IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- BACHER OR RAILWAY WHEELS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick William Kitson, of Leeds, in the County
of York, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
BACHER OR RAILWAY WHEELS."
Sealed the 12th September 1856, and dated the 3rd April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick William Kitson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd April 1856.
I, FREDERICK WILLIAM KITSON, of Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTUEE OF RAILWAY WHEELS, to be as follows:-
This Invention of improvements in railway wheels relates to the use of
certain means and forms of construction calculated to facilitate their manu-
facture and improve their structure, the chief objects in view being to form
certain parts of wheels at a reasonable cost, and to effect a secure connection
of these parts with each other. In making wheels the spokes and rim or
felloe of which are composed of L shaped bars of iron, the outer end of one
bar being welded to the angle or bend of the next. I form these bars (by
rolling or otherwise) with projections or thickening pieces at the parts which
are to be welded together, so as to enable the junctions to be made strong and
perfect; or I compose two single spokes and the intermediate portion of the
felloe out of one and the same bar, similarly thickened at the joining parts,
and connect these segmental pieces together by filling-in bars, which complete
the felloe. In making wheels according to these plans I propose to use
either cast-iron or wrought-iron naves. When applying generally a cast-iron
nave to wrought-iron spokes, I propose, in place of notching or jagging the

page_text: inner ends of the spoke bars by hand, to form thereon in the process of rolling
the bars, projections, fins, or other irregularities, which, when the nave or boss
is cast round them, will retain the spokes firmly therein. When a wrought-iron
nave is required, instead of forming the spoke bars as is customary with greatly
enlarged inner ends, sufficiently broad when put together to constitute a
complete circular mass ready to be welded into a boss or nave, I allow the
spoke ends to remain more nearly similar in section to the rest of the bar, and
complete the required circular mass by inserting separate pieces of iron
between them, the spoke bars being so formed or shaped as to lock or hold
these pieces securely in place during the process of welding. I prefer to form
all the bars and other pieces of wrought iron herein-before mentioned as used
in my improved wheels by the act of rolling.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick William Kitson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
WILLIAM KITSON, of Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Third day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Frederick William Kitson, Her special license that I, the said Frederick
William Kitson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Frederick William Kitson, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILWAY WHEELS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Frederick William Kitson, 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 Frederick William Kitson, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to

page_text: be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
The first part of my Invention relates to railway wheels constructed on
what is termed the "L-spoke" plan, in which one spoke and one adjacent
segment of the rim or felloe are formed of one bar of iron bent into a shape
somewhat similar to that of the letter L, and the outer or rim end of one bar
being then welded to the angle or bend of the next bar.. It is found by.
experience that if these bars are made of iron of uniform section, the operation.
of bending reduces considerably the size of the bar at the angle, and further
that the heat to which the iron is subjected in the process of welding wastes
away the metal or further diminishes the strength, so that by the combination
of these two causes the quantity of material is considerably diminished at the
point of junction, and consequently the wheel is much weakened at a part
where it is required to be especially strong. To obviate this objection I
thicken the spoke bar, or form a protuberance or protuberances on it, at the
part which forms the bend or angle for the purpose of supplying the diminution
by bending and welding, and of enabling the junctions to be made strong and
perfect; and with the view of aiding in this object the ends of the bars which
have to be welded to the angle may also be thickened, if desired.
Fig. 1 in the accompanying Drawing represents a bar of the kind I
propose
to use; a being the protuberance or thickening referred to at the part forming
the angle or bend; and 6 the additional thickening at the rim end of the bar.
Fig. 2 shews the bar when bent into the L shape; and Fig. 3 represents the
mode in which the required number of bars are placed in position so as to form
an entire wheel; the junctions a, b, being welded together in the usual way, and
a tyre afterwards fixed on, as shewn in the lower part of the Figure. Fig. 4
is a transverse section of the wheel shown in Fig. 3. The protuberance or
thickening of the bar at the angle a, above described, may be produced by any
means suitable for the purpose, such as forging under the hammer or welding
piece on; but I prefer to form both this and the additional thickening at
the end by the act of rolling the bar, for which purpose the rolls are notched
or cut into a corresponding shape in a manner well-known and commonly
practised in iron rolling mills.
a
This part of my Invention is also applicable to wheels formed on the plau
shewn in Fig. 5, where two single spokes O, P, and the intermediate portion
Q of the rim or felloe are formed out of one and the same bar, these segmental
pieces being connected together by filling-in bars R, which complete the felloe.
In this case the spoke bar is thickened at the parts, a, a, forming the two elbows,

page_text: as shewn in Figures 5 and 6, the latter representing the bar before bending.
The ends of the filling-in pieces R may also be thickened, as shewn at b, b.
Wheels made according to the two before-mentioned plans may have either
cast or wrought iron naves, the inner ends of the spokes being shaped or
fashioned in such manner as the construction of nave to be adopted may
require. In Fig. 5 they are shewn wedge-shaped, with the object of forming
a wrought-iron nave by welding them together in the ordinary way. In Fig.
3 the nave is of cast iron, according to the improved plan described under the
following or second part of my Invention.
The second part of my Invention relates to wheels having cast-iron naves
and wrought-iron spokes, and consists of an improved manner of securing the
spoke bars into the nave. In the ordinary method of making wheels of this
kind it is customary to notch, jag, or punch, by hand labour, the inner ends of
the spoke bars which are to be cast into the nave, in order that the melted
metal surrounding the irregularities thus made may hold the spoke bars firmly
in its substance. My improvement consists in forming projections, fins,
indentations, or other irregularities, suitable for the purpose above described,
on the spoke bars during the process of rolling the bars, by which means I
get a holding for the cast metal at less expense and better adapted to the
purpose than by hand labour.
In Figures 1 and 2 the inner ends of the spokes are shewn with projections
c, c, formed upon them, for the purpose and in the manner above described;
and Figures 3 and 4 show, how these are secured into the cast-iron nave N
by the metal running round them. The projections or other irregularities are
produced by notching or cutting the rolls into a corresponding shape in the
ordinary way, and I do not confine myself to any particular form of projection
or irregularity, so that it shall be such as can be produced by the act of
rolling.
The third part of my Invention relates to the formation of wrought-iron
naves of railway wheels; the most usual plan of making these, which is shewn
in Fig. 5, consists in forming the spoke bars with greatly enlarged inner ends,
sufficiently broad when put together to constitute a complete circular mass,
ready to be welded into a boss or nave.. Instead of this I allow the spoke
ends to remain more nearly similar in section to the rest of the bar, and
complete the required circular mass by inserting separate pieces of iron
between them, the spoke bars being so formed or shaped as to lock or hold
these pieces securely in place during the process of welding. Fig. 7 shews an
application of this method of making a wrought-iron nave; S, S, are the inner
ends of the spoke bars, between which are inserted filling pieces of iron d, d,

page_text: to complete the required circular mass. On the sides of the spoke bars are
formed projections or shoulders e, e, and as during the process of welding force
is applied tending to press the spokes radially towards the centre, these
projections or shoulders are caused to abut against the filling pieces d, d, and
hold them securely in place until the welding is effected. The projections
may be of any shape suitable for attaining the object in view, and may be
formed on the bars by any convenient means, but I prefer to form them in the
act of rolling the bars, in the same manner as described in the former heads
of my Invention. The filling pieces may also be formed of bars rolled to the
required section and cut off to proper lengths. In order to secure further the
solidity of the nave, and to give it the requisite additional thickness, side plates
or washers may be welded on in the usual way, as shewn at T, T, in the
transverse section Fig. 8.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in the
Manufacture of Railway Wheels," and explained the manner of carrying the
same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited
Letters Patent I claim,-
First, with regard to wheels constructed on the "L spoke" plan, Fig. 3,
and the analogous plan shewn in Fig. 5, the thickening of the spoke bars
at the parts forming the elbows or angles a, a, for the purpose above described.
Second, with regard to the same two kinds of wheels, I also claim the
forming of the said thickening at the angles a, as well as of the thickening at
the ends of the stroke and felloe bars, by the act of rolling.
Third, with regard to wheels having cast-iron naves, I claim rolling the
spoke bars with projections, fins, or other irregularities on their inner ends
suitable for holding the spokes into the cast metal nave.
Fourth, I claim in the manufacture of railway wheels with wrought-iron
naves composed in part of loose filling pieces, the employment of spoke bars,
having projections or shoulders formed upon them of a shape calculated to
hold or secure the filling pieces in their places during the process of welding.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick William Kitson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT, 66, Chancery Lane.
FRED W. KITSON. (L.S.)