IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE' PREPARATION and ManufacTURE OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Graham Stevenson, of the Firm of Dick and
-
Stevenson, Engineers, Airdrie, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE'
PREPARATION and ManufacTURE OF IRON AND STEEL."
33
Sealed the 3rd April 1872, and dated the 6th October 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Graham Stevenson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 6th October 1871.
"
I, GRAHAM STEVENSON, of the Firm of Dick and Stevenson, Engineers,
Airdrie, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE
PREPARATION AND MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," to be as follows, that is
to say :-
This Invention, which relates to the preparation and manufacture of
iron and steel, comprises improved hammering and squeezing apparatus
to be substituted for the ordinary shingling and squeezing machines,

page_text: improved rolling apparatus, and improved apparatus for trimming the
metal after it has been rolled.
The improved hammering apparatus is fitted with two hammer heads
arranged to act alternately and in directions at right angles or nearly so
to each other on the same mass of metal, and the anvil on which the 5
metal lies is made with an angular recess, either with one side vertical
and the other horizontal, or as is preferred with the two sides inclined in
opposite directions. In one modification the two hammer heads are
carried by massive levers centred on a bed frame on opposite sides of an
anvil with inclined sides. One lever is connected to the piston rod of a 1
horizontal steam cylinder, and it is connected to the other lever by one
or more links so that when it moves towards the anvil it pushes the
other lever away, and vice verså.
When the apparatus is applied for squeezing, the fulcra of the levers,
instead of being kept in fixed positions, are connected to weighted levers 1
which limit the degree of pressure exerted, the levers yielding when the
predetermined pressure would otherwise be exceeded.
In another modification one hammer head is fixed directly on the
piston rod of a steam cylinder placed in the line of the blow, and the
other hammer head is connected thereto and worked therefrom by a bell 2
crank lever, or is worked by the piston rod of a second steam cylinder.
When the hammer heads are actuated by separate cylinders, they are
still by preference connected by bell-crank levers so as to insure their
acting alternately. The cylinders are fitted with piston valves, and the
edges of the valves are notched, or the port openings are tapered so as to 2
make the opening of the port more gradual as it commences. There are
three such piston valves, and in one modification they work in connection
with a slide valve in a separate valve chest, this slide valve being
adjustable so as to alter the intercommunications between the cylinder
passages and the ports controlled by the piston valve, and thereby 3
rendering the hammer double acting or single acting, the steam in the
latter case passing from the under to the upper side of the piston before
exhausting.
The improved rolling apparatus, whilst of moderate first cost, is 3
arranged to be conveniently and satisfactorily reversible without sub-
jecting the machinery to sudden shocks, which result is obtained by
fitting it in an improved manner with two pairs of frictional clutch

page_text: cones for putting into and out of gear those wheels of the apparatus
which are arranged for giving the reversed motions. The wheels with
the hollow parts of the clutches are by preferance on one shaft, with a
sliding clutch piece between them, having on it the two convex parts,
and this clutch piece is moved to put one or other into gear by a
transverse key working in a slot through the shaft, and fixed in a rod
or spindle passing through the centre of the shaft, which is made tubular
for the purpose. The central rod is by preference connected loosely to a
screwed spindle working in a fixed block, and having formed or fixed on
it a pinion with which there gears a rack fixed to the piston rod of a
steam or hydraulic cylinder. The bearings of the shaft carrying the
clutches and wheels are made with a number of collars to withstand
the end thrust occasioned by pressing the clutch cones together. The
clutch cones are fitted with wearing surface pieces which can be adjusted
or renewed as required. The wheels to which the clutches are applied
may be either spur or bevil wheels, but in all cases they are by
preference so related to the rest of the gearing as that the shaft
carrying them and the clutches may run at as high a relative speed
as possible. Two separate clutch picces may be used either on one shaft
to act on the outer sides of the wheels, particularly when these are
bevil wheels, or on two shafts, two central spindles boing required in the
latter case, but which may be actuated by means of the same rack.
.
The improved apparatus for trimming the metal after it has been
rolled comprises a circular saw upon a horizontal shaft, having on it a
friction grooved pinion in gear with a large friction grooved driving
wheel. The saw spindle is mounted in bearing blocks fitted to slide in
arc shaped slots concentric with the large driving wheel, and is made to
progress across the plate or bar of metal as the trimming or cutting
action proceeds. The progressive movement is effected through levers
connected to tlie bearing block, and actuated by a screw worked by a
worm wheel and worm, this last being fast to one of two friction grooved
pinions in gear with each other, and mounted on levers so that either
can be put into gear with the driving wheel according to the direction of
motion required.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Graham Stevenson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 5th April 1872.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GRAHAM
STEVENSON, of the Firm of Dick & Stevenson, Engineers, Airdrie, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Graham Stevenson, Her special licence that
1, the said Graham Stevenson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Graham Stevenson, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein
expressod, should and lawfully might make, usc, exercise, and. vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR THE. PREPARATION AND MANUFACTURE OF IRON AND STEEL," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Graham Stevenson, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under .my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Graham Stevenson, 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 in writing, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention, which relates to the preparation and manufacture
of iron and steel, comprises improved hammering and squeezing
apparatus to be substituted for the ordinary shingling and squeezing
machines, improved rolling apparatus, and improved apparatus for
trimming the metal after it has been rolled.

page_text: And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I hereunto append three Sheets of
explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing
various modifications of my improved apparatus. In these Drawings
the same reference numerals are used to mark the same or like parts
wherever they are repeated.
-
Figures 1 and 2 on Sheet 1 of the Drawings are a plan and a side
clevation of one modification of my improved hammering apparatus.
This apparatus is fitted with two hammer heads, 1, 2, arranged to act
alternately and in directions at right angles or nearly so to each other
on the same mass of metal, and the anvil 3, on which the metal lics, is
made with an angular recess, either with one side vertical and the other
horizontal (as shown in Figure 5), or as I prefer, with the two sides
inclined in opposite directions, as shown in Figure 2 (and also in
Figure 4.) The two hammer heads, 1, 2, are carried by massive
levers 4, 5, centred on a bed frame 6, on opposite sides of an anvil 3,
with inclined sides. One lever 4 is connected to the piston rod 7.of a
horizontal steam cylinder 8, and it is connected to the other lever 5 by
links 9, so that when it moves towards the anvil 3 it pushes the other
lever away, and vice versa. The piston rod 7 is connected to the
hammer lever. 4 by being jointed to a pair of links 10, having their
outer ends jointed to the hammer lever 4, whilst their inner ends are
jointed to a pair of reverse levers 11, centred on an overhanging
bracket 12, the parts combining to form a well-known " parallel
that guides are not required for the piston rod.
motion
"
so
When the apparatus is applied for squeezing, the fulcra of the hammer
levers 4, 5, instead of being kept in fixed positions, are connected to
weighted levers which limit the degree of pressure exerted, the levers
yielding when the predetermined pressure would otherwise be exceeded.
In other modifications, one of which is shown in plan in Figure 3,
and in side elevation in Figure 4, one hammer head 1 is fixed directly
on the piston rod 7 of a steam cylinder 8 placed in the line of the blow,
and the other hammer head 2 is connected thereto and worked there-
from by a bell-crank lever 13, or is worked by the piston rod 14. of a
second steam cylinder 15. When the hammer heads are actuated by
separate cylinders they are still by preference connected by bell-crank
levers 18, so as to insure their acting alternately. The connection of the

page_text: bell-crank levers 13 with the hammer heads 1, 2, is made through
links 10, and in a way which gives parallel motions without guides, as
will be casily understood from the Drawings.
i"
In Figures 3 and 4 the hammer cylinders 8, 15, are shown as inclined
in opposite directions, and in Figuro 3 there is shown the addition of a
third cylinder 16, a double-acting one placed horizontally and actuating
two heads 17 connected by rods 18, which strike the metal on opposite
sides in directions at right angles to the plane of action of the two
cylinders 8, 15. Whon the horizontal cylinder 16 is working the metal
is held by one of the inclined hammers. Figure 5 is a side elevation of
a modification in which one 1 of the hammer heads works vertically,
and the other 2 horizontally. The latter may be worked by a horizontal
cylinder 15, or not as preferred; and it is shown as capable of being
connected to the bell-crank lever 13 at two different points, thus
admitting of its movements relative to the other hammer head 1 being
altered.
The cylinders of my improved hammering apparatus are by preference
fitted with piston valves, and the edges of the valves are notched, or the
port openings are tapered so as to make the opening of the port more
gradual as it commences. There are three such piston valves in cach
case, and in one modification they work in connection with a separate_
slide valve, as shown on an enlarged scale in Figures 6, 7, and 8.
Figures 6 and 7 are longitudinal sections at right angles to each other,
and Figure 8 is a transverse section. The section in Figure 7 is partly
as through the axis of the steam cylinder 8, and partly as through the
axis of the piston valves 19.
The steam first enters a valve sheet 20, which has in it the separato
slide valve 21 working on a face having six parts in it, and this slide
valve is formed with three openings on its face, the two outer ones of
which communicate by a passage 22 in the valve. The top port 23 a
leads into the top of the piston valve chamber 24, and the two ends of
this chamber are put in communication by a passage 25 for the purpose
of balancing the pressures on the two outer pistons 19. The second
port 26 in the chest 20 leads to the top of the cylinder 8; the third 27,
leads to the upper valve port 28; the fourth .20 is the exhaust port and 3
passage; the fifth 30 communicates with the space between the upper
and middle pistons 19, and the sixth 31 communicates with the space

page_text: between the middle and lower pistons 19. The middle piston 19 directly
controls the passage 32 leading to the bottom of the cylinder, and the
pistons 19 are shown in their middle position. The slide valve 21 is only
moved when it is wished to change from "double acting" to "single
acting," or vice versa, the position of the valve for the former action
being shown by dotted lines. The action of the valves will be quite
casily understood from the Figures without a lengthy explanation.
My improved rolling apparatus, whilst of moderate first cost, is
arranged to be conveniently and satisfactorily reversible without sub-
jecting the machinery to sudden shocks, which is obtained by fitting it
in an improved manner with two pairs of frictional clutch cones for
putting into and out of gear those wheels of the apparatus which are
arranged for giving the reversed motions.
Figure 9, on Shect 2, is a sectional plan showing two connected sets
of my improved reversing arrangements, and Figure 10 is a transverse
section. Two shafts 33, 34, are shown in Figure 9, cach supposed to be
coupled to a rolling mill, but for simplicity the parts on one shaft only
will be described, those on the other being similar. The shaft 33 carries
two spur wheels 35, 36, which by means of well-known arrangements of
gearing are continuously driven in opposite directions. The wheels,
35, 36, are formed with hollow conical rims 37, to frictionally engage
with convexly coned parts 38, upon a duplex sliding clutch piece 39
between them, and they are fixed on elongated bosses 40, carried on
brass bushes 41 on the shaft, whilst collar pieces 42 are bolted on the
shaft in halves to sustain the end thrust of the coupling action. The
position of cach brass bush 41 is assigned in such a way that the plane
of the centre of gravity of the wheel 35 or 36 may be at the middle of
its length, or as nearly so as possible, whereby a tendency of the wheels
when running loose to wear the bushes conical will be avoided. For
this purpose the bushes 41 are elongated at their inner ends, and to
admit of such elongation the clutch picco 39 is made bell-shaped at
cach side as shown. The convexly coned parts 38 of the clutch piece
39 are made in separate segments fixed and adjusted by scrow bolts, and
on wear taking place they can be re-adjusted with the greatest facility.
The conical surfaces are by preference made as shown, with a very acute
inclination to the shaft, and the angle should in no case exceed half a
right angle, for as a right angle (that of a plane disc) is approached not
only is a much greater pressure required to give the requisite bite, but

page_text: the action of getting into contact is also more sudden and more liable
to produce injurious concussion. The duplex clutch picce 39 is moved
to put one or other of the wheels 35, 36, into gear by a transverse key
43 of hammered cast steel working in a slot cut through the shaft 33,
and fixed in a rod or spindle 44 passing through the centre of the shaft
which is made partly tubular for the purpose. I intended to have
moved this central spindle 44 by means of a steam or hydraulic cylinder
acting through a rack and screw, but I have rendered the arrangement
simpler and more convenient by applying the hydraulic cylinder 45, or
it might be a steam cylinder, directly to the spindle 44, such cylinder
being fixed on the end of the shaft, and its piston 46 being fixed on the
end of the spindle 44.
The passages for leading the water to and from the ends of the
cylinder 45 are formed in a shaft 47 fixed to the cover of the cylinder,
the continuation of which is shown in vertical section and as cularged
in Figure 11. It passes through a stuffing box into a fixed valve
box 48, and a smaller part formed on the end of it with one of the
passages passes through an inner stuffing box in such a way that the
passages are kept tight and distinct from each other without being
affected by the revolution of the shafts 33 (or 34) and 47. The passages
communicate with ports in a valve face, having on it a common slide
valve 49 worked by a lever 50, and water from an accumulator or other-
wise having a suitable pressure is admitted by a pipe to the outside of
the valve 49, the exhaust taking place from a middle port under the
valve in the ordinary manner; or instead of the valve 49 being applied
in the box 48, pipes may be led thence to a valve box in any more
convenient locality, for example, near the engine keeper.
The wheels 35, 36, to which the improved clutch details are applied
may be either spur wheels, as shown in Figure 9, or bevil wbcels, as
shown in Figure 12, which is a sectional plan, and in the latter case
they may both be driven by a single bevil wheel 51. In this Figure 12
there is also shown another modification of the brass bushes 41, each
bush being made tapering in thickness, and capable of being tightened
up by means of keys 52 working in slots in the boss, and adjusted by
an external nut or screwed ring 53.
It will be obvious that instead of one duplex clutch piece 39 there
may be two single clutch pieces, one for each wheel 35, 36, and these

page_text: may either be on one shaft and arranged to act on the outer sides of the
wheels, particularly when these are bevil wheels, or they may be on two
shafts, two central spindles (44) being required in the latter case.
In cases where it can be conveniently arranged I prefer to have the
cylinders 45 of the clutch apparatus worked by steam of a suitable
pressure rather than by water, as the elasticity of the steam will render
the engaging action more gradual.
My improved apparatus for trimming the metal after it has been
rolled is shown on Sheet 3 of the Drawings, Figure 13 being a side
elevation, and Figure 14 a back elevation. It comprises a circular saw
54, upon a horizontal shaft 55, having on it a friction grooved pinion 56;
in gear with a large friction grooved driving wheel 57, which last is ou
a shaft 58 carried in bearings in two frame standards 59, and is driven
by a direct acting steam cylinder 60. The saw spindle 55 is mounted in
bearing blocks fitted to slide in are shaped slots 61 in the standards 59,
and concentric with the large driving wheel; and the saw is made to
progress across the plate or bar of metal (placed on a support 62) as the
trimming or cutting action proceeds. The progressive movement is
effected through levers 63, connected by links to the saw spindle 55, and
fast on a shaft 64, on which there is also fixed a lever 65 connected by
links 66, and a swivel joint to a screw spindle 67. This spindle 67 is
held by two brackets, the lower one 68 of which is tapped for it to
screw through, and it has fast on it a long worm wheel 69 acted on by a
worm on the shaft 70 of one of two friction grooved pinions 71, 72,
which are in gear with each other and mounted on levers 73, so that
either can be put into gear with the driving wheel 57, according to the
direction of motion required. The levers 73 are fixed on a bar .74
centred on the framing, and a lever 75 is fixed on the bar for adjust-
ing it.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe
to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is;—
1. The arranging or combining together of the parts of steam
hammering apparatus substantially in the improved modes delineated
.

page_text: in Figures 1 to 5 of the accompanying Drawings, and herein-before
described.
2. The constructing or combining together of steam-hammer valves,
ports, and passages, substantially in the improved manner delineated in
Figures 5, 6, and 7 of the accompanying Drawings, and hercin-before
described.
3. The fitting of the driving gearing of rolling apparatus with
reversing clutch details, the parts of which are arranged or combined
together, substantially in the improved manner delineated on Sheet 2 of
the accompanying Drawings and herein-before described.
4. The actuating of frictional clutches with conical surfaces of a less
inclination to the shaft than half a right angle by means of a steam or
hydraulic cylinder fixed on the shaft, as herein-before described.
5. The applying of a single steam or hydraulic cylinder to actuato
a duplex clutch piece, or two single clutch picces, as herein-before
described.
6. The fitting of the clutch picces with adjustable wearing segments,
as herein-before described..
7. The arranging or combining together of the parts of apparatus for
trimming or cutting rolled plates or bars, substantially in the improved
manner delineated on Sheet 3 of the accompanying Drawings, and
herein-before described.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
GRAHAM STEVENSON. (L.S.)