IMPROVEMENTS IN HEATING AND ROLLING METALS."
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Herbert Androw of Sheffield in the County of
York, Manufacturer, for an invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN HEATING AND
ROLLING METALS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Herbert Andrew at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th April 1882.
HENRY HERBERT ANDREW of Sheffield in the County of York, Manufacturer,
"IMPROVEMENTS IN HEATING AND ROLLING METALS."
My Invention relates to improvements in the method of rolling metals into
strings or strips of a very thin guage, by the expeditious process of hot rolling,
in contradistinction to the usual slow and costly process of cold rolling, thus
dispensing (or nearly so) with the annealing and pickling processes which are
necessary between each pass of the metal through the rolls in cold rolling; and I
accomplish this object by a combination of heating and rolling operations, both
being carried on at the same time.
In carrying out my invention, I use a series or continuous train of rolls, driven
by any convenient arrangement of gearing and I place between each pair or set of
rolls or between such pairs of rolls as it may be found requisite to do so, one or
more baths of heated lead, or some other suitable heating apparatus, through
which the metal under operation is passed and heated, during its passage to, and
before it enters the next pair of rolls. By this method of heating the metal
between each pair of rolls, I am enabled to roll and reduce it to much smaller or
thinner sizes than is possible by the ordinary process of hot rolling. I prefer to
use baths of heated lead, to other methods of heating the metal (such as furnaces),
there being less liability of oxidation or "scaling" of the metal, and in order to
burn off any lend that may adhere to the metal when passing through the bath,
propose to pass it through a flame of gas conveniently placed for that purpose.
If desirable the strips or strings of metal so produced may be further tinished by
being passed through the cold rolls-but this is immaterial.
I

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Henry Herbert Andrew in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
26th October 1882.
HENRY HERBERT ANDREW of Sheffield in the County of York, Manufacturer
"IMPROVEMENTS IN HEATING AND ROLLING METALS."
My Invention relates to rolling metals into strips or strings of thin guages by
the process of hot rolling in contradistinction to the slower and more costly
process of cold rolling; and to dispensing, or nearly so, with the annealing and
pickling operations to which the material is subjected between each pass through
the rolls in cold rolling, and which operations are detrimental to the quality of
certain metals, and especially so to steel.
I accomplish this object by a combination of heating and rolling operations
both being carried on at the same time by which means I am enabled to heat and
reheat long lengths of thin metal, during its passage-from-one-set-of-rolls-to-
another, and thus to reduce it to much smaller sizes than has heretofore been-
possible by hot rolling.
In carrying out my invention, I use a series or continuous train of rolls which
may be driven by any convenient arrangement of gearing and motive power, and I
_place between each pair_or_set_ of rolls, or between such pairs or sets of rolls as
inay be found requisite, one or more baths of heated lead, or other equivalent
apparatus (such as a furnace or a heated tube) through which by the aid of guides,
the metal is made to pass, and during its passage becomes sufficiently heated to be
operated upon by the next pair of rolls, but not to-such-a-degree-as-to-raise-a-scale-
upon its surface. I prefer to use baths of heated lead, to other methods of
reheating (such as by open furnaces) there being less liability of oxidation, or
scaling of the metal.
I may (if found desirable) either slightly oil the metal before it enters the lead
bath, as a means of any adhesion of lead or I may pass it through a flame of gas as it
emerges from the lead bath for the for the purpose of burning off any slight film of
lead that may possibly have adhered to the metal during its passage through the
bath. Thus practically I attain by my improved process (with the exception of
the colour of the material) the same results in regard to size and finish, as by cold
rolling but the material itself, is left by my process much more ductile, and also
more pure in quality than that which has undergone the repeated processes of
annealing & pickling. In the accompanying sheet of drawings to which I will
now refer, A, A, are the rolls fitted in their housings and driven by suitable
gearing B from the main shaft C, Figure 1 being an elevation, and Figure 2 a plan
of same.
The lead baths are shown at D, D, and are heated from the underside. E, E, are
the guides to direct the course of the metal strips F. G, represents the position of
the gas flame for burning off any adhering lead film.
Having now described the nature of my invention and the manner in which it
may be performed or carried into practice, I wish it to be understood that I do not
clain any particular method of driving the rolls, nor do I claim the use of
Electricity as an agent for heating the metal under operation, but what I
consider to be novel and original and therefore claim as the invention secured to
me by the hereinbefore in part recited Letters Patent is,
65
93
The method of heating rods, strips or strings of metal, prior to or during their
passage between sets of rolls in combination with the process of rolling the said

page_text: metals, by passing the said rods, strips, or strings through a bath of heated lead, or
its equivalent (such as a heated tube) arranged between the said rolls, for the
purpose specified and substantially as hereinbefore described and illustrated.
In witness whoreof I the said Henry Herbert Andrew have hereunto set my
band and seal this twenty fourth day of October in the year of our Lord
one thousand eight hundred and eighty two.
Annit