Improvements in the Manufacture of Hoops from Steel Rails, Parts of Rails, or Rail Ends.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Apr., 1887.
Specification Accepted, 7th June, 1887.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Hoops from Steel Rails, Parts
of Rails, or Rail Ends.
1 JOSEPH BETTS BRADSHAW, of Handsworth Woodhouse, near Sheffield, in the
County of York, Iron Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HOOPS FROM STEEL RAILS PARTS OF
RAILS, OR RAIL ENDS," and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described, and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Steel rails, parts of steel rails, and rail ends, are largely used in the manufacture of
hoops, for this purpose the rails or parts, are usually cut or broken, first into short
lengths and afterwards the pieces so broken or the rail ends, as the case may be, are
divided longitudinally through the webs. The separate pieces so divided are then
heated and rolled into billets.
The billets so formed being afterwards cut to the required length, reheated and
rolled off into hoops.
There are various methods at present in use for separating or dividing the rails
longitudinally, and for the most part special machinery and appliances are employed
for the purpose.
In carrying out my Invention I perform this operation in a simple, effective and
inexpensive manner without the employment of special machinery.
I effect this by planing in an ordinary planing or shaping machine, a slight groove
along that portion of the web of the rail where the fracture is required to be made,
and in ordinary cases I have found in practise, that a groove so formed on one side is
sufficient; though if necessary a groove may be planed on both sides of the web.
The rails or parts of rails, or rail ends, so grooved, are then placed under a press,
say for example, an ordinary screw press. The grooved side being turned down-
wards, and on sufficient pressure being brought to bear upon the web of the rail
opposite to the groove, a fracture of the rail, in the direction of its length is made
along the line of the groove.
Short pieces may be broken in this manner throughout their length, by the
pressure being applied at one end or within a few inches of one end only, and longer

page_text: or tougher pieces may be broken by similar pressure being applied to each end, or by
several successive applications of pressure at various points of their length.
By planing two grooves parallel to each other on one side of the web, a double
headed or flat bottomed rail, or parts, or ends of such rails, may in this manner have
their heads, or the head and flange separated from the web, leaving in case of a
double headed rail, two pieces which have formed the heads, and one piece which has
formed the web; and in the case of a flat bottomed rail, one piece which has formed
the head, one piece which has formed the flange, and one piece which has formed the
web. The separate pieces thus formed or the pieces formed by the process previously
described, (by which they are divided into two parts,) are then heated and rolled off
into hoops at one heat, in the same or in a similar manner to the process or processes
at present employed in rolling hoops.
In lieu of a screw press for making the fracture, other
employed, such as a hydraulic press, a lever press, a
straightening machine, or in some cases a steam Hammer or
may be used.
kinds of presses may be
punching press, a rail
other equivalent appliance
A like method is applicable in the preparation, for the purposes herein described, of
other sections of iron or rails.
In planing the grooves several lengths of rails or parts of rails may be placed at
one time upon a planing machine table parallel to each other, and two or more
grooving tools may be employed or several short lengths of rails may be placed end
to end either in one length or in several parallel lengths and when necessary a groove
or grooves may be planed on both sides of the web or webs of such rails or parts
of rails.
Besides dispensing with specially constructed machinery, I am enabled by the
means I employ for grooving and breaking the rails, to detect the hard rails from
the soft.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my Invention and
in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is:
(1.) The improvements in the manufacture of hoops from steel rails, parts of rails,
or rail ends, by the combined processes of first planing or shaping in an ordinary
planing or shaping machine a groove or grooves longitudinally in the web or webs
of such rails, parts of rails, or rail ends by means of which groove or grooves the line
of fracture is directed, and secondly by the employment of a screw or power press or
other equivalent machine or appliance ordinarily in use, for effecting the fracture, and
thirdly heating and rolling the pieces so fractured into hoops at one heat substantially
as herein described and set forth.
Dated this 20th day of April 1887.
R. HEBER RADFORD,
Agent for the Applicant.