IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SHAPING IRON AND OTHER METALS
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Fletcher, senior, and John
Fletcher, junior; at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 28th October 1862.
We, JOHN FLETCHER, senior, of Leeds, and JOHN FLETCHER, junior, of
Newcastle-on-Tyne, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SHAPING IRON AND OTHER METALS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates more particularly, but not exclusively; to machinery
for producing the spokes of iron wheels, bolts, and such like articles having
several diameters and variations in section or form that they inay be pro-
duced uniformly and rapidly from bars of square, hexagonal, octagonal, or
other shape.
In making bolts, in order to reduce the bar to the required diameter, we
pass the bar through rollers having grooves alternately oval and round, so that
after passing through the one the bar is turned half round and passed through
the next.
Bolts with hemispherical heads and partly square body are rolled from a
square bar of the same size as the square part of the bolt, and the head is
formed in a heading machine.
Bolts having square, hexagonal, or octagonal heads, and a partly square

page_text: body, are rolled from square, hexagonal, or octagonal bars, and are first
passed through suitable grooves to form the square part of the bolt, and after-
wards through an oval and a round groove to form the round part or the part
of smallest section.
The bar to be treated, say, for the purpose of making bolts, may be of the
same form and size as the head of the finished bolt; it is reduced whilst hot
between rollers having suitable grooves therein, and by means of a recipro-
cating movement backward and forward, instead of an entire revolution, the
point of the bolt is reduced, and the length or extent required between the
point and the shoulder is regulated by means of adjustable stops or guages in
each groove within the limits of stroke or partial revolution; and for making
plain round bolts with hexagonal or other shaped heads, the larger diameter
may be cut by means of a saw sufficiently long to allow for the height or
depth of the head. The pieces then may be placed in the dies of a heading
machine, where the corners of the head are rounded off and the head squared
down so as to form a shoulder at right angles to the axis of the bolt. The
rolls of the machine in which the reduction is effected has part of the
circumference of each grooved to the requisite size and form for the smallest
part of the bolt, and also with a recess or larger grooving to allow of the
unreduced part of the bar to go forward up to or beyond the centre line of the
rolls without being acted upon; by this means the reduction of diameter is
carried up to a square shoulder. The diametrically opposite parts of each of
the rolls should be made similar, so that when one side is worn out the rolls
may be shifted round, and the opposite part used. The pair of rolls are made
alike, so that the two small grooves are opposed to each other during the
partial rotation.
For making spokes of locomotive, waggon, and carriage wheels, bars of
sufficient thickness are cut into suitable lengths, and heated in a furnace;
they are then passed through suitable grooves in the rollers either edgeways
or flatways, or both, as the shape of the spoke may require, and the length of
the reduced part may be determined by adjustable stops or guages in each
groove, and also by altering the distance of the crank pin from the centre of
the wheel so as to regulate the throw. The reduced part of the spoke can be
rolled taper by forming the acting part of the rolls eccentrically, and by con-
structing the rolls with grooves to suit the particular shape of spoke required,
they can be produced in manner similar to the bolts, as before described.
The rolls are mounted in standards or housings, with the usual regulating
screws for adjusting their distance apart; and motion is communicated by

page_text: means of a toothed quadrant, to which motion is given through a rotating
shaft and intermediate gearing, the alternate action being produced by an
adjustable stud or crank pin operating upon the quadrant arm or lever. In
like manner other articles than those described may be similarly produced by
the alternate or reciprocating action of rollers suitably grooved and shaped.