IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILWAY AXLES AND TUBES
Year: 1858

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Southwood Stocker at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
23rd March 1858.
I, ALEXANDER SOUTHWOOD STOCKER, of No. 18, Wimpole Street, Cavendish
Square, in the County of Middlesex, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the
nature of my Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILWAY
AXLES AND TUBES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved system or mode of manufacturing
axles and tubes, whereby increased strength combined with lightness is
obtained.
According to this Invention, it is proposed, in the first instance, to make
axles and journals out of coiled tubes, or one or more tubes or pieces of metal
drawn over or placed one within or over the other; the main tube forming.
the body or central part of the axle being shrunk or otherwise fixed on to two
other shorter tubes which form the journals, and which are, if necessary,
further secured thereto by passing bolts through them.
In carrying out this Invention, I first construct the main tube by coiling or
rolling up round a mandril, or otherwise, one ordinary iron metal plate alone,
or one steel iron plate alone, or one steel plate alone, or two metal plates, one
being iron and the other steel or steel iron, so that when the coil has been
welded, combining a plate of steel or steel iron and a plate of ordinary iron,
an alternate layer of steel or steel iron and ordinary iron will be obtained
throughout the entire tube; the plates to be coiled being of a suitable size

page_text: and guage to produce a tube any required given length, diameter, and
thickness. I then proceed to form in the same manner two smaller tubes,
which I term "journal tubes," and in order to more effectually weld, roll, and
draw out the articles herein mentioned, I prefer to adopt the method described
in the Specification of a Patent granted to the late Richard Prosser, of
Birmingham, in which a mandril and four rollers in equal segments, forming a
circle, rotating together at equal speed in their revolution are used; by these
means a perfect or more equalisation of pressure upon and colapsing of the
article intended to be produced will be caused than by the ordinary or other
manner of working, thereby a more perfect and certain weld will be obtained;
one end of the journal tubes are drifted up to form ends of journals.
The two journal tubes are now turned to a perfect cylinder, when the main
tube is to be heated to a good smart white heat (but not to a state of fusion),
in order to expand it, and when so expanded, to receive the journal tubes in a
cold state, inserted, say. from 15 to 18 inches, or thereabouts, into the main
tube, which would be several inches beyond the inside of the nave of the
wheel, a point at which an axle very frequently breaks, a length being left
projecting out to form the journal or proper bearing.
The cooling of the main tube will cause it to shrink over the journal tubes,
and thereby grip, collapse, and embrace them firmly while the main tube is
hot, or the whole together (the three tubes) may be passed through rolls, or
cach end only, so far as may be necessary, and back again, when the pressure
received will cause the hot soft metal to embrace the cold rigid metal, and fill
up any projections and indentations effected to be left on the outer surfaces of
the journal tubes, for the purpose of embedding the heated metal on or into
the uneven surfaces of the cold metal, and thereby cause the whole together to
be safely and firmly united. The journals, and that part of the shaft where
the nave of the wheel is fixed, are completed and rendered ready for use by
being shaped in a lathe in the ordinary manner.
It will be found advantageous for the purpose of procuring great strength,
rigidity, and also very much economy in wear and tear, to insert the coil into
a steel or steel iron tube of desirable thickness, formed cither with a lap,
welded, or jump joint, or may be left open, if desired, without a joint or weld
at all, but merely bent up as the ordinary scelp, and a second and similar tube
may, when great or unusual strength be desired, be inserted into the interior
of the coil, the whole then will be passed through the rolls receiving at a
proper state of fusion external and internal pressure, thereby becoming one
solid mass. By this means it is obvious that a tube manufactured in this
manner will be completely enveloped in or have an intact coating of steel or

page_text: steel iron on their outer and inner surfaces, which will greatly add to the
stability and durability of the axle and its journals.
;
Sheets of iron and steel or steel iron may be coiled up solid, not as a tube, and
passed through rollers at a proper state of fusion, when they will become one
solid mass or bar of layers of iron and steel or steel iron, taking care that the
last wrapper on the outside is steel or steel iron, for it will be stronger and
more elastic when so made. The journals may be formed in the ordinary
manner. This method will also produce an axle of immense strength and
durability, and commensurate economy in wear and tear, and axles may be
made by means of the use of one tube alone to produce an entire axle,
the same being composed of an entire coil of iron or steel, or steel iron, or iron
and steel, or steel iron combined, and the journals formed, reduced, and
finished in the ordinary manner; or axles may be made by placing one tube
within the other, multitubular as it were, such tubes being first either manu-
factured or unmanufactured; or axles may be made by using a tube or tubes
made in the ordinary manner, vedelicit, a lap, welded, or other tube for the
main, as also for the journal tubes, part or all of which may or may not be
turned prior to their being fixed in their intended resting places; and axles
may be made by shrinking, rolling, or fixing in the main tube solid bars of steel
or iron, or steel iron, or steel and steel iron combined, or steel and ordinary
iron combined, or steel iron and ordinary iron combined, in place of tubes for
the journals. Tubes may be turned to fit each other mathematically cylin-
drical and true, almost air-tight, so that they shall require hydraulic or other
pressure to force them up to their intended resting places; and tubes may be
made entirely of steel iron, and one or more applied to the manufacture of
axles; and axles may be composed entirely of steel iron, solid, and manufac-
tured in the ordinary or other manner; and altho' steel iron, when it has
passed through the puddling furnace, will be found to answer some of the
purposes intended, I prefer it after it has been first rolled into billets, bars,
or sheets, to be cut up in lengths and piled, and to be remanufactured by its
being passed through what is called and known in the iron trade as the ball
furnace, after which it may be hammered and rolled out to the desired lengths,
thickness, breadths, and diameter required.
This article will now bear the name of, and is termed in the iron trade
"ball furnaced English steel iron," which may be subjected to the hammer
and anvil, or rolled and welded at a fusive heat, and when plunged into cold
water will possess the quality of hardened steel of very fine quality; the
texture and grain is also particularly applicable to an axle; a file in its
hardened state will not touch it, and at the same time possessing great toughness,

page_text: elasticity, and wear and tear, so essentially necessary to the safety of railway
axles. The mode or improvements in manufacturing tubes will be in accord-
ance as described, and will be peculiarly applicable to locomotive boilers,
steam and other tubes, where great and immense strength is required.