AN IMPROVED PROCESS POR CASTING CHAIN
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Thomas Hughes at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 4th March 1869.- A communication from abroad by
Cornelius Charles Edgar Van Alstine and John Christian Hofer, of
the City and County of New Haven, United States of America.
I, EDWARD THOMAS HUGHES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent
Agents, 123, Chancery Lane, London, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED PROCESS POR CASTING CHAIN," a com-
munication to me from abroad by Cornelius Charles Edgar Van Alstine
and John Christian Hofer, of the City and County of New Haven,
United States of America, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of metallic
chains, such as have heretofore been formed from wrought metal, and
the links welded together, the object being to produce a chain at less
expense and of quite or nearly equal strength, and the process consists
in the construction of a flask divided longitudinally in quarters and
arranged so as to receive a mould board between each two of the four

page_text: quarters, that is to say, so that the mould board will divide the flask
both vertically and horizontally, and one half of the pattern be formed
upon opposite sides of each part of the mould board, so that the links
will be moulded one within the other, and when all are moulded the
mould board is removed, the four parts or quarters of the flask set and
locked together, and a succession of link moulds are formed in the
centre, into which the metal is poured to form the chain.
In order that this Invention may be clearly understood I will fully
describe the same as illustrated in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings,
in which Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the flask with the moulds in
place; Fig. 2, a perspective view of the upper half of the flask removed
from the moulds; Fig. 3, a perspective view with one quarter of the
flask removed from the moulds; Fig. 4, a perspective view showing the
manner of filling the flasks; and Fig. 5, an end view with the moulds
removed for the purpose of pouring the metal.
We first form a flask in four parts A, B, C, D, each part being one-
fourth of the whole divided longitudinally, and we form mould boards
E, F, G, H, corresponding to each quarter of the flask, so that when
the four mould boards are inserted they divide the flask into four parts,
as seen in Fig. 1. Upon two parts of the mould board, as F and G, see
Fig. 2, we form upon the upper and under side one half of the links,
that is to say, one quarter of the link upon one side of one board and
a corresponding quarter upon the opposite side of the same board, and
the other two quarters in like manner upon the other board, and upon
the other two quarters or parts of the mould boards E and H we form in
like manner the parts of other links, and in relative position to the parts
of the links on the other board, as seen in Fig 3. Thus formed and
placed together we remove the top of one quarter, as seen in Fig. 4, and
fill with sand in the usual manner for casting, then the opposite
quarter in like manner, then invert the flask and fill the other two
quarters, then separate the parts of the flask and remove the mould
boards and patterns, and when the mould boards and patterns are so
removed unite the parts of the flask and lock them together, as in
Fig. 5, which will leave in the centre the mould board for the successive
links, the one within the next, and so on. The several links are con-
nected by a gate, as seen in Fig. 2, so that the metal will run to the
several links.

page_text: The length of the chain cast will of course depend upon the length
of the flask, but having cast one length the end link of such completed
length may be placed in the mould of the last link at the end of the
flask, and the next link cast and united to the first, and so on to any
desired length.
We prefer to form the chain in this manner from malleable iron,
as such when properly manufactured is nearly or quite equal to
wrought-iron chain of the same size, but other metal may be used.