IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Stenson, of the Town of Northampton, in
the County of Northampton, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of
Sealed the 13th July 1860, and dated the 16th January 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Stenson at the
Office of the. Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
January 1860..
I, JOSEPH STENSON, of the Town of Northampton, in the County of North-
ampton, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON," to be as follows:-
The object of my Invention is to give increased strength and toughness to
iron, and to diminish the liability to fracture, cleavage, or lamination in
finished iron, by piling the rough or forge bars in such manner as to leave as
sinall a number of joints in the pile as practicable, and by avoiding altogether
any straight joint running through the pile in a transverse direction.
My Invention consists in the construction or formation of the pile (from
which the finished bar is to be rolled) of a series of angular forge bars so shaped
and arranged as to fit into each other in the manner herein-after described:
Each bar in the series of which each pile is composed is so rolled as to
resemble in shape that which is to come next outside of it, though differing
from it in size. The pile is built by placing the smallest bars near the centre,
and every bar added to complete the pile is larger than that or those within it.
I prefer to leave the centre of each pile open and unfilled, so as to allow the

page_text: heat to permeate the whole of the pile more thoroughly, but this space may, if
necessary, or thought desirable, be wholly or partially filled with bars or billets
of iron, or with scrap iron. It is necessary, in the construction of the pile
according to my Invention, to take care that the solid portion of the outer bar
always covers the joints of every one of the inner bars. The bats for forming
the pile can be readily made by the forge rolls, being so cut or grooved as to
produce bars of the size and form required, that is to say, in the same manner
as is now practised in the manufacture of finished bars of similar forms.
The process of heating the piles formed as above described, and of rolling them
into finished iron, will be the same as that which is now usually employed.
I prefer always to employ forgo bars, but finished iron may be used for the
same purposes, though at a greater cost.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Stenson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th
July 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
STENSON, of the Town of Northampton, in the County of Northampton, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Joseph Stenson, Her special licence that I, the said Joseph Stenson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph
Stenson, 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 THE
MANUFACTURE OF IRON," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Joseph Stenson, 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 immediately aftor
the date of the said Letters Patent..

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Joseph Stenson, 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 thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed
(that is to say) -
:-
The object of my Invention is to give increased strength and toughness to
iron, and to diminish the liability to fracture, cleavage, or lamination in finished
iron by piling the rough or forge bars in such manner as to leave as small a
number of joints in the pile as practicable, and by avoiding altogether any
straight joint running through the pile in a transverse direction.
My Invention consists in the construction or formation of the pile (from
which the finished bar is to be rolled) of a series of angular bars so shaped
and arranged as to fit into each other in the manner herein-after described.
Each bar in the series of which each pile is composed is so rolled as to resemble
in shape that which is to come next outside of it, though differing from it in
size. The pile is built by placing the smallest bars near the centre, and every
bar or pair of bars added to complete and increase the size of the pile is larger
than that or those within it.
I construct this pile by first taking an angular bar a of the forin shewn in
transverse section of a complete pile, Figure 1, and another bar 6 similar in
shape, but somewhat larger in size. These two bars are placed together, as
shewn, and form the inner portion of the pile. I then place outside these two
other angular bars c and d, which form the second portion of the pile, and
outside of these again I place two other angular bars e and f.
Figure 2 represents in transverse section another pilo similarly constructe:
of forge bars of like form to those employed in the pile first described. In this
pile, however, every pair of bars of which each portion of the pile is composed
resemble each other in size as well as in form, and each bar of every pair added
is of the same size and form, but larger than the pair of bars over which they.
are placed, as shewn at a, a, b, b, c, c.
Figure 8 is a transverse section of another pile, in which the forge bars a, b,
c, and d, are of a trough-like form.
Figure 4 is a transverse section of a pile composed of bars a, b, c, of the
same form as those shewn at Figure 3, but with the addition of flat bars d, e,
f, in the top of each trough.
I prefer to leave the centre g of each pile open and unfilled, so as to allow
the heat thoroughly to permeate the whole of the pile; but this space may, if
necessary or thought desirable, be wholly or partially filled with bars or billets
of iron or with scrap iron.

page_text: r
I sometimes employ two angular forge bars, placed together as shewn by a
and b, Figure 1, or a, a, Figure 2, to form the outer casing of a box pile, the
interior of which is filled with billets, bars, scrap, or other iron, or such outer
case may be formed by one bar of the form shown at a, Figure 4, with the
addition of a flat bar d, Figure 4.
The form of bar employed in Figures 1 and 2, and the mode of construction
there shewn, are those which I prefer to adopt. The other piles, Figures 3
and 4, are shewn merely as examples of the manner in which my Invention
may be practised.
It is necessary in the construction of piles according to my Invention to
take care that the solid portion of the outer bar always covers the joints of
every one of the inner bars as shewn in the Drawings. In all the piles the
size of the angular bars and the number of bars employed in the formation of
each pile will depend upon the size and weight of the iron required to be
manufactured.
Variations may be introduced in the form and arrangement of the angular
bars employed to consititute piles in the manufacture of iron according to my
Invention, but in all cases it is necessary that the shape be such as may
be produced by forge rolls, and as will admit of the smaller bars being made
to correspond in form so as to pile within the larger without leaving any straight
line of junction or lamination through the transverse section of the pile. I
prefer to use forge bars for the purposes of my Invention, but finished bars
may be used though at a greater cost.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim as my improve-
ments in the inanufacture of iron,―
First, the construction of piles from which the finished bar is to be rolled
entirely of a series of angular bars formed and arranged essentially in
manner and for the purposes herein-before described.
And, second, constructing the outer casing of piles of bars formed and
arranged essentially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Stenson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty.