AN IMPROVED RAILWAY WHEEL, WHICH MAY ALSO BE EMPLOYED FOR OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Wharton Rye, of Miles Platting, near Manchester,
in the County of Lancaster, Ironfounder, for the Invention of "AN
IMPROVED RAILWAY WHEEL, WHICH MAY ALSO BE EMPLOYED FOR OTHER SIMILAR
PURPOSES."
Sealed the 6th November 1855, and dated the 16th May 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Wharton Rye at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th May 1855.
I, WHARTON RYE, of Miles Platting, near Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Ironfounder, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED RAILWAY WHEEL, WHICH MAY ALSO BE EMPLOYED FOR OTHER SIMILAR
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
My improved wheel is formed or composed of two circular wrought-iron
plates, a circular piece being taken out of the centre, and their sides hollowed
or dished out from their periphery towards the centre, their convex sides being
placed together, or, as it were, back to back, and then the rim of the wheel
and the boss or pave of the wheel cast upon or around the two wrought-iron
plates, thus combining the whole together, the rim being "chilled" in the
casting, and the nave merely requiring boring out.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Wharton Rye in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th November 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WHARTON
RYE, of Miles Platting, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Iron-
founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One.
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Wharton Rye, Her especial license that I, the said Wharton Rye, my
executors, adininistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Wharton
Rye, 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 RAILWAY WHEEL,
WHICH MAY ALSO BE EMPLOYED FOR OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES," upon the condition,
amongst others, that I, the said Wharton Rye, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 Wharton Rye, 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
and accompanying Drawing (that is to say):-
My improved wheel is formed or composed of two or more wrought-iron
plates, a circular piece being taken out of the centre, and their sides hollowed
or dished out from their periphery towards the centre, their convex surfaces
being placed together, or, as it were, opposed to each other back to back, and
then the rim of the wheel and the boss or nave of the wheel cast upon or
mend the wrought-iron plutes, thus combining the whole together, the rim
being "chilled" in the casting, and the nave merely requiring boring out
and finishing.
In order that this Invention may be the better understood and explained in

page_text: detail, I have hereunto attached a Sheet of Drawing, shewing a wagon wheel
made upon a scale of about four inches to a foot, and having marked upon the
several Figures shewn the same letters of reference on corresponding parts of
the railway wheel. Fig. 1. represents a wrought-iron plate, being a segmental
part of the entire set of eight such plates, required to form the wheel repre-
sented, and shewing the holes or perforations punched or bored in the plate,
through and round which the molten metal forms a permanent mass in the
casting of the rim and nave of the wheel; Fig. 2 exhibits a front elevation
of a railway waggon wheel constructed according to this Invention, and in this
instance eight segments of wrought-iron plates, similar to Fig. 1, are employed;
Fig. 3 represents a section taken through Fig. 2. (In this Figure the wrought-
iron plates are shaded blue, and the cast iron neutral tint.) In the manufac
ture of the wheel as represented at Fig. 2, the mould of the rim a is first
properly formed in the sand, when it is necessary to arrange and place the eight
wrought-iron plates b, b, b, b, and c, c, c, c, four being upper and four lower
plates, in such a manner that they may "break joints" (as shewn in dots),
their convex surfaces meeting in contact with cach other, as shewn at c',
Fig. 3, their outer peripheries being disposed so as to allow of their entire
encasement by the molten metal of the rim a when cast, (this may be effected
as soon as the mould is properly secured,) when the rim a may be allowed to
cool. The wheel being so far advanced, it is now necessary to prepare a mould
for the nave or boss d. This is effected in the ordinary manner, but while in its
progressive state, at the appropriate time the rim a, with the plates cast in
it, is placed concentrically to the mould of the navo or boss d, the inner
peripheries of the plates extending within the diameter of the boss or nave d,
a slight space being left between each of the plates to allow for contraction in
the boss, so that in the casting of the boss or nave d (when the mould is
completed) the molten metal may fill up the perforations of the plates at their
inner peripheries, and bind or combine them with the nave or boss in one solid
mass, in a similar manner to that described in the casting of the rim a. The
wheel is now completed with the exception of the boring out and finishing of
the nave. e, e, e, exhibit the holes or perforations of the plates for the passage
of the cast metal, as before mentioned.
Having now described the nature of this Invention, and the manner in
which the same may be performed, I wish it to be perfectly understood that
I claim the construction of a wheel formed by the combination of boiler or
other wrought-iron plate or plates and cast iron, the plate or plates employed
being pierced or perforated, and inserted in the boss and rim of the wheel, so

page_text: as to allow the metal used for casting the rim and boss to pass through the
perforations of the plates, and thus firmly to unite or combine the rim, plates,
and boss of the wheel together in one mass, as herein particularly described
and set forth, and fully illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Wharton Rye, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
WHARTON RYE. (LS.)