CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE
Year: 1846

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
REID, of Saint Pancras, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of
October, One thousand eight hundred and forty-six, in the tenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Reid, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial license,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Reid, my
exors, admiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Reid, 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 lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of
Guernsey, Jersey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and all Her said Majesty's
Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a.
proviso, that I, the said William Reid, shall cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be inrolled
in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months.

page_text: next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by 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
William Reid, hereby declare that my said improvements have special re-
lation to the manufacture of wire made of iron, and have for their object
the producing of wire in much greater lengths and of much more uniform
quality than heretofore, and also the cleansing or preparing of it to receive a
metallic coating (in order to protect it from oxidation) by a speedier and more
effectual process than any previously in use, by which combined improvements
the said wire will be made fitter for all purposes to which such wire is now
applied or may be applicable, and more particularly for the transmission of the
currents in electric telegraphs.
For whereas the ordinary weight of wire bundles, averaging about one
hundred and ninety two feet in length, does not at present exceed fourteen
pounds, and when two, three, or more of such bundles or lengths are joined
together, this is effected by welding, and the united wires are almost always
not only thicker at the welds or joints than elsewhere, but more brittle
at these parts, and not unfrequently unsound, now, the nature of my
said Invention, in the first branch thereof, consists in welding together
(end to end, scarf-wise,) two, three, or more rods of iron before they are
drawn into wire (instead of afterwards), and passing the welded as well as
the other parts through the drawing machine, whereby the whole is not only
produced of one uniform diameter, but any defects in the welding are
instantly detected (through the strain required by the drawing process);
and I am enabled to furnish readily bundles of wire of ten times the weight
and length of the ordinary bundles, or indeed of any weight or length that
may be required, and which are, moreover, (when annealed) as nearly as
may be of a perfectly homogeneous quality throughout.
And whereas by the ordinary methods of preparing iron wire to receive a
protective coating of zinc, or tin, or other metal, or combination of metals, the
wire is cleansed by immersing it in or otherwise subjecting it to the action of
'sulphuric acid, or nitric acid, and is often much injured in structure from
the acid not acting equally on all parts of the wire alike, or from some parts
being longer exposed to its action than others, now, my Invention, in the
second branch thereof, consists in effecting the cleansing wholely by mecha-
'nical friction or action, or cleansing it thereby to such an extent as to make
it needful to have recourse to the use of acid in a very dilute state only.
With respect to the manner of welding and drawing the rods of iron, and the

page_text: annealing of the wire, these processes are performed in the usual way, and as
to these I make no claim, that is to say, in so far as regards the mere pro-
cesses of welding and drawing themselves, considered without any reference
to the order in which they are performed.
The manner in which the cleansing of wire, preparatory to its receiving.
the protective coating, is effected (wholly or partially) by mechanical friction.
or action, and is represented in the Drawings hereunto annexed.. I employ
for this purpose certain arrangements of machinery, an elevation of which
is given in Figure 1, and a plan in Figure 2. A, A, are a set of upright.
reels, each of the shape of a conic frustrum, having the end of smallest
diameter uppermost. These reels are free to revolve upon their spindles B, B,
which are either fixed in a general framework C, upon which the other parts
of the machinery are placed, or each may be mounted upon a separate portable
stand. D, D, are the coils of wire, which as they come from the annealing.
oven are loosely slipped upon the reels A, A. The reels are represented in
the Drawings as being six in number, each being intended to carry one coil or
length of wire, so that six coils or lengths may be operated upon at one and
the same time; but the number is not limited to six, and may be increased to
nine, twelve, or any other convenient number. D¹ is a metallic plate, which is
fixed to the general framework C, and formed somewhat similar to the bed of
a slide rest for a lathe; E is a moveable frame, carrying three upright rollers
F, F, and F, which frame slides between a groove of a dovetailed shape in
the plate D, in a direction at right angles to the general line of direction given
to the wires in passing through the machine. A continuous alternating motion
is communicated-to-the frame E and the rollers F1, F2, and F3, by the action
of a band passed from a steam engine or other first mover over the pulley G.
I, I, is another metallic frame, in which is placed a second set of rollers, but
with their axles laid horizontally. The upper portion (I') of this frame is hinged
to the lower portion (13) at K; the former carries two rollers a¹ and a³, the
latter three rollers a³, a', and as. Lis a cross bar, which serves to secure the
up. The
sides of I¹ in their proper position, and by which it may be lifted
ends of the coils of wire wound on the reels A, A, are first passed round
the rollers Fi, F, and F3 of the first series in an alternating or sinuous
direction, as shown in the plan, Figure 2; they are then introduced to the
5 second series, through and between the rollers of which they are passed in the
same alternating or 'sinuous course as in the first series of rollers.
And in order that the same surfaces which have undergone the action of
the first set of rollers may not be presented to the second, and that the rollers
may not be grooved by the wires always coming in contact with them at the

page_text: 5 per-
same points, I cause the frame E, and the rollers F, F, and F³, which it
carries, to perform a slow traversing motion backwards and forwards
during all the time they are at work, whereby the wires in passing between
the rollers of the second series are made to shift their positions con-
tinually. I effect this by means of a small eccentric wheel H, fixed on the
upper end of the spindle of the pulley G, which takes into a recess in the side
of the bottom plate of the frame E. In some cases, when the wires operated
upon are large in diameter, and there is danger of their riding on the top of
the other, I introduce in the intermediate space between the first and second
series of rollers a set of guides at O, which are fixed to the sliding frame E,
and partake of its alternating motion. I have described the motion given to
the frame as being produced by means of an eccentric wheel (H) placed on
one side of it, but the same effect might be readily obtained by a crank and
connecting levers. The second series of rollers in the frame I¹, I², are repre-
sented on the Drawings as being supported, two of them, a¹ and a², in the
upper portion of the frame (I'), and the other three a³, a', and as, in the lower
portion (1), and the object in so placing them is that the alternating or sinuous
line of direction may be impressed on the wires rather by the action of the
rollers than by a forcible bending of the wires themselves; and this is
formed by lifting up the upper frame 1¹ into the position indicated by the
dotted lines, Figure 4, and then passing a portion of wire through between a
and a³, on which the upper frame I', falling down into [its place, and being
secured by the catch P to the lower frame I*, causes necessarily the wire to
travel in the sinuous course required. So far as the machinery has been
hitherto described, the effect accomplished by it is simply that of break-
ing up and removing any scales of oxide or rust which may be on the surface
of the wire. But in order that it may be still farther cleansed, the wire is
next passed between two friction plates 6', 63, cased with wood or leather, on the
faces of which a stream of fine sand or emery, or other like cleansing substance,
is kept constantly pouring from a reservoir over head. The lower piece of
metal 6 slides in V grooves formed in the side plates C¹, C, and the upper.
piece 6¹ is screwed to . These pieces are connected by rods d', d, to two
corresponding cranks on the shaft g, which is put in motion by a band carried
from the primary power over the pulley h. In some cases the wires are made
to pass between hollow floats or files of hardened steel affixed to the sliding
pieces 6 and 6. By making the pulley to rotate, a rectilineal reciprocating
motion may be given to the pieces 61, 63, and the cleansing of the wire may be
thereby still more effectually accomplished. The wire, after having passed
through the different processes aforesaid, is carried over the roller i into

page_text: and through a box containing sal-ammoniac or spirit of salt, whence it is
transferred as quickly as possible to the bath of metal to receive its required
coating.
Instead of employing the machinery which has been just described for
5 cleansing the wires, I sometimes employ rollers covered with bristles of hair or
whalebone, or metal wire, or other suitable material. Figure 5 is an elevation,
and Figure 6 an end view, of a pair of such rollers, supposing them to be
employed by themselves in place of the friction plates, but sometimes they are
employed in combination with the said friction plates, and in that case they
are placed to the right of them. When these roller brushes are used, a
quick rotary motion is communicated to them from the moving power, and the
lower one is made to revolve in a trough containing some one or other of the
cleansing substances before named, which may be either in a dry or wet state,
varying according to the nature of the wire and the cleansing substance
used.
The degree of speed with which the wires are passed through the various
processes before explained is regulated by the speed given to the reels upon
which they are finally wound, after the tinning or zincing or other coating
process has been completed; but when the processes are not carried on in
continuous succession, they are wound on a set of winding reels placed close
by the box containing the sal-ammoniac or spirit of salt, and each reel is made
capable of being disconnected from the prime moving power without inter-
fering with the other reels, so that in case of any accident occurring to one of
the wires the others may still go on without hindrance.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that though, as before stated,
I have had specially in view the application of my Invention to iron wire, I
do not limit myself to that application, for that in so far as regards the pro-
cess of welding before drawing the same, is equally applicable to steel wire;
and in so far as regards the cleansing machinery, the same is equally appli-
cable to the cleansing of wire of all sorts, whether made of iron or steel,
or copper or brass, or any other metal or mixture of metals; and I declare
that the improvements which I claim as constituting my Invention are as
follows:-
First, I claim the method of producing iron wire of any required length and
of uniform diameter by first welding the rods of which the wire is formed end
to end, scarf-wise, and then passing the united rods through a drawing machine,
as before described; and also the application of the same to the manufacture of
steel wire.