Improvements in Apparatus for Heating, Hardening, or Tempering Wire.
Year: 1889

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Heating, Hardening, or Tempering
Wire.
WO JOHN TETLOW, of Britannia Mills, Card Manufacturer, and EDWIN HODGSON,
of Tofts Mill, Machine Maker, both of Cleckheaton, in the county of York, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to bo
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
Our invention relates to apparatus for hardening or tempering wire, more
especially steel wire to be employed for carding purposes.
In carrying out our invention we heat the wire to any required degree by passing
a strong current of electricity through it- while stretched over fixed and adjustable
metallic contact bars each of which is connected to one of the terminals of a dynamo
or other suitablo generator of electricity, the required hardness being then given
to the wire by passing it while still in a heated state on to the surface of a table
or slab flooded with oil or other suitable cooling liquid.
The apparatus is adapted to operate upon a single wire or simultaneously upon
several wires.
An automatic switch of suitable construction is employed to divert the excess of
current upon the breakage or termination of one or more of the wires under
treatment, thereby preventing the overheating of the remaining wires.
In order to enable our invention to be fully understood we will proceed to
describe the same with reference to the accompanying drawing, in which
Figures 1 and 2 represent a plan and a sectional elevation respectively of an
apparatus for hardening or tempering wire such apparatus being constructed according
to our invention.
Similar letters in both the figures indicate similar parts.
A is a strong framework, across one end of which is placed the fixed bevelled
metallic contact bar or bridge C² hereinafter referred to as the "fixed contact."
C' is the adjustable metallic contact bar hereinafter referred to as the "adjustable
contact" placed across the frame A and fixed upon guides moving upon the sides of
the frame A whereby the bar has an adjustable sliding motion regulated by means
of a screw S operated from the side of the frame by means of a hand-wheel H and
bevel gearing G.
The fixed and adjustable contacts are perfectly insulated from one another when
not connected by the wire passing over them, and each contact is connected with one
of the terminals P. P of the dynamo or other generator of electricity.
Both the fixed and adjustable contacts are divided on their upper surfaces by
vertical partitions M, which keep the wires apart while under treatment; or pegs may
be employed for a like purpose..
The adjustable contact C¹ carries with it the roller B which is supported in two
brackets fixed to the bar or to the carriages upon which the bar is mounted.
Situated close against the fixed contact C is a table or slab T of slate or other
suitable material, which has raised sides or fences K to prevent the overflow of oil
with which the surface of the table or slab is flooded.
The oil or other hardening liquid is contained in an overhead cistern N and is
allowed to flow down a shoot L in a broad stream, thereby flooding the whole of the
upper surface of the table T, at one end of which is placed a cistern ✗ to receive
the overflowing oil, and from whence it is pumped up into the cistern N for
re-use.
The roller B is mounted below the level of the contacts C' and C and a roller D
below the level of the table T in order that wires passing under these two rollers and

page_text: strained at the regular working tension may, in their passage through the apparatus,
be pressed with sufficient force against the contacts and the table.
In practice the wire is contained upon loose reels or drums and passes under the
roller B and over the adjustable contact to the fixed contact C³, thereby 'closing
the electric circuit. The wires offer sufficient resistance to the electric current to
cause them to become heated, the temperature to which they are heated-being partly
regulated by the distance between the contacts which is adjusted by operating the
screw S as herein before described and, when necessary, also by an ordinary current
regulator placed in the circuit.
While the wires are in a heated condition they pass onto the table T where they
are submerged in the oil or other hardening liquid with which the surface of the
table is flooded and are thereby hardened. Thence the wires pass under the roller. D
to winding drums, which serve to draw it through the apparatus, or the wires after
having been treated in the above described apparatas may be drawn by the said
drums through another similarly constructed apparatus, or through molten lead in
order to give them the required temper.
The automatic switch or "
cut-out," which comes into operation and diverts the
surplus current of electricity on the breakage or termination of a wire, advan-
tagoously consists of a stud F projecting from the carriage of the contact C³, to
which stud is pivotted a wire-hook H. The stud E is connected with the contact,
and the wire-hook H engages with and rests upon the portion of the wire being
heated.
When the wire breaks or runs out the hook H falls upon a brass wire F, which
passes through a metal eye in connection with the contact and the circuit is
thereby again closed until a new wire is substituted and the hook H placed upon it.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of
our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what
we claim is :-
(1) In apparatus for hardening or tempering wire by means of electricity, the
employment of fixed and adjustable contact bars, each of which is connected with
one of the terminals of a dynamo electric generator, substantially as herein before
described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
(2) In combination with an apparatus for hardening or tempering wire, the use
of an automatic switch or ❝ cut-out fixed and acting between two contact bars,
for diverting the superfluous part of the current of electricity on the breakage or
running out of one or more of the wires being oporated upon, substantially as, and
for the purpose, herein before described with reference to the accompanying drawing.
(3) In apparatus for hardening or tempering wire the combination of the guide
rollers B and the fixed and adjustable contact bars and respectively, the slab or
table T, the automatic switch or "cut-out" E, and the upper and lower cisterns N
and X, the whole being arranged and operating substantially in the manner described
with reference to the accompanying drawing.
(4) The improved apparatus for hardening or, tempering wire hereinbefore
described.
Dated the 27th day of July 1889.
W. J. BAKER,
2, New Street, Huddersfield, Agent for. the Applicants.