IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR CHAIN CADIDO"
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Shortridge, of Sheffield, in the County of York,
Steel Merchant and Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR CHAIN CADIDO"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Shortridge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
February 1865.
I, JOHN SHORTRIDGE, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Steel Merchant
and Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CHAIN CABLES," to be as follows:-
I make chain cables of wrought iron, shear or cast steel, the links of which
are united together, but are without welding in any part of the link.
The annexed Drawing shows the form and arrangement of the link.
Figs. 1 and 2 show the flat and edge views of the ingot or first form of the
metal of which I make the links, which are all alike; Fig. 3 shows the same
drawn out, and punched or opened at the ends and otherwise formed; Fig. 4
represents a side or edge view of the same; Fig. 5 represents form Figs. 3
and 4, doubled or partially bent into the form of the link, while the dotted
lines show the complete link, a series of which connected forms the cable;
Fig. 6 represents a view of the link at right angles to Fig. 5.

page_text: The metal of each of the links, after being punched and the loops formed at
each end, are bent and doubled up and threaded together to form a chain, as
indicated in the several Figs. of the annexed Drawing.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John Shortridge in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd August 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
SHORTRIDGE, of Sheffield, in the County of York, Steel Merchant and
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent,bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said John Shortridge, Her special licence that I, the said John Shortridge,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Shortridge, 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 CHAIN CABLES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said John Shortridge, my executors or administrators, by an instrument 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 John Shortridge, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) -
I make chain cables of wrought iron, shear or cast steel, the links of which
are united together, but are without welding in any part of the link.
The annexed Drawing shows the form of the link, as also the combination
and arrangement of a number of such links to produce a chain,

page_text: Fig. 1 shows the flat or side view of the ingot or first form of the metal
from which I make the links, while Fig. 2 represents an edge view of the
same; Fig. 3 shows the ingot drawn out, and punched or opened at the ends
and otherwise formed; Fig. 4 represents a side or edge view of Fig. 3;
Fig. 5 represents the part, Figs. 3 and 4, doubled or partially bent into the
form of the link, while the dotted lines of the same Figure show the link in
its complete form; a series of which links connected produces the chain cable;
Fig. 6 represents a view of the links at right angles to Fig. 5, showing also a
number of links combined and as for a cable, while Fig. 7 represents a view
of the same at right angles to Fig. 6.
in
Although I have represented the first or ingot form of the links at Figs. 1
and 2, it is not imperative that the metal should be first cast or otherwise
reduced to that form, as such form may be varied, but I find such form to be
very suitable for the subsequent punching and working of the links into shape,
and at same time imparting the necessary toughness to the metal. They
being prepared in the forms shown at Figs. 1 and 2, I proceed by forging to
draw out and reduce the middle part 1 to the round form exhibited at a,
Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, while the parts 2, 2, are punched and opened out to
the form represented at b, b, Figs. 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, by punching. I mean
that a small hole is driven through parts 2, 2, while red hot, in which opera-
tion part of the metal may or may not be removed; this small hole is
gradually opened out, as well understood in smiths' work, and the metal
rendered of the form represented at Figs. 3 and 4.
It will be observed that the part a is rounded to a cylindrical form of a
size according to the strength of the cable, while the eyes or loops b, b, are
rendered of a semi-cylindrical form, that is to say, the cross section of one
limb thereof, see Fig. 9, the extreme ends 61, 61, when brought together
forming the whole circle, as seen dotted in Fig. 5. The limbs of the loops
thicken gradually from the end towards the body a, care being taken to so
apportion the metal that every part of the link will be able to resist uniformly
the strain on the cable.
The metal of each of the links after being punched and the loops formed
at each end, as described and represented at Figs. 3 and 4, are then bent and
doubled upand threaded together or combined to form a chain, as indicated
in Figs. 6 and 7.
In combining these links into a cable they are first bent in the form
represented at Fig. 5, the one limb is then passed through both the eyes or
loops b, b, of a link previously bent with the limbs closed together; when so
threaded the second limbs of this link are then closed in like manner and a

page_text: third one inserted and closed, then a fourth, and so on, combining any number
to produce the length of cable desired. Fig. 8 represents a form of the link
in a cable, in which the limbs are set closer together than in Fig. 5.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of performing
the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be protected by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the improved manufacture of
chain cables, herein-before described and illustrated in the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Shortridge, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
JNO. SHORTRIDGE. (L.S.)