IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING OR WORKING IRON FOR VARIOUS USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1847

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
WITHERELL, of New York, in the United States of America, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of July, in the eleventh year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Witherell, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said George Witherell, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said George Witherell, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, an
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING OR WORKING IRON FOR VARIOUS
USEFUL PURPOSES," being a communication from a foreigner residing abroad;
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said
George Witherell, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Witherell, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention, of improvements in manufacturing or working iron, relates
to an improved mode of producing wrought iron in the shape or form of shafts,
rods, bars, or plates, and will be found particularly applicable to the manu-
facture of bar iron, to rails for railways, to tyres for wheels, and to other pur
poses where great toughness is required.
The ordinary method of making bar iron consists in passing the iron in a
heated state between rollers or a series of rollers until it is reduced in thickness
to the required shape and dimensions, the effect of which is to elongate all the
fibres of the metal and lay them straight and parallel. Although this arrange-
ment of the fibres of the iron has been considered advantageous for various
purposes, such as where the rod or bar is to be subjected to a longitudinal
strain, as in tension rods, yet it has been found highly objectionable when the
iron has to undergo continual abrasion or percussion, as is the case in railroad
iron; for by the abrasion of the flanges of railway wheels against the rails,
long fibres or laminae of iron are now frequently detached from the rail in the
shape of splinters.
The object of the present improvements is as far as possible to obviate this
inconvenience, and render the iron more tough than that made in the ordinary
manner. This toughness is produced by imparting a twist to the fibres of the
iron bar or rod during the process of manufacture, so that the fibres may be
laid in a spiral direction, instead of longitudinally or perfectly straight.
In the accompanying Drawing, the machinery whereby this spiral twisting
is effected is shewn in several views. Fig. 1 represents, in side elevation, the
machine or apparatus complete; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same, as seen
from above; and Fig. 3 is a longitudinal vertical section, taken through the
machine in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 2. a, a, a, a, is a foundation plate or frame, to
which the several parts of the apparatus or machine are bolted; b, b, are a pair
of rollers, furnished with grooves of any convenient shape, and mounted hori-
zontally in bearings in the side standards c, c, which are firmly secured by
bolting or otherwise to the foundation plate a, a. These rollers b, b, are
furnished on one end of their axles with a pair of toothed wheels d, d, of equal
pitch, which wheels by gearing into each other cause the rollers to revolve
with equal speed. The axle of the under roller 6 carries at its opposite end a

page_text: large bevilled tooth wheel e, which is driven by a bevilled pinion f on the end
of the driving shaft g, mounted in suitable bearings, and carrying at its oppo-
site end a pulley or band wheel, or a large spur wheel, whereby it is driven, as
seen at h in the Figures. The driving shaft 9 also carries another toothed
wheel i, which gears into and drives a similar wheel j on the hollow shaft k.
This shaft k carries at its inner end a forked frame 1, l, which rotates with the
shaft, and is furnished with bearings or journals suitable for receiving a second
pair of grooved rollers m, m, the axles of which carry two pinions n, n, as
shewn best in the side elevation, Fig. 1. The two pinions n, n, and conse-
quently the rollers m, m, are actuated by an endless screw gearing into the
pinions. This screw is mounted at the end of a short shaft or spindle o, which
has its bearing in a journal attached to the rotating frame l, and carries at its
opposite end a pinion p, in gear with a stationary toothed ring or wheel q. By
means of bolts or otherwise, this wheel or ring 9 is attached to one of the
standards which support the hollow shaft k, and through the centre of the
fixed ring or wheel q the shaft k passes. The bar of iron to be drawn and
twisted is seen at r. When it has passed between the horizontal rollers b, b,
it passes through the guide piece or block s, and is laid hold of by the twisting
rollers m, m, which, after giving it the adequate amount of twist, deliver it
along the inside of the hollow shaft k, from whence it is taken at the opposite
end, as seen in Fig. 3.
From the foregoing description of the several parts of the machine or
apparatus, it will be seen, that upon communicating motion to the driving
shaft 9, either by means of a pulley or the toothed wheel k, all the working
parts of the machine will be put in operation; the pair of heavy drawing
rollers b, b, will receive a slow rotary motion by means of a pinion fand wheel e,
and the hollow shaft k is also made to rotate on its axis by the spur wheel i
gearing into and driving the wheel j. The forked frame 1, 1, being fixed to the
hollow shaft k, will revolve therewith, and carry round the pair of rollers m, m,
while they are rotating on their axis. When, therefore, these rollers have laid
hold of the bar or rod of iron, they will give it a regular and uniform twist,
and at the same time deliver it out of the machine. In some cases the friction
of the iron bar itself, and the advancing motion that is given to it by the rota-
tion of the heavy rollers b, b, will be sufficient to cause the twisting rollers
m, m, to deliver the iron bar out of the machine, but it will generally be found
desirable to impart an independent and regular rotary motion round their axis
to the rollers m, m, in order to assist them in delivering the iron bar, which
motion is effected by the pinion p being carried round the wheel 9 by the
rotation of the frame 1, and thereby receiving an independent rotary motion,

page_text: which it communicates through the screw on the shaft o to the pinions n of
the rollers m.
Having described the Invention, and the best means with which I am
acquainted of carrying the same into effect, I would observe, in conlusion, that
I do not mean or intend to claim as new the making of iron rods or bars by
means of grooved rollers, that having been long known, nor do I claim generally
the twisting of the fibres of iron rods or bars, neither do I intend to confine
myself to the precise arrangement or construction of parts herein shewn
and described for twisting the fibres of iron, as the apparatus may be con-
siderably modified and varied without departing from the nature and object of
the present Invention; but that which I consider to be new, and therefore wish
to claim as the Invention secured to me by the present Patent, is,-
First, twisting wrought iron during the process of manufacture into rods or
bars, so that it may be made to resist abrasion, percussion, and other destructive
forces more effectually than when made in the ordinary manner.
Second, I claim twisting iron during the process of manufacture into bars,
rods, or strips by means of rollers, which, while they hold and draw the bar
forward, may be carried round and made to twist the said bar.
And, thirdly, I claim the peculiar constructions of machinery above described
and shewn in the Drawing, whereby the fibres of iron may be twisted before
its manufacture into bars or rods, or after it has gone through such process of
manufacture.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Witherell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-seven