IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PUDDLING METALS
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Archibald Brooman at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th January 1862. A communication from abroad by François
Dumeny and Firmin Lemut, both of Closmortier, near St. Dizier,
France.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PUDDLING METALS," (communicated to
from abroad by Francois Dumeny and Firmin Lemut, both of Closmotier, near
St. Dizier, France,) to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is the substitution of mechanical for manual
power, for stirring up the metal submitted to the action of the fire in rever-
batory furnaces. I will explain the Invention as applied to the puddling of iron:
The machinery employed is intended to stir up the metal at the bottom of
the furnace by means of tools such as puddlers, stirrers, and other equivalent
instruments introduced into the furnace through openings formed in the most
suitable parts of the furnace; the tool is worked in all parts of the metal in
quite as varied a manner as if by the hands of a workman. The speed of
the tool is regulated at the will of the attendant by shifting the driving band
on the driving pulleys of the machine, also its position and the direction of
its oscillations on the surface of the bed, so that the puddling is effected not
The easiest:
only, without labor but in less time than in the ordinary manner.
application of this puddling machine is to an ordinary furnace as shewn.at.

page_text: Figure 1. The tool or puddler has three simultaneous motions imparted to
it through a lever suspended from a frame. Motion is communicated to the
machine the varying size pulley B, and thence transmitted to the pulleys
C, D, of the crank plate F, which through a connecting rod G terminating
in universal joints drives the large lever H to which the puddling tool is
connected. The support carrying the bearing for the crank plate F is at the
upper part of a lever M, N, O, which through an excentric pulley Q has a
slight oscillating motion imparted to it about the axis O, the motion being
transmitted by a toothed wheel and pinion. The lever H, and consequently
the puddling tool, have thus a motion imparted to them resulting in the rotation
of a crank about an axis which becomes slowly displaced. The lever H is
also embraced by two bars R, R, one only of which is shown in the Drawing,
which guide its plane of oscillation and becoming displaced about an axis S,
varies the plane, and with it the direction of the tool in the furnace. The
forked guide is moved by means of a connecting rod T acting on the arm U
and receiving motion from a plate crank L mounted on the same shaft as
the excentric Q. The motions can be modified, and the machinery can be
regulated in such manner that the tools may be made to work successively in
all parts of the furnace in the following manner :-
1st. The strap is passed round that part of the varying sized pulley which
will produce the required speed.
2nd. The machine is started or stopped through a lever E which the attend-
ant works by means of the cores f, f.
3rd. To vary at will the oscillations of the lever, a crank plate pierced with
a number of holes is employed, and a stud is inserted by means of a key into
the holes corresponding with the distance on the axis to the course or play
required. The same effect may however be obtained within certain limits
by connecting to the lever a traveller formed of a ring of metal provided with
a pressure screw, and which supports the end of the connecting rod.
4th. The two extreme positions the tool is required to assume are regu-
lated as follows:-1, by the radius given to the crank. 2, by the length of the
connecting rod T which acts on the bent lever R, U. 3, by the radius given
to the latter lever. In a short time the attendant can modify at will the
two lengths by changing the holes in the pin which holds the connecting rod
to the lever.
5th. The displacement of the plate crank can also be varied according to
the requirements of the work. For this purpose the excentric which pro-
duces the displacement instead of being fitted directly on the shaft which drives
it, is fixed by small bolts on the plate crank mounted on the same shaft. The

page_text: oblong hole with which the disc of this excentric is pierced permits of the
position of the bolts being changed to be brought nearer to or removed farther
from the axis of rotation.
6th. The arrangement of the excentric before described establishes between
the radii of the excentric and that of the crank which drives the regulating
fork the angular distance corresponding most suitably with the direction of
the tool and its entrance into the furnace.
7th. According to the length of the tools introduced into the furnace so
the lever is brought nearer to or farther from the door by lengthening or
shortening the crank which drives them. The tools can have their inclination
regulated, for which purpose the attendant places a traveller on the lever and
fixes it under the socket in which the tool enters; a pressure screw keeps the
tool in the desired position.
8th. Were it is required to produce by the tool a greater activity at one
part of the furnace than at another, that is in order that the displacement
of the plane of oscillation of the lever may be regulated to make it agree
with the variations of speed, the stud on the plate crank L. which drives the
rod is replaced by a heart wheel bolted to the same plate. The profile of
this curve is obtained by means of a diagram in which the series of positions
the tool is required to occupy at the centre of each of its oscillations is given.
This profile may also be obtained by moving the machine slowly with the
hand, placing the tool at each revolution of the crank in the desired direction
and marking each time on the plate the position occupied by the two rollers
on the connecting rod, a piece of wood is then cut according to a design
marked out on the plate and bolted to it.
9th. If it is considered necessary that the tool should receive a certain
amount of rotary motion about its own axis as well as the compound motion
the arrangement of mechanism shown at Figures 2, 3, and 4 is adopted. For
this purpose a rod or bar C is hooked to a point adjacent with that at which
the lever H is suspended, and connecting to the latter by a fork D fixed to
and moving with it. The lever and rod being free to oscillate together about
different axes have a relative displacement which is utilized to impart the
requisite rotation to the tool thro' the medium of the socket A and
branch B which is fitted to the side thereof. The extent of the angular
motion is regulated by bringing the points of suspension of the rod and lever
nearer to one another or by varying the length of the branch B. Figures
5 and 6 show in diagram a machine capable of producing the combination
of the three motions, viz., the rotation of a crank A, the displacement of its
axis B, and that of the plane of oscillation of the lever which guides the

page_text: tool.
Motion is communicated to the shaft and thence to the toothed wheels
D and E. The wheel D makes 12 revolutions while the wheel F gearing
into it makes only one. The second wheel E gears into another wheel G
four times smaller than it. This wheel G is keyed to a shaft H, N, free to
revolve in a bearing P and in a hollow metal shaft R, carrying at its opposite
extremity a toothed wheel N, taking into a wheel with internal teeth A, B.
The hollow shaft R supported by the bearing Q is formed in a piece with
an eccentric wheel K, which acts through a connecting rod in the direction
of the plane of oscillation. It also forms part with the toothed wheel F
in the disc of which is keyed the shaft B, B, forming a bearing for the
wheel A, B. Supposing the wheels D, E, make 36 revolutions per minute,
the, toothed wheel F and with it the excentric K will make 3 revolutions.
The axis of rotation B' of the crank will then make about the axis H, N,
3 revolutions per minute. At the same time the shaft H, N, will make through
the wheels E and G 144 revolutions, if the relation of the wheel N with
the wheel A, B, is, the latter will make 57.6 revolutions. While the
tool accomplishes these 57.6 revolutions it moves through the effect of the
simultaneous displacement of the axis B¹ and of the plane of oscillation 3 times
round the furnace, or 19 oscillations divided over the whole surface of the
bed. The axes are shown in a horizontal position, they may however be
with equal advantage placed vertically by replacing the bearings P and R'
by collars receiving the points or extremities I and H of the two shafts.
Figures 7 and 8 show the machinery preferred for a reverberatory furnace
more particularly a puddling furnace of considerable size. A bent shaft
composed of several parts connected by universal joints imparts an oscillating
motion to the levers to which the puddling tools are connected. The forks
which direct their planes of oscillation are driven by crank plates fitted with
endless screws. The varying motions of the tools in the furnace are produced
by the displacement of the point of suspension of the lever. For this purpose
the lever H terminates in a ring K free to slide on a rod A, K, conveniently
centered. To produce the displacement of this ring, an oblique disc M is
connected to the shaft of the crank plate, the edge of which disc sliding in
a fork H imparts to the bent lever L, C, K, an oscillating motion which is
transmitted to the suspension ring of the lever. Instead of the rod A, K,
a bar A, H, may be employed for suspending the lever, which bar is bolted
to a disc free to move about a horizontal shaft. To this shaft a bar is also
fixed by bolts carrying a counterweight for producing an equilibrium between
it and the balance lever and parts connected thereto.
Oscillation about the axis is produced by a rod to which motion is imparted

page_text: as before, and united to the arm by a bolt placed in an aperture by which
the desired play and inclination may be produced. By this arrangement
not only the distance of the lever from the door of the furnace may be regu-
lated, but also it may be raised as desired at each revolution, and the tool
may have thereby imparted to it an inclination in accordance with that part
of the furnace on which it works. There is a peculiarity in the furnace
shown at Figure 8 which is as follows:-Supposing the bed were surrounded
by pipes containing water; on these pipes which carry the right hand supports
of the arch are placed at suitable points hollow metal pieces made similar
to tuyeres of furnaces, the central hole in which affords a passage to the
puddling tool which enters the furnace. The pipes containing the water
prevent overheating. In the interior of the tuyeres metal plates are placed
of a shape corresponding with that of the tuyeres held by wedges, they are
intended to act as a friction surface for the tools, and thus the orifices may
be made narrower than would otherwise be the case.
larger tools being used.
The tuyeres allow of