IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING "MANSEL" AND OTHER WHEELS WITH WOODEN CENTRES
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Nield Robinson and Joseph Petrie Fielden both
of Rochdale in the County of Lancaster for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING "MANSEL" AND OTHER WHEELS WITH WOODEN
CENTRES
"
pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Nield Robinson and
Joseph Petrie Fielden at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
20th December 1883.
THOMAS NIELD ROBINSON and JOSEPH PETRIE FIELDEN, both of Rochdale in the
County of Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING "MANSEL"
AND OTHER WHEELS WITH WOODEN CENTRES
"
The object of our invention is to expedite simplify and improve the construction
of "Mansel" wheels or other similar wheels with wooden centres or segments.
In performing our invention we prepare the wooden segments for the "Mansel"
or other similar wheel in the usual or any convenient manner, and plane them to
template size; they are then ready to be placed in the machine previous to being
compressed.
The machine consists of a raising or lifting table, a central vertical lifting jack,
and a drilling head; the metal central boss of the wheel is laid on the head of this
lifting jack, when it stands at about the level of the raising table, and the jack is
then lowered taking with it the boss below the level of the table; the segments
are now laid loosely on the table in position for forming the wheel, and prevented
from rising by means of a movable cramping plate; near the outer edge of the
raising table is laid a strong loose ring, held in position by set pins or otherwise.
A crown wheel provided with bevel teeth round its upper surface and worm
teeth on its outer edge is carried in a circular guiding plate secured to the under-
side of the raising table; a number of bevel pinions are secured each to a metal
bush screwed on the inside; the bushes pass through the loose ring, and are

page_text: free to turn in it; an adjustable stud is screwed into each bush and on the inner
ends these studs are provided with blocks, which come against the wooden
segments.
Motion is given to the crown wheel by means of a worm secured to a shaft, which
is turned by the operative, or the crown wheel may be turned by power; as the
crown wheel revolves, it turns all the bevel pinions, and the blocks on the inner
ends of the screwed studs are brought into contact with and compress with equal
pressure the segments of the wheel.
We may use as many pinions and studs as there are segments, or any convenient
number may be employed.
The screwed studs are prevented from turning in the bushes in any convenient
manner, and each stud and block may be separately adjusted when desired.
The drilling head carries the required number of spindles for drilling the bolt
holes, and also a main or central driving spindle with a cutter block attached for
boring the centre of the wheel ready to receive the metal boss.
Motion is given to all the drilling spindles from this central spindle by means of
ropes, belts or otherwise.
The raising or lifting table is fitted to slide on a fixed part of the frame, and
is raised by any convenient mechanical means; or hydraulic power may be used
for raising the table and central lifting jack as well as for compressing the
segments.
The lifting table is now raised and brought up for the drills to drill simultaneously
all or any portion of the bolt holes, and the centre hole for the metal boss, in the
wooden segments which are at this time under compression.
When all the holes have been drilled the table is lowered, the compression on
the segments released, and the metal central boss is then raised to its position by
the central jack, and the segments are again compressed home against the boss;
the top washer is now put on, and the bolts driven through the washer, segments,
and the flange of the boss, and the nuts screwed up while all the parts are under
compression.
The compression is now again released and the wheel raised by the central jack
and removed from the machine ready to be "tyred."