IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON, AND IN THE MACHINERY FOR PRODUCING THE SAME
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LAURENCE
HILL, junior, of Motherwell Iron Works, near Hamilton, Lancashire, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Eighth day of February,
One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, in the twelfth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Laurence Hill, junior, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Laurence Hill,
junior, my exors, adiñiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said
Laurence Hill, junior, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term
of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON, AND IN THE
MACHINERY FOR PRODUCING THE SAME," communicated to me from Henry
Burden, of Troy, in the United States of America; in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said Laurence Hill, junior, should
cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing

page_text: under my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Laurence Hill, junior, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:
•
Figure 1 is a plan of the machine; Figures 2 and 3, vertical sections, taken
at the lines A, a, and B, b, of Figure 1; Figure 4, a horizontal section of the
framework, taken at the line B, b, of Figures 2 and 3, and representing one
of the adjustable boxes of the rollers, and one of the boxes for the intermediate
wheels, the others being made in like manner; Figure 5 is a plan of the
gear wheels; Figure 6, a vertical section through the axis of two of the
rollers, and the bar of iron between them. In the several sections the circles
which would be represented by ellipsis are drawn in circles. The same letters
indicate like parts in all the Figures.
"
The principle or character of the Invention, which distinguishes it from all
other things before known for the manufacture of iron, consists in working
puddlers' balls, or other highly heated masses of iron, and reducing them into
blooms or bars by rolling and squeezing them from one end, and by a motion
or motions at right angles, or nearly so, to the axis of the bar or bloom to be
produced, whereby the mass is gradually reduced and elongated from one end,
and the bar produced and finished. And the principle or character of the
machinery, which has been communicated to me, for the purpose of working
iron after this improved method, consists in rolling and squeezing lumps or
balls of iron between surfaces inclined to the axis of the mass of iron to be
worked, so that by the motion of one or more of these squeezing surfaces, at
right angles, or nearly so, to the axis of the bar to be produced, the mass
of iron shall be thereby gradually squeezed and reduced, and carried towards
and out of the spaces between the said inclined surfaces where they are
mearest together, the mass of iron being there delivered in a finished form.
By this means the rolling action on the iron is at right angles, or nearly so,
to the axis of the bar, and to the line in which it is elongated, and hence
the rolling surfaces which roll or squeeze the metal may be made to move
auch faster than the motion of the mass in the direction of its elongation.
In the accompanying Drawings, a represents the framework of the machine,

page_text: of three rollers, arranged at equal
Each shaft has two journals running
in which are hung the shafts b, h, b,
distances around a common axis c, c, c.
in boxes d, d. When large bars are wanted I place both journals at the
extreme ends of the rolls to give greater strength, the lower one so mounted
in the frame, that by means of set screws e the axis of the rollers can be
adjusted in a radial direction from or towards the central line around whieli
they are arranged. These rolls are frustrums of cones from the points 1 to
2; and from 2 to 3, which is the extremity of the rolls, they are. in tho
form of the frustrum of a flatter or more obtuse cone, so that in the plane of
the radii the latter part will be parallel with the common axis around whichi
the three rolls are arranged.
There is a cog wheel f on the shaft of each of the rolls, the three being of
equal diameter, and the three are caused to rotate in the same direction by
means of two intermediate cog wheels g, g. The driving power should be
applied to the shaft h of one of the rolls in any desired manuer, although it
may be applied to the shaft of one of the intermediate wheels.
The dotted lines i, j, in section, Figure 2, represent the inclination of the
axis of the rolls and their intermediate wheels, from the axis around whichi
they are arranged; and the dotted lines k, k, k, in Figure 1, represent
vertical planes radiating from the common axis, and the dotted lines 1, 1, 1,
the lines of the axis of the three rolls, which are slightly inclined thereto.
When the rolls are set in motion, a lump or ball of iron me in a highly
heated state is dropped in between them at their upper end, the framework
being left open above for that purpose, and the slight inclination of the axis
of the rollers from the vertical planes, as indicated by the dotted lines 1, 1, 1,
causes the rolls gradually to carry down the ball of iron between them towards
their lower end, where they are nearer together, by reason of the inclination of
their axes from the vertical line being greater than the lines of the cones!
By this means, not only is the mass of iron gradually drawn down in the
direction of the common axis around which the rolls are arranged, but by
the action of the rotating surface of the rolls in a line nearly at right angles
to this common centre the iron is rotated on its axis and squeezed in a spiral
direction, and the mass gradually elongated, and carried out at the bottom in a
round bar n, as represented in Figure 6, of a diameter equal to the space
between the lower end of the three rolls, where the cones are so flat as to
reduce the bar to a cylindrical form.
For the purpose of preventing the rolls from being overheated by contact
with the highly heated mass of iron under treatment, the rolls may be made
hollow, as indicated by dotted lines, with a central water tube o extending

page_text: down to near the bottom, through which water is introduced, and which flows
out around the tube and discharged at the top.
. I do not wish to confine myself to the special arrangement of the mechanism
herein described, as the principle or character of the Invention may be variously
modified; as, for instance, instead of giving to the axis of the rolls the inclina- 5
tion indicated by the lines 7, 1, 1, in Figure 1, to draw down the iron, this may
be effected by making the periphery of the rolls of a cam or excentric form,
or by making thread-like or spiral projections on their peripheries. Instead
of making the lower end of the rollers alone adjustable, both ends may be
thus made, or the size of the space between their lower ends may be increased
or diminished to determine the diameter of the bar to be produced by sliding
the shafts endwise. Instead of giving motion to all the rollers, one or more
may be driven to cause the ball or mass of iron under treatment to be rotated
and squeezed; and if it be desired to produce a bar of iron of a tapered
form instead of cylindrical, during the operation of rolling the mass of iron,
the rollers can be caused to recede from or approach each other, and so of the
other parts, not necessary to be mentioned. But although the arrangement of
machinery within the principle of the Invention may be variously modified, I
have given a full description and representation of that special arrangement
which on experiment I have found the most advantageous.
What I claim as the Invention, and desire to secure by Letters Petent, is,
the method of working puddlers' balls, or other highly heated masses of iron,
and reducing them into bars by rolling and squeezing them gradually from one
end, and by a motion or motions at right angles, or nearly so, to the axis of
the bar to be produced, substantially as herein specified.
And I also claim, as the Invention in the machinery for the application of
the improved method of working iron, the rolling and squeezing of balls, or
other highly heated masses of iron, between surfaces inclined to the axis of the
bar to be produced, so that by the motion of one or more of the said surfaces
at right-angles, or nearly so, to the axis of the bar to be produced the mass of
iron shall be gradually squeezed and reduced, and carried towards and out
of the space between the said inclined surfaces where they are nearest
together, the iron bar being thus delivered in the required form, substantially
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Laurence Hill, junior, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.
LAUR. (L.s.) HILL, J%

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Ninth day of June, in the year
of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid Laurence Hill, junior, came before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Sixth day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand