IMPROVEMENTS IN THE ROLLING OF IRON AND OTHER METALS
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
JOSEPH HORSFALL and THOMAS JAMES, both of the Mersey Steel and Iron
Works, Foxteth Park, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Nineteenth day of March, in the thirteenth year of Her reign,
and in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty, did, for
Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said William
Joseph Horsfall and Thomas James. Her especial license, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that we, the said William Joseph Horsfall and
Thomas James, our exors, admors, and assigns, and such others as we, the
said William Joseph Horsfall and Thomas James, our exors, admors, 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 expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales,
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, our Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE ROLLING OF IRON AND OTHER METALS;" in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso, that we, the said William Joseph Horsfall and Thomas
James, or one of us, shall cause a particular description of the nature of our said

page_text: Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be enrolled 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas James, on behalf of myself and of the said William Joseph Horsfall,
do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the Drawings hereto annexed, and the following explanation
thereof, that is to say:-
Our Invention of "Improvements in the Rolling of Iron and other Metals"
refers principally to the rolling of iron for the manufacture of tyres of wheels
and for other purposes, but other ductile metals may be similarly rolled, if
thought desirable. In manufacturing tyres for wheels according to the
ordinary method, the iron to form a tyre is heated and submitted to the
roughing rolls to bring it to shape; it is then passed successively through the
several grooves of the finishing rolls until it is brought down to the required
size, when it is passed out of the rolls as a straight flat bar of iron, which, when
its ends are welded together, will form a cylindrical hoop. But as tyres of
wheels have frequently to fit a shamfered or bevilled periphery, it is necessary
in such cases to submit the cylindrical hoops thus formed to a tedious and
costly process of hammering, in order to bring them to the requisite sectional
figure for forming a wheel tyre. Now, the object of our Invention, so far as it
refers to the rolling of metals for the manufacture of tyres for wheels, is to
obviate the necessity for hammering the metal after it has left the rollers, in
order to give it a conical instead of a cylindrical shape when welded into a
hoop. This object we are enabled to effect by the employment of a peculiar
construction of finishing rolls which will roll the metal into flat curved strips
instead of into straight lengths, so that when formed into tyres, these tyres
will of necessity fit the bevilled periphery of the wheels to which they are
intended to be applied. This will be readily understood from the following
description, reference being had to the Drawing forming part of this our
Specification.
In carrying out our Invention, we take a pile or bloom of iron of any
description, according to the quality required, and submit it in a heated
state to roughing rolls to bring it down to a shape nearly, approaching that
of the first groove in the finishing rolls. We then submit the bars (still

page_text: hot) to our improved construction of finishing rolls, which are shewn in front
view at Fig. 1, in plan view at Fig. 2, and in end view at Fig. 3. For the
manufacture of a tyre, the heated bar is first passed between the rolling
surfaces a, a, which surfaces are disposed so as to form an angle to each
other, the design being to roll the metal to unequal thicknesses at its opposite
edges. When it has thus been acted upon, it is immediately passed between
the rolling surfaces b, which are parallel to each other, and its sectional
diameter is thereby reduced; after which it is passed between the rolling
surfaces c, also parallel to each other, and the bar is then made to assume the
curved shape shewn at Fig. 2. While yet in a heated state the bar or rolled
strip is carried to the machine, shewn in plan view at Fig. 4, and in sectional
elevation at Fig. 5, where it is bent round into the form of a conical hoop,
which may then be welded, and the tyre is complete. This machine consists
of a circular frame or table a, mounted on a central shaft b, which has its
bearing in a step c, and is supported in a vertical position by a bracket arm d;
the shaft with its table is rotated by a bevil wheel, connected with any
suitable motive power machinery taking into a similar wheel e keyed on to the
shaft b. The table a is provided with a series of radial slots, which form
guides for a series of adjustable stop pieces f, capable of being fixed in any
required position by means of bolts, as shewn in the Drawing, so that they
will hold firmly a ring g of any required diameter, which forms a sort of core,
round which the strip of heated metal is to be lapped to form a tyre.
Between this ring and the lug of the sliding stop piece f*, one end of the
strip of rolled metal is secured by a wedge, the stop f having previously
been brought round in front of the fixed guide h, which is intended to guide
the strip on to the frame or table a; mounted in a sliding frame i is a pressing
roller k, which is brought into contact with the heated bar or strip of metal
for the purpose of causing it, when the table a is rotated in the direction of the
arrow, to lap round the ring 9, and thereby form a hoop. The contact of
the roller with the heated strip is effected by means of a hand lever l, which
has its fulcrum on the fixed guide m (in which the guide rod of the frame i
slides), and is also connected to that frame by a pin of the lever dropping into
one of a series of slot holes made in the upper edge of the guide rod.
During the operation of bending a strip of metal into a hoop, the lever lis
held in the position, shewn at Fig. 4, to keep the roller k up to its work, and
when the strip of metal has been lapped round the ring a, the roller k is drawn
back, the wedge at f* is knocked away, and the hoop thus formed is removed
from the table. It is then ready for welding, and when it has undergone

page_text: this operation a tyre will be constructed of the form shewn at Fig. 6, the
inner face being conical and suitable for fitting the bevilled or chamfered
periphery of a cart wheel. It is obvious that hoops for tyres of various
diameters may be made by increasing or diminishing the length of the strip of
metal, and by shifting the stop pieces f of the table a nearer to or further
from the centre to allow of their holding a ring 9, of a lesser or greater
diameter, corresponding to the size of the wheels which are to receive the
tyres, and also that the difference of angle between the rolling surfaces, which
produce the varied sectional thickness of the rolled bars, must be determined
by the amount of bevel of the periphery of the wheels to which the tyres
formed from the rolled bars are intended to be applied. Thus far I have
described our improvements as applied to the manufacture of tyres for
wheels; I would observe, however, that, instead of subjecting the bar to the
action of the bending machine, above described, or to other similar appa-
ratus, it may be allowed to remain in the form produced by the operation of
our inproved finishing rolls, in which state it may be applied to any purposes
where a flat ring or hoop of metal is required; for instance, the curve produced
may constitute a ring suitable for the shrouding or rim of a paddle or water
power wheel, the necessary diameter being acquired by suitably adjusting the
angle of the rolling surfaces, as before mentioned. Our improved method of
rolling metals may be also employed for rolling metals, such as zinc, into thin
sheets or lengths forming the segment of a circle, and which, when divided by
lines radiating from the centre of that circle, and cut into pieces at those lines,
may be formed into conical pipes and vessels, with little or no scrap waste
occurring in the manufacture.
Having now described our Invention, and the manner of carrying the same
into effect, we wish it to be understood that, under the above in part recited
Letters Patent, we claim the rolling of iron and other metals (which it may be
desirable to submit to our improved rolling operation) into bars or strips, and
sheets, by first passing the metal under operation between rolling surfaces,
which are set at an angle to each other, and afterwards submitting such metal
to rolling surfaces which are parallel to each other, whereby the advantages
herein-before described may be obtained.
In witness whereof I, the said Thomas James, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Seventeenth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty:
THOMAS (L.S.) JAMES.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventeenth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1850, the aforesaid Thomas James 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
5 above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Nineteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty.