THE MANUFACTURE OF HOLLOW AXLES FOR CARS, WAGONS, OR CARRIAGES FOR RAILWAYS OR COMMON ROADS, AND OTHER ANALOGOUS HOLLOW ARTICLES, AND IN METHODS AND APPLIANCES FOR FORMING AND WELDING TOGETHER THE PARTS OF SUCH ARTICLES
Year: 1871

page_text: 86
ETTERS PATENT to Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills, of the Firm of
Harris and Mills, of 35, Southampton Buildings, in the County
IMPROVEMENTS
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HOLLOW AXLES FOR CARS, WAGONS, OR CARRIAGES
FOR RAILWAYS OR COMMON ROADS, AND OTHER ANALOGOUS HOLLOW ARTICLES,
AND IN METHODS AND APPLIANCES FOR FORMING AND WELDING TOGETHER
THE PARTS OF SUCH ARTICLES." -A communication from abroad by
William Arnold Lewis, of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, United
States of America, Mechanical Engineer.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Benjamin Joseph
Barnard Mills at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 18th July 1871.
I, BENJAMIN JOSEPH BARNARD MILLS, of the Firm of Harris and
Mills, of 35, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for

page_text: "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HOLLOW AXLES FOR CARS, WAGONS,
OR CARRIAGES FOR RAILWAYS OR COMMON ROADS, AND OTHER ANALOGOUS HOLLOW
ARTICLES, AND IN METHODS AND APPLIANCES FOR FORMING AND WELDING TOGETHER
THE PARTS OF SUCH ARTICLES,' a communication to me from abroad by
William Arnold Lewis, of Chicago, in the State of Illinois, United States
of America, Mechanical Engineer, to be as follows:-
35°
The first part of this Invention relates to the formation of a hollow
axle or other analogous article in a single or continuous piece of
wrought metal by approximately shaping the parts of which it is to
be composed, and subsequently by the aid of a lever drop or other
suitable press welding them together between dies, which may at the
same time complete or perfect the form of the article.
In carrying out the Invention rolls are employed with a series of
grooves so formed that blooms, ingots, or fagots of iron or steel suitably
heated and passed successively through the series of grooves will be
formed into concavo-convex bars of such shape that two or more of
them placed together heated to the welding point and united by dies
as aforesaid will produce the finished article which it is desired to
make, the welding being performed without running the heated body
beyond the flame or atmosphere of the furnace. The sides may be of
uniform thickness, or they may be made of increasing thickness from
the centre toward the ends, or the thickness may be varied in any
desirable manner to provide the greatest amount of metal at the
necessary points.
For the manufacture of axles for carriages, wagons, or carts the dics
will be so formed as to produce such recesses, projections, collars, screw
threads, and other peculiar shapes as may be necessary to adapt the
axle for attachment to the body of the vehicle and for the securing of
the wheels thereon.
The Invention further consists in constructing hollow axles with
longitudinal ribs or corrugations upon the inner surfaces which are
produced by passing heated flat plates of the requisite width between
grooves so formed as to produce upon one surface of the plate the neces-
sary ribs or corrugations, and subsequently swaging or bending such
plates into the required segmental form between compound dies, the
male die being provided with suitable grooves to receive the projecting
ribs, and being divided longitudinally into three parts (more or less)
to permit the ready withdrawal of it from the ribbed cavity of the

page_text: half axle. The segments are then welded together in the manner
previously described.
The Invention further relates to the construction and arrangement
of appliances by means of which the welding, and in some cases the
final shaping, of the hollow articles are effected without removing the
articles from the heat of the furnace or oven where their temperature
is raised to the welding point. For this purpose the die press is arranged
at or within the oven mouth in such position that the article to be
welded or shaped can readily be placed within or between the dies while
still exposed to the heat. The pressure upon the dies is preferably
produced by toggle-jointed levers actuated by a connecting rod and
crank in such a manner that a powerful and positive force may be
promptly applied.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 18th January 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, BENJAMIN
JOSEPH BARNARD MILLS, of the Firm of Harris and Mills, of 35,
Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills, Heṛ
special licence that I, the said Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills, 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, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF HOLLOW AXLES FOR CARS, WAGONS, OR CARRIAGES FOR RAILWAYS OR COMMON
ROADS, AND OTHER ANALOGOUS HOLLOW ARTICLES, AND IN METHODS AND AP-

page_text: .PLIANCES FOR FORMING AND WELDING TOGETHER THE PARTS OF SUCH ARTICLES,"
a communication to me from abroad by William Arnold Lewis, of
Chicago, in the State of Illinois, United States of America, Mechanical
Engineer, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Ben-
jamin Joseph Barnard Mills, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, 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 Scal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
The first part of this Invention relates to the formation of a hollow
axle or other analogous article in a single or continuous piece of wrought
metal, by approximately shaping the parts of which it is to be com-
posed, and subsequently by aid of a lever, drop, or other suitable press,
welding them together between dies, which may at the same time
complete or perfect the form of the article.
In carrying out the Invention rolls arc employed with a series of
grooves so formed that blooms, ingots, or fagots of iron or steel suitably
heated and passed successively through the series of grooves cither with
or without subsequent swaging, cutting, or stamping, will be formed
into bars of such shape that two or more of them placed together, heated
to the welding point, and united by dies as aforesaid will produce the
finished article which it is desired to make, the welding being performed
without removing the heated body beyond the flame or atmosphere of
the furnace. The concavo-convex form necessary to adapt these sections
to form hollow axles may be imparted either in the act of rolling or by
subsequent pressure between suitable dies. The sides may be of uniform
thickness, or they may be made of increasing thickness from the centre
toward the ends, or the thickness may be varied in any desirable manner
to provide the greatest amount of metal at the necessary points.
For the manufacture of axles for carriages, wagons, or carts the dies
will be so formed as to produce such recesses, projections, collars, screw

page_text: threads, and other peculiar shapes as may be necessary to adapt the
axle for attachment to the body of the vhicle, and for the securing of
the wheels thereon.
The Invention further consists in constructing hollow axles with
longitudinal ribs or corrugations upon the inner surfaces, which are
produced by passing heated flat plates of the requisite width between
grooves so formed as to produce upon one surface of the plate the
necessary ribs or corrugations, and subsequently swaging or bending
such plates into the required segmental form between compound dies,
the male die being provided with suitable grooves to receive the pro-
jecting ribs, and being divided longitudinally into three parts (more or
less) to permit the ready withdrawal of it from the ribbed cavity of the
half axle. The segments are then welded together in the manner
previously described.
The Invention further relates to the construction and arrangement of
appliances by means of which the welding, and in some cases the final
shaping, of the hollow articles are effected without removing the articles
from the licat of the furnace or oven where their temperature is raised to
the welding point. For this purpose the die press is arranged at or
within the oven mouth, in such position that the article to be welded
or shaped can readily be placed within or between the dies while still
exposed to the heat. The pressure upon the dies is preferably produced
by toggle-jointed levers actuated by a connecting rod and crank in such
a manner that a powerful and positive force may be promptly applied.
And in order that the Invention may be clearly understood and
readily carried into effect, I will procced, aided by the accompanying
Drawings, more fully to describe the same.
"
Figure 1 is a view of the inner face of one of the sections of which an
axle is to be made; Figure 2 is a side view of a hollow axle as welded
and shaped into comple form; Figure 3 is a top view of the said axle;
Figure 4 is a transverse section thereof on the line 7, 2, Figures 2 and 3;
Figure 5 is a plan of a flat ribbed plate adapted to form the section of
a hollow axle ribbed on the inside and tapered toward the ends;
Figure 6 is a similar view of a plate adapted to form the section
of an internally ribbed axle with parallel sides; Figure 7 is a longi.

page_text: tudinal section of a hollow axle formed from plates such as represented
in Figure 5; Figure S is a longitudinal section of an axle formed from
plates such as represented in Figure 6; Figure 9 is a transverse section
of the axle shown in Figure 8; Figure 10 is a longitudinal section of an
axle parallel on the outside and formed with an increased thickness of
metal toward the ends; Figure 11 is an elevation of parts of a pair of
rolls adapted to form a flat ribbed plate of irregular width, as shown
in Figure 5; Figure 12 is an elevation of the same, showing them
.turned one-fourth of a revolution from the position shown in Figure 11;
Figure 13 is a transverse section thereof in the position shown in
Figure 11, the dotted line in said Figure indicating the plane of
section Figure 14 is a transverse section of the dies employed to bend
the plates, such as are represented in Figures 5 and 6 into segmental
form; Figure 14 is a longitudinal section of the same; Figure 15 is a
transverse section of a pair of dies and their accessories, which may
be used to produce concavo-convex axle sections of irregular exterior
and smooth internal surface; Figure 15ª is a plan of the lower part of
the same; Figure 16 is a transverse sectional view of the furnace, oven,
dies, and press employed to perform the final welding and shaping
operation; Figure 17 is a longitudinal section of the same in a plane
passing through the centre of the dic box; Figure 18 is a front clevation
on a small scale of parts of a pair of rolls adapted for the production of
flat bars or plates of unequal thickness from which to form axle section
blanks; Figure 19 is a transverse section of the same in the plane
indicated by the dotted line in Figure 18; Figure 20 is a vertical trans-
verse section of an apparatus by which blanks of any required outline
may be cut from flat bars or plates produced by the rolls shown in
Figures 18 and 19; Figure 21 is a plan or top view of a flat plate or
bar adapted for the production of these axle section blanks; Figure 22
is a side or edge view of the same; Figure 23 is a plan on a larger
scale of a single length cut for one axle section blank; Figure 24 is a
side or edge view thereof; Figure 25 is a plan or top view of a blank
of irregular outline cut in readiness for bending into an axle section;
Figure 26 is a side or edge view of the same.
A represents the axle in its various forms.
ירד

page_text: In Figures 11, 12, and 13, T, T¹, represent parts of a pair of rolls
adapted for producing flat ribbed plates, such as represented in Figure 5.
These rolls are formed of a circumference to exactly correspond with the
desired length of the ribbed plates. The groove in the lower roll is
graduated in width to impart the proper width to the plate, which width
may be variable as in the present illustration. The said groove is
likewise graduated in depth to impart the proper thickness to the plate,
whether variable or uniform. 2 are projections within the groove to
make depressions in the plate, which when the latter is bent from the
journal a², seen in the axle section, Figure 7; are latitudinal or
circumferential grooves in the roll T¹ to produce the longitudinal ribs a
in the plate; is a knife employed to sever the plates in proper lengths.
The edge of this knife is wedge-shaped, and it fits within a corre-
sponding recess in the upper roll, so as to offer no obstruction to their
rotation.
Referring to Figures 14 and 14", B represents the matrix or female
die for forming the ribbed plates into segments or axle sections; C, C',
represent the three parts of the follower die, which is formed with
ribs a¹ adapted to fit between the ribs a of the plates; D are keys for
securing the sections C, C³, of the follower die together; E is a pivot on
which the outer sections C, C, are adapted to swing; F, F, represent
toggle jointed levers for forcing up the matrix dic B.
These may be
operated by a connecting rod G attached to a crank or by other suitable
mechanism. H, H, are lifting rods attached to the ends of the central
section C¹ for the purpose of withdrawing it when the parts are to be
separated. The matrix B may have any desired irregular shape, as
illustrated for example in Figures 15 and 15ª, and the follower C may
be stationary and in one piece, as shown in Figure 15.
In Figures 16 and 17, I represents a reverberatory furnace, and J, the
oven part thereof, in which the parts of the body to be welded arc
placed for heating, as shown at A in Figure 16, resting upon bars K.
The said bars taper toward their upper edges, and are constructed of
metal covered with fire-clay. The arrows indicate the course of the air,
and of the gaseous products of combustion by which the heat is com-
municated to the body to be welded. L and M are a pair of dies, the
former attached to the stationary frame-N, and the latter mounted on a
moveable bed plate O, which is constructed with guides O' adapted to

page_text: slide between suitable ways P, and is thrown upward by toggle-jointed
levers Q, which may be operated by the crank shaft S and connecting
rods R.
The dies are formed of any proper shape to impart the desired contour
to the finished article. For producing hollow wrought-iron axles for
wagons, as illustrated in Figures 1 to 4 inclusive, which axles may have
the external shape and perform all the functions of the combined axle
and axle stock now in common use, which are commonly constructed
of wood and bound with metal, the said dies may be made to form the
recesses 1, 1, which are to receive the "hounds," the recess 2 to receive
the coupling or reach, the journals 3, the collars which constitute the
bearings of the inner ends of the wheel boxes, and the screw threads 5
to receive the customary nuts which are employed to secure the wheels
upon the axle. The axle or other article may have this or any other
external contour to impart a graceful appearance or to adapt it to the
purpose for which it is intended.
Any desired shape can be given to the sections of the improved hollow
metallic axle by means of rolls by passing them successively through
grooves properly formed for the purpose, and such a shape can be given
to the welding and swaging dies as will adapt them when properly
mounted in the press to weld the axle sections into one piece, and at
the same time form the united metallic body thus produced into a
complete axle for any purpose.
The plates of either form shown in Figures 5 or 6 with their ribs a
may be rolled by machinery of common construction requiring no
specific description. Parts of a pair of rolls adapted to form the bar.
or plate, Figure 5, are shown in Figures 11, 12, and 13 for illustration.
Having been prepared of the necessary shape and dimensions, such a
plate properly heated is laid with the smooth face down and the ribbed
face up upon or over the matrix die B. The parts of the follower
dies C, C', having been secured by the key D, the matrix die B is then
forced up by the appropriate mechanism, by which action the plate is
bent in the segmental form represented, the ribs a¹ projecting into the
grooves which are formed between the ribs a.
In order to separate
the parts of the die it is now necessary to remove the key D, when the
central member C¹ of the follower dic may be readily taken out, and
the outer members C, C, will fall together by their gravity aided by that
°

page_text: of the shaft section, or they may be readily detached from the latter by
a slight blow.
The segment plate to form the section of a shaft or axle is now finished
in readiness for the welding process. The said segmental plate in the
illustration here given will be seen to form an arc of 180°, so that it will
constitute one-half of the whole shaft. Two such sections are now
adjusted with their edges together, and being suitably wired are placed
in the oven J, Figure 16, until their temperature is raised to the
welding point. They are then drawn out and placed upon the die M,
which latter is immediately forced up by the mechanism herein-before
described, or by other suitable means, the effect of which is to weld
and swage the parts into a homogenous hollow body of metal, the
body, as it will be seen, being all the time exposed to the heat of the
furnace. The dies are then again opened and the finished article
removed therefrom.
In the illustration given in Figures 2 and 3, the axle sections are
represented as rolled in the form shown in readiness for welding, such
rolling being performed by passing them through successive grooves of
appropriate irregular shape.
For constructing hollow axles of very large size it is preferred to roll
bars, plates, or heavy sheets of iron or steel of irregular thickness, and
stamp or cut from these flat blanks of irregular outline, as illustrated
in Figures 21 to 26 inclusive.
Referring to Figures 21 and 22, A may represent a bar produced in
any desired length or width by passing between the rolls U, U, Figures
18 and 19. The bar A may be made of uniform width and of unequal
thickness, a², a², a², being thick portions where the arms or journals are
to be formed. These irregularities in thickness are produced by the
varying depth of the grooves & in one or both of the rolls, as illustrated
in Figures 18 and 19. The bar shown in Figures 21 and 22 is adapted
for the production of three axle sections. It is severed at the thickest
parts a, a, a, and each of these separate pieces is then cut into a blank
of proper shape, as illustrated in Figures 25 and 26. This cutting is
performed by a shear or punch such as shown in Figure 20, or by other
appropriate mechanism. By such means the severing and shaping of
the blanks may be performed at one operation, either from bars of single
width, as illustrated in Figures 21 and 23, or from extended sheets, from
the width of which a number of blanks may be cut.

page_text: In Figures 25 and 26, 3, 3, 3, represent the portions which are to form
the axle arms or journals; 4, 4, the projecting parts which are to con-
stitute the collars, and 5, 5, the extremities on which are to be cut the
screw threads to receive the nuts; 1, 2, are upward enlargements which
impart great strength to the axle and take the place of the wooden stock
used with axles of common form. The recesses to receive the "hounds"
may be formed in the projections 1, 1, and that to receive the reach or
perch in the central projection 2, either in the first cutting of the blank
or entirely during the final welding and swaging process. The flat
banks thus formed are next bent into half oval form, as illustrated in
Figure 15, and being then adjusted together in pairs arc welded and
swaged into finished hollow axles of the desired shape, such axles
having an elliptic cross section to impart greater vertical strength.
It will be perceived that preliminary sections of tubes, shafts, and
various other articles which can at first be conveniently produced in
sectional form can be united into perfect jointless manufactures by the
above-described heating, shaping, and welding process, and therefore it
is not intended to restrict the Invention to the production of hollow
axles or any specific article.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the mode
in which the same is carried into effect, I would have it understood that
what I claim is,―
Firstly. The production of axle sections of any form of wrought iron
or steel in such a manner that pairs of said sections may be united
longitudinally, and welded and swaged into perfect hollow axles by
a simultaneous welding and swaging process, substantially as herein
described.
Secondly. The production of hollow axles or analogous hollow articles
from longitudinal sections of wrought iron or steel, by a combined
shaping, welding, and swaging process, substantially as herein described.
Thirdly. The construction, combination, and arrangement, sub-
stantially as herein represented and described, of the furnace, oven,
and die press for welding and shaping articles without removing them
from the heat of the furnace.
Fourthly. The bending apparatus consisting of the matrix B and
divided convex die C, C, C', with their connections employed to bend
ribbed plates into sections, substantially as herein described.

page_text: Fifthly. A hollow wrought-iron or steel axle formed by machinery in
complete readiness for use, substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Benjamin Joseph Barnard Mills,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
two.