IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF HORSE-SHOES, BOOT HEELS, WHEELS TYRES, RAILS, AND SAFES."
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Southwood Stocker and Alexander
Richmond Stocker, both of Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford,
Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF HORSE-SHOES, BOOT HEELS, WHEELS TYRES, RAILS, AND SAFES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Southwood
Stocker and Alexander Richmond Stocker at the Office of the Commis-
sioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 10th August 1861.
We, ALEXANDER SOUTHWOOD STOCKER and ALEXANDER RICHMOND STOCKER,
both of Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford, Manufacturers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF HORSE-SHOES, BOOT HEELS, WHEEL TYRES, RAILS, AND SAFES," to be
as follows:-
We manufacture the above-mentioned articles out of bars and plates
of metal prepared in the following manner:- We take puddled bars or
plates of ordinary wrought iron, and place them in the ordinary converting
furnace, and operate upon them in the same manner as is generally practised
in converting iron into steel. In some instances instead of converting
them entirely or all the way through, we only procure them to have an
outer casing of conversion, leaving a fibrous substance within enveloped by the
Price 8d.]

page_text: hard outer casing of the prepared bar or plate; we then place a pile of these
bars or plates of any given number, thickness, breadth, and length, one
upon the other, and then heat them to a fusive or welding heat, and pass
them through a pair of rolls, and weld them together in one solid mass
or bar or sheet of the suitable length, width, and thickness required to
produce the articles intended to be made. It may be desirable for the
manufacture of some articles to use but one bar or plate, and in some
instances one or more wholly or partially converted bars or plates may
be placed upon and amalgamated with one or more ordinary puddled
or ordinary merchant or other bars or plates, and afterwards manufactured
into the various articles intended to be made, and in some instances we
partially convert in the manner above described finished or ordinary merchant
bars and plates, and apply them to the manufacture above stated. The
tyres, rails, and safes are made after the metal has been prepared much
after the ordinary manner as now pursued. The bars for the horse-shoes
are passed through the rolls edgeways instead of flatways, as is now generally
practised in rolling horse-shoe bars, producing thereby an equalization of
thickness throughout the bar on its flat surface, and at the same time
widening the toe, which is most liable to wear and tear. The rolls having
been previously so formed as to produce the bars for the shoes of the desired
configuration, or the bars may be tilted or squeezed into partial shape
for the saving of labor, steel, iron, and ordinary iron bars also may be
produced in this manner, after which they are finished in the usual mauner
as now practised by smiths generally. The boot heels may be produced
after the bar or sheet has been rolled of suitable dimensions by stamping
and forming them by the aid of dies and tools fixed in a stamp or fly press
or in any other convenient manner, causing them to be constructed so that
they may be readily affixed to and detached from the boot, which con-
struction is also applicable when made out of other metals and materials.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Southwood Stocker and Alexander Richmond
Stocker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 10th February 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALEXANDER
SOUTHWOOD STOCKER and ALEXANDER RICHMOND STOCKER, both of Wolver-
hampton, in the County of Stafford, Manufacturers, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Alexander Southwood Stocker and Alexander Richmond Stocker, Her special
licence that we, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker and Alexander
Richmond Stocker, our executors, administrators, and assigns,orsuch others
as we, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker and Alexander Richmond
Stock, our 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 HORSE-SHOES. BOOT HEELS, WHEEL TYRES, RAILS, AND SAFES,"
upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker
and Alexander Richmond Stocker, our executors or administrators by an
instrument in writing under our, or one of our, 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 thesaid Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker on behalf
of myself and the said Alexander Richmond Stocker, do hereby declare the
nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, that is to say:-
Our said Invention consists in the application and use to and in the
manufacture of metal safes, wheel tyres, rails for railways, and horse-shoes
of bars and plates of metal, prepared and treated in the manner herein-
after described. In preparing bars and plates for the purposes above
mentioned according to our Invention, we take puddled bars or plates of
wrought iron, and place them in the ordinary converting furnace, and
operate upon them in the same manner as is generally practised when
converting iron into steel. These bars or plates are intended only to be
partially converted, so as to leave the inner part of the inetal in its fibrous
condition, whilst the outer surface or surfaces are Lardened to a greater
or less depth, and on one or more of its surfaces, as circumstances may
require.
Having thus far proceeded, we then next form them into a pile of any

page_text: desired number, also of suitable length, breadth, and thickness; we then heat
the pile to a fusing or welding temperature, and pass it through an ordinary
rolling mill, whereby the whole becomes thoroughly incorporated and welded
together in one solid mass, and rolled out to dimensions requisite for the
purpose intended.
In the manufacture of metal safes, tyres, and rails, it is proposed in some
cases to use single wrought-iron bars or plates manufactured in the ordinary
manner converted to a desirable depth on one of their surfaces only. Or one
or more of the partially converted wrought-iron bars or plates may be
placed upon and amalgamated with one or more ordinary puddled or
ordinary merchant or steel iron bars and plates, and applied to the manufacture
of safes. We also propose to apply to the manufacture of safes bars or
plates of metal composed of steel iron and iron, and converted afterwards or
not, as cases may require. We also propose to convert plates of steel and
iron combined, but in this instance as well as in that last referred to, when
the plate is compounded of steel iron and iron, the harder side only need be
converted, the other being allowed to retain its fibrous character. With a
view to imparting a more desirable shape to bars of metal employed in the
manufacture of horse-shoes than that heretofore adopted we propose to roll
such bars edgewise in lieu of flatwise, that is to say, we pass them between the
rolls, with their flat sides in a vertical position in place of in a horizontal one,
as is usual in the formation of horse-shoe bars. By this improved method of
rolling, the thickness of the prepared bar is uniform throughout its entire
length, and with the view to allow an extra quantity of metal at those parts,
which will correspond to the toes of the shoes when manufactured, weincrease
the width of the bar at such parts by making a corresponding depression or
increasing depth of the grooves at the proper places, as is now generally
practised, so that a bar when rolled according to this system will have a
varying width but a uniformn thickness.
We may observe, in conclusion, that we are aware that attempts have been
made to manufacture plates for safes by case-hardening their surfaces, and
also by combining and welding together steel and iron plates with a view to
rendering the same impervious to drills or other cutting toois, both of which
are disadvantages both on the score ofeconomy and efficiency. Forexample in
case-hardening there is always an uncertainty, frequently having to undergoa
second case-hardening for the purpose of endeavoring to render them of a
uniform degrees of hardness on their all over surfaces, and they are also
liable to bend or warp very considerably whilst undergoing the case-hardening
process causing thereby much labor to be expended in beating,endeavoring to

page_text: bring them back to their original fair flat shape or surface, frequently breaking
when being straightened, thus rendering the process altogether a very
laborious, tedious, and costly one, and with reference to plates composed of
steel and iron welded together, the kind of steel that is obliged to be used
for such purpose is of that character, that by the high temperature, frequent
heating, and long period of exposure to the fire, that it is necessary obliged
to undergo to manufacture a good sound plate, causes a large amount of
its carbon to be lost, rendering it thereby ineffectual as to its equalisation
of hardness with the view to restoring it to its original hardness, we propose to
reconvert plates when so made, giving them a smart sharp temper on the
surface that is required and so desirable to resist the drill or any other
cutting tool, burglars' or other instrument or apparatus which by the course
we pursue will at all times ensure the degree of hardness desired, it being
at the will of the operator to effect every plate as wished especially when
the conversion is applied to plates combining two differently constituted
metals welded together which together with the other parts as herein-before
described constitutes our Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, on
behalf of myself, and the said Alexander Richmond Stocker, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of February, in the
year of our Lord, One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
ALEXR. S. STOCKER. (L.S.)