CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SHEETS OR PLATES OF IRON FOR CERTAIN PURPOSES
Year: 1850

page_text: WALKER'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WALKER, of Wednesbury, in the County of Stafford, Ironmaster, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by
Her Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of March, in the thirteenth
year of Her reign, and in the year One thousand eight hundred and fifty,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Walker, Her special license, full power, sole privilege and
authority, that I, the said Thomas Walker, my exors, adñors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Thomas Walker, my exors, adñors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at
all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF SHEETS OR PLATES OF IRON FOR CERTAIN PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said Thomas Walker, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the
date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Walker, 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 hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon
(that is to say) -
My Invention of certain improvements in the manufacture of sheets or plates
of iron for certain purposes relates, in the first place, to the manufacture of sheets
or plates of iron such as are commonly known as bridge plates, and boiler plates;
and in the second place, to the manufacture of sheets or plates of iron such
as are used for the links of the chains of suspension bridges, or for purposes
in which plates may be required of width not uniform, or of varying width at
different parts, according to the particular purpose to which the plates are to be
applied. The manufacture of sheets or plates of iron such as bridge plates and
oiler plates as heretofore generally practised is as follows:-The iron, when
at the proper heat for rolling, is passed in the same direction through rolls revolv-
ing continually in the same direction until reduced to the required thickness,
the sides and ends or edges of the plate are then cut with shears, and in cases
where accuracy is required, afterwards filed or planed smooth and true, so as
to admit of the plates being accurately fitted together; the cutting of the
plates with shears, and the filing and planing the edges when cold, is a tedious
and expensive process; and my improvement in the manufacture of such plates
consists in attaining the requisite thickness, uniformity of size, and accuracy of
edge in a more expeditious and economical manner, so that bridge plates and
boiler plates may be applied to various purposes from which they have been
excluded hitherto. The manner in which this is performed is as follows:-
I arrange the machinery for the manufacture in such manner as that the plates
may be passed at each successive rolling or passage of the plate through the
rolls in a direction opposite to the preceding, and may be cut, when hot, as they
leave the rolls at the edges by circular saws to the required size; the plates
being thus finished at one heating and before the heat has left them.
The arrangements for reversing the rotatory motion of the rolls after each
passage of the metal consists of a series of fast and loose toothed wheels and
sliding crab so fixed that the rolls, instead of moving continuously, shall be
reversed as the metal leaves the rolls, and moves so as that the metal may
pass in opposite directions at each successive rolling.
I will now proceed to explain the arrangements which I adopt for cutting
the sides or edges of the sheets or plates of iron when hot as they leave the
rolls.

page_text: Fig. 1 represents a side elevation of my plate-iron sawing machine, of
which A is the bed or frame; B is the sliding table upon which the sheet or
plate of iron the edges of which are to be cut is placed in a hot or heated
state as it leaves the rolls. The sheet or plate is held on the sliding table by
the levers H (Fig. 4), which are pressed on to the plate by means of the
wedges I (Fig. 4). A worm rack E is attached to the sliding table by means
of the brackets K, K, the worm shaft E, having a bevel wheel L upon one
end and a worm on the other, is set in motion by the driving pulleys M, M,
conveying motion to the pulleys N, N, fixed on each end of the saw spindle S,
which again conveys the motion through the intermediate shafts of P, P, to
the fast and loose pulleys R on the shaft Q upon which are fixed bevilled
reversing pinions giving motion to the worm, and through the rack to the
table. The saw spindle is supported by brackets C, C, upon which two
circular saws D, D, firmly bolted to the cheeks or flanges T and U, the former
of which is keyed fast on the spindle, whilst the latter is so arranged as to
slide along the spindle S, the spindle having a groove throughout its whole
length between the brackets C, C, into which a loose key is fitted, which key
is acted upon by the set pins W, as seen in Figures 2 and 3.
Fig. 2 is a plan of the same machine, in which the several parts are marked
in the same manner as those shewn in the description of the elevation in
Fig. 1. Longitudinal girders W, W, are bolted to the sliding table, which can be
set at any required distance apart. These girders are hollow, and have a dove-
tailed groove throughout their length, as shown in the Drawing, into the
enlarged end of which the head of the bolt which forms the fulcrum of the
lever H is passed.
Fig. 3 is the end view of the same machine, the several parts of which
are marked and lettered in the same manner as those in Figures 1 and 2.
In cases where the length of the plate is too great to enable the edges of
the two ends to be cut. simultaneously by the machine above described, the
edges of the ends may be cut by a circular saw separately, by a similar
arrangement of machinery for moving the saw instead of the bed which carries
the plate, and keeping the plate stationary.
Having now described the nature of this part of my Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood
that I do not claim as of my Invention or the exclusive use of the arrange-
ments herein-before described for rolling the iron in opposite directions, and
for cutting the bridge or boiler plates, except when the same are employed
for the purposes of my said Invention, which I hereby declare to consist in the
manufacture of sheets or plates of iron, such as bridge and boiler plates,. by

page_text: causing the metal to be passed in opposite directions through the rolls, and to
be cut by circular saws at the edges when hot as it leaves the rolls, as above
described.
I will now proceed to the second part of the Invention, or that which relates
to the manufacture of sheets and plates of metal of varying, unequal, or different
widths, such as are used as links in suspension bridges, and for other. purposes
in which increased size or width either at the ends, in the middle, or any other
part of the plate is required, and at which part the grain of the iron is made
to run crosswise, so as to give additional strength round the eye, in case the
plate is required to be used as a link, or round that part in which the increased
size, substance, or width is required for any other purpose.
In the manufacture of sheets or plates of iron of this description as gene-
rally practised heretofore, it has been usual to weld additional iron to the plate
when rolled, for the purpose of giving increased size, substance, or width at the
ends or at any particular part, required; but by this method the metal under-
goes repeated heatings, and the inequality of the metal occasions other defects,
which are obviated by my mode of manufacture, which is performed as follows:-
I prepare a faggot of iron, as herein-after more particularly described, and
hammer the same into a mould of the shape required. This faggot, so pre-
pared and forged, is afterwards rolled by the machinery already described for
reversing or alternating the motion of the rolls into a sheet or plate of the
length and width desired, with such increased size or width at the ends, in the
middle, or at any other part at which such additional size or width is required
in one piece, and at one heat or once heating, by which means the fibre of the
iron throughout the whole plate is more perfectly preserved, and the grain of
the iron is made to run crosswise, and additional strength obtained round the
eye in case the plate is intended to be used as a link, or round that part where
the increased size or width is required if the plate is intended to be used for
any other purpose.
.
Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 shew sections of a faggot of iron from which the mould
out of which the plate to be used as a link, or with additional width in the
middle or at the ends for any other purpose, is forged, either of which Figures
may be adopted, as the case may require.
Between the ends or between any other part of the longitudinal piles or
bars A, A, A, A, cross piles or bars B, B, B, B, are inserted or fagotted, so
as to give additional substance of iron at each end, or in the middle, or any
other part of the plate (in which the grain of the iron is made to run cross-
wise), so as to give additional width to the plate at each end when rolled, and
additional strength round the eye when the plate is required to be used as a

page_text: link, or round that part in which the increased size, substance, or width is
required for any other purpose.
Fig. 5 shews the mould when forged, preparatory to its being rolled into a
plate of the required length and thickness, with the additional width and
strength of iron in the middle.
Fig. 6 shews the mould when forged, preparatory to its being rolled into a
plate of the required length and thickness, with the additional width and
strength of iron at the two ends, to be used as links in suspension bridges.
Fig. 7 represents a side view of the same.
The iron having been rolled to the required thickness, is cut at the edges,
and finished in the usual manner.
Having now described the nature of the second part of my Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
what I claim as of my Invention is, the manufacture of plates or sheets of
iron of varying widths by faggotting and forging, and by rolling the metal at
one heat, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Walker, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of September, in the year
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty.