic cylinder M, the supply pipe
of which as well as the pipes to the several horizontal cylinders D
are all led to one cylinder N provided at top with a safety valve
and connected by a pipe with a suction valve (as shewn in the cross
section, Fig. 3) to a reservoir O. The cylinder N is fitted with a
plunger attached to a piston P working in a larger cylinder Q below
the cylinder N. The areas of the cylinders N and Q may be pro-
portioned as desired to convert a given pressure of steam in the one
to a higher hydraulic pressure in the other. The top of the cylinder Q
is connected by a pipe to the condenser B, and the bottom of the
cylinder Q is connected to ports in a slide jacket R which is supplied
with steam from a boiler by a piper and which communicates at its
lower end with the surface condenser S. The condenser communicates
with an air pump T the bucket of which is connected by a rod to the
piston P. The slide in the jacket R is worked by a hand lever and
rod U so as either to admit steam under the piston P or put the lower
end of the cylinder Q in communication with the condenser. In the
former case the piston P is pressed upwards and the plunger above it
forces water from the cylinder N to the several hydraulic cylinders of
the apparatus causing their rams to advance. In the latter case the
piston P descends and the plunger is withdrawn from the cylinder N
reducing the pressure in the several hydraulic cylinders below that of
the atmosphere, whereupon their rams are drawn back. The suction pipe
from the cistern O supplies such additional water as may, be necessary
to fill the cylinder N after the rams are drawn back, and another pipe
leading to the same cistern O from the case of the safety valve on N
conveys to that cistern any excess of water contained in N when the
rams have been pushed fully out and the safety valve is opened. The
vertical cylinder M can be cut off from N by a cock or valve V which is
opened only when it is desired that the ram of M shall descend upon the
ball. The stem of the turntable A forms the ram of a hydraulic cylinder
which is permanently in communication with an elevated cistern by the
pipe a so as to relieve the weight of the turntable from its bearings
and thereby to facilitate its being turned by the hand lever a¹.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that I do not
claim generally the application of hydraulic pressure for consolidating
or shaping iron or steel, but I claim,―
First. Shingling puddled balls by subjecting them to the pressure of
several rams or heads directed simultaneously upon their sides and ends.
Second. The use for shingling puddled balls in the manner above
referred to of several hydraulic cylinders arranged radially round a
central turntable in combination with a vertical screw or ram, sub-
stantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles William Siemens, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of July,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
]
C. WILLIAM SIEMENS. (L.S.)
Witness,
OLIVER IMRAY,
20, Southampton Buildings,
W.C.