IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR ROLLING OR DRAWING METALS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES, PARTLY APPLICABLE TO THE COVERING OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES, AND TO THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE AND OTHER ROPES
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Campbell Evans, of the Morden Iron Works,
East Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR ROLLING OR DRAWING
METALS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES, PARTLY APPLICABLE TO THE COVERING OF
ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES, AND TO THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE AND OTHER
ROPES."
Sealed the 21st December 1860, and dated the 27th Juno 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Campbell Evans at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th June 1860.
I, JOHN CAMPBELL EVANS, of the Morden Iron Works, East Greenwich, in
the County of Kent, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR ROLLING OR
DRAWING METALS AND OTHER SUBSTANCES, PARTLY APPLICABLE TO THE COVERING
OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH CABLES, AND TO THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE AND OTHER
ROPES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar arrangement of rolls for rolling
wire or round bars or rods of metal, or other substances capable of
being shaped by a rolling process, which peculiar arrangement is also
partly applicable to the covering of electric telegraph cables, and to the

page_text: manufacture of wire and other ropes, and consists in the application and
use of three or more rolls driven by suitable gearing, the axes of which
are at any angle with the substance under treatment less than a right
angle, the metal rod or other substance operated upon being passed through
the aperture formed by the contiguous sides or surfaces of the rolls, which
by reason of their angular position as regards the material under treatment
will not only roll, and so reduce such substance, but will at the same
time draw or feed such substance along thereby, in the case of rope-making,
or in the covering of cables dispensing with the mechanism hitherto em-
ployed for drawing forward the cable or rope as it is covered or twisted. In
the manufacture of ordinary hempen rope these peculiarly disposed rolls may
be used solely for drawing forward the rope, and will also compress the strands
together at the same time. The standards or supports which carry the rolls
may be either stationary or made to revolve as required. It is not essential
that the whole of the surfaces, which act upon the substance under treatment
should be rolling surfaces, as one or more stationary flat surfaces may be used
in combination with the angularly disposed rolls; but I prefer to employ
rolling surfaces only. Those rollers may be either parallel or conical or of any
other desired form.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Campbell Evans in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
27th December 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
CAMPBELL EVANS, of the Morden Iron Works, East Greenwich, in the County
of Kent, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Campbell Evans, Her special licence that I, the said John Campbell
Evans, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Campbell Evans, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IM-

page_text: PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR ROLLING OR DRAWING METALS AND
OTHER SUBSTANCES, PARTLY APPLICABLE TO THE COVERING OF ELECTRIC TELEGRAPH
CABLES, AND TO THE MANUFACTURE OF WIRE AND OTHER ROPES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Campbell Evans, my executors or admi-
nistrators, 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 Inven-
tion, 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 Campbell Evans, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to a peculiar arrangement of rolls for rolling or
drawing round bars or rods of metal or other substances capable of being
shaped or reduced by a rolling process, which peculiar arrangement is also
partly applicable to the covering of electric telegraph cables, and to the manu-
facture of wire and other ropes.
This peculiar arrangement consists in the employment of three or more rolls
driven by suitable gearing, the axes of which rolls are placed at any angle with
the substance to be rolled or operated upon less than a right angle, but I prefer
that this angle be very slight, so as to be nearer to a parallel position with the
article operated upon than to a right angle. The metal rod or other article
to be operated upon is introduced into the aperture formed by the conjunction of
the contiguous sides or surfaces of the three rolls, which by reason of their angular
position as regards the material under treatment will not only roll it of a cir-
cular form or section, reducing it more or less in diameter, but will at the
same time propel or feed such material along, thereby, in the case of rope-
making, or in the covering or lapping of submarine electric telegraph cables,
dispensing with the mechanism hitherto employed for drawing forward the
cable or rope as fast as it is covered or twisted. In the manufacture of ordi-
nary hempen rope these peculiarly disposed rolls may be used solely for
drawing forward the rope whilst they simultaneously compress the strands
together and consolidate the mass of fibres. The standards or supports, which
carry the rolls may be either stationary or made to revolve as required. 1
may here observe also that it not essential that the whole of the surfaces
which act upon the article or substance under treatment should be rolling
surfaces, as one or more stationary rolls or surfaces might be used in combina-

page_text: tion with the angularly disposed rolls; but I prefer to make them all rolling
surfaces. The rolls above referred to may of course be of any derived form
according to the work to be produced, for example, in the rolling of a screw
thread on a metal blank, I propose to use rolls baving grooves or rings made
in them, which grooves produce the desired form of thread upon the blank
when submitted to their action, as I shall hercin-after more fully explain.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Sheet of Drawings represents a diagram
shewing the peculiar arrangement of rolls herein-before referred to, and Figure 2
is an end view thereof.
A, A, A, are three rolls which are fitted into any suitable supports or bearings
and are disposed longitudinally with in place of transversely or at right angles
to the axial line of the material to be rolled or otherwise treated; but in lieu
of being perfectly parallel to such axial line they are cach disposed at a slight
angle thereto, as shown by the diagrams above referred to, so that in their
rotation they not only act upon the surface of the article to be rolled or
otherwise treated, (which is inserted at the central aperture a, (Figure 2)
bounded by the contiguous surfaces of the rolls,) in a manner so as to compress
its particles towards its centre, and roll it in a circular section, but by reason of
their slight angularity they have a tendency during their rotation to propel or
feed forward the article or material under treatment. It is obvious that if these
rolls were placed perfectly parallel to the axis of the article being rolled or
treated they would have no tendency to feed forward or propel the same,
whilst if they were placed at right angles to the axis of such article they would
no longer have a tendency to roll the article of a circular section, but would
simply flatten the same.
Now the essential feature of this peculiar arrangement of rolls which
constitutes my present Invention is that it combines the functions of rolls
working transversely to and parallel with the axial line of the article under
treatment.
Figure 3 represents a longitudinal vertical section of a machine provided
with rolls arranged in the manner described in reference to Figures 1 and 2,
and adapted for the rolling of screws and screw bolts; Figure 4 is a front
view of the same; and Figure 5 is a plan of the machine complete. A is the
bed-plate, upon which are bolted the three standards B, C, and D; the
standards B and C carry bearings, in which works the main driving shaft E
of the machine. This shaft is provided with the ordinary fast and loose
driving pullies F, F, or other suitable contrivance for actuating the same, and
carries also at its front end a spur pinion G and mitre pinion H, shewn clearly
in Figure 5. On the standard B are three spherical bearings i, in which the

page_text: back ends of the roller spindles K, K, K, rotate; similar spherical bearings k
support the front ends of the roller spindles, as is clearly shewn in Figure 3; but
these last-mentioned bearings are contained in sliding plummer blocks L, L, L,
(Figure 4), each block being fitted to slide freely in a radiating slot made in
the front standard D. This admits of the three rolls M, M, M, fitted on to
the front end of the spindles K being separated from and brought towards cach
other so as to allow of a screw blank being readily inserted between them at
the central opening marked a, in Figures 2 and 4, and then gripped by them
when in the act of being rolled. The rotatory motion of the rolls is derived
from the mitre pinion H, which gears into the three corresponding mitre
pinions N, N, fast on the three roller spindles K. The adjustment of the
three rolls further from or nearer to cach other is accomplished by means of
the three screw spindles 0, 0, 0, which are severally connected at their
inner ends to the three spherical bearings k, k, k, whilst their outer ends
work in the internal screwed bosses of the level wheels P, P, P, on turning
which the screw spindles, with their spherical bearings, will slide in or out
according to the direction of rotation of the bevel wheels. Motion is imparted
simultaneously to all these bevel wheels by the large bevel wheel Q (into which
they gear, which consists simply of a rim fitted in two halves on the protruding
boss g, at the back of the front standard D. This wheel Q has a partial
rotatory motion imparted to it by the lever R, which works on a centre at S,
and is connected by the link T with the rim Q, as shewn clearly in Figure 4.
The free end of this lever is provided with a stud r, which is acted upon so as
to be depressed by a stud in the side of the wheel U, thereby simultaneously
raising the opposite end of the lever, and turning the wheel or rim Q in such
a direction as to cause the rolls to close in and grip the blank placed between
them.
I do not confine myself, however, to this self-acting arrangement for closing
the rolls, as various other mechanical contrivances may be adopted. The
blank having been screwed and discharged from the machine by the twofold
action of the rolls herein-before referred to the rolls are separated or opened
slightly to admit of another blank being introduced. The wheel U receives
its motion from the pinion G, through the intervention of the spur wheels V
and W. If it should be required to change the pitch of the screws to be
rolled, it is simply necessary to alter the angle of the rolls, and this I accom-
plish by turning slightly, or adjusting in a circular direction the front bracket
or standard D, the base of which is curved for that purpose, as shewn at d, in
Figure 4.
This variation of the angle of the several rolls is fully allowed for by tho

page_text: spherical bearings herein-before described. I do not confine myself to any par-
ticular form of roll, but the form I have shewn in my Drawing, namely, a
disc having an annular V-groove cut in its periphery, I have found to answer
well in the rolling of screw threads, the section of the thread corresponding of
course to that of the groove in the rolls. By using plain rolls, rods or bars
may be drawn or rolled by this machine.
Figures 6 and 7 represent respectively a longitudinal section and end view
of a modified mode of employing my angularly disposed rolls. In this arrange-
ment the rolls A not only rotate on their own axes, but revolve round the
article to be rolled or otherwise operated upon, which article in this case does
not itself rotate. The rolls A are contained in the revolving metal block or
pulley B, which is rotated by a driving belt C, or by gearing or any other
suitable contrivance. This pulley works in fixed bearings D, D, on one of
which is formed the mitro wheel E; into this wheel, which remains stationary,
gear the mitre wheels F fast respectively on the ends of the roller spindles, so
that on rotating the pulley the whole of the rolls receive a simultaneous
rotatory motion on their own axes and round the article to be operated upon,
which is introduced through the central aperture a made from end to end of
the pulley.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Campbell Evans, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of December, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty.
JOHN CAMPBELL EVANS. (L.S.)