IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN DRAWING WIRE
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Woods and Edwin Woods, of Warrington,
in the County of Lancaster, Wire Drawers, for the Invention of
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Woods and
Edwin Woods at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 25th April 1871.
We, JOSEPH WOODS and EDWIN WOODS, of Warrington, in the
County of Lancaster, Wire Drawers, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN DRAWING
WIRE," to be as follows:-
The main object of our Invention is to cheapen the cost of drawing
wire. For that purpose we have devised apparatus whereby wire is
drawn or reduced several sizes at one operation, instead of only one
size, as hitherto has been in practice.
The said apparatus is arranged and made to operate in the following
manner: The wire to be drawn is placed on a disc or fusee free to
revolve on its axis or driven at the required speed. From the said disc

page_text: or fusee it is led through a draw plate or die of any ordinary kind,
thence once or oftener, three times are usually convenient, around a
pulley driven at the required speed. From the pulley just named the
same wire is led through a smaller opening or die, thence around a
second pulley having a greater surface speed. A third, a fourth, or
any number of pulleys and draw plates or dies the quality of the wire
will bear may be used, regard being had to the essentiality of giving to
each succeeding pulley a greater surface speed than the one preceeding
it. The wire is coiled on a winding-on drum after passing the last draw
plate or die, or after leaving the last pulley.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Joseph Woods and Edwin Woods in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 25th October 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JOSEPH
WOODS and EDWIN WOODS, of Warrington, in the County of Lancaster,
Wire Drawers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Joseph Woods and Edwin Woods, Her
special license that we, the said Joseph Woods and Edwin Woods,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the
said Joseph Woods and Edwin Woods, our 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 APPARATUS EMPLOYED
IN DRAWING WIRE," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Joseph Woods and Edwin Woods, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of our or
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

page_text: secured on the spindle f, to which rotary motion is imparted from the
driving shaft i through the bevel wheels and g. The driving shaft i
is actuated through the pulleys j or by motive power in any other con-
venient manner. From the pulley e the wire c is led through a less
aperture in the second draw plate or die d³, thence around the second
pulley e¹ secured on the spindle fi which is driven at a greater speed,
the increase being equivalent to the extension of the wire, by the bevel
wheels g¹ and h¹. From e¹ the wire is led through a still smaller aperture
in the third draw plate or die d over pulley e³, secured on spindle f*,
driven by bevel wheels and h², thence through the final draw plate or 1
die & around the winding-on drum or block k, which is also driven by
the spindle and bevel wheels m, m³, from the shaft i. It will be
evident that the pulleys e, e¹, e², and the winding-on drum or block /
draw the wire through their respective draw plates or dies d, d¹, d³,
and d³, at a speed proportioned to the clongation and consequent 1
diminution in transverse area.
. It is true the surface speeds of the pullies and block will require to
be varied in practice, for obvious reasons, such as, when drawing wire of
iron, or steel, or brass; but the adjustment of the said pullies and
block so as to provide the exact relative velocity of their surfaces will
be simple to the practical wire drawer.
Instead of the pullies e, e', e³, being of the same diameter arranged to
be driven at different speeds, they might be made of diameters increasing
onwards towards the winding-on drum or block l.
Further, instead of one pulley being used for each draw plate or dic,
and the wire wound round such pulley, a series of, say, three small
pullies might be employed, the wire being passed alternately under and
over the said three pullies, so as thereby to provide sufficient surface for
contact with the wire.
On the Drawings there is delineated an arrangement of parts by which
the end of a wire to be reduced under our Invention can be rapidly
prepared for being passed forward properly drawn from the disc or
fusee to the winding-on drum or block 1, for the purpose of saving
time in leading the end of a fresh coil. The end of a coil of wire is
passed through the draw plate d³, thence around the winder 22 secured:
on the shaft o, which is arranged to be driven by the pulleys p or by
power otherwise applied. When a sufficient length for the whole
lead from 6 to has been drawn, the respective lengths are further

page_text: reduced by being drawn for the required lengths through dies of the
proper size."
•
Having now described the nature of our said Invention, and parti-
cularized the same in such manner that others will be enabled to carry
our improvements into operation, we claim, the apparatus horcin
described and shewn on the Drawings, or any equivalent thereof, that
is to say, apparatus whereby wire can be drawn through two or more
holes or dies at one and the same time, each succeeding hole or die
opening being less in area, when there is interposed between the draw
plates or dies a pulley or mechanical equivalent whereby the wire is
caused to move onwards towards the winding-on drum, or its equivalent,
at a speed increased in proportion to the extension it has undergone.
In witness whereof we have hereunto set our hands and scals, this
Twenty-third day of October, in the year of our Lord Onc
thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
TOOTING TAATA