IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFAC- AXINS.
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Weatherburn Dodds, of Holmes
Engine and Railway Works, Rotherham, in the County of York,
Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFAC-
AXINS.
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Weather-
burn Dodds at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 7th March 1853.
I, THOMAS WEATHERBURN DODDS, of Holmes Engine and Railway
Works, Rotherham, in the County of York, Engineer, do hereby de-
clare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF WHEELS AND AXLES" to be as follows:
This Invention relates to the so constructing wrought-iron wheels
and axles that very superior strength is secured therein. The metal for
the tyres of such wheels is first rolled or formed into long strips or bars,
which are then coiled either into a helix or volute, and the folds are then
stamped, rolled, or hammered together at a welding heat, so that the
section of the tyre is welded or incorporated throughout, instead of
merely a single weld at one point. In building the improved wheels,
the tyres are rolled with side flanges on the inner surface, for the recep-
tion of the outer ends of the spokes or wheel-arms. The nave or wheel

page_text: boss is made conical, and the inner ends of the spokes are corre-
spondingly bevilled, so that when laid round the boss, and the conc
drawn up laterally by a plate on the wheel face with adjusting bolts,
the cone action forces out all the arms radially, and binds the wheel
together. The spokes may be either wood or other material, and
arranged to produce a wheel either solid or nearly so, or open spoked.
When wood is used for the spokes, the pieces are suspended over boiling
tar or bitumen, and the ascending vapour acts as an excellent preserva-
tive of the wood. In fagotting up the axles, the separate pieces are
rolled or shaped with a species of duplex or other incline, so that when
the pieces are laid together they dovetail together; and when rolled or
laid under the hammer, the hammer action forcibly combines all the
surfaces together, and effects a good binding down to the centre of the
mass. Hollow axles are also made in the same way.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Weatherburn Dodds, in the Great Seal
Patent Office. on the 7th September 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I.
TUOMAS WEATHERBURN DODDS, of Holmes Engine and Railway
Works, Rotherham, in the County of York, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the six-
teenth year of Her Reign, did, for Herself, Iler heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Weatherburn Dodds, Her
special licence that I, the said Thomas Weatherburn Dodds, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Weatherburn Dodds, 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, tho Channel Islands, and Isle

page_text: of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
WHEELS AND AXLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Thomas Weatherburn Dodds, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 Thomas Weatherburn Dodds,
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, reference being had to the accom-
panying drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon;
that is to say:
My said Invention relates to the construction of wheels and axles,
suitable for general railway purposes, as well as for ordinary road work,
in such manner that very superior strength may be secured in such
details. In making the improved wheels, the nialleable iron, or the
raw material of the tyres, is primarily rolled out into long strips or
bars, and these bars are then coiled up into a helix, or volute, and the
folds or contact surfaces are rolled or hammered together at a welding
heat, for the thorough incorporation of the metallic layers; so that in
this way the thickness or transverse section of the tyre is welded into
a homogeneous mass throughout, instead of having merely a single
weld at one point of the circle. And in building or combining the
details of the improved wheels, the tyres are rolled with longitudinal
side flanges on the inner surface, for the reception and holding up of
the outer ends of the spokes or wheel arins. The nave er boss of the
wheel is of a conical shape, and the inner ends of the spokes or arms
are correspondingly bevilled, so that when the latter are laid round the
nave, the cone is drawn up laterally by means of a plate on the wheel
face, fitted with adjusting bolts, and the cone action then forces out all
the arms or wheel spokes in a radial direction, bringing their outer
ends to bear hard up against the interior surface of the tyre, and bind-
ing the whole wheel into a solid mass. The spokes may either be of
iron or wood, or other material, and they may be arranged to produce

page_text: a wheel either solid, or nearly so, or open-spoked. When wood is
adopted for the spokes, the pieces are first suspended over boiling
tar, or bitumen, so as to be subjected to the affect of the ascending
vapour, which acts as a excellent preservative against decay from
chemical causes; or, instead of this system of treatment, the wood may
be boiled in a composition of red lead and bitumen. In fagotting up
the improved axles, the separate pieces, out of which the required solid
axle is to be produced, are individually rolled or shaped with a species
of duplex or other incline of a like character; so that when the pieces
are laid together they dovetail, or combine with each other, in such
manner that, when rolled or laid under the haminer, the rolling or
hammer action forcibly combines all the contiguous or contact surfaces
together, and affects a good metallic binding down to the centre of the
incorporated mass. This is the system of construction to be followed
in the manufacture of solid axles: but hollow axles are made in the
same manner, modified only as regards the leaving a tubular centre in
the mass.
Figure 1, on Sheet 1, of my Drawings, is a side external eleva-
tion of one of my improved railway wheels complete, fitted with
wooden spokes or segmental pieces of timber, so as to form a nearly
solid wheel. Figure 2, is a corresponding transverse section of the
wheel. Figure 3, is a transverse section of a tyre bar, detached on an
enlarged or full-size scale, and slightly modified from the usual form.
Figure 4, is a side external elevation of a complete wheel, with wrought-
iron spokes or segmental pieces, made on the same general principle as
the wooden spoked wheel. Figure 5, is a corresponding transverse
section of the wheel. Figure 6, is a side external elevation of the nave
or wheel boss, with its adjusting or binding plate removed. Figure 7,
is a partial side elevation of a carriage wheel, as made for common
roads; and Figure 8, is a corresponding transverse section of the wheel.
Figures 1, and 2, on Sheet 2, of my Drawings, are two different trans-
verse sections of wrought-iron axles, showing the mode in which the
several component parts are laid and rolled together. Figure 3, is a
transverse section of one modification of wheel tyre, as laid or rolled
together in a volute form. Figure 4, is a similar transverse section of
a tyre, wherein the bar of metal is formed into a volute. Figure 5, is

page_text: a transverse section of a tyre of the "boxed" class, in which the
helix and volute are combined. Figure 6, is a side external eleva-
tion of a tyre, rolled up or folded as a volute; and Figure 7, is
a transverse section of the same. Figure 8, is a transverse section
of an entire tyre, as formed from a bar rolled up as a helix.
leave side
With the
In constructing the wooden armed wheel, Figures 1, and 2,
on Sheet 1, the nave A, is cast or formed with an inside disc
flange B, as the side retained for the inner ends of the arms or seg-
ments C.
And from the inner face of this flange the nave is coned or
tapered towards the outer side of the wheel, as it stands in position
under the engine or carriage, the taper being from D, to E, where it
terminates in a narrow square shoulder. From this shoulder to the
end of the nave, or outer face, the nave is continued of a cylindrical
section, which part is embraced by the adjusting plate F. The tyre
of the wheel is made with an internal recess G, so as to
shoulders to retain the outer squared ends of the arms C.
parts thus arranged, the workman lays the arms in their places, to abut
between the outside of the nave and the interior of the tyre; and the
plate F, being then shipped on to the outside collar piece of the nave,
the retaining bolts are passed through the ring of holes formed in the
plate F; the inner ends of the arms, and the inside disc flange B, and
the nuts II, of these bolts, are then tightened up. The result of this is,
that, as the bolts are severally made to bind the plate F, down upon
the spokes, the cone or incline D, E, acts upon the correspondingly
inclined inner ends of the spokes, and produces a firm and intimate
bearing between the nave and the tyre, and completes the solid wheel.
In using a common tyre, as in Figure 3, the inner face is turned with
a slight outer shoulder A, and from this part the face is inclined towards
the opposite side, as from B, to C, the diameter across the whole tyre
at C, being the widest. And, instead of drilling the holes D, for the
holding screws quite through the thickness of the tyre, I prefer to put in
the screws from the inside, without passing them through the metal.
I thus make a neater piece of work, whilst I do not weaken the tyre, as
is at present done. A similar system of construction is followed in making
the wrought-iron spoked wheel, Figures 4, 5, and 6, and I have therefore

page_text: marked the corresponding parts in these Figures with similar letters
of reference. Each spoke C, is, in this instance, made up of a pair of
parallel bars of metal, but the spokes or arms may be of any form, the
system of attachment being available for nearly every kind of spoke.
In the wooden spoked carriage wheel, Figures 7, and 8, a segment of
the boss is supposed to be removed at A, and the part B, represents a
section through one of the segments. The nave or boss C, is formed
with a cone D, as before described, and the inner ends of the wooden
spokes are clamped and secured by the Interal pressure of the plate E,
set up by the ring of bolts F, against the abutting dise flange G.
The inner end of each spoke II, is tapered and fitted into a correspond-
ingly morticed segment of metal, as at B, each pair of spokes having a
separate segment apportioned to them. These segments are built round
the cone of the nave, and these metal surfaces receive the actual ad-
justing pressure of the plate E, the exterior surfaces of the felloes I,
being forced well into the internal recess in the wrought-iron tyre J, to
bind the wheel into a solid mass. In the transverse section of the
wrought-iron axle, Figure 9, I have represented that axle as built up
of eight separate pieces of metal of a species of wedge form, each
having three distinct inclines on each side, A, B, C, D, E, F. In
Figure 10, each piece has two inclines on each side, A, B, C, D. These
inclined junction surfaces may be variously modified so as still to
preserve the special effect desired, that is, the mutual thorough binding
together of the contiguous surfaces, under the hammer or in the rolls.
In the section of the volute folding tyre, Figure 11, I have represented
the folds as in the act of being incorporated into a solid mass, the
straight bar being primarily rolled out to the section of the external
fold A; so that when the bar is coiled up, and hammered or rolled into
a solid mass, each fold or layer of metal is flattened out, and a dovetailed
recess is thereby formed on the inner side of the piece. And in
folding up, each recess fits over and embraces a corresponding projection
on the other surface of the metal, thus binling the parts together, as at
B. In the helically folded tyre, Figure 12, the inclines A, bind into
one another, and hence any defects in welding are in a great measure
prevented from opening up the metal, whilst the general solidity of the

page_text: mass is increased. In the section, Figure 13, combining both the
helical and volute folds, the inner portion of the tyre is composed of a
rectangular bar folded up into a helix A, and these folds are firmly
bound together by an external box or trough piece B, which has side
flanges C, to embrace the mass of folds. The actual appearance of the
side view of a volute folded tyre is delineated in Figure 14. Figure 15,
being the corresponding transverse section shewing that a plain rectan-
gular bar is used with tapered ends. Figure 16, shews a plain rectan-
gular bar helically folded to produce a similar effect. Wheels of my
improved construction may be obviously made with ordinary made tyres
or axles, that is to say, either in part or wholly after my improved
mode.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not
confine or restrict myself to the precise details or arrangements which
I have had occasion to describe or refer to, as many variations may be
made therefrom without deviating from the principles or main features
of my Invention. But what I consider to be novel and original, and
therefore clain as the Invention secured to me by the herein before in
part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the general arrangement and construction of wheels and axles,
as herein-before described.
Second, the system or mode of binding or adjusting together the
detailed parts of wheels by means of coned or inclined surfaces on the
bosses or naves of such wheels.
Third, the application of conical or inclined bosses or naves for
binding the spokes, arms, or segments up inside the tyres.
Fourth, the system or mode of manufacturing or forming tyres from
bars coiled up so as to furnish a continuous welding surface throughout
the length of the coil, the contiguous surfaces of the folds being held
together by dovetails or inclines.
Fifth, the system or mode of manufacturing tyres by a combina-
tion of the volute and helical coils, as more especially pointed out in
Figure 6, on Sheet 2, of my drawings.

page_text: Sixth, the system or mode of retaining the folds or coils of tyre bars
together by the use of an external flanged or boxed piece.
Seventh, the system or mode of making axles from a combination of
pieces individually formed with duplex or multi-angled inclines, so as to
dovetail or bind well together.
Eighth, the application and use of the vapour of heated tar or bitu-
minous matter for the preparation of the wood used in the construction
of wheels.
Ninth, the treatment of the wood used for wheels, by boiling or
steeping the wood in a compound of red lead and bituminous matter.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Weatherburn Dodds,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Third day of Sep-
tember, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-three.