CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILWAY BARS, BEAMS, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Saint John Vincent Day at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 22nd May 1873.-A communication from abroad by James
Henderson, of the City, County, and State of New York, in the
United States of America.
I, SAINT JOHN VINCENT DAY, of 166, Buchanan Street, Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Civil Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILWAY BARS, BEAMS, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES," the same
being a communication to me from abroad by James Henderson, of the
City, County, and State of New York, in the United States of America,
to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention which relates to improvements in the manufacture of
railway bars, beams, and similar articles consists in the use of means
herein-after set forth by which such rails, beams, or similar articles
which have to resist wear and crushing on one side and rupture by
tension on the opposite side may be made of such quality of iron, and
so treated as to give the required hardness to the side subject to com-
pression and wear and the required tenacity to the side exposed to
tension.

page_text: In carrying out this Invention fine grained iron is used for the part of
the rail or beam which has to resist wear and crushing, and fibrous iron
for the part which has to resist rupture by tension, and the iron
employed is that made under Letters Patent Nos. 318 and 1051,
A.D. 1870, and Nos. 554 and 2318, A.D. 1872, respectively, which iron
when rolled into railway bars or beams and whilst hot is cooled in water,
thereby insuring a stronger and better railway bar or beam than is
obtainable by other methods of making railway bars, beams, or other
similar articles. This mode of treating this kind of fine grained iron
causes it to become 30 to 60 per cent. stronger and much harder, whilst
the fibrous iron becomes also stronger, and retains its fibrous character;
these results are attained with wrought iron made from cinder, pig iron,
and other inferior descriptions of pig iron. Such results are not attainable
with common iron used for making rails, beams, and similar articles,
such iron being made weaker, more brittle, and greatly reduced in tenacity
by cooling in water, and consequently it is rendered greatly inferior
to its original state by cooling it in water.
The fine grained iron is made as is well understood by removing it
from the furnace in which it is made before the carbon is all removed or
when the iron contains from 35 to 40 per cent. of carbon; this iron is
worked in the usual way to form it into blooms, bars, or slabs, the
fibrous iron is made by removing more of the carbon, this is effected by
allowing it to remain longer in the furnace, the blooms, bars, or slabs
are afterwards treated in the usual way by "piling," heating, and
hammering or rolling, so that when rolled or finished the fine grained
portion will be in the part of the rail or beam exposed to the wearing or
crushing action and the fibrous portion in the part where there is no
wear or crushing. The rail, beam, or other article of iron made in this
way is as soon as it is fininished and whilst hot cooled in water. Rails,
beams, and other articles of iron made in this way possess the strength 3
and wearing properties of articles made of steel at the part where such
properties are required, and are much stronger than articles made of iron
not manufactured in this way.