Year: 1886

page_text: 81muar Articles.
I, FRANK BILLINGS FELT of Pullman in the County of Cook and State of
Illinois, United States of America do hereby declare the nature of this invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
-
In the manufacture of iron plates, shafts and axle-bars it has been common to
make them at times by piling a number of rolled or finished bars into a fagot
which is heated and reduced, to weld and form the same, but this has proved to be
extremely expensive and the rolled plates or bars are apt to be "cold short" or
"red short"according to the character of the metal employed, and result in
producing material of inferior strength.
Another objection arising in the manufacture of axle-bars thus made, (unless the
bar is rolled a number of times, which is practically impossible on account of the
expense) is that the cinder remains in the bar, and weakens the same and presents
honey comb surfaces when the bar is turned down at the ends to form journals.
"
By making the articles from fagots formed of scrap iron some of the objections
incident to the use of rolled bars have been obviated, the articles costing much less
and the varied character of the scrap preventing the finished article from being
either "cold short or "hot short," but plates, shafts and axle-bars made in this
way have always been found to be lacking in tensile strength, and accidents
repeatedly result from the use of these which have stood the regulation tests before
being put into use.
I have discovered that the cause of the weakness of plates, shafts and axle-
bars made as heretofore from scrap, has resulted; partly from the fact that the
original fibre of the metal in the scrap runs in different directions in the finished
article, and partly from the welding of the said fagot under the hammer, whereby
the dirt and cinders are hammered into the bar and' weaken the same, the results
being all the more disastrous from the source of weakness being concealed.
I have also discovered that I can secure the advantage in reduction of expense
which results from the manufacture of such articles from scrap, and at the same
time obviate the objections heretofore existing, by so piling or arranging the
particles of scrap in each fagot that the original fibres of the iron in all the pieces

page_text: shall be parallel to each other and the sides of the fagot, and that by first welding
such fagot by means of rolls I am enabled to draw out all the particles in the
line of the fibres, and at the same time squeeze out all particles of dirt and
cinder, and then by combining a series of the bars or strips thus formed and
heating and welding together under the hammer, I am enabled to produce articles
in which the fibres are greatly condensed and consolidated.
In the accompanying drawing which forms part of this specification
Fig. 1 illustrates a pile. or fagot with the parts arranged as required in carrying
out my invention. .
Figs. 2 and 3 show piles made of the bars rolled from the piles shown in Fig. 1.
In making up the pile, I so far as possible, place each piece of scrap a, Fig. 1, so
that the fibres of that piece shall lie parallel to the fibres of every other piece in
the fagot, the line of the fibres in the pieces being indicated by the shading
lines. It will be seen on reference to said figure that while some of the pieces
lie transversely in the pile or fagot they are so arranged-in order to bring their
fibres parallel to those of other pieces which lie parallel to each other and to the
sides of the fagot. After all the pieces have thus been arranged so as to secure to
as great a degree as possible the parallelism of the fibres of all the pieces, the
whole mass is bound together by wrapping wires or bands around the mass and
round the board b, on which it rests, or in any other suitable manner.
The fagot is now heated as usual, and after attaining the proper temperature, is
hammered, or preferably passed between rolls so as to weld all the the particles
together and reduce the fagot to a long bar or plate.
The effect of the rolls upon the mass of .pieces thus arranged is to still further
straighten the fibres by drawing out those pieces which were bent or crooked, into
lines parallel to the others, with the further important result of squeezing and
carrying out the dirt and cinder, so that the bar or plate formed consists of a con-
tinuous piece unbroken by flaws, imperfect welds or the presence of cinder and
with the fibre of the metal at all points lying in one direction parallel to the length
of the bar.
The bars thus produced may be used as made, for small shafting and other
purposes without further manipulation, but for car axles and large shafting a
second pile is made of short sections of such bars of the same or of different widths
as shown in Figs. 2 and 3, and these are drawn down or reduced under the hammer
to the proper dimensions.
.t
The use of the hammer is preferable to rolling in reducing the second pile,
because the dirt and cinder have been eliminated and it is no longer necessary to
displace any particles longitudinally, on the contrary it is desirable to condense and
compact them laterally so as to form a dense solid piece, which is effected by the
blows of the hammer with but comparatively a slight elongation of the mass.
The tests usually applied to axle-bars preparatory to their acceptance, is one of
great severity and consists in a succession of blows from a heavy hammer let fall
from an increasing height upon the middle of the axle-bar, the ends being pro-
perly supported and the axle-bar being turned over between the blows. The
standard test, known as the "Pennsylvania test" involves the use of a hammer
weighing 1640 pounds, and a series of blows therefrom consisting of three blows
from a height of ten feet followed by two blows from a height of fifteen feet. It
has been found almost impossible to obtain a scrap iron axle-bar capable of standing
this severe test. Very frequently the axle bar breaks at the third blow and still
more frequently at the fourth blow or first fifteen foot drop.
Axle-bars made by my method are of such strength as to easily and uniformly
stand a much severer test than that above specified. Thus in addition to and
immediately following the three ten and two fifteen foot drops of the 1640 pound
hammer, I have subjected them to two twenty and five fifteen foot drops, of the
same hammer without breaking. In no instance has an axle-bar broken before
the second twenty foot drop of the series, and very rarely has one broken before
receiving the fourth of the final series of fifteen foot blows.

page_text: This great improvement in strength is derived from (1) carefully preserving the
original direction of the fibre of all the scrap and keeping it lengthwise of the
axle bar, (2) eliminating the cinder and impurities by the first operation of rolling,
and (3) compacting the metal by the final operation of hammering.
While the strength of the product is thus improved by the method described,
the cost thereof is not materially greater than the inferior and least costly axle-bar
mentioned, as I use precisely the same scrap material and do not materially increase
the expense of the operations thereon.
Moreover, such is the gain in strength derived from my method that from
inferior scrap an axle-bar may be attained greatly superior to any made by former
methods from the choicest scrap or other material, inasmuch as a shaft or axle-
bar made from scrap cannot be "cold short" or "red short " like one made from
finished bars.
In carrying out my process, if necessary or desirable, small scrap binders may
be placed crosswise in the pile to hold the latter together, but even in this case it
is preferable to have the fibres of the binders parallel to those of the scrap.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:-
1. The improvement in the art of manufacturing iron plates, shafts, and axle-
bars herein described, consisting in forming a fagot from pieces of scrap so arranged
that the original fibre of the iron in each piece shall be parallel to the fibre in the
other pieces and to the sides of the fagot and then heating and reducing the fagot,
substantially as described.
2. In the manufacture of iron plates, shafts and axle-bars, forming a pile from
pieces of scrap with the fibres of all the pieces parallel, and then heating and
reducing said pile by rolling it longitudinally, substantially as and for the purpose
set forth.
3. In the manufacture of iron plates, shafts and axle-bars, forming a pile of
scrap with the pieces arranged that the fibres of all shall be parallel, then heating
and rolling the pile to a bar, and then piling sections of such bars, reheating and
compacting and reducing by means of a hammer to the form of a plate, shaft, bar
or axle, substantially as described.
Dated this 23rd day of November 1886.