IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING RAILWAY TYRES, AXLES, AND OTHER IRON WHERE GREAT STRENGTH AND DURABILITY IS REQUIRED
Year: 1849

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE-
BENJAMIN THORNEYCROFT, of Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford, Iron.
Master, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, and in the
thirteenth of Her reign, did give and grant unto me, the said George
Benjamin Thorneycroft, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her special licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority that I, the said George Benjamin
Thorneycroft, my exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as I, the said
George Benjamin Thorneycroft, my exors, adñors, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times hereafter
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon--
Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MANUFACTURING RAILWAY TYRES,
AXLES, AND OTHER IRON WHERE GREAT STRENGTH AND DURABILITY IS REQUIRED;"
in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that I, the said
George Benjamin Thorneycroft, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her
said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and

page_text: immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Benjamin Thorneycroft, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference
being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters
marked thereon, that is to say-
I will first describe my improvement in the tyres, which is as follows:-I
make a pile of iron, the outside parts of which consist of the toughest fibrous
iron I can make, and the inner or centre part of charcoal iron, made into one
substance of an homogeneous or solid body, perfectly free from lamina; I
make a pile of these two sorts or kinds of iron, and put between the slabs of
the two kinds of iron thin puddled or other bars of iron, which being of much
less substance than the slabs become sooner hot, and by the time the pile is
sufficiently heated to weld sound, the thin iron in the joints passes into a state
of fusion, and causes a more perfect union of the pile. I make this pile into
a bloom either by hammering or rolling, and afterwards I roll the bloom into
the tyre edgeway, in which it was piled or put together, thus producing a tyre
with the middle or wearing part of chrystalized homogeneous iron, much
harder and more durable than fibrous iron, and the outer parts of the
toughest fibrous iron, thereby giving great strength to the outer parts, and a
greater degree of hardness and durability to the inner or wearing part.
I do not claim the common mode of making charcoal tyres, that is,
making them all of charcoal iron, or making the front part of charcoal
iron and the back part of best, Number 3, fibrous iron. These plans have
long been known and practised. I proceed in the same way to make a
cheaper kind of tyre by using best puddled refined, Number 3, iron mado
into a slab without piling or faggoting, therefore perfectly homogenous, being
made from one puddled ball, or two if required, but put together in a maiden
state before being operated upon to make them solid. I do not confine myself
to this precise mode alone so that I obtain the object of producing a tyre the
outer part of tough fibrous iron and the inner part of chrystalized homogeneous
iron, as shewn in section, Number 1.
I now describe the nature of my improvements in making axles.
I make an axle or bar of the same compound principle. I take a box pile
the size required of best, Number 3, fibrous iron, made in the way described
in Diagrams Number 2 and 3, the centre piece I coat with fire-clay, or any
other substance that will prevent it from welding or uniting into a solid with

page_text: the other parts of the pile;. by this means I prevent the iron or centre of the
pile from becoming one substance or homogeneous throughout; this method
protects the fibre of the iron, and prevents it from becoming chrystalized
throughout, which is the case with all iron when welded perfectly sound in large
substances, as in axles.
Another improvement is by leaving out of the pile the centre bar and then
rolling the pile, so that the space in the middle just closes up by the time the
axle or bar is reduced to the required size, when the iron will have lost its
welding heat, and will not unite or become solid in the centre, so that the axle
in its cross sectional construction will be a succession of consecutive rings,
verging from an unwelded centre to the outside of the bar, as Number 5.
Another and perhaps more perfect way of doing this is by making two half-
round or two half-square moulds of iron, as in Numbers 4 and 6, putting them
together and rolling them into the axle so that the hollow part in the middle
just closes up when the iron is reduced to the required size, thus forming a
solid axle, save and except the iron is unwelded in the centre, the section being
constructed as above described into a succession of consecutive rings, which
leaves the axle or bar much stronger than when made from a solid pile or
bloom.
I do not confine myself to these precise methods so that I produce an axle
or bar of iron where great strength is required, and this I do by keeping the
iron in a tubular form until it is rolled into a close body but not welded in the
centre. I do not claim to make hollow axles or the exclusive use of the box
pile; what I claim is, to produce a semi-compound axle or bar of iron with
the centre piece not perfectly united to the outer iron, being prevented from
uniting by a coating of fire-clay or other substance; and in the second place,
by producing an axle or bar of iron, where great strength is required, from a
hollow pile, so constructed, that by the time it is rolled down to the required
size it has become a solid body, but not welded in the centre.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Benjamin Thorneycroft, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine,
GEORGE BENJAMIN (L.S.) THORNEYCROFT.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the within-
named George Benjamin Thorneycroft, in
the presence of

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of December,.
in the year of our Lord 1849, the aforesaid George Benjamin Thorneycroft.
came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged.
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and
specified, in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-fourth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.