IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TYRES FOR WHEELS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Southwood Stocker, of Wolverhampton,
in the County of Stafford, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TYRES FOR WHEELS."
Sealed the 14th June 1861, and dated the 17th December 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Southwood
Stocker at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 17th December 1860.
I, ALEXANDER SOUTHWOOD STOCKER, of Wolverhampton, in the County of
Stafford, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TYRE FOR WHEELS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in combining a layer or layers of steel, iron, or
puddled steel, with a layer or layers of ordinary wrought iron, and rolling and
welding them together in the same bar, so as to combine sufficient hardness
to stand an increased amount of wear and tear and durability, possessing at
the same time sufficient toughness and fibre to resist breakage, after which it
is to be bent, welded, drilled or punched, and applied to the wheels of vehicles
running on common or other roads; or the tyres may be composed entirely of
steel, iron, or puddled steel.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Southwood Stocker in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th June 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
SOUTHWOOD STOCKER, of Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford, Manu-
facturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, Her special licence that I, the said
Alexander Southwood Stocker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, 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 ex-
pressed, 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 TYRES FOR WHEELS," upon the condition (amongst others) that 1, the
said Alexander Southwood Stocker, my executors or administrators, by
an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 Alexander Southwood Stocker, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manier the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, that is to say:-
.
My said Invention relates to the manufacture of tyres to be applied to
wooden wheels running on common or other roads, and consists in the employ
ment for that purpose of two differently constituted metals, in order to produce
the bars out of which the tyres are. intended to be made, also in bending and
.welding such bars into wheel tyres, also in drilling or punching holes through
tyres when made in accordance with my Invention, such holes being intended
to receive the bolts, nails, rivets, or screws for the purpose of affixing the tyres
to the wheels, and I proceed as follows, "viz. :"-I apply to the manufacture
of tyres the use of ordinary wrought iron in combination with an article

page_text: commercially known as steel iron, or puddled steel, placed together in any
desirable proportions, and disposed in any convenient manner. I take a bar
or bars of suitable length, width, and thickness, of good fibrous ductile wrought
iron, upon which I place a bar or bars also of convenient length, width, and
thickness, of the harder material intended for the wearing side of the tyres, the
softer one being the foundation upon which the harder one rests, in order to
avoid breakage. These two differently constituted metals having been placed
together in a pile convenient for the purpose intended, are then heated in an
ordinary heating furnace, and when it has attained a suitable heat fit to be
welded it is taken from thence and passed and repassed through rolls, such as
are used at and driven by the ordinary rolling mills for rolling merchant bars,
bringing out a bar united firmly in one solid mass, and of the suitable shape
and dimensions for the tyres intended to be produced, after which they are
bent, welded, holed, shrunk, rivetted, screwed, or otherwise fastened on the
wheels in the ordinary manner as now practised by wheelwrights generally.
The component parts which I have found to be the most desirable as to
wear and tear, and also to avoid the tension and stretching qualities to which
the ordinary or common tyres now in use are so much liable, has been sixty
per cent. of the hard and forty per cent. of the softer material. Tyres when so
made are very strong and rigid, possessing at the same time a surprising
amount of durability over the common tyres now in use, especially under
heavy weights, hard wear and usage.
Another great advantage also which tyres made according with my Inven-
tion possess is that of embracing and holding the frames of the wheels tight
together to the very last. The tyres may be made out of the hard material in
its entirety, although it is not desirable to do so.
Having now described the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent, I would observe that I do not confine myself to
the precise details herein set forth, for they may be varied in any convenient
manner that may be found more desirable without departing from my
Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
ALEXANDER SOUTHWOOD STOCKER. (L.S.)