IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURE OF FILES, RASPS, AND OTHER EDGE TOOLS USUALLY MADE OF STEEL
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Weatherburn Dodds, of the Holmes
THE
Engine and Railway
and Railway Works, Rotherham, in the County of
York, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MANUFACTURE OF FILES, RASPS, AND OTHER EDGE TOOLS USUALLY MADE
OF STEEL"
Sealed the 19th December 1853, and dated the 23d June 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Weather-
burn Dodds at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 23rd June 1853.
1, THOMAS WEATHERBURN DODDS, of the Holmes Engine and
Railway Works, Rotherham, in the County of York, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF FILES, RASPS, AND OTHER EDGE TOOLS USUALLY MADE
OF STEEL" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture of files, rasps, saws,
augers, rose bits, and other edge or cutting and abrading tools from
the crude or ordinary raw metal as wrought iron or partially converted
[Price 8d.]

page_text: steel, the articles so shaped being subsequently hardened for use by
placing them in a chamber containing a mixture of carbonaceous
matter, as charcoal by preference, and potash, pearlash, soda or soda
ash, or other alkaline matter, limestone and carbonate or bi-carbonate
of lime, as marble chippings, gypsum, oyster shells, or other matter
containing lime, and any material which being burned forms animal
charcoal. In carrying out this Invention it is proposed to use furnaces
of a similar construction to those included in the Provisional Specification
of my Invention for improvements in the treatment or manufacture
of iron or steel, recorded in the Office of the Commissioners for Patents
of Invention the Seventh day of March One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-three, the further processes of manufacture being similar to
those therein described. The essential object of this Invention is the
case-hardening or converting of files and other tools, either in a manu-
factured or partially manufactured state, from bars partially converted
by the use of the process and materials as described, or by any other
carbonaceous material. By this Invention the tools may be made of
very high quality, and at a cheaper rate than usual, whilst special
varieties of difficult construction are easily formed in this 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 23rd December 1853.
ALL TO
TO
WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
THOMAS WEATHERBURN DODDS, of the Holmes Engine and Railway
Works, Rotherham, in the County of York, Engineer, scud greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the seven-
teenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Weatherburn Dodds, Her
'special license that I, the said Thomas Weatherburn Dodds, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said

page_text: Thomas Weatherburu Dodds, my executors, administrators, or as-
signs, 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, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF FILES, RASPS, AND OTHER EDGE TOOLS USUALLY MADE OF STEEL," 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 performed, 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 accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say:
The said Invention relates to the manufacture of files, rasps, saws,
augers, rose bits, and other edge or cutting and abrading tools from the
crude or ordinary raw metal as wrought iron or partially converted steel,
the articles so shaped being subsequently hardened for use by placing
them in a chamber containing a mixture of carbonaceous inatter, as
charcoal by preference, and potash, pearlash, soda or soda ash, or other
alkaline matter, limestone and carbonate or bi-carbonate of lime, as
marble chippings, gypsum, oyster shells, or other matter containing
lime, and any material which being burned forms animal charcoal. In
carrying out this Invention it is proposed to use furnaces of a similar
construction to those shewn and described in the Specification and
accompanying Drawings of Letter Patent granted to me on or about
the eventh day of April now last past. And the further processes of
manufacture being similar to those therein described, with the exception
that 1 have in practice found it desirable to employ animal charcoal to
a greater extent in this manufacture thau in the conversion of iron into

page_text: steel, as described in my above-mentioned Specification. The essentia
object of this Invention is the case-hardening or converting of files
and other tools, either in a manufactured or partially manufactured
state, from bars partially converted by the use of the process and
materials as described, or by any other carbonaceous material. By
this Invention the tools may be made of very high quality, and at a
cheaper rate than usual, whilst special varieties of difficult construction
are easily formed in this way. As one example of the advantage of
this process reference may be made to the annexed Sheet of Drawings
representing a mode of manufacturing circular or annular files.
Figure 1, represents a circular or annular file A, formed in the first
place of the raw metal, and afterwards converted according to the
above-described process. This file is fitted on to the disc B, which is
fast on the shaft or mandril C. The mode of attaching the file to the
disc B, i shewn more clearly by the section Figure 2. A moveable
plate D, bevilled at its circumference like the fixed disc B, is passed
over the boss of the fixed plate, and is tightened up to the side of the
file A, by the nut E, which is screwed on the end of the boss of the
fixed disc. In this way the file is held firmly in its place, and may be
used for a variety of purposes, the mandril being fitted into a lathe.
Figures 3, and 4, represent different sections which may be employed
in making the circular or annular files. A set of these files may be
made all of the same diameter, so that they may be each fitted on to
the same disc as they are required. In place of a disc a set of arins
may be used, which will be found to answer equally well. Files of
this description may be advantageously employed in the manufacture
of forks, the prongs of which, in place of being formed by punching
out the intermediate metal, being made by filing out the metal by
means of a series of annular files of the required section.
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

page_text: of my said Invention; but what I consider to be novel and original
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is,―
The mode of manufacturing files and other tools, whether of an
ordinary or of a. special nature, in the manner herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Weatherburn Dodds, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of
December, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
T. W. DODDS. (L.S.)