Iм-- PROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY WHEELS AND TYRES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Smith Longridge, of Alderwasley Iron
Works, in the County of Derby, Engineer, for the Invention of "Iм--
PROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY WHEELS AND TYRES."
ealed the 3rd June 1862, and dated the 12th December 1861
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Smith Longridge
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on.
the 12th December 1861.
• I, WILLIAM SMITH LONGRIDGE, of Alderwasley Iron Works, in the County
of Derby, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said 'Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RAILWAY WHEELS AND TYRES," to be as follows:
My improvements relate to the construction of railway wheels and tyres;:
and consists in a mode of attaching or securing the tyres upon the wheels
or skeletons, and a mode of piling the blooms used in the construction;
of tyres.
I will describe as regards one wheel only. I make the rim of the wheel
with a projecting flange or piece upon its outer periphery, and at the edge or
side upon which the crease of the tyre will be when fitted, & which will be
under the crease in the complete wheel, the other edge or side of the rim I
undercut or dovetail towards the inner periphery, and I form near this, on the
inner periphery of the rim, either a continuous flange or lugs at intervals of the

page_text: circumference, and to which continuous flange or lugs the tyre is afterwards
secured by rivets, pins, keys, or other means. I form a recess in the inner
periphery of the tyre at the edge or side, and under the crease the recess
corresponds with & fits the projecting flange or piece on the outer periphery
of the rim. At the other or opposite edge or side of the tyre and on the inner
periphery I form a continuous flange or piece, which corresponds with the
continuous flange or lugs on the inner periphery of the rim, the angle at the
base of the continuous flange and the inner periphery of the tyre being formed
to correspond and fit the undercut or dovetail part of the edge or side of the
rim. The rim and tyre being thus prepared the tyre is-put tightly on in any
convenient manner, and the continuous flange of the tyre secured to the con-
tinuous flange or lugs on the rim by rivets, bolts, or keys, or other means.
In preparing the rims of old wheels for re-tyreing, I weld or otherwise securely
fix on to the rims pieces to form the flanges or lugs before described for the
proper reception of the tyres. And I also, when desirable to do so, use the old
tyres, and securely rivet or fasten-them to the .rims proper of the wheels, and
turn down the outer peripheries of these to form the projecting flanges, and I
also weld or securely fix pieces on the other or opposite edges or sides to form
the flanges or lugs on the inner peripheries and then attach on the tyres as
before described.
My improvements also consist in piling the blooms for tyres of wheels
where steel and iron are used in combination; these I pile in such manner
that there, results in the finished tyres a greater amount or thickness of steel
at about the middle of the tyre, and a lesser amount or thickness' at the edges
or sides of the tyre. This I effect by laying or piling in the Blooms greater or
lesser proportions of steel and iron at the different parts. Also in piling the
bloom for tyres of wheels whether wholly of iron or of iron and steel combined.
I form each bloom with a hollow cylinder or a cylindrical coil or bar forming
the inside of the pile, and a plate or washer having a hole or aperture in the
middle, and forming one end of the pile. The inner diameter of the hollow
cylinder or the cylindrical coil or bar is of larger diameter than the hole or
aperture of the plate or washer, and when formed into the finished. tyre form
respectively the inner periphery of the tyre and the continuous flange upon it.
hefore deserihed

page_text: "
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Smith. Longridge in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 10th June 1862.
21
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE. PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SMITH LONGRIDGE, of: Alderwasley. Iron Works, in the County of Derby;
Engineer, send greeting.
:
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by. Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in: the twenty-fifth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Smith Longridge, Her special license that .I,the said
William Smith Longridge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I; the said William Smith Longridge, 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 expressed, 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 RAILWAY WHEELS AND TYRES," upon the condition;
amongst others, that I, the said William Smith Longridge, by an instru-
ment in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the samer
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. William Smith Longridge, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same.is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in: and by the
following statement and accompanying, Drawings, that is to say:-.
A
.. My improvements relate to the construction of railway wheels and tyres;
and consist in a mode of attaching or securing the tyres upon the wheels or
skeletons, and a mode of piling the blooms or combining the materials used in
the construction of tyres.
First, I will describe my improvement as regards the attaching or securing
the tyres upon wheels or skeletons, and I illustrate and specify as to one
wheel only as an example, and referring to the Drawings, where Figure 1
shows parts of the rim of a wheel or skeleton in section with the tyre attached
also in section. Upon the inner periphery of the rim A of the wheel I form
the rim or flange B either continuous around the wheel, or by lugs at intervals,

page_text: and it is to this continuous flange or lugs at intervals as the case may be, tha
the tyre is afterwards secured by bolts, rivets, or other means; C, the tyre
which I make or form with a flange D projecting from its inner periphery
This flange is either continuous round the tyre or may be formed as lugs a
intervals as those on the inner periphery of the rim of the wheel, in either case
the flange or lugs in the tyre would coincide with the flange or lugs on the
rim, and are secured or fastened together by bolts, rivets, or other means, as at E
passing through the flanges or lugs upon both the rim and the tyre. When
repairing the rims of old or used wheels for re-tyring I weld or otherwise
securely fit to the inner peripheries of the rims pieces to form the con-
tinuous flanges or lugs at intervals, and to which the corresponding flanges or
lugs upon the tyres are secured as before described. Sometimes instead of
forming or making the continuous flanges or lugs at intervals upon the rims
proper of the wheels or skeletons, I use the wheels or skeletons as of the usual
construction plain or without any flanges or lugs upon them, as shewn at A,
Figure 2, and then fit on these rims or skeletons by rivets, bolts, or other con-
venient means, old tyres or other tyres B provided with the continuous flanges
or lugs B 1 at intervals upon the inner peripheries; these are then turned and
prepared for the reception of the tyres proper of the wheel C, which are formed
or made with continuous flanges or lugs D at intervals, and are secured and
fastened as before described.
My improvements in the piling of blooms or combining the materials for the
manufacture of tyres of railway wheels relate to when steel and iron are used
in combination; these I pile or combine in such manner that the two materials
interlock or dovetail with each other, and the result in the finished tyre upon
the working surface is a great amount or thickness of steel at about the
middle of the tyre or where the greater amount of wear and tear occurs, and
a lesser amount or thickness at the edges or sides of the tyre.
Reference to the Drawings, Figure 3 shews a section of the circular
pile for a bloom for a tyre, the part A which forms the outer periphery
or working surface of the finished tyre being of steel, and the part B
forming the inner periphery of the tyre being of iron. I pile these in rings or
segments or pieces of bars or plates as most convenient, but in such manner of
unequal or varying thicknesses or depths of the proportions of the steel and of
the iron to secure cross piling, that in the finished tyre, as shewn in section at s
Figure 4, the proportions of relative thicknesses or depths of the steel and of
the iron shall vary in the different parts of the tyre so as to produce greater
thicknesses or depths of steel at about the middle of the tyre or where the
greatest amount of wear and tear occurs and severest strain exists, and smaller:

page_text: thicknesses or depths of steel near the edges or sides of the tyres where the
strain or wear and tear are the less. I sometimes form the blooms by piling
the steel portions of them separately and the iron portions of them also
separately and welding each of these up separately, and then combining the
two portions to form a bloom, or I sometimes pile and weld up either one of
these portions or materials whether the steel or the iron, and then pile with it
the rings or segments or pieces of bars or plates of the other portion or material,
and then weld the whole up into a bloom. I sometimes form the blooms by
piling the rings, segments, or pieces of bars as before described, to form the
inner portion of the blooms, and combine therewith the steel to form the outer
portions of the blooms by using the latter in a fluid state or casting it upon the
iron portions of the blooms instead of using it in the form or shape of rings,
segments, or pieces of bars or plates. In all these cases I pile the rings or
segments or pieces of bars or plates, and form the portions of the bloom in
such manner of irregular thicknesses or depths of the steel and iron that the
line of welding of the two materials be irregular and in a manner interlock
or dovetail each other, and that there results in the finished tyres greater
thicknesses or depths of steel at about, the middle of the tyre and smaller.
thicknesses or depths near the edges or sides of the tyre.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Smith Longridge, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Sixth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
WILLIAM S: LONGRIDGE. (L.S.)