IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS OR RAILWAY BARS AND AXLES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT. to Henry Bessemer, of Queen Street Place, New
Cannon Street, in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MEET THE MADH DA
Sealed the 10th February 1857, and dated the 4th November 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Bessemer at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
4th November 1856.
I, HENRY BESSEMER, of Queen Street Place, New Cannon Street, in the
City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS OR RAILWAY BARS AND AXLES," to be as
follows:-
Firstly, with reference to the manufacture of railway bars, it may be
observed that the requisite qualifications of a good rail are not easily attainable
in the highest degree by the use of an uniform quality of metal at all parts of
the same bar. The variety in the forms of their cross section render it also
desirable that the metal forming the different parts thereof should be of a
quality suitable for the process of rolling such parts into the required form
without the cracking or splitting of any portion of the metal in the rolling
process. The mode by which the rails are supported when in use also renders

page_text: it desirable that the parts thereof should be composed of such materials as
will best sustain the peculiar strains to which they are severally subjected.
Now, therefore, the object of my present Invention is to improve the quality
of railway bars by the combination of certain peculiar qualities or kinds of
iron or steel with iron of another kind or quality, and also in the mode by
which such metals are united so as to form a railway bar. In a former Patent,
which was granted to me for "improvements in the manufacture of railway
bars," and bearing dato the 17th of October 1855 (No. 2319), I have shewn
how that part of the rail on which the wheels run becomes injured by tho
elongation of the upper lamina, which frequently becomes detached from the
general mass or body of the rail when puddled iron is employed. I have also
pointed out how this defect may be wholly or in part removed by forming the
rail of a cast ingot of malleable metal, which will be entirely or for the most
part free from the scoria or cinder, which assists in giving the laminated texture
to puddled bar iron.
In carrying out my present improvement, I in all cases form that part of
the railway bar on which the wheel rolls of malleable cast metal of a quality
varying from and inclusive of hard or highly carbonized steel, down to soft
decarbonized iron which is manufactured of unpuddled metal, such as is
described in the Specifications of my former Patents, and manufactured by
the processes therein described, or by means analogous thereto.
The metal which I prefer to combine with any of the above kinds of cast
malleable iron or steel is a fibrous, tough, laminated bar iron produced by
puddling and rolling or hammering in the ordinary way, or produced by rolling
a pile of puddled iron, or by rolling, or by piling and rerolling ingots or masses
of cast-malleable iron. The mode by which I unite the different qualities of
metal before mentioned is as follows:-A bar or slab of puddled bar or twice
worked or piled iron of a suitable size is heated to a red or white heat, and
inserted in an ingot mould either in the centre or at one side of it; the fluid
iron or steel from the converting vessel is then allowed to flow into the mould,
the stream being by preference directed against the hot bar or slab with which
it will unite, and may then be rolled into the desired sectional form of the
kind of railway bar required, or in lieu of this mode of. uniting the cast and
rolled metal, the cast ingot may form part of a pile with puddle bar, or with
previously rolled, or piled, cast, or puddled metal, or the ingot may first be rolled
and then piled with puddled iron.
The second part of my said Invention, which relates to the manufacture of
railway axles is to be carried out in a similar manner to that herein-before
described in reference to railway bars, namely, by placing a rolled bar of

page_text: tough iron, highly heated, in the centre of the ingot mould, so as to be sur-
rounded by fluid iron or steel, which will adhere thereto, and form a core of
tough iron running through the centre of the axle, while the outer part is
made of a different quality of metal.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Bessemer in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
4th May 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
BESSEMER, of Queen Street Place, New Cannon Street, in the City of London,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Henry Bessemer, Her special licence that I, the said Henry Bessemer,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Bessemer, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF RAILS OR RAILWAY BARS AND AXLES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Henry Bessemer, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be 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 Henry Bessemer, do hereby declare the
naturo of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following state-
ment thereof, that is to say :-
Firstly, with reference to the manufacture of railway bars, it may be
observed that the requisite qualifications of a good rail are not easily attainable
in the highest degree by the use of one uniform quality of metal at all parts
of the same bar. The variety in the forms of their cross section render it

page_text: also desirable that the metal forming the different parts thereof should be of a
quality suitable for the process of rolling such parts into the required form
without the cracking or splitting of any portion of the metal in the rolling
process. The modes by which the rails are supported when in use also renders
it desirable that the parts thereof should be composed of such materials as will
best sustain the peculiar strains to which they are severally subjected.
Now, therefore, the object of my present Invention is to improve the quality
of railway bars and axles by the combinations of certain peculiar qualities or
kinds of iron or steel with iron of another kind or quality, and also in the
mode by which such metals are united, so as to form a railway bar or axle.
In a former Patent, which was granted to me for "improvements in the manu-
facture of railway bars, and bearing date the 17th day of October 1855,
No. 28319, I have shown how that part of the rail on which the wheels run
becomes injured by the elongation of the upper lamina, which frequently
becomes detached from the general mass or body of the rail when puddled iron
is employed. I have also pointed out how this defect may be wholly or in part
removed by forming the rail of a cast ingot of malleable metal, which will be
entirely or for the most part free from the scoria or cinder, which assists in
giving the laminated texture to puddled bar iron, by separating more or less
from each other the different grains or lumps of metal which constitute a
puddle ball, and whereby the engine and carriage-wheels are enabled to roll
out or extend the thin layers of metal thus formed until portions of them
become detached or separated from the main body of the rail. I have also
described in the Patent herein-before referred to how this defect of puddled
iron may be obviated by the use of cast malleable metal, which forms itself,
while in a fluid state, into one undivided mass, and consequently does not
contain that quantity of scoria and other mechanically mixed impurities
which is found in iron, formed by the ngglomeration of numerous small
oxydised fragments of the metal when squeezed together in an almost solid
It has however been found that malleable cast iron and steel, and also
an intermediate quality of metal, which I call semi-steel, when not piled and
rolled as much as is usual with puddled iron, is not so tough and capable of
resisting sudden shocks as may be desired for the manufacture of a railway
bar, although such metal may, in consequence of the cast condition of the
metal, possess to a high degree that peculiar crystalline or unlamina condition-
which renders it peculiarly well adapted to form the surface on which the
wheels run.
I have, therefore, sought by my present Invention to combine in
one and the same railway bar the two distinct classes of metal which are pro-
duced, the one by the process of puddling, and the other class or kind by the
state.
•

page_text: entire omission of the puddling process, and in the case of steel or semi-steel
the absence of the costly process of converting malleable.iron. into steel by
cementation. And here I would remark, that I am aware that it has before
been proposed to manufacture rails by combining malleable iron with shear
steel, or with steel that has previously gone. through the processes of puddling
or the process of carbonization by cementation with charcoal; and I expressly
mention this fact in order that it may be understood that I lay no claim
thereto, as steel so produced is too costly to be generally adopted for the
manufacture of railway bars and axles. But my Invention consists in using,
in lieu thereof, cast malleable iron or cast steel, or semi-steel that has been
made from crude or pig, iron into those different.qualities of metal by a direct
process of refinement without any puddling, and without the carbonization. or
conversion of iron into steel. by cementation, by avoiding which expensive
processes a cheaper quality of metal may be produced, which, when. com-
bined in the same rail with fibrous puddled iron, will give at one part thereof
the qualities requisite to withstand the wear and tear of the engine and carriage.
wheels, while the toughness of the puddled iron. which forms párt of the same
mass will increase its security from breakage by concussions.
In carrying out my present improvements, I in all cases form that part of
the railway bar on which the wheel rolls of malleable cast metal, of a quality
varying from and inclusive of hard or highly carbonized steel down to soft
decarbonized iron, which is manufactured of unpuddled metal, such as is
described in the Specifications of my former Patents, and manufactured .by
the processes therein described, or by means analagous thereto, that is, where
crude or cast iron is partially decarbonized and refined until it is sufficiently.
pure and malleable for the purpose without the process of puddling or con-
version into steel, by carbonizing the same by the cementing process, provided
that such metal be run or formed into an ingot or mass while in a fluid state.
The metal which I prefer to combine with any of the above kinds of cast
malleable iron or steel is a fibrous, tough, laminated bar iron produced by
puddling and rolling or hammering in the ordinary way, or produced by rolling,
a pile of puddled iron or by rolling or by piling and rerolling ingots or masses
of cast malleable iron. The mode by which I unite the different qualities of
metal before-mentioned is as follows:-A bar or slab of puddle bar or twice
worked or piled iron of a suitable size is heated to a red or white heat, and
inserted in an ingot mould either in the centre or at one side of it; the fluid.
iron or steel from the converting vessel is then allowed to flow into the mould,
the stream being, by preference, directed against the hot bar or slab, with
which it will unite, and may then be rolled into the desired sectional form of

page_text: the kind of railway bar required. The bar or slab of puddled iron may be
heated to a welding heat in a blooming furnace, and its surface protected as far
as possible from oxidation by a coating of sand, fluid scoria, borax, or other
suitable means, and when romoved from the heating furnace which should be
placed expeditiously into the ingot mould, so that the fluid malleable iron or
steel may flow over or against it, and solder or unite itself thereto. The sec-
tional form of the bar or slab of heated iron may depend more or less on the
sectional form of railway bar intended to be rolled, and its bulk, as compared
with the mass of the finished rail, will depend on the proportions which it is
desired to have of cast and puddled metal in the rail; and although I have
herein-before mentioned the use of only one piece of puddled iron, it will be
obvious that two or more pieces may be used in the same rail, and be moro
or less imbedded in or surrounded by the fluid or unpuddled metal, without in
any way departing from my Invention. In some cases it may be found moro
'convenient not to heat the slab of puddled metal, in which cases its surfaco
should be cleansed by acid, as in the preparation of iron surfaces for galva-
nizing or by otherwise brightening the surface which is to be united to the
molten metal; or,. in lieu of this mode of uniting the cast and rolled metal,
the east ingot may form part of a pile with puddle bar or with previously
rolled, or piled, cast, or puddled metal, or the ingot may first be rolled and then
piled with puddled iron.
The second part of my said Invention, which relates to the manufacture of
railway axles, is to be carried. out in a similar manner to that herein-before
described in reference to railway bars, namely, by placing a rolled bar of tough
iron, highly licated, in the centre of the ingot mould, so as to be surrounded by
fluid iron or steel which will adhere thereto, and form a core of tough iron
running through the centre of the axle, while the outer part is made of a
different quality of metal, whether in the form of iron, steel, or semi-steel,
provided that the same is obtained by the refinement of crude or pig iron with-
out puddling, or without the process of cementing with charcoal. The com-
pound ingot or mass of iron, or iron and steel, being afterwards hammered or
rolled to the required dimensions as herein-before described in reference to.
railway bars.
Having thus described my Invention, and the manner in which the same
may be carried into effect, I desiro it to be understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise details herein. specified, provided that the peculiar
character of my Invention be retained; but what I do claim is,-
1. First, the manufacture of rails or railway bars and railway axles by uniting
dr con:bining together in one rail, bar, or axle iron that has been rendered

page_text: malleable by the process of puddling with steel obtained by the partial de-
carbonization of crude or cast iron without the process of puddling or re-
carbonization by cementing.
Second, I claim forming a rail, railway bar, or axle, by uniting and rolling
together iron that has been previously rolled with another portion of iron or
steel or semi-steel in a cast and unrolled condition, as herein described.
Third, I claim the manufacture of rails or railway bars or axles, by uniting
or combining in one bar, rail, or axle, a portion of iron that has been rendered
malleable by the process of puddling with other portions of iron, or with steel
or semi-steel that has been rendered from crude or cast iron into a malleable
metal by means of currents of air or steam, and formed into an ingot or mass
while in a fluid state.
Fourth, I claim uniting a solid bar of iron with another quality of iron,
steel, or semi-steel in a fluid state, for the purpose of forming railway bars
or axles.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Bessemer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
o Witness,
B. GOBEY,
24, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane.
HENRY BESSEMER. (L.s.)