IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jean Claude Durand, of Pimlico, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF IRON."
Sealed the 25th September 1858, and dated the 30th March 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jean Claude Durand at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th March 1858.
I, JEAN CLAUDE DURAND, of Pimlico, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," to be as follows:-
Heretofore, in the manufacture of iron for rails, girders, beams, axles, and
other articles for use on land or sea, but little or no regard has been shewn to
the relative positions occupied in the bar or mass of iron by the several con-
stituent bars or plates, or the several elements of the pile, from which the said
articles have been manufactured. Now, my Invention consists in so combining
such bars or plates, or such elements of the pile, that each of them considered
by itself shall occupy in the finished article the position most favorable to the
exercise of its maximum strength, when subject to the forces which it is
destined to bear. By this means their aggregate strengths, that is, the strength
of the article which they compose, will be greater than under any other
circumstances. Thus, for example, the component portions or elements of a
horizontal beam or bar of iron intended to sustain a downward pressure will
be placed side by side with their edges upward and downward.
In carrying my Invention into effect the component portions or elements
of a pile are formed with rectangular, triangular, segmental, annular, or other

page_text: suitable sections, according to the strains which are to be exerted upon the finished
article, and these being placed in the required positions relative to each other,
and heated in a furnace to a suitable welding heat, are then rolled once, twice,
or oftener under heavy rolls, and thus welded into one solid and uniform mass.
In some cases I combine bars or plates of steel with others of iron in forming
a pile for the production of some of the articles above referred to.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Jean Claude Durand in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
29th September 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JEAN
CLAUDE DURAND, of Pimlico, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Jean Claude Durand, Her special licence that I, the said Jean Claude
Durand, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Jean Claude Durand, 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Jean Claude Durand, 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 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 Jean Claude Durand, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
Heretofore, in the manufacture of iron for rails, girders, beams, axles, and
other articles for use on land or sea, but little or no regard has been shewn to

page_text: the relative positions occupied in the bar or mass of iron by the several con-
stituent bars or plates, or the several elements of the pile from which the said
articles have been manufactured. Now, my Invention consists in so combining
such bars or plates, or such elements of the pile, that each of them considered
by itself shall occupy in the finished article the position most favorable to the
exercise of its maximum strength when subject to the forces which it is
destined to bear. By this means their aggregate strengths, that is, the strength
of the article which they compose, will be greater than under any other cir-
cumstances. Thus, for example, the component portions or elements of a
horizontal beam or bar of iron intended to sustain a downward pressure will
be placed side by side with their edges upward and downward.
In carrying my Invention into effect, the component portions or elements
of a pile are formed with rectangular, triangular, segmental, annular, or other
suitable sections, according to the strains which are to be exerted upon the
finished article, and these being placed in the required positions relative to
each other, and heated in a furnace to a suitable welding heat, are then
rolled once, twice, or oftener under heavy rolls, and thus welded into one solid
and uniform mass. In some cases I combine bars or plates of steel with
others of iron in forming a pile for the production of some of the articles
above referred to.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more
fully to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 show three similar piles of plates of iron differing only
in the number of plates used for each pile, but they are alike in so far as some
of the plates of each pile overlap or extend beyond some of the others con-
stituting a pile. In rolling piles of iron in order to produce sheets of iron,
rolls are used, one (by preference the lower roll) is made with raised collars
or ends of a thickness corresponding with the thickness of sheet iron desired
to be produced, and the other roll is of the same diameter from end to end.
A pile of iron suitably held together and heated to a welding heat is to be
subjected to the action of a pair of rolls, such as above described, and the
collars or enlarged ends will prevent the overlapping ends of the pile from
spreading whilst the intermediate plates are allowed to do so. By these means
sheet iron of a superior character will be produced, and they will have true
and well-formed edges produced, as indicated at Figures I*., II*., III*.; and
when thinner sheets are required, these may be further rolled between similar
rolls to those above described, but having collars or enlarged ends of less

page_text: diameter as compared with the other parts of the roll. In place of using
plates with parallel sides as shown in Figures I., II., III., plates of a wedge
form, such as those shewn at Figure IV., may be employed, and a number of
such plates are to be made up into a pile, according to the size and thickness
of-sheet desired to be produced, and such a pile on being heated to the proper
heat is to be rolled between rolls such as above described, by which a sheet or
slab, such as is shown at Figure IV*. with true and sound edges, will be
produced. When making bars of iron according to my Invention, I use piles
such as are shown at Figures V., VI., VII., and I roll them into square, round,
or other sections of bars as has heretofore been practised, and according to
the purpose to which they are to be applied. In Figure V. parallel slabs
or plates of iron are used of a length and width depending on the length and
cross section of bar desired to be made. In Figures VI. and VII., wedge
formed slabs or plates are used in each case; some of the slabs or piles
are made alternately to overlap or extend beyond the intermediate ones.
Figures V. VI*. and VII*. show sections of bars produced from piles such
as are shown in the previous Figure.
In some cases I form a pile by placing wedge-shaped plates or slabs
radially, as shewn in Figure IX., the wedges being arranged of a longer and
shorter radius alternately as shown, which being rolled produces a bar such as
is shown at Figure IX*. When desired, plates of steel may be used in piles
in place of some of the plates of iron.
Another mode of producing a very strong bar, either of a round, square,
or other section, is by making a pile of cut rods of small section, say, not
exceeding a quarter of an inch square, and arranged as shown at Figure VIII.
and Figure VIII*. By these means of piling and rolling iron, the relative
position occupied in the finished bar, plate, sheet, or mass of iron by the
several elements of the piles from which the said articles have been manu-
factured will be retained.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jean Claude Durand have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
PRE HESSE.
J. C. DURAND. (L.S.)