AN IMPROVED MODE OF CASTING SOLID AND PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF CASTING SOLID AND
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th September 1855.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MODE OF CASTING SOLID AND
HOLLOW ARTICLES IN METAL" to be as follows:-
The main object of this Invention is to permit of molten metal when run
into a mould cooling equally throughout the mass, and thereby to ensure
sound and durable castings, instead of the honeycomb or otherwise defective
castings, which are almost invariably obtained when casting large masses of
metal. To attain this end, the mould is provided at one or more parts with
an apparatus for cooling the metal as it descends into the mould, and also hot
air flues or other means of heating, for keeping the metal in a fluid state at or

page_text: near the sprue or gate by which the metal is admitted to the mould. The
cooling apparatus may consist of serpentine pipes, supplied with a stream of
cold water, which will take off the heat of the metal as it reaches the lowest
part of the mould, and thereby induce an equable cooling and contraction
throughout the following mass of metal. When casting hollow articles, the
core may be fitted with an arrangement of cooling pipes, in cases where the
thickness of metal would seem to require it.
The Invention, it will be understood, is particularly applicable to the casting
of fly wheels of large diameter, and such like work, as the metal composing the
periphery of the wheel may be retained in a fused state at one part, and thus
permit of the contracting action proceeding without injury to the structural
quality of the metal.
In all cases it is preferred to feed the moulds from an elevated reservoir of
molten metal, in order to insure a plentiful supply to compensate for the con-
traction of metal in the mould.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 24th March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special license that I, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 "AN IMPROVED MODE OF CASTING SOLID AND HOLLOW ARTICLES
IN METAL," being a communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature

page_text: of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to bo performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The object of this Invention is to provide for the equable contraction on
cooling of the metal of certain kinds of castings, and thereby to ensure the
production of sound and durable castings.
The Invention relates chiefly to the manufacture in cast metal of articles
partaking more or less of an annular or a cylindrical form, of which a fly
wheel may be taken as a type of the one, and a cannon as the type of the
other. The principle on which the improved mode of casting is based is, that
the filling of the mould with molten metal, and the contraction of the metal
by cooling, proceed simultaneously; the contraction is thus rendered uniform, &
the tendency of the cast metal to tear itself to pieces is removed, by a portion
of the metal forming the external periphery of the article being kept in a fluid
state, while the interior portions are permitted to solidify.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 represents, in sectional elevation, the
kind of mould employed for casting cannon; and Figures 2 and 3 are cross
sections of the same. The mould is composed of two segments of fire brick
a, a, moulded and built up to the required form, and surrounded by a metal
casing b, b, composed of segments bolted together, as shewn. The whole mass
is secured by rods or braces c, c. Within the brickwork, passages d, d*, d, d*,
are formed, for conducting the molten metal to the interior of the mould. The
molten metal is led to the mould from an elevated reservoir, which supplies it
at a pressure that will ensure the filling up of the mould as the metal contracts
therein, by reason of the rapid abstraction of heat from the metal. By reference
to Figs. 2 and 3 it will be seen that the supply passages *, at the opposite
sides of the mould, are connected with the interior cavity of the mould by
means of a lateral opening, which extends from end to end of these passages.
The metal, therefore, first descends the passage d, and then, ascending the up-
cast passage d*, issues out laterally at any or all the levels where a supply is
required. These passages are formed of fire bricks piled loosely one above the
other, such bricks being moulded with corresponding openings through them.
Midway between these passages, for supplying molten metal to the mould, are
cooling flues or passages e e, into which a current of cold air or water is forced

page_text: for the purpose of chilling or cooling the adjacent metal. A smooth hollow
core f is formed in the manner usually adopted in the casting of cannon, and
set in the midst of the mould, or concentric therewith; into this core tubes are
introduced for conducting cold air to the lower end thereof. The air issues
out at the lower ends of the tubes, and passes upwards in a body until it makes
its escape from the top of the core. When, by the application of cold air to
the hollow core and to the passages e, e, the solidification of the metal supplied
to the mould has been effected, water may be substituted in place of a further
supply of currents of air, in order to expedite the cooling of the mass of metal.
In order to discharge the cannon from the mould, the bolts which secure
the segments forming the metal casing are removed, and the mould is then
parted. The bricks forming the passages d, d*, will now be found to contain
a fin or rib of cast metal which projects from the cannon; these bricks must
therefore be slidden off in the direction of the ribs, and the ribs can afterwards
be removed if desired. This construction of core, as is well understood, will;
by reason of its partial destruction by the heat of the surrounding metal, be
capable of easy removal from the casting, and the cannon may then be finished
in the ordinary manner.
In casting articles of which a fly wheel has been taken as the type, it may
be more convenient to keep the metal in a fluid state at and near the "sprue,"
by the application of hot air, conveyed thereto by a flue, or any other analogous
means may be employed for imparting and keeping up a high temperature at
that part so long as the casting operation is proceeding; the object being in
this case, as in the former, to keep a portion of the periphery of the article
that is being cast in a state of fusion while the other parts are contracting,
and thereby to provide for the contracting action proceeding without injury to
the structural quality of the metal, and at the same time ensuring a further
supply of metal to the mould to make up for such contraction.
The cooling of fly wheels, and of that class of castings of which this is the
type, may be facilitated by the application of cold air or water; or they may be
left to cool by the natural radiation of the heat, according to the exigencies of
the case, and the retention at a fused state of the metal supplied to the mould
while the contraction is proceeding may be at one or more points of the
periphery of the moulded article.
Having now set forth the nature and object of the Invention of "An Im-
proved Mode of Casting Solid and Hollow Articles in Metal," as communicated
to me by my foreign correspondent, I wish it to be understood, that, under the
above in part recited Letters Patent, I do not claim the cooling by the use of
currents of air or water of the moulding surfaces into contact with which the

page_text: molten metal is brought, as that system of casting is already well known; but
what I claim is, retaining for a suitable time (by the application of local heat,
however produced,) a portion or portions of the metal forming castings of the
nature above indicated in a fused or molten state, for the purpose of providing
for the natural contraction of the metal on cooling without detriment to the
structural quality of the casting, and making the supply of metal to the mould
continuous, and consequent on the contraction of the cast metal.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)