IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WROUGHT-IRON WHEELS FOR LOCOMOTIVES, OR RAILWAY OR OTHER CARRIAGES
Year: 1854

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Peter Armand le Comte
de Fontaine Moreau at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 27th November 1854.'
I, PETER ARMAND le Comte DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of 4, South Street,
Finsbury, London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, Patent Agent, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention communicated to me by Messieurs
De-flassieux, Peillon and Brothers, of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF WROUGHT-IRON WHEELS FOR LOCOMOTIVES, OR RAILWAY OR OTHER CARRIAGES,"
to be as follows:-
The improvements consist in the use of moulds or forms of cast iron,
wrought iron, or steel, varying according to the dimensions and forms of the
wheels required to be made. By means of these moulds or forms, all the
different parts of the wheels, such as the nave, spokes, tire, flange, crank,
excentric, &c., are made-at-the-same-time and by the same operation, so that
the wheel is in fact one-piece of wrought iron.
F

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 25th May 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PETER
ARMAND le Comte DE FONTAINE MOREAU, of 4, South Strect, Finsbury,
London, and 39, Rue de l'Echiquier, Paris, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of. Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs & successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, Her special license that I,
the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and, assigns, or such others as I, the said Peter Armand le Comte
de Fontaine, Moreau, 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 of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WROUGHT-IRON WHEELS FOR LOCOMOTIVES, OR
RAILWAY OR OTHER CARRIAGES," communicated to me by Messrs De-flassieux,
Peillon and Brothers, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine Moreau, 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 Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, & in-what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer
tained in-and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the accompanying Drawing, and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say:-
The improvements consist in the use of moulds of cast iron, wrought iron,
steel, or other suitable metal, varying according to the dimensions and form
of the wheels required. By means of these moulds, all the different parts of
the wheels previously forged, such as-the-nave,-spokes,-and-jaunts, or circum-
ference, with or without flange, and also every piece which it may be more
suitable to make adherent to the wheel, such as crank or excentric, are

page_text: '
adjusted together at the same time and by the same operation, so that the
wheel forms one piece of wrought iron. When it is desired to cover the
circumference and other parts of the wheel with steel, bands of that metal
must be added to the assemblage, and are fixed by the operation herein-after
described. The Figures of the accompanying Drawing shew the construction
of the moulds and of the wheel.
Figure 1 shews the mould for the wheel, which may be varied according to
the form or dimensions of the wheel to be made.
Figure 2, section of the same through C, D, Figure 1.
Figure 3, section through a, b, Figure 1.
Figure 4, plan of an eight-spoked wheel with an adherent crank B, made
by the aforesaid mould.
Figure 5, section through, G, H, Figure 4.
Figure 6, section through the line E, F, Figure. 4, shewing also two wheels
set upon an elbowed axle, and which may at will be used instead of the fixed
crank B, Figure 4.
The several parts required for forming a wheel are first forged separately,
then set together in the following manner, as shewn in Figure 4:-The nave
M' and the circumference C are previously prepared for receiving the spokes R
and crank B; all the pieces are to be adjusted together, by preference, at the
parts of the iron which appear to be strongest; great care must be taken that
this assemblage corresponds in all its parts to the shape and size of the
moulds. The assemblage when thus prepared is to be put into a reverberatory
or other furnace adapted for the purpose, and when heated to white heat,
the wheel must be removed from the furnace and laid upon the mould,
Figure 1, and immediately submitted to the action of a powerful hammer
until the wheel is driven into the mould. It is then taken out again, heated
to white heat, turned upside down, and replaced on the same mould, Figure 1,
and submitted again to the action of a powerful hammer, to the under part
of which is fastened a second and similar mould, until the wheel is again
driven into the mould, Figure 1, and as the sharp edges of the two moulds
cut off the exceeding parts of the iron, when the wheel is taken out of its
mould, it is completely finished. A surplus of 10 to 12 per cent. in weight of
metal should be allowed for the parts cut off by the moulds. The above
results may also be obtained by the powerful pressure of a hydraulic press
acting upon the mould and heated wheel, or by other known means of
sufficient strength, but preference is given to the use of the hammer.
Having now described the nature of the Invention communicated to me,
and-the-manner in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be under-

page_text: stood that I do not confine myself to the precise details herein laid down
so long as the peculiar features of the Invention be retained; but what I
claim is,-
First, the manufacture of wrought-iron wheels by means of moulds, as
herein-before described and referred to in Figures 1, 2, & 3 of the accom-
panying Drawing.
Secondly, the manufacture of wheels with cranks, excentrics, and other
pieces made adherent thereto by one and the same operation, as herein-
before described and referred to in Figures 4, 5, & 6 of the accompanying
Drawing.
Thirdly, the covering of the periphery or other part of the wheel with steel,
as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Peter Armand le Comte de Fontaine
Moreau, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day
of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-five.
L' DE FONTAINE MOREAU. (L.S.)