IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WHEELS AND PINIONS."
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Richard Wheeldon, of Wolverhampton,
in the County of Stafford, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WHEELS AND PINIONS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Richard
Wheeldon at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 2nd March 1871.
I, FREDERICK RICHARD WHEELDON, of Wolverhampton, in the County
of Stafford, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WHEELS AND PINIONS," to be as
follows:-
-
The ordinary mode of casting wheels and pinions is by making an
impression of the model in the sand, which is called in technical language
a "mould," and then pouring the melted iron into the matrix.
Now it is well known that certain qualities of pig iron when melted
and poured into iron moulds, technically called "chills," are suddenly

page_text: cooled or "chilled," and thereby acquire the property of great hardness,
similar to that obtained by plunging red-hot steel into cold water.
The nature of my Invention is to avail myself of this property, and
construct such moulds partly of sand and partly of iron, making use of
iron "chills" in forming the teeth and such other parts only of wheels 5
and pinions as being subject to great wear it is desirable should be hard
on the surface without being cast of hard iron throughout, which would
1
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Frederick Richard Wheeldon in the Great Scal
Patent Office on the 25th August 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
RICHARD WHEELDON, of Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Frederick Richard Wheeldon, Her special
licence that I, the said Frederick Richard Wheeldon, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederick
Richard Wheeldon, 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 thereby 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WHEELS AND PINIONS," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick Richard
Wheeldon, my executors or administrators, 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
manuer the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed

page_text: in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar monthis next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Frederick Richard Wheeldon, 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 (that is to say) :—
The ordinary mode of casting wheels and pinions is by making an
impression of the model or pattern in the sand, which is called in
technical language a "mould," and then pouring the melted iron into
the matrix.
Now it is well known that certain qualities of pig iron when melted
and poured into iron moulds, technically called "chills," are suddenly
cooled or "chilled," and thereby acquire the property of great hardness,
similar to steel or case-hardened wrought iron, and by a suitable
selection of pig iron this hardened surface can be obtained of any
required depth.
The nature of my Invention is to avail myself of this property, and
to construct such moulds for casting partly of sand and partly of iron,
so that the moulds of such parts of the castings as are not required to
be hardened are formed of sand, while the moulds of the other parts
which are required to be hardened are formed of iron.
In moulding wheels and pinions I make of cast iron those portions
of the moulds which form the teeth or other parts of the wheel or pinion,
whose surfaces being subject to great wear it is desirable should be
hardened, at the same time such hardness is not allowed to penetrate
too deeply into the casting, which would make it brittle.
By my Invention wheels and pinions can be made of gray iron,
possessing great strength and tenacity, whilst the surfaces only are
hardened to any required depth.
That my Invention may be fully understood I have annexed Drawings
hereto, which I now proceed to describe, and which will illustrate my
method of carrying out my said Invention.
Figure 1 shews a vertical section of a mould for a pinion suitable for
a mill for rolling wire or hoop iron. These mills are generally driven at

page_text: a velocity of from 250 to 500 revolutions per minute, and in consequence
of this very high velocity the teeth of ordinary pinions become very
quickly worn away. The parts marked C represent those portions of the
mould which are made of sand; those marked D represent the iron
chills. E is the head box for pouring in the fluid iron. At E' is the 5
88 runner or "gate" for conveying the iron into the mould. G is tho
open head left for the purpose of feeding the casting by pouring in hot
fluid iron during the time the skrinkage or contraction is going on in
cooling.
"
Figure 2 shews a section of the mould through the line A, B, in 1
Fig. 1, and it will be observed that the chills or parts of the mould in
which the teeth of the pinion are cast are formed in sections or segments
for facility of removal from the pinion when cast.
In those cases where a flange or shrouding is cast on the pinion at
each end of the teeth the casting would be liable to be ripped or torn 1
by the resistance which the iron chills in the mould offer to the free
contraction of the pinion in cooling. To obviate this I make use of the
following devices:-
Figure 3 is a section of an iron mould forming the teeth of the pinion.
At F, F, it will be observed that the teeth are bevilled. When the hot 2
iron is poured into the mould the "chill" becoming heated expands
and increases in diameter, thereby causing the bevilled ends of the teeth
to recede from under the flanges or shrouding of the pinion casting so as
to allow room for the contraction of the casting.
In cases where the teeth of the pinions are to be made very long I 2
adopt the plan of recessing the ends of the teeth of the iron chills, as
shewn on the upper part of Figure 3, at H, H, and this recessed part is
filled in and made level with sand so that when the cast pinion begins to
contract the sand which is interposed is crushed, and the ripping or
tearing of the casting is thereby prevented.
Figure 4 is a plan showing the method I adopt in forming the chills.
C, C, C, C, is a sand mould made in an ordinary box, and forming the
outside of the chill casting. J is a core formed of sand or iron, but I
prefer to adopt the latter, which then becomes simply an accurately
moulded cast-iron pinion filed smooth and laid into the mould. Around 3
this into the space shewn by the unshaded portion of the Drawing the

page_text: substantially as herein-before described and illustrated in the Drawings
hereunto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Richard Wheeldon, have
hercunto set my hand and scal, the Nineteenth day of August, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
one
Witness,
FREDERICK RICHARD WHEELDON. (L.S.)
G. R. HOLLAND
Patent Office,
Birmingham.