IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLING IRON BARS, SUSPENSION BRIDGES, AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
HOWARD, of the King and Queen Iron Works, Rotherhithe, in the County of
Surrey, Iron Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Royal
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Sixth day of October, in the ninth year of Her reign, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Thomas
Howard, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, Thomas Howard, my exors, admors, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Howard, my exors, admors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time
and at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ROLLING
IRON BARS, SUSPENSION BRIDGES, AND OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Thomas Howard, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the

page_text: date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and
the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Howard, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, are particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:-
My improvements consist in a method of rolling wrought-iron bars, with
heads or increased breadths thereon, in one entire piece, so as to avoid the
uncertain and insecure process of welding such heads on to the bars, particu-
larly when subjected to great strain or tension, as in suspension bridges and
other works requiring similar bars.
To effect this, the slab, faggot, or shingle from which the bar is to be pro-
duced, is heated in a furnace in the usual manner, and is passed through
grooved or other rollers in the ordinary way, to form the elongated slab shewn
in the Drawing (hereunto annexed) at A, A. This slab is then carried to
what I term heading rollers (and which are fitted with the usual mechanism
for adjusting the pressures), having enlarged parts or collars upon them,
between which the slab is passed edge first, or breadthways, as often as is
necessary, and which produces the form required on the slab at the place
corresponding to these collars shewn in the Drawing B, B, B, B, while the
intermediate part of the slab remains uncompressed by the rollers, which are
of less diameter where this latter part passes between them. The slab
is then elongated by plain or finishing rollers of ordinary construction to
the finished bar or length and thickness required, as shewn at C, C.
When the heads are intended to be of the same thickness as the other parts
of the bar, they should come from the heading rollers sufficiently thick to
receive some pressure by the finishing rollers, due allowance being made for
the elongation, particularly when the bars are to be employed in suspension
bridges, in order to produce the grain or fibre of the iron in cross directions
around the holes made in such heads, when completed, by any ordinary means,
as at e, e, in the Drawing. A view of the heading rollers herein-before
mentioned, and such as I prefer to use in carrying out my Invention, is shewn
in the Drawing at D; and when the bars are large, I recommend that these
rollers have given to them a to-and-fro or reversing motion, by means of known.
machinery, for such purposes. In order to expedite the rolling out of the heads
in conjunction with the other operations, and to render a second heating of the

page_text: slab unnecessary, I do not confine myself to the precise arrangements or
operations herein-before described.
And I would wish it to be understood that what I claim is, the manufacture
of bars with heads or enlargements, by means of rollers, for suspension bridges
5 or other purposes.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Howard, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Third day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-six.