IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ROLLING IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Joseph Perry at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th November 1871.
I, THOMAS JOSEPH PERRY, of Highfields, near Bilston, in the County
of Stafford, Iron Founder, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ROLLING IRON AND STEEL,"
to be as follows:-
My Invention has reference to that part of machinery used for rolling
iron and steel which has for its object the reversal of the motion of the
rolls.
In the ordinary method of reversing the said rolls a train of toothed
wheels, consisting generally of five, is employed, two of the said wheels
running loosely on the shaft by which the motion is directly transmitted
to the rolls. A sliding clutch situated between these two wheels on the
same shaft is made by a sliding motion to engage with one or other of
the said wheels. As these wheels are driven in opposite directions, the
engagement of the clutch with one or other of them gives motion to the
rolls in the required direction. The inconvenience of the ordinary

page_text: method of reversal is that the wheels being always in motion the
throwing of the clutch into gear with one of them often causes breakage
in consequence of the sudden motion given to the inert mass of the
machinery. To obviate this inconvenience a pair of reversing engines is
sometimes used without the train of reversing wheels, but the fly wheel
has to be dispensed with, as it would be impracticable suddenly to stop
and reverse the motion of so heavy a mass. The absence of the fly
wheel involves the necessity of employing engines of excessive power,
and there is a consequent waste of steam and fuel.
The object of my Invention is to combine a fly wheel with the ]
ordinary reversing gearing in such a manner as to prevent the sudden
shocks to the machinery which the ordinary reversing mechanism as
generally used occasions.
According to my Invention I employ the ordinary reversing gearing,
which I drive from a shaft actuated by a pair of ordinary engines.
On 1
this shaft is a sliding clutch which rotates with the shaft. On the same
shaft and within range of the motion of the clutch is a fly wheel, the
said fly wheel rotating freely upon the shaft.
In using my Invention the machinery is started with the clutch on
the fly wheel shaft engaged with the fly wheel, and the said fly wheel 2
consequently partakes of the motion of the machinery. When the rolls
have been driven in one direction to the required extent, and it is wished
to reverse their motion, the fly wheel clutch is thrown out of gear with
the fly wheel and the engines stopped. The machinery quickly comes to
rest, but the fly wheel continues its rotation on the shaft. The position 2
of the clutch of the ordinary reversing machinery is now changed, and
the engines again started. The motion of the rolls is thus reversed, and
the machinery speedily acquires its maximum speed. By means of the fly
wheel clutch the fly wheel is now geared to its shaft, which has acquired
the same or nearly the same rate of rotation as the said fly wheel, and 3
the full power of the engines together with the momentum of the fly
wheel is available without any shock having been given to the
machinery by the reversal of the motion.