AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING RAILWAY CHAIRS
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the
County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Nineteenth day of October, in the sixteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
Alfred Vincent Newton, Her especial license, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my exors,
aditiors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said Alfred Vincent
Newton, 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 mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in all Her
Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, and in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, an Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF
MANUFACTURING RAILWAY CHAIRS," being a communication from abroad; iu
which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal,
particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, and to cause the same to be
inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters

page_text: 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
Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Inven
tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, (refer-
ence being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and
figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention relates to the rolling of railroad chairs in continuous lengths,
which lengths are to be divided off into any suitable lengths to form chairs,
and are then to be finished in the usual manner.
To enable others skilled in the art of rolling iron to carry out this Invention,
I will proceed to describe the same with reference to the Drawings, which
represent only so much of the machinery employed in the operation as is
involved in the bending of the lips, the creasing of the bar, preparatory to the
bending being done in grooved rollers in a manner well known to mechanicians.
The iron may be piled, heated, and rolled in any well-known manner to a
proper shape to enter the bending rolls, and the various forms which the bar
may assume previous to the bending will be understood by reference to the
sectional diagrams shewn in the accompanying Drawing, and marked 1, 2, 3, 4.
When reduced to the latter form the bar may be passed between the bending
rolls to take the shape represented in the sectional diagram marked 5. It is
then to be carried to a mandril situate between a pair of grooved rollers in the
manner to be presently explained, and by the action of these rollers it is
caused to take the required sectional shape.
In the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 represents in back elevation, and
Fig. 2 in vertical cross section (taken through the line × × of Fig. 1) the
machinery employed for this purpose; and Figures 3 and 4 represent detached
portions specially referred to in the description. Similar letters in the several
Figures denote the same parts. A represents the upper and B the lower
roller, suitably arranged in a substantial frame C. These rollers are geared
together, and bear the usual relative proportional diameters necessary for
throwing down" the bar to prevent it from being coiled or bent around the
rollers. The bottom roller B is represented with three wide grooves
marked 1, 2, 3, of which the two extremes 2 and 3 are duplicates. The bar
of iron under operation, after having been successively rolled into the forms
represented by the sections numbered 1, 2, 3, 4, (and which forms may be
arrived at by more or less progressive operations of the rolls), is then placed
in the groove 1, and by the peculiar form or shape of the top roll over the
66

page_text: said groove, it is bent into the shape represented by the sectional diagram
numbered 5. It is then placed in the groove 2, where it is drawn over a man-
dril N, which is supported between the rolls in the manner to be presently
described, and rolled into any desired form, corresponding of course to the form
of the mandril N, and the contact surface of the roller B; after this operation,
and whilst it is still hot, the bar may, if thought desirable, be cut into lengths
corresponding to the length of chairs required, and punched and finished.
The lever M, to which the mandril N is attached, is supported at its hinder
end by the shaft O, which passes through, or may otherwise be securely
connected to the frame; in such manner, however, as to yield to the adjustment
of the lever. The mandril N may be dovetailed on top, and fastened to tho
lever M by the key e, and on top of the lever M is placed a friction brass b
intended to take into the deep groove on the top roll to preserve its exact.
position. The brass b is set loosely in an open mortise in the top of the lever,
and may be made to bear against the top roll with a greater or less pressure
as may be required by means of a wedge-shaped bolt d, which passes through
the head of the lever M, and upon which the said brass rests. An accurate
adjustment of the lever and mandril may also be made by this wedge-shaped
bolt d, and the nuts c on its end. The general adjustment of the lever is made
by the suspension rod f passing through it, and through a cross bar P above it,
which also prevents the lever and mandril from being forced down by the
upper roll. Fig. 3 is a vertical section taken through the mandril and lever
at the line xx of Fig. 2, and Fig. 4 is a top view of the mandril detached
from the lever. In Fig. 4, i represents the dovetail, which slides over a cor-
responding tongue on the lever, the two being held together by the key e,
before described; v represents the flanges of the mandril over which the lips of
the chair are formed. The thickness of the bottom or base of the chair can
be regulated and adjusted by the wedge-shaped bolt d and its nuts, and by the
suspension rod f.
It has been stated above that the first part of the bending (as shewn
at the section numbered 5) is done without the mandril. To what extent
this part of the bending may be done is inferable from the fact that the
function of the mandril is only to insure that the inner form of the chair shall
be suitable for the rails which they are designed to support (allowance being
made for the shrinkage of the metal), and that the lips shall not be bent too
much, and the action of the mandril may be considered rather as passive than
active in the forming of the chair by the rolls.
Having thus fully described the Invention, as communicated to me by my
Foreign Correspondent, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part

page_text: recited Letters Patent I claim the rolling of railroad chairs over a mandril, or
its equivalent, in continuous lengths, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1853, the aforesaid Alfred Vincent Newton came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specifica-
tion aforesaid, 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 Nineteenth day of April. in the year of our Lord One.