IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARMOUR AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS PLATES MANUFACTURE." EMPLOYED IN SUCH
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Claridge, of Bilston, in the County of
Stafford, and Joshua Jeavons, of Sheffield, in the County of York,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF ARMOUR
AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
PLATES
MANUFACTURE."
EMPLOYED IN SUCH
Sealed the 15th September 1870, and dated the 24th March 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Claridge and
Joshua Jeavons at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 24th March 1870.
We, THOMAS CLARIDGE, of Bilston, in the County of Stafford, and
JOSHUA JEAVONS, of Sheffield, in the County of York, do hereby declare
the nature of our said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF ARMOUR PLATES AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN BUCH
MANUFACTURE," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to the bending of wrought-iron armour plates to
any required form whilst hot and ductile, and during or immediately after
the process of rolling.

page_text: In carrying out our Invention for bending plates longitudinally we
employ cramps or bearing bars at one or both sides of a pair of armour
plate rolls between the housings, with rollers capable of bearing against
and supporting the under surface of the armour plate to be bent when
it is between the rolls, suitable means being provided for altering the
heights of the cramps and rollers relatively to the rolls, so that on the
rolls being set in motion the act of passing through them will curve the
plates in the direction of its length.
In combination with the above, or separately, either or both sides of
the rolls are provided with swinging arms or pendants, formed of bars,
chains, or other suitable materials and attached at their upper ends to
axes or centres, fixed or situated above the rolls, the lower ends of these
arms or pendants being fitted with hooks or grips suitably placed to
receive either one or both the ends of a plate as they issue from the rolls
during the process of rolling, or in passing the plate through the rolls
after it has been made to the required thickness, thereby compelling the
plate to follow the curve in which the lower ends of the arms or pendants
move. The lengths of the arms or pendants may be adjusted to the
positions of the axes to suit any curve required in the plate. We also
provide in some cases for keeping the axes in position, and for keeping
the arms of the proper length during the operation of bending, by
the action of a weight or other means, so arranged as to give way on
the occurrence of a strain likely to endanger the machinery or
apparatus.
In bending plates transversely, in addition to the above described
apparatus and for use in conjunction with it, suitable means are provided
for pressing down the upper surface of the plate as it passes through the
rolls in parts where it is not supported by the rollers previously
described as attached to the cramps or bearing bars; this is effected by
introducing adjustable cross bearers and rollers above the plate.
For producing a twist or varying amount of bend in a plate a gradual
change may be made in the relative heights of the two ends of any of
the rollers described above simultaneously with the passage of the plate
through the rolls.
The various changes of height required in the rollers above described
may be produced by means of hydraulic or steam power and machinery
or gearing, or in some cases by hand.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Claridge and Joshua Jeavons in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th September 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, THOMAS
CLARIDGE, of Bilston, in the County of Stafford, and JOSHUA JEAVONS,
of Sheffield, in the County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Thomas Claridge and Joshua Jeavons,
Her special license that we, the said Thomas Claridge and Joshua
Jeavons, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said Thomas Claridge and Joshua Jeavons, our executors,
administrators, or 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 MANU-
PACTURE OF ARMOUR PLATES AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN
SUCH MANUFACTURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
Thomas Claridge and Joshua Jeavons, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of one of us, 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 Scal
Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Thomas Claridge and Joshua
Jeavons, do hereby declare the nature of our 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 accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon, that is to say :-
Our said Invention relates to the bending of wrought-iron armour
plates to any required form whilst hot and ductile, and during or
immediately after the process of rolling.

page_text: In carrying out our Invention for bending plates longitudinally, we
employ cramps or bearing bars at one or both sides of a pair of armour
plate rolls between the housings, with rollers capable of bearing against
and supporting the under surface of the armour plate to be bent when
it is between the rolls, suitable means being provided for altering the
heights of the cramps and rollers relatively to the rolls, so that on the
rolls being set in motion the act of passing through them will curve
the plate in the direction of its length.
In combination with the above, or separately, and on either one or
both sides of the rolls, there are provided swinging arms or pendants
formed of bars, chains, or other suitable contrivances, which are attached
at their upper ends to axes or centres fixed or situated above the rolls.
The lower ends of these arms or pendants are fitted with hooks or grips
suitably placed to receive either one or both the ends of a plate as they
issue from the rolls during the process of rolling, or in passing the plate
through the rolls after it has been made to the required thickness,
thereby compelling the plate to follow the curve in which the lower ends
of the arms or pendants move. The lengths of the arms or pendants
may be adjusted to the position of the axes to suit any curve required in
the plate. We also provide in some cases for keeping the axes in position
and for keeping the arms of the proper length during the operation of
bending by the action of a weight or other means, so arranged as to give
way on the occurrence of a strain likely to endanger the machinery or
apparatus.
In bending plates transversely, in addition to the above described.
apparatus and for use in conjunction with it, suitable means are provided
for pressing down the upper surface of the plate as it passes through
the rolls in parts where it is not supported by the rollers previously
described as attached to the cramps or bearing bars; this is effected by
introducing adjustable cross hearers and rollers above the plate.
For producing a twist or varying amount of bend in a plate, a gradual
change may be made in the relative heights of the two ends of any of
the rollers described above simultaneously with the passage of the plate
through the rolls.
The various changes of height required in the rollers above described
may be produced by means of hydraulic or steam power and machinery
or wearing or in some cases by hand.

page_text: And in order that our said Invention may be fully understood we
shall now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that
purpose shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheets of
Drawings, the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in
all the corresponding Figures.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 (Sheet 1) illustrate the mode of bending at one
operation by additional adjustable rollers impinging upon both the under
and upper surface of the plates.
Figures 4, 5, and 6, illustrate the mode of bending the plates by
means of two additional under rollers and the pressure of the top main
roll.
Figures 7 and 8 (Sheet 2) illustrate the mode of bending the plates
by means of radial motion.
Figure 1 (Sheet 1) represents a front elevation; Figure 2, a plan;
and Figure 3, a cross section through the rolls, shewing the general
arrangements for bending the plates by means of rollers placed in front
and behind the main rolls to operate upon the plate the last time it
passes through the rolls.
A, A, are the main standards or housings in which the rolls work, and
which are for the most part of the ordinary construction, but for the
present purpose they have slot holes and other suitable provisions made
for the proper carrying out of our Invention; B, B, shew the slot holes;
C, C, are the main rolls for reducing the plate to its proper thickness,
and which aro reversible by the driving gear; D, D, are the cramps or
bearing bars carrying the additional rollers d, d', which are adjustable
to the heights and positions required by means of the screws E, E, which
work in screwed nuts having swivel ends coupled to the ends of the
cramp or bearing bars, as shewn at F, F. The screws are made to
revolve and thereby raise (or lower the cramp bars or bearers and rollers
either parallel or at any angle that may be required to bend the plates.
These screws are actuated by means of tangent wheels G, G, which are
driven by means of tangent screws H, H, made to revolve by the
handles I, I. The brackets J, J, serve to carry the spindles or axes of
the tangent screws. The upper roller d" is carried in independent
cramps or bearer bars D', D', and bears upon the centre line of the
plate so as to bend the latter transversly, as shewn clearly in Figures
1 and 3.

page_text: Figures 4, 5, and 6 are three views, similar in all respects to Figures
1, 2, and 3, on the same sheet, but they also shew an additional pair of
bearers and rollers, having one pair d and d' on each side of the main
rolls.
The bending of the plates by this arrangement is effected gradually in
the following manner :-After the plate is rolled and reduced to its
proper thickness, the cramps or bearing bars D, D, and rollers d, d,
are raised by the screws E, E, and caused to impinge upon the under
surface only of the plate. The main rolls are now set in motion, and by
the action of the reversing driving gear cause the plate to traverse to
and fro, and simultaneously the rollers d and d' are raised by means
of the screws and wheels as before described, and thereby made to
impinge upon the under surface of the plate until it is bent to the proper
curve required. This plan does not shew the upper bearers and rollers,
but they may be used on both sides of the rolls in conjunction with the
bottom rollers, in order to curve the plate transversely, or we sometimes
prefer to curve the plate in the transverse direction after it is curved
in the longitudinal direction by means of a lever or strips of iron in the
following manner:-We raise the top main roll off the plate, and lay
upon the plate a strip of iron, in thickness equal to the deflection that is
required to be given to the plate in the transverse direction. We then
bring down the top roll, which first impinges on the strip of iron, the
rolls are then set in motion as before, and simultaneously pressure is put
on by the top roll, which impinges on the strip until the plate is deflected
transversely to the required degree. When plates require to be curved
transversely only, the arrangement in Figure 1 may be altered by putting
the two side rollers d, d, in the top bearer, and the middle roller d' in
the bottom bearer.
Figures 7 and 8 (Sheet 2) illustrate another arrangement for bending
armour plates. The housings or standards and rolls are similar to those
shewn in Figures 1 to 6, (Sheet 1,) but the apparatus for bending is of
a different construction, inasmuch as instead of having rollers to impinge
upon the plates we adopt a radial or pendent motion obtained from bars,
chains, or other suitable contrivance, having a hook or hooks at the end
which catches up the plate as it leaves the rolls and carries it in a
curvilinear direction, the line of the curve being regulated by the length
of the pendant. The pendant is adjustable in length to suit the curve
required, and may be described as follows:-A, A, is the lower end of

page_text: the said pendant having a hook or hooks, as shewn, to grip the end of
the plate, the top end being suspended by a gudgeon; the top end of the
pendant is screwed and has nuts for regulating and adjusting it to the
length required. This screw end of the pendant passes through a hole
provided for it in the gudgeon; the gudgeon has sliding blocks at each
end which serve as the centre or axis for the gudgeon to turn on.
These blocks, which are precisely similar to the ordinary slide blocks of
a horizontal engine, work in slot holes provided in the main frames B, B,
and they are provided with screws and handles C, C, passing through
the top or bottom of these main frames, the ends of the screws being
attached to the slide blocks in order to raise or lower the centre of the
gudgeon or axis of of the pendant, and thereby regulate or adjust this
radius in conjunction with the pendant to the curve to which it is
required to bend the plate. The main frames which carry the axes of
the pendants are supported and attached to the housings or standards by
suitable cross bearers or other convenient appliances as shewn at D, D.
Figure 9 (Sheet 3) represents a front elevation of an armour-plate
bending machine, shewing another mode of carrying the guide rollers,
and the attaching of guards by hinged joints to the cramps or bearing
bars; Figure 10 is a corresponding sectional plan of the same;
Figure 11 is an end elevation thereof corresponding to Figure 9; and
Figure 12 is a transverse vertical section taken along the line 1-2 in
Figure 9.
A, A, are the main standards and C, C, are the main rolls; D, D,
are the vertically adjustable horizontal cramps or bearing bars, carrying
the guide rollers d and d' herein-before referred to, and guards e, e',
which latter consist of bars attached at their outer ends by hinged joints
atff, to the said cramps or bearing bars, the pins f,f', serving also as
the axes of the guide rollers d, d'. The inner ends of the guards e, e',
are tapered off, and rest upon the surface of the lower main roll C, as
clearly shewn in Figure 12. These guards e, e', carry other guide
rollers and supported on axes situate near the inner ends of the
guards e, c', whereby facility is afforded for placing the said guide
rollers &, d, nearer to the main rolls than would be practicable by the
arrangement previously described and illustrated on Sheets 1 and 2 of
our Drawings. By thus bringing the additional guide rollers & and ď
close up to the main rolls the bend of the plates may be continued nearer
to their extremities. The cramps or bearing bars D, D, with the guards

page_text: and guide rollers in connection therewith are raised and lowered more or
less in the slots B, B, according to the amount of bend to be put into
the plates by means of the vertical screw spindles E working through
nuts F carried in the ends of the bearing bars, such spindles being
actuated by means of tangent screws II, II, carried in the brackets J and
worked by the handles I, I, such tangent screws gearing into worm or
tangent wheels G, G, fast on the upper ends of the screw spindles E, E.
The pressure of the upper roll C is adjusted by means of the gearing K
and hand wheels L, L, but we lay no claim to this mode of actuating
the adjusting screws as other well-known arrangements may obviously
be applied. The height of the fulcrum or pivot of the radial or pendent
arm M is adjusted by means of the hand wheels N, N, attached to the
screw spindles O, O, which work through the slide P. d' and dare two
outer guide rollers fast on the shafts do and d², which shafts work in
brackets d³ secured to the outer bearing bars. A positive rotatory motion
is imparted to the rollers d' or &, according as one or the other set of
such rollers is acting for the time being as the entering or feeding rollers
for introducing the plate between the two main rolls C, C. This motion
is derived from the frictional contact of a grooved friction pulley Q, fast
on one end of the lower main roll C with an intermediate A-edged 1
friction wheel R, R', capable of being raised or lowered by the lever
handles and links S, S¹, so as to bring one or the other, as the case
may be, into or out of gear with its corresponding V grooved friction
pulley T or T fast on the outer ends of the shafts do and d², all of which
is shown clearly in Figure 11, where the friction pulley T¹ is shown in
gear and the opposite pulley T out of action so as to drive the guide
rollers d³ on the front or entering side of the machine, and thereby
facilitate the entrance of the armour plate to be operated upon whilst
the opposite corresponding guide rollers d' remain stationary.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our 3
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, we would observe in conclusion that what we consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The system or mode of bending armour plates at one operation 3
by means of adjustable rollers impinging upon the under and upper

page_text: as herein-before described and illustrated by Figures 1, 2, and 3 of our
Drawings.
Second. The system or mode of bending armour plates by means of
adjustable rollers impinging upon the under side of the plate in con-
junction with the pressure of the top main rolls, substantially as herein-
before described and illustrated by Figures 4, 5, and 6 (Sheet 2) of our
Drawings.
Third. The system or mode of bending armour plates by the
application and use of a radial motion combined with adjustable
guide rollers and the ordinary rolls, substantially as herein-before
described and illustrated by Figures 7 and 8 of our Drawings.
Fourth. The construction of rolling mills with additional adjustable
rollers d, d³, d², Œ¾³, d', and d³, substantially as and for the purpose herein-
before described and illustrated by our Drawings.
Fifth. The constructing of rolling mills with a radial or pendent arm
or other equivalent contrivance, substantially as and for the purpose
hercin-before described and illustrated by our Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joshua Jeavons, on behalf of
myself and of the said Thomas Claridge, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, this 22nd day of September
One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
JOSHUA JEAVONS. (L.S.)