AN IMPROVED MODE OF MAKING WHEELS FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES
Year: 1831

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME,
STEPHENSON, of Liverpool, Engineer, send greeting.
GEORGE
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the thirtieth day of
April One thousand eight hundred and thirty-one, in the first year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said George Stephenson, His especial licence, sole privilege and authority that
I, the said George Stephenson, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or such others
as I, or they, should at any time agree with (and no others), from time to
time and at all times during the term of fourteen years from the date of the
snid Letters Patent, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within that part of His said Majesty's Dominions called England, Wales, and
the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF
MAKING WHEELS FOR RAILWAY CARRIAGES;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that I, the said George Stephenson, shall cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within four calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same (reference
being therereunto had) will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Stephenson, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described and
ascertained in manner following (that is to say):
pre-
My said improved mode of making wheels for railway carriages consists in
forming the same with a suitable number of hollow tubes of thin wrought
iron to form the spokes, arms, or radii of such wheels, which tubes, after
being prepared at their ends (in the mauner herein-after described) with
borax to serve as a flux to the wrought iron, are laid in proper radiating
directions into a mould formed of sand; in a suitable manner to receive melted
cast iron, which cast iron, being poured into the central cavity of the said sand
mould, will surround and attach to the inner ends of all the wrought-iron
tubular spokes at the parts where the said preparation of borax has been
viously applied thereto, and thus a nave or centre piece of cast iron will bo
formed for the wheel, and also melted cast iron being poured into the other
cavities of the said sand mould will surround and attach to the outer ends of
the same spokes at the parts previously prepared with borax, and thus the
circular rim or felly of the wheel will be formed in cast iron, and that felly is
afterwards to be surrounded with a strong wrought-iron tire or hoop, which is
applied when hot around the cold cast iron, so that it may shrink or contract
thereon in cooling in order to firmly unite and bind all the parts of the wheel
together; and lastly, the outer edge of the said tire must be suitably turned and
formed to run on the railway. And whereas wheels for railway carriages have
been commonly made under a Patent granted to William Losh and myself,
in the year One thousand eight hundred and sixteen, with spokes of wrought
iron of various forms (but not hollow tubes), and with cast-iron uaves and
rims formed and united to the ends of the said wrought-iron spokes by
running melted cast iron into suitable moulds formed of sand, the said cast
iron surrounding and attaching to the ends of the said wrought-iron arms, but
without any previous preparation of those ends with borax to serve as a flux,
and also the wheels as formed have of late been hooped with wrought-irou
tire. I do hereby declare that I confine my claim of Invention under the
present l'atent (for my improved mode of making such wheels for railway
carriages) to the substitution of hollow tubes of wrought iron for spokes, in
lieu of the solid bars of wrought iron heretofore used for spokes, and to the
application of a preparation of borax as a flux (in the manner herein-after
described) to the ends of such hollow tubular spokes previously to placing
them in the sand mould, and to running the cast iron round them. The said
hollow tubes for spokes, at the same time that they are stronger in proportion

page_text: to their weight than solid bars for spokes, will hold more securely in the cas
iron of the nave and of the rim, because the cast iron running into the
hollows at the ends of the tubes, as well as around the outsides of the tubes,
obtains a much greater surface of contact with the wrought iron than hereto-
5 fore obtained with solid arins, and also the end of each wrought-iron tube
being an extended surface of thin metal, that metal becomes very highly
heated by the melted cast iron when the same is poured into the mould, and
flows round the thin wrought iron on both sides (namely, inside and outside
of the end of the tube) and in consequence of the previous application of
borax to the said ends of the tubes both inside and outside thereof, the borax
acting as a flux to the wrought iron, the heat of the melted cast iron causes
the same to unite and adhere very firmly to the wrought iron, and hence by
my improved mode very strong wheels can be made for railway carriages,
which strong wheels have hitherto been a desideratum for carriages to convey
passengers and goods with that great rapidity of motion which is practised in
travelling on the railway between Liverpool and Manchester. For the violence.
to which the wheels of the carriagess are subjected in such quick travelling, is
so great that no wheels hitherto tried on that railway have been found suffi-
ciently safe and durable; wheels of cast iron with wrought-iron tires are
found liable to crack, and to fly in pieces without any warning, and hence are
dangerous for passengers, and wheels made with solid arms of wrought iron
with naves and rims of cast iron run around the ends of the wrought-iron
arms (without the aid of borax as a flux), but according to the Patent granted
to Mr. Losh and myself in One thousand eight hundred and sixteen, although
hooped on the outside with wrought-iron tires, are found very liable to work
loose at the junctions of the wrought and cast iron, and hence wheels with
cast-iron naves and wooden spokes and fellies surrounded with wrought-iron
tires have been preferred for the carriages to convey passengers on the afore-
said railway, but such wooden wheels wear out very fast, and require con-
tinual repairs, and wheels made according to my improved mode will be found
more durable and safe.
And for the more full explanation of my said improved mode of making
wheels for railway carriages, I have hereunto annexed a Drawing representing.
two wheels, which are made according to that mode. The wheels in Figures
and 2 has twelve hollow spokes of thin wrought iron, each one being made by
turning up a piece of iron plate of a suitable shape, size, and thickness, into
the form of a tapering flattened tube with overlapping edges, which edges are
welded together on a mandril, in the same manner as gun barrels are made,

page_text: except that the tubes are of a flattened oval form as well as tapering, as is
clearly shewn in the Drawing. The said tubes are enlarged a little at each
end in the form of trumpet or bell-mouthis, and are prepared for casting the
cast-iron naves and riin around the ends of them by carefully cleaning the ends
inside and outside from all dirt and loose scales, and then applying a thin
glazing of borax to those ends, either by dipping the ends of each tube in
water, and sprinkling the wetted parts with powder or dust of pounded
borax, so as to cover the surface of the iron inisde and outside of the tubes
with borax nearly as far as the cast iron is intended to join to the wrought
iron; and the said ends so covered with powdered borax are then to be
heated by holding them in the flame of an oven or hollow fire until the
borax becomes fused and flows upon the surface of the wrought iron, so as to
cover the same with a thin glazing or coat of borax; or otherwise, borax may
be melted in a suitable crucible or pot, and the aforesaid ends of the tubes
being heated and dipped into the melted borax will become covered with a
thin glazing or coating of borax, as aforesaid. Note.-The bollows of the said
tubular spokes should be filled up with sand, except at so much of the ends
thereof as are intended to have the cast iron run into the said hollows, and
likewise one or two small holes should be previously drilled through the iron
of each of the oval tapering tubes, in order to let out the air, which might
otherwise become confined within the hollows thereof when the cast iron is
run around their two ends. The mould for casting the iron nave and rim is
formed by the aid of a wooden pattern or model of the same size and shape as
the intended wheel, with its central nave, arms, and rim complete, the pattern
being made in two or more thicknesses, which separate or take apart, as may
be requisite, and the mould being formed of sand ramined hard into two boxes.
which separate and take apart in the usual manner practised by iron founders
for casting wheels in sund with moulding boxes and wood patterus, and when
the patteru is withdrawn from the sand, leaving the cavity or mould therein, the
hollow tubular arms of wrought iron (prepared as aforesaid, are laid into those
cavities of the mould which were left by the arms of the wood pattern with
those ends of the said hollow iron tubular arms which are prepared, as afore-
said, with a glazing of borax projecting into those cavities of the said mould
which were left by the central nave and by the circular rim of the wood
pattern, so that when the melted cast iron is poured into the remaining cavities
of the mould, it will run around and into the said ends of the hollow tubular
arms, where the same are glazed with borax, and will surround the same
both inside and outside of the hollow tubes, whereby the melted cast iron

page_text: will heat the thin wrought iron, of which those tubes are formed, to such a
degree as by the fluxing action of the borax will cause a very firm union to
take place between the ends of the wrought-iron tubes which form the arms of
the wheel, and the cast iron which forms the central nave and the circular
rim thereof.
Figs. 3 and 4 of the Drawing represent another wheel, made according to
my said improved mode. The arms or spokes, which are fourteen in number,
are cylindircal tubes of wrought iron instead of tapering flattened tubes, and
they are not situated in a plane, but one half of the number are dished towards
one side of the wheel, and the intermediate seven spoke are dished towards
the other side of wheel, to give greater lateral strength thereto. In every
other respect the construction of this wheel is the same as that of the wheel,
Figures 1 and 2. Note.-It will be necessary to insert three cores of dry sand
across that cavity of the sand mould which is left for casting the circular rim
of the wheel, whereby the said rim, when cast, will be formed in three distinct
segments with small intervals between the ends of them, in order to allow for
that contraction of the cast iron, which must take place in cooling from a fluid
state till it becomes cold. The intervals between the said three segments are
afterwards filled up with iron keys, accurately fitted therein, and they may be
fastued by rivetting if necessary, and thus a wheel with a firm circular rim is
formed, and around that wheel the wrought-iron hoop or tire is applied when
hot, that it may contract or shrink and fasten upon the cast-iron rim in cool-
ing. Note. The cast-iron rim of the wheel may be cast hollow, as represented
in the section, by placing dry sand cores in the mould in proper positions to
occupy the middle part of the cavity left by the circular rim of the pattern,
according to the mode usually practised by founders in like cases.
It is needless to enter into any further description of the mode of moulding
or casting such wheels, because all competent iron founders are accustomed to
such operations, and because my improved mode of making wheels for railway
carriages consists merely in the use of hollow wrought-iron tubes for the spokes
of such wheels, and in preparing the ends of such hollow tubes with a glazing
of melted borax applied inside and outside at all the parts which are intended
to join to the cast iron, in order that the borax may act as a flux to the
wrought iron, to cause it to unite firmly to the cast iron, which is run or cast
around the ends of the said hollow spokes to form the central nave and the
circular rim of the wheel. The dimensions of the wheels represented in the
Drawing may be found by measuring from the scale. They are five feet dia-
meter, and are adapted for the wheels of a locomotive steam engine which

page_text: weighs eight tons, the wheels being turned round by the power of the engine.
in order to advance the engine along the railway. Wheels for other kinds of
railways carriages may be made. according to the same Drawings, by appor-
tioning their dimensions to the purpose for which they are intended, and with
strength corresponding to the load they are required to carry.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Stephenson, have hereunto set.
my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of August, One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-one