CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESSES FOR FORMING THE MATERIALS FOR AND MANUFACTURING CHAINS AND CHAIN CABLES
Year: 1820

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
ACRAMAN the younger, and. DANIEL WADE ACRAMAN, both of the City of
Bristol, Iron Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth,
in and by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Sixteenth day of October last, did give and grant
unto us, the said William Acraman and Daniel Wade Acraman, our exors,
adiñors, and assigns, His Majesty's special licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that, we, the said William Acraman and Daniel Wade
Acraman, our exors, admors, and assigns, and every of us, by ourselves, and
our deputies, servants, or agents, or such others as we, the said William
Acraman and Daniel Wade Acraman, our exors, adiñors, and assigns, shall
from time to time and at all times hereafter, during the term of years therein
expressed, shall and lawfully make, use, exercise, and vend our Invention
for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE PROCESSES FOR FORMING THE MATERIALS FOR
AND MANUFACTURING CHAINS AND CHAIN CABLES," within that part of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to us, the
said William Acraman and Daniel Wade Acraman, our exors, admors, or
assigns, shall seem meet, and that we, the said William Acraman and Daniel

page_text: Wade Acraman, should enjoy the benefit and advantage from time to time
accruing and arising by reason of the said advantage, for the term therein
mentioned; to hold and enjoy the said licence, privileges, powers, and advan-
tages therein-before granted unto us, the said William Acraman and Daniel
Wade Acraman, our exors, admors, and assigns, for and during the term of
fourteen years from the date of the now-reciting Letters Patent, fully to be
complete and ended, according to the Statute in that case made and provided;
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if we, the said
William Acraman and Daniel Wade Acraman, or one of us, should not par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument under our hands and
seals, or the hand and seal of one of us, and cause the same to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent should be void.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
William Acraman and Daniel Wade Acraman, do hereby declare that the
nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be
performed, is particularly ascertained and set forth in the following description,
and in the Drawing (Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7) in the margin of these
Presents, with the reference thereto.
We have duly considered the various constructions of iron chain cables, and
have found by experiment that no plan hitherto adopted has rendered them
free from failure or objection when the strain has been excessive. We have,
therefore, invented links formed on a new construction, which when welded
together, as Figures 1, 3, and 6 of the said Drawing, form a chain or cable,
to make which we proceed in the formation of the links in the following
manner: The cylindrical bars of iron, see Figures 2, 4, 5, and 7, which
afterwards form the respective links of the chain, vary in diameter, and are
made with projections or swells, so placed on the side of each of such bars
to come exactly opposite to each other when the bar is formed or turned into
a link, and these projections or swells are raised by rolling, hammering,
stamping, or pressing, at the pleasure of the manufacturer. The extremities
of the bar are scarfed so as to fold over each other a sufficient length, which
gives to the link in that part when shut or welded additional strength. In case
the before-mentioned projections or swells are made sufficiently prominent to
meet when the bar is turned into a link, then they form by their union a most
effectual stay, perfectly immoveable by pressure or strain, and which from the
simplicity of its construction, its great strength, and its being of a piece with

page_text: the rest of the link, is rendered, in a much greater degree than any link now
in use, incapable of being injured by any of the accidents to which it may
be exposed. For the links made in the above mode, see Figure 1... If
the projections or swells on the bar, as Figures 4, 5, and 7, are not suffi-
ciently raised to meet when such bar is turned into a link, the following
process or plan is adopted :-The projections or swells are both indented or
countersunk, so as to form two cups or recesses of a round, oval, square, oblong,
or other shape, which are carefully fitted and adapted for the reception of a
certain proportion or piece of iron, which may be termed the uniting stay,
which is afterwards introduced between them, and closed in by pressure on the
bar being turned into a link. The indenting or counter-sinking of the pro-
jections or swells does not in any degree weaken the link; on the contrary, the
cylindrical part thereof is wholly preserved, and there remains more strength
and substance in that part of the link than in any other. The stays, which we
make of various lengths and shapes, as required, are oval pointed or otherwise.
Being introduced as above mentioned, and partially bedded or sunk in the
indentures or recesses, render it impossible for the sides of the link to collapse
by any excessive pressure or strain, or even to approach each other, unless a
lateral force or weight were to be applied by machinery or otherwise equal to
compressing the whole link into a flat piece of metal; but any pressure or
strain on the link in its common use will have the effect of holding the stay
tighter and closer in its proper position, and render it almost impossible for it
to be removed or even injured. For a link with a stay of this description,
see Figure 3. For a link with the swell or projection 'not so much raised,
and with a stay of a similar description, see Fig. 6. And for the section of
the bars with which these links are formed, see Figures 4, 5, and 7. The
open circular spaces left in each link for the insertion of those which are to
be placed next to it are fully adequate to the purposes for which they are
intended. There is ample room for the usual play or movement, and not any
danger of entanglement or locking.
In this Invention, as above described, it is. obvious that there are no thin
edges or angles in the stay liable to be chipped off, worn away, or injured, by
pressure or strain, which has in different ways been the case with all the stays
hitherto made. Such accidents are completely avoided in the link No. 1, by
its containing its strength and resistance purely within itself, and that in so
compact a form as to prevent any injury short of an actual removal, forcing
or crushing of the particles of the metal out of their places, which must, as is
well known, require a very extraordinary power, not at all likely to occur in
the common use of the article. And in the links Figures 3 and 6 the same

page_text: advantages exist in nearly an equal degree, as all pressure or strain from the
sides will be made on a smooth stay of iron, opposing on all its parts an equal
resistance over a considerable surface.
In witness whereof, we have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Twenty-second day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and twenty-one.