IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF RIVETS.
Year: 1884

page_text: I JOSEPH WHITLEY of Hunslet Road Leeds in the County of York. Founder and
Engineer do hereby declare the nature of my Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
CONSTRUCTION OF RIVETS. and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Whereas Iron and Steel Rivets used in the construction of ships, steam boilers
and for other purposes have hitherto been forged or pressed in dies from Iron
or Steel bars or rods my improvements consist in the casting of Steel rivets for
the above purposes in moulds, chills or matrices whilst in a hot state or other-
wise and by subsequent annealing of the rivets by superheating before cooling
down or otherwise. Rivets so made may be oxydized by super heated air or steam
under protracted pressure so that no chemical action can affect them when at sea
and such rivets can at all times be rivetted up cold having a malleability and
ductility hitherto unknown in practice and being so applied the heads of the rivets
are not liable to fly off when sudden contractions sets in, as in the case of rivets
rivetted up hot and by being over hammered, or burnt by over heating previous to
being rivetted up in the plates or whilst at sea when subjected to cold or by the
strain brought upon ships during stormy weather. By this mode of constructing
rivets from soft steel whilst in a liquid state the natural formation of the molecules
are not destroyed or even disturbed since reheating for subsequent manufacture is
not required. Therefore rivets so made are susceptible of being laminated to the
required extent. without the fear of fracture, and they can be rivetted up in the
plates without being heated neither do they break or even crack at the rivetted
end or at the head, which breaking or cracking often arises from sudden contraction
and over hammering when hot rivets are applied to the cold plates used in the
construction of ships and for other purposes. By this mode of manufacturing
rivets another great desideratun is attained viz-Electrical and chemical action
betwixt the rivets and the plates are alike overcome as all rivets required in such
structures can be made of precisely the same materials that is electrically and
chemically having exactly the same components and the precise quantity of carbon
as those constituting the ship's plates thereby causing no electrical disturbance in
the general structure of the ship by the interruption of the natural currents of
electricity permeating the vessel or other structures as the total mass can be formed
of exactly like material.

page_text: Rivets so made are in every sense of the term superior to rivets as applied
to day.
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 :-
First The casting of steel rivets substantially as hereinbefore described.
Second-The annealing of steel rivets so cast substantially as herein before
described.
Third-The rivetting up of rivets so made whilst cold substantially as herein-
before described.
Fourth-The oxydyzation of rivets substantially as herein before described.