ROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS, BARS, AND GIRDERS
Year: 1866

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel William Kelly at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th February 1866.
I, SAMUEL WILLIAM KELLY, of Cardiff, in the County of Glamorgan,
Metal Broker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS, BARS, AND GIRDERS," to be as
follows:-
to
The objects contemplated by my Invention are, by constructing a pile of
layers in the usual way, but with an improved "top" and "bottom
produce as solid a rail, bar, or girder as that made out of an ingot, to
economise the cost of manufacture by greatly reducing the number of rails
subject to disapproval after manufacture, and also where two qualities of
iron, or where steel in conjunction with iron, are used to form the pile, to
lessen the proportion of the more expensive as compared with the less
expensive of the two. The general mode of manufacturing rails with a
special view to durability and a clean surface is to make the iron that
enters into the flanges and travelling surface of better quality by having it
more highly worked than that used in the other parts. The annexed
Figure 1 exhibits a section of a pile as ordinarily built up, the shaded parts
A, A, being the "top" and "bottom," and B, B, the shoulder pieces.
These parts represent the more highly-wrought or No. 2 iron, and the
.unshaded.part C the less highly-wrought or No. 1 iron, otherwise puddled
bars. With rails, which, by their favorable form and section, admit of such
a change, many manufacturers employ, instead of the No. 2 iron, a

page_text: puddled bar of quality intrinsically superior to that used in the body of
the rail..
Having described the pile No. 1, and the different qualities of iron
employed therein, I now proceed to point out the evil that results in a pile
so constructed from the combination of the inferior iron with the superior.
The evil is generated in the process of rolling, and makes the finished rail
in several points defective. The first and capital defect is want of solidity
arising from the imperfect union of the parts constituting the head of the
rail; the second is that fissures are formed along the side or edge of the
flange where the shoulder pieces and the "top " or "bottom" unite. These
defects are chiefly caused by the impurities of the inferior iron in course
of working being pressed into and forced between the shoulder pieces
B, B, b, b, and the "top" or "bottom" A, A, or a, a, in Figure 2. The
line of escape is indicated by the dotted lines opposite the arrows. As
this takes place at the all-important point of time when the junction
between the parts is being effected it often prevents their perfect union.
"This is the case more or less whether the specimens of iron employed be
No. 2 and puddled bars, or a superior and inferior kind of puddled bar. It
is more especially so, however, in the former case, because the more highly
wrought No. 2 iron is of drier nature. The imperfection of the welding
is rarely perceptible even to a practised eye on close inspection, and it is
only revealed in the course of time, yet it is sure to manifest itself, as
experienced engineers know only too well.
In the manufacture of rails and girders requiring a superior quality of
iron or of steel for their more important parts the best process is of course
that which is most efficient and economical. To secure efficiency it is
most important that means should be found to prevent the action of the
iron in the body of the pile (which contains a large proportion of foreign
matters) from interfering with the offices of the superior quality.
This then is the aim of the present Invention, and this it proposes to
secure by using one single slab of steel or No. 2 iron or superior puddled
bar instead of the " tops "and" bottoms" with their separate shoulder
pieces, but still of the same form as shown by the shaded parts of the
annexed Figure 3 A and Figure 3 B. A slab made thus will effectually
resist the foreign matters contained in the iron of inferior quality figured
in the unshaded parts, and force them to escape at the bottom of the
shoulder pieces or the stem of the rail where there is much work done in
the rolls, and where the foreign matters may readily ooze out without
leaving any trace behind them. The difference between Figure 3 A and

page_text: Figure 3 B consists in the slab of the former having rounded edges. Such
slabs are more deliverable in the rolling than those that have angular edges.
Hence an economizing of mill power; hence also a feature still more
important, a better yield in the rail from being shorn of the sharp edges,
which suffer disproportionate waste from the action of the heat. It will
be perceived that either of these two slabs will produce a more solid rail
than by the old method of "tops" and "bottoms" separate from their
shoulder pieces. This too will be more apparent from an examination of
the annexed Figure 4, which shows how the pile would work in the shaping
grooves of the finishing rolls. It will be observed by an inspection of the
shaded parts of the Figure that there is quite a dovetailing of the superior
over the inferior iron in the centre of the finished rail, and that from A
on one side of the Figure round the head of the rail to the other side at B
there is no external weld at all. Of equal and, economically, of even
greater advantage will be the double saving which this new slab will enable
the manufacturers to effect:-1. As there is no external welding in the
flange it will greatly reduce the proportion in the number of rails rejected
on account of fissures. 2. As less quantity of steel or of iron of a superior
quality in the new slab will suffice to produce a rail, bar, or girder, equal
in point of wear and worth than to one formed under the old arrangement
of pile with top and bottom separate from the shoulder pieces.