AN IMPROVED ARRANGEMENT OF GEARING FOR ROLLING MILLS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Anderson, of Erith, in the County of
Kent, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED ARRANGEMENT OF
GEARING FOR ROLLING MILLS."
Sealed the 6th September 1870, and dated the 2nd May 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Anderson at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 2nd May 1870.
I, WILLIAM ANDERSON, of Erith, in the County of Kent, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
ARRANGEMENT OF GEARING FOR ROLLING MILLS," to be as follows:-
The chief object of this Invention is to diminish the strain upon the
axles and gearing of rolling mills for the purpose of diminishing friction
on the journals and bearings, and pressure on the teeth of the wheels,
and for saving driving power and lessening the risk of breakage. This
I effect by transmitting the power from the driving shaft through trains
of gearing which severally deliver the power to their respective rolls,
thereby ensuring that each roll shaft shall receive only the amount of
power required to drive its roll.

page_text: Supposing the rolling mill to which my improvements are applied
to consist of one upper and two lower rolls, I mount the lower rolls in
bearings set at right angles to radius lines drawn from a common centre
below those rolls, and in the same vertical plane as the axis of the top
roll. This arrangement allows of the lateral adjustment of the lower
rolls without interfering with the action of the gearing, which I will
now describe.
On the axle of each roll I mount a spur wheel (all of corresponding
pitch), and on an axle below the lower rolls (its axis corresponding in
position with the point from which the radius lines before mentioned
were drawn) is mounted a pair of pinions, which pinions gear into the
spur wheels on the axles of the lower rolls. At the opposite end of
this axle is a wheel with internal teeth, and gearing into the teeth of
this wheel is a pinion on the main driving shaft. The second pinion
on this shaft gears into a spur wheel, the axle of which carries a pinion
The motion
in gear with the spur wheel on the axle of the top roll.
therefore communicated to the rolling mill from the driving shaft will be
transmitted to the spur wheels on the axles of the rolls through their
respective spur pinions, and consequently the risk of strain and torsion
to those axles will be diminished to a minimum. The advantage of
mounting the lower rolls as described is that a very considerable
variation of space between the rolls may be obtained without affecting
the depth of gear of the wheels.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Anderson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st November 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
ANDERSON, of Erith, in the County of Kent, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of May, in the year 3
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 me, the said William Anderson, Her special licence
that I, the said William Anderson, my executors, administrators, and

page_text: assigns, or such others as I, the said William Anderson, 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 "AN IMPROVED
ARRANGEMENT OF GEARING FOR ROLLING MILLS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Anderson, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 William Anderson, 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 Drawings here-
unto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is
to say) :—
The chief object of this Invention is to diminish the strain upon the
axles and gearing of rolling mills for the purpose of diminishing friction
on the journals and bearings, and pressure on the teeth of the wheels,
and for saving driving power and lessening the risk of breakage. This
I effect by transmitting the power from the driving shaft through trains
of gearing which severally deliver the power to their respective rolls,
thereby ensuring that each roll shaft shall receive only the amount of
power required to drive its roll. Supposing the rolling mill to which my
improvements are applied to consist of one upper and two lower rolls,
I mount the lower rolls in bearings which are made capable of sliding
at right angles, or nearly so, to a mean radius line drawn from a common
centre below those rolls up through the axles of their respective rolls,
such centre being in the same vertical plane as the axis of the top roll.
In the accompanying Drawings I have shewn in illustration of my
Invention a rolling mill fitted with three rolls and intended to be used
for crushing sugar cane; Fig. 1 is a plan view of this machine, and
Fig. 2 is a transverse section in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 1.

page_text: This machine consists of a bed plate A to which are bolted the side
frames B, B. These frames are fitted with bearings C, C, C, which
carry the shafts of the three rolls C'. Keyed on the respective roll shafts
are the spur wheels D, D, D, which are actuated by three pinions
E, E¹, E². Two of these pinions E and E¹ are keyed on the second
motion shaft F which passes under the bed plate A, and is supported
in bearings provided for the purpose. The third pinion E is keyed to
the upper second motion shaft G, the ends of which are carried in
plummer blocks secured one to one of the side frames B, and the other
to a strong standard H. Upon the second motion shaft F is keyed the
annular or internal spur wheel I, and on the second motion shaft G
is keyed the spur wheel K. Into the teeth of these wheels gear the
pinions L, L, keyed on the shaft M, which is connected with the prime
mover. The bearings of the two lower rolls are adjustable, and by
means of wedge and screw or any other well-known contrivance can
be made to approach to or recede from the upper roll so as to vary the
space between the rolls. The grooves in which these bearings work, it
will be seen, will lie at right angles to the lines connecting the centres
of mean positions of the two lower roll shafts c, c, and of the second
motion shaft F. The moderate motion therefore of adjustment required
will not practically affect the accuracy of the gear, the pitch lines of
the wheels and pinions not being sensibly affected in their relative
positions to each other, and this is one of the advantages claimed for
the Invention. This advantage is still more evident where one pair
of rolls is wider apart than the other, and yet on the. ordinary system
necessarily connected by wheels of the same diameter, so that one pair
works in one depth of gear, and the other at a different depth, while
by my system the gearing can be accurately arranged.
Another advantage is that a great width of cog or tooth can be
brought into action, the three wheels, though each of moderate width,
not more than capable of allowing the teeth to be well fitted to each
other, yet in the aggregate present a very broad surface, by which means
the pressure per inch wide of the teeth is kept within any desired
limits.
Another advantage is that the wheels D, D, D, may be made of any
convenient diameter instead of being limited to that of the rolls, as in
the ordinary system, by which means the pressure both on the teeth and
in the journals is greatly diminished.

page_text: Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved
Arrangement of Gearing for Rolling Mills," and explained the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under
the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim driving the rolls of
rolling mills by independent gearing in contradistinction to taking
the motion of one roll from the shaft of the other, in the manner and
for the purpose above described.
In witness whereof I, the said William Anderson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the 31st day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.