IMPROVEMENTS in the Manufacture of Railway, Tram Car, and OTHER SIMILAR WHEELS, IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYEDRE
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Hadfield and John Mallaband, both of
Sheffield, Steel Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
in the Manufacture of Railway, Tram Car, and OTHER SIMILAR WHEELS,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Hadfield and
John Mallaband at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 25th October 1875.
We, ROBERT HADFIELD and JOHN MALLABAND, both of Sheffield,
Steel Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILWAY, TRAM CAR, AND OTHER
SIMILAR WHEELS, AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture
of railway, tram car, and other similar wheels, and in the apparatus
employed therein. For this purpose we proceed in the following

page_text: manner :—First, we take steel or iron weldless tyres rolled and turned
to the peculiar section required for our improved method, and which
section may be seen by reference to Figure 2 of the accompanying
Drawings. The tyre is now heated and placed between the top and
bottom parts of the mould, which gives to each side of the wheel its
required shape, and which shape may be either waved, corrugated, or
have a straight disc. That part of the mould forming the boss or nave
is made of metal to the surface, but the part forming the thin part of
the plate or disc is lined with composition, gannister, or any other
suitable good non-conducting material. The object of this arrangement
is to obtain a more equal cooling and contraction of the thick and thin
parts of the nave and plate.
In order to form the hole in the centre for the reception of the axle
we use a core composed of gannister or fire sand. We also make use
of water jets surrounding the tyre, the water to be turned on at the
proper time soon after casting, the object of this being to prevent the
sudden expansion of the tyre, which would endanger the whole process
by tearing or breaking the web or disc if allowed to expand too suddenly.
The heated tyre being now properly fixed between the top and bottom
parts of the mould, and the core being centrally placed in the scat
prepared for it, the whole is now firmly held together by cramps, or
bolts, or any other convenient method. We now proceed to pour into
the mould crucible, Bessemer or other steel or metal, which flows into
the hollow part of the tyre previously prepared for it. As soon as
sufficiently cool the wheel is removed, the mould relined and dried,
another hot tyre fixed in position, and the process repeated at pleasure.
Another part of our Invention is that we use our improved mould
for the manufacture of another and less costly wheel which is made
without either a forged or rolled tyre.
In order to produce this latter wheel instead of placing the solid tyre
between the top and bottom parts of the mould, as before described,
we substitute a cold hollow chill; the reason it is hollow is for the
application of water so as to stay expansion. The said chill correctly
forms the tread and flange of the wheel, so that when the steel is poured
in it forms the tyre, nave, and plate, the result being a perfectly solid
cast steel railway or other wheel.
We subject all our improved wheels to the annealing process, thereby-

page_text: securing a very tough malleable homogeneous cast steel wheel, tho
wearing part of which (the tyre) has undergone the process of hammering,
rolling, and annealing.
Wheels made upon our improved principles require neither bolts,
clips, rivets, wedges, nor any other vicious or complicated fastenings,
in addition to which there is no tyre piercing, and hence all danger
arising from these sources is thus thoroughly obviated, although in the
wheels at present in use the breaking of all or any such various
fastenings is a frequent cause of disaster. Moreover, in manufacturing
our new and improved wheels the molten steel simply flows into the
T shaped recess prepared for it, and, as will be seen by reference to the
tyre section A in Figure 2 of the accompanying Drawings the tyre
cannot possibly be detached from the wheel in any other way than by
cutting it off, and such wheel therefore possesses all the advantages
of being a stronger, sounder, and above all safer railway wheel than any
hitherto employed, one of the principal objects of our Invention being
to prevent the possibility of the recurrence of those disastrous railway
accidents which now so frequently arise from the fracturing of railway
wheels, at the same time that it is far more economical in manufacture.
•
The following is a description of the accompanying Drawings :—
Figure 1 is a plan view of the moulding box; Figure 2 is a sectional
view of the same, wherein A, A, is the bottom part of the moulding
box; D, the central core for axle; B, B, the top part of moulding box,
the shaded part marked b, b, b, b, shewing the fireproof material
rammed in the moulding box; C, C, C, arc sprues or gates leading
down into the mould; G is the loose runner box placed on the top
of the mould; T, T, represents the tyre placed between the top and
bottom of the mould; W is the dish or basin for teeming into; N, N,
the pipe for water jets.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five,
in the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto us, the said Robert Hadfield
and John Mallaband, Her special license that we, the said Robert
Hadfield and John Mallaband, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Robert Hadfield and John
Mallaband, our 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
RAILWAY, TRAM CAR, AND OTHER SIMILAR WHEELS, AND IN THE APPAratus
EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
Robert Hadfield and John Mallaband, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and scals, or
under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 we, the said Robert Hadfield and John
Mallaband, 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 :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture
of railway, tram car, and other similar wheels, and in the apparatus
employed therein. For this purpose we proceed in the following
manner First, we take steel or iron weldless tyres rolled and turned
to the peculiar section required for our improved method, and which
section may be seen by reference to Figure 2 of the accompanying
Drawings. The tyre is now heated and placed between the top and
bottom parts of the mould, which gives to each side of the wheel its
required shape, and which shape may be either waved, corrugated, or
have a straight disc. That part of the mould forming the boss or nave

page_text: is made of metal to the surface, but the part forming the thin part of
the plate or disc is lined with composition, gannister, or any other
suitable good non-conducting material. The object of this arrangement
is to obtain a more equal cooling and contraction of the thick and thin
parts of the nave and plate.
In order to form the hole in the centre for the reception of the axle
we use a core composed of gannister or fire sand. We also make use
of water jets surrounding the tyre; the water to be turned on at the
proper time soon after casting, the object of this being to prevent the
sudden expansion of the tyre which would endanger the whole process
by tearing or breaking the web or disc if allowed to expand too suddenly.
The heated tyro being now properly fixed between the top and bottom
parts of the mould, and the core being centrally placed in the seat
prepared for it, the whole is now firmly held together by cramps, or
bolts, or any other convenient method. We now proceed to pour into
the mould crucible, Bessemer, or other steel or metal, which flows into
the hollow part of the tyre previously prepared for it. As soon as
sufficiently cool the wheel is removed, the mould relined and dried,
another hot tyre fixed in position, and the process repeated at pleasure.
Another part of our Invention is that we use our improved mould,
by removing the chill or metal centre and substituting in lieu thereof
others, or a fireproof material in its place, for the manufacture of another
and less costly wheel, which is made and cast without having either a
forged or rolled tyre, having either a waved, or by preference, a straight
disc supported behind by straight or curved-shaped ribs running from
the nave and supporting said tyre rim, which is also greatly strengthened
by having a further internal flange attached thereto.
In order to produce this latter wheel instead of placing the solid tyre
between the top and bottom parts of the mould, as before described,
we substitute a cold hollow chill; the reason it is hollow is for the
application of water so as to stay expansion. The said chill correctly
forms the tread and flange of the wheel, so that when the steel is poured
in it forms the tyre, nave, and plate, the result being a perfectly solid
cast steel railway or other wheel.
We subject all our improved wheels to the annealing process, thereby

page_text: wearing part of which (the tyre) has undergone the process of hammering,
rolling, and annealing.
Wheels made upon our improved principle require neither bolts,
clips, rivets, wedges, or any other vicious or complicated fastenings,
in addition to which there is no tyre piercing, and hence all danger
arising from these sources is thus thoroughly obviated, although in the
wheels at present in uso the breaking of all or any such various
fastenings is a frequent cause of disaster. Moreover, in manufacturing
our new and improved wheels the molten steel simply flows into the
Tshaped recess prepared for it, and, as will be seen by reference to the
tyre section T in Figure 2 of the accompanying Drawings, the tyre
cannot possibly be detached from the wheel in any other way than by
cutting it off, and such wheel therefore possesses all the advantages
of being a stronger, sounder, and above all safer railway wheel than any
hitherto employed, one of the principal objects of our Invention being 1
to prevent the possibility of the recurrence of those disastrous railway
accidents which now so frequently arise from the fracturing of railway
wheels, at the same time that it is far more economical in manufacture.
The following is a description of the accompanying Drawings:-
Figure 1 is a plan view of the moulding box; Figure 2 is a sectional
view of the same, wherein A, A, is the bottom part of the moulding
box; D, the central core for axle; B, B, the top part of moulding box,
the shaded part marked b, b, b, b, shewing the fire-proof material
rammed in the moulding box; c, c, c, are sprues or gates leading
down into the mould; G is the loose runner box placed on the top of
the mould; T, T, represent the tyre placed between the top and bottom
of the mould; W is the dish or basin for teeming into; N, N, the pipe
for water jets.
Figure 3 is a section of a solid steel or iron wheel cast at one and
the same time without either a forged or steel tyre, preferably in the
form shewn.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our
said Invention, and the manner of performing the same, we would

page_text: manufacture of railway, tram car, and other similar wheels, and in
the apparatus employed therein, as herein-before set forth and described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Robert Hadfield and John Malla-
band, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Eleventh day
of April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-six.
Witness,
RICHP. LISTER.
ROBERT HADFIELD. (L.S.)
JOHN MALLABAND.
(L.S.)