Scraps to rates and the шIKе.
Year: 1886

page_text: Scraps to rates and the шIKе.
I ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention (a communication
from Edgar Blood Stocking of Washington, United States of America) to be as
follows:-
The object of this invention is the reduction of old steel rails or scraps especially
of Bessemer steel to plates bars and the like, and the invention consists in reducing
the head and flange by lengthwise and sidewise or transverse rolling beginning at
or about the middle without severing the rail.

page_text: I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT, of 323 High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement:-
This invention relates to an improved method of reducing railroad-rails and
other forms of metal having lateral projections at opposite edges to plate metal, the
object of this invention being to avoid forcing any of the material forming the
head or flange of the rail or rail section over onto the web of said rail or rail
section, so that the plates produced from the rail sections shall be free, from "cold-
shuts" and overlapping non-welded fibers, in order that the plates produced shall
be homogeneous and adapted for the production of nails and other articles in
which the fibers or grain of the metal shall be uniform, compact, and longitudinally
disposed in said articles.
Heretofore old rails have been cut into pieces or sections of about three feet in
length, which have been heated to a proper working point and passed longitudinally
through suitable rolls for reducing to a certain extent the lateral dimensions of the
head and flange of the rail section, and then the rail-section or blank has been
passed edgewise through plain rollers to further reduce the lateral dimensions of
the head and flange portions thereof, and finally, by passing the blank longi-
tudinally through plain rollers, the blank has been reduced to plate form of the
desired thickness. In the second step of the method above set forth as having
heretofore been practiced-namely, the edgewise rolling of the blank or rail
section a part of the head or of the flange portion is forced over onto the web
portion of the same, producing what is known as a "cold shut" or non-welded
overlap in the blank. It has been attempted to overcome this defect by performing
the edgewise rolling in roll of unequal diameters, and by reversing the blank
between succeeding passes of the same through said rolls; but, even by the use of
such rolls and reversals, there will be found evidences of a slight crowding of the
metal over onto the web, the metal of the head portion of the blank being slightly
forced onto the web on one side of the rail section or blank, and the metal of the
flange portion of the blank being slightly forced over onto the web on the other
side of the section or blank, so that several double passes of the blank through
such rolls are required, together with reversals of the blank whereby the edge of
the blank that last emerged from the rolls in one double pass shall be the first to
enter the rolls in the next succeeding double pass, in order that the overlap
produced by one pass may be rolled back in the succeeding pass or passes.
By the improved step in the method of reducing old rails to plate I do not
produce any overlapping of either the head or flange portion of the blank upon
the web, and therefore any subsequent rolling of any overlap from the web is not

page_text: required so that a better product is secured, and this by a less number of passes of
the blank through the rolls. This improved step consists in commencing the
edgewise rolling of the rail section or of the blank at or upon the web, as will
hereinafter be more specifically described.
It is apparent that after a rail section has been longitudinally rolled, so as to
reduce the lateral dimensions of its head and flange as much as possible without
forcing any of the material of either upon the web, (preliminary longitudinal
rolling having long been practiced in the art,) any subsequent edgewise rolling
which takes effect at either edge of the blank must force more or less of the
material of the advancing edge upon the web, and the object of this invention is
to avoid this result, and this I accomplish by beginning the edgewise rolling at or
upon the web portion of the blank and thus compress, draw out, or roll down only
the following portion of the blank in' the direction of its movement through
the rolls.
By this improved step it may be said that I pass through the rolls the advancing
edge of the blank without compressing it at the time of or during that passage of
the blank in which the following edge of the blank is compressed, rolled, or drawn
out; or, in other words, I reduce either the head or flange portion of the blank by
beginning the reduction at or upon the web and thus I reduce both the head and
the flange without forcing either upon the web, as both are reduced by rolling or
drawing them in a direction away from the web.
All of these results are the consequence of commencing the reduction at or upon
the web. I have in the accompanying drawings illustrated several different kinds
of mechanism for carrying out the invention, and although I do not limit the
same to any particular mechanism for its practice, yet for the purpose of rendering
the invention clear to persons skilled in the art, reference is had to the said
drawings, in which :-
Figure, 1, is a cross section of an ordinary railroad rail.
.
Fig. 2, is the form herein designated as the blank, the same being shown in
cross section.
Fig. 3, is a like view of the same blank after one of the edges of the same has
been reduced.
Fig. 4, is a like view of the same after both the head and flange portions have
been reduced.
Fig. 5, represents the blank in section and in position between two rolls for the
reduction of its flange portion.
$
Fig. 6, is a plan of the finished plate, the dotted lines indicating the usual
manner of forming nails therefrom.
Fig. 7, is a side elevation of a set of "three high" rolls adapted to reduce rail
sections to plates according to this method.
Fig. 8, is a vertical section on the line, 1, of Fig. 7.
Figs. 9, 10, &, 11, are modified forms of mechanism adapted to practice the
method.
Like letters refer to like parts in all the figures, and the straight arrows indicate
the direction in which the material passes through the rolls, and the curved arrows..
indicate the direction of rotation of the rolls. A, represents the head portion;
B, the web portion, and, C, the flange portion of a rail or rail section. The rail
section is first passed longitudinally through between the rolls, D, E, at, F, and
then through between the rolls, E, and, G, at, H, for the purpose of reducing the
lateral dimensions of the head, A, and flange, C, thereof, until the same shall
approximate or assume substantially the form shown in fig. 2, which form
I denominate a blank.
In this instance the rolls, D, &, E, are cut away, as at, D₁, E¹, in order to:
permit of the insertion of the head portion, A, or flange portion, C,: edgewise.
between the rolls without compressing rolling, or drawing the same, and in order
that after the same shall have been inserted, the unremoved portion of the rolls, D, .

page_text: and, E, may commence their action at or upon the following flange or head portion
of the blank and compress, roll, draw, or reduce the same in a direction away from
the web as the blank continues its passage through the rolls. Instead of cutting
away portions of both rolls, D, &, E, a portion may be removed from only one of a
pair of rolls, as shown in fig. 11, and, as shown in fig. 9 a portion need not be
removed from either roll.
The construction illustrated in Fig. 9, consists in mounting each of the rolls
eccentrically that is, the shafts or bearings, E, D, of the rolls, D, and, E, are
eccentric so that the point of the periphery of each of the rolls which is at its
longest radius travels in the direction of the dotted line, X, whereby, during each
revolution of the rolls, the space between them varies from that shown in full
lines to that shown by the dotted lines Y. Now, it will be seen that during each
revolution of the rolls sufficient space exists between them through which the head
or flange portion of the blank may pass without being acted upon by the rolls, in
order that the following head or flange-portion may be compressed, -rolled, or
drawn out in a direction from the web portion thereof.
In Fig. 10, the rolls, D, and, E, are mounted in a frame, I, which is open, as
at, I', at one end of the rolls, and the roll, D, is mounted in a vertically recipro-
cating frame, D2, adapted to be raised and lowered by a lever, D³, pivoted to the
frame, I, at D*, so that the roll, D, may be moved up to or dropped away from the
roll, E, as shown in dotted lines in said figure, in order to permit of the passage of
the head or the flange portion of a blank edgewise through the rolls without being
acted upon thereby until the web portion of the blank is between the rolls when
the operator depresses the lever, D³, and this elevates the roll, D, so that the
following head or flange portion of the blank shall be operated upon. The
opening, I', of the frame work allows the passage of either a portion of the blank
or of any tools for guiding the same through the rolls, although it is apparent that
the lever, D³, may be arranged at the front of the machine and the frame work, I,
be complete, and the blank passed edgewise through between the rolls, as in the
preceding operations described. In Fig. 11, a roll, E, with the cut away portion or
recess, E¹, is arranged at the top of the series of rolls. A plain roll, D, is arranged
at the middle, and a similar roll, C, at the bottom. A table, J, may be arranged
in front of the bite of the rolls, D; and, E, to assist in presenting the blank to the
cut away portion of the roll,. E, so that only the following edge or flange of the
blank shall be operated upon by the rolls, D, and, E, when said blank takes
the direction indicated by the arrows and falls upon a return table, K, which is
inclined so as to direct said blank into the bite of the rolls, D, and, C, from which
it emerges with its following or head portion drawn out in a direction from its
web portion, after which it is rolled longitudinally to a proper thickness to form a
plate for a desired purpose-as, for instance, said plate being subsequently cut, as
indicated by the dotted lines, Z; to form nails, (see Fig. 6) the portions, A, B,
and, C, in said figure indicating, respectively, the head, web, and flange portions of
the material.
GT
Other modified arrangements of mechanical devices can be readily devised for
practicing this invention; but, as before stated, I do not limit the same to any
particular mechanism, and I should deem the provision of other means than those
herein shown and described for the preliminary reduction of the rail section to a
desired form of blank, and for the passage of the advancing edge of such blank
through and between rolls without compression of the same, as still being
mechanism adapted to practice this invention.
31
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. A step in a method of reducing old rails to plates which consists in com-
mencing the edgewise rolling at or upon the web, substantially as specified.

page_text: 2. The method of reducing old rails to plates, which consists in, first, preliminarily
reducing the head and flange portions of the rail to form a blank; second, rolling.
said blank edgewise, commencing said rolling at or upon the web; and, third,
rolling said blank longitudinally to reduce it to a proper thickness, substantially as
specified.