IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TYRES FOR RAILWAY WHEELS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Bragge, of the Firm of John Brown and
Company, Atlas Steel Works, Sheffield, in the County of York, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TYRES FOR
RAILWAY WHEELS."
Sealed the 12th September 1860, and dated the 14th July 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Bragge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 14th
July 1860.
I, WILLIAM BRAGGE, of the Firm of John Brown and Company, Atlas
Steel Works, Sheffield, in the County of York, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TYRES FOR
RAILWAY WHEELS," to be as follows:-
I propose to construct or manufacture the tyres of railway wheels of
continuous wires or rods of iron or steel, either solely of wires or rods of any
section, or of wires or rods in combination with bars of any form. And I
propose to wind the said wires or rods, or combination of wires or rods and
bars, on a mould or block, and afterwards to weld the whole into a solid
ring

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Bragge in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th
January 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BRAGGE, of the Firm of John Brown and Company, Atlas Steel Works,
Sheffield, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Bragge, Her special licence that I, the said William
Bragge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said William Bragge, my executors, administrators, and assigns, shoud at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TYRES FOR RAILWAY WHEELS," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said William Bragge, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or onc
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 after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Bragge, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement.
In the manufacture of tyres for railway wheels, the tyre has usually been
formed in a straight bar, which has then been bent into a circle and welded at
the junction, or the tyre has been rolled out from a circular casting, or a
mass or ring of metal, either forged or cast.
My improvement consists in the formation of a ring or hoop of continuous
wires, either of iron or steel, or both, or either, or both combined with plates
or bars wound upon an expanding block or frame, and afterwards welded into
a solid ring or tyre, either by the hammer or by rolls or by any of the methods
now in use for hammering, welding, or rolling tyres. In the construction of

page_text: tyres upon this method, I use wires of any shape, but I prefer the triangular
or flat, and I wind upon a drum a quantity of wire, and then from this drum
wind off upon the expanding frame or block a sufficient quantity to form a
tyre, winding it under tension, and laying it so as to have the smallest possible
proportion of interstices. The inner portion of the coil is made of iron wire,
and as soon as a sufficient quantity is wound on the expanding block or frame,
steel wire sufficient to make up the body of the tyre is wound off, and then
if desirable a small coating of iron wire may be added for the purpose of pro-
tecting the steel wire in the furnace during the heating process. When the
coil or hoop of wire is of sufficient size and weight, it is taken from the block
heated either in an open furnace or in a circular covered blast furnace, and
then put under the hammer or passed through the rolls.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention and the means
by which I carry it into practical effect, I would have it distinctly understood
that I do not confine myself to any precise mode of manufacture in making
my improved railway tyres, as I use any of the known methods which I may
find efficient for the purpose; but I claim as of my Invention, the exclusive
manufacture and use of a tyre for the wheels of railway rolling stock composed
as herein-before set forth of continuous wires or rods of iron and steel (of any
oction) with bars of any form, composing, when hammered, welded, or rolled
as herein-before mentioned, an improved railway wheel tyre.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Bragge, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of January, One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-one.
Witness,
W. E. GEDGE,
11, Wellington St. Strand,
(Patent Agent.)
W. BRAGGE. (LS.)