IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick William Stoker, of the Moor Iron
Works, Stockton-on-Tees, in the County of Durham, for the In-
vention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick William
Stoker at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 24th July 1873.
I, FREDERICK WILLIAM STOKER, of the Moor Iron Works, Stockton-
on-Tees, in the County of Durham, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS," to be as
follows:-
In the manufacture of wrought-iron rails it is usual to prepare piles
of such size and weight that when bloomed each such bloom is rolled
out into one length of rail. When the rails are light this system of

page_text: operating involves the preparation of a large number of piles which are
separately rolled into blooms, thereby occupying much furnace room and
necessitating a great amount of manipulation.
The object of my Invention is to reduce the amount of manipulation
and to diminish the furnace operations for a given weight of rails, while
at the same time according to the process which I will describe the
quality of the rails is greatly improved. For this purpose I prepare
piles of large weight and sectional area, and after blooming them I cut
them on their passage from the blooming rolls to the reheating furnace
into two, three, or more lengths. These lengths are then reheated and
rolled off in the usual manner into one or more lengths of rail. Thus up
to the point of reheating the cost of manufacture is reduced, the number
of piles being diminished in proportion as the weight and sectional area
of each is increased. And moreover the greater amount of work con-
sequent on the reduction of the larger pile improves the quality of the
rails produced.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick William Stoker in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 23rd January 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
WILLIAM STOKER, of the Moor Iron Works, Stockton-on-Tees, in the
County of Durham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
· Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Frederick William Stoker, Her special
license that I, the said Frederick William Stoker, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick William
Stoker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might.
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great

page_text: Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick William Stoker,
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 Frederick William Stoker, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
In the manufacture of wrought-iron rails it is usual to prepare piles
of such size and weight that when bloomed each such bloom is rolled
out into one length of rail. When the rails are light this system of
operating involves the preparation of a large number of piles which are
separately rolled into blooms, thereby occupying much furnace room and
necessitating a great amount of manipulation.
The object of my Invention is to reduce the amount of manipulation
and to diminish the furnace operations for a given weight of rails, while
at the same time according to the process which I will describe the
quality of the rails is greatly improved. For this purpose I prepare
piles of large weight and sectional area, and after blooming them I cut
them on their passage from the blooming rolls to the reheating furnace
into two, three, or more lengths. These lengths are then reheated and
rolled off in the usual manner into one or more lengths of rail. Thus up
to the point of reheating the cost of manufacture is reduced, the number
of piles being diminished in proportion as the weight and sectional area
of each is increased. And moreover the greater amount of work con-
sequent on the reduction of the larger pile improves the quality of the
rails produced.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim the method substantially
as herein described of preparing blooms for the rolling of rails by
forming a pile of sufficient size and weight to produce two or more

page_text: lengths of rails, and cutting the bloom resulting therefrom into several
separate blooms before reheating.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick William Stoker, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of January,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
FREDERICK WILLIAM STOKER. (L.S.)