NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR PUDDLING IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by David Hipkins at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 4th October 1877.
DAVID HIPKINS, of Great Bridge, Tipton, in the County of Stafford, Ironmaster.
"NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR PUDDLING IRON AND STEEL."
My said Invention consists in constructing and arranging, in the manner herein-
after described, the parts of machinery for puddling iron and steel, whereby great
simplicity in construction and efficiency in action are obtained.
My Invention is applicable to single or double puddling furnaces. I will describe
it as applied to a double puddling furnace.
The machinery is mainly situated on the top of the furnace, and consists essen-
tially of the following parts:-At the middle of the foundation plate a horizontal
toothed wheel is situated. This wheel turns on a vertical shaft fixed in the
foundation plate. The said wheel has teeth on its under face, by means of which it
receives rotatory motion from a pinion driven by a steam engine or other prime
mover, and has teeth on its periphery by which it communicates motion to the
other parts of the machine.
The mechanism for working the two rabbles of the furnaces is situated on opposite
sides of this wheel. As the mechanism on one side is the same as that on the other
side, I will describe one only of the said mechanisms. In a strong socket in the
bed plate, near the circumference of the toothed wheel described, a hollow vertical
axis works. This axis carries the inclined bracket, from the top of which the rod
is suspended, which gives motion to the rabble or puddling tool
A slow oscillating
motion is given to this bracket by means of a connecting rod, one end of which is
jointed to one side of the base of the bracket, and the other end to a crank pin on
the upper side of and near the centre of the toothed wheel. During each rotation
of the toothed wheel the bracket is made to perform one oscillation. In the hollow
axis carrying the bracket a solid axis works freely. On the summit of the said
solid axis is a crank plate, on the under side of which is a pinion which engages with
the toothed wheel described. The said crank plate has on its upper side a crank pin
which gives motion to a connecting rod jointed to the rod suspended from the
bracket, and giving motion to the rabble.

page_text: The action of the machine is as follows:-Motion being given to the toothed
wheel, the said wheel gives motion to the crank plate through its pinion. The con-
necting rod, connecting the crank pin on the said crank plate with the rod actuating
the rabble, gives to the said rod a vibratory motion about its point of suspension at
the top of the bracket. A slow oscillating motion is at the same time given to the
bracket by means of the connecting rod by which it is connected to the crank pin
on the toothed wheel. By the compound motion thus given to the rod working the
rabble, the said rabble is made to perform in the puddling furnace the required
raking motion combined with a slow traversing motion.
The two mechanisms of the kind described for actuating the two rabbles of the
double furnace are situated symmetrically on opposite sides of the toothed wheel, and
strain upon the axis of the said toothed wheel is thereby prevented.