A NEW MANUFACTURE OF METAL FOR AXLES, RAILS, TYRES, AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Brook Woodcock, of Low Moor, in the
County of York, Forge Manager, for the Invention of "A NEW
MANUFACTURE OF METAL FOR AXLES, RAILS, TYRES, AND OTHER PURPOSES."
Sealed the 15th December 1868, and dated the 12th September 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Brook Woodcock
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 12th September 1868.
I, HENRY BROOK WOODCOCK, of Low Moor, in the County of York,
Forge Manager, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"A NEW MANUFACTURE OF METAL FOR AXLES, RAILS, TYRES, AND OTHER
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to an improvement in the manufacture of metal
especially suited for axles, shafts, rails, tyres, and other purposes where
hardness and malleability are required so as to produce the same in a
comparatively inexpensive, simple, easy, and rapid manner resembling
steel as regards density, with more or less the hardness and durability
thereof, while retaining the tenacity and ductility of wrought iron.

page_text: My said Invention consists in the employment of steel bars with the
metal in the puddling furnace during the process of puddling pig or
refined metal into wrought iron, such steel bars being cut into small
pieces or suitable lengths, the quantity or proportion of the said steel
bars to mix with the metal varying from about one-twelfth (1) to
one-third (3) in weight of the mass of metal with which it is to be
mixed, according to the purpose and degree of hardness and malleability
required, and then boiling, puddling, or working the whole together,
which may be done by any puddler in the ordinary process of puddling.
In the manufacture of this metal care must be taken that the pieces
of steel are equally distributed or well mixed with metal in the puddling
furnace, so as to ensure the mass being as homogeneous as possible.
The steel thus mixed with pig or refined metal in the puddling furnace
may be of any suitable kind, but blistered steel is preferred.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henry Brook Woodcock in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 1st March 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BROOK WOODCOCK, of Low Moor, near Bradford, in the County of York,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in. the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Henry Brook Woodcock,
Her special licence that I, the said Henry Brook Woodcock, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Henry Brook Woodcock, 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 "A NEW MANUFACTURE OF METAL," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Henry Brook Woodcock,
my executors .or administrators, by an instrument in writing under

page_text: 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 Henry Brook Woodcock, do
hereby declare the nature of my 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 :-
My Invention relates to an improvement in the manufacture of metal
especially suited for axles, shafts, rails, tyres, and other purposes where
hardness and malleability are required, so as to produce the same in a
comparatively inexpensive, simple, easy, and rapid manner resembling
steel as regards density, with more or less the hardness and durability
thereof, while retaining the tenacity and ductility of wrought iron.
My said Invention consists in the employment of steel bars in the
puddling furnace during the process of puddling pig or refined metal_
into wrought iron, such steel bars being cut into small picces or suitable
lengths, the quantity or proportion of the said steel bars varying, from
about one-twelfth (1) to one-third () in weight of the mass to be
mixed, according to the purpose and degree of hardness and malleability
required. The mass is then boiled, puddled, and worked together by
the puddler in the ordinary process of puddling. In the manufacture
of this metal care must be taken that the pieces of steel are equally
distributed and well mixed with the metal in the puddling furnace so as
to ensure the mass being as homogeneous as possible. The steel which
I prefer for mixing with pig or refined metal in the puddling furnace
is blistered. steel, but other descriptions of steel known commonly as
cast steel may be used.
The manner in which I carry the said Invention into practical effect
will be understood by the following description, viz. I take bars of
blistered steel or cast steel presenting a high and open crystaline appear-
ance; those bars are then cut or broken into small pieces, say about
one inch square; the smaller these pieces the better they are for being
thoroughly mixed, as herein-after described. I then take a certain
weight of those small pieces of steel, say two-twelfths (1) in. weight of
the whole mass to be mixed, and place them into and at the back part
of the working chamber of an ordinary reverberatory puddling furnace.

page_text: I then take a portion of pig or refined metal, say ten-twelfths (+) in
weight of the whole mass to be mixed; this I place in the centre of the
said working chamber, and the furnace is then got up to the necessary
degree of heat for reducing or melting the pig or refined metal. After
it is thoroughly melted the pieces of steel (which during this part of
the operation have been gradually assuming a white heat) are then
brought forward and equally distributed amongst and mixed with the
fluid mass, so as to ensure the mass being as homogeneous as possible;
the whole mass is then boiled, puddled, and worked together until at
the end of this part of the operation the mass begins to granulate or
(as it is termed) "come to nature," after which the particles begin to
adhere to each other, and each part is carefully and equally exposed
to the action of the flame from the fire in the furnace grate by the
puddler turning over the mass by almost constant stirring. The mass
is then divided and made into balls of suitable size and weight which
can be done by any puddler acquainted with the ordinary process of
puddling, each ball is then.taken out of the furnace and brought under
the hammer and formed into any required shape,
In carrying out my Invention I have found blistered steel and
refined metal in the proportions herein-after stated to be well adapted
for the following purposes, namely, for valve and piston rods blistered
steel to refined metal, for tyres blistered steel to refined metal,
for rails blistered steel to refined metal, and for axles and shafts
blistered steel to refined metal, but these proportions may be varied
according to the degree of stiffness or rigidity required; also pig iron
may be used in like proportions, but the refined metal is preferable.
By varying the degree of hardness of the steel and the relative pro-
portions of the materials employed metal may be obtained to suit a
variety of other purposes without destroying its malleability, which
quality not only renders it capable of being easily welded, but also of
being afterwards reworked and used again for similar purposes (if
necessary) without losing to any great extent its original density and
hardness,
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I
do not claim as of my Invention the mixing of steel with iron, such a
combination or mixture having been already suggested, but what I do
claim is, the manufacture of a new metal by mixing small pieces of

page_text: steel with pig or refined metal in the puddling furnace as herein
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Brook Woodcock, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of February,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
nine.