Improvements in the Manufacture of Railway Communication Cord. Guides, Ship Thimbles, and the like.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 4th Feb., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 5th Nov., 1888
Complete Specification Accepted, 21st Dec., 1888
Improvements in the Manufacture of Railway Communication Cord.
Guides, Ship Thimbles, and the like.
1, THOMAS SMITH, of Hale Bank, Kingswood Road, Moseley, Worcestershire
Brassfounder, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention has reference firstly to improvements in the manufacture of guides
for supporting the communication cords along railway carriages and for other like
uses, which guides have heretofore usually been made of malleable, cast iron or cast
brass in the form of an eyelet well rounded off at each side and through which the
communication cord passes and having a pair of feet by which the guide can be fixed
to a railway carriage or other place as may be required. These cast guides, being
rather awkward castings to make, are comparatively expensive and moreover they are
often rough inside which is injurious to the cord.
Now the object of this part of my invention is to improve the finish and appearance
of the said guides and to produce them at a lower cost by making them from wrought
metal (preferably iron or steel) tubes as follows:-I take a piece of round metal tube
(preferably steel or iron) which is about equal in diameter and length to the largest
diameter and length respectively of the required guide and of about the same
thickness. This tube is heated and placed upon a cylindrical mandrit which has an
annular groove corresponding in form and size with the inside of the required guide.
By means of a pair of top and bottom tools having internally the form of the outside
of the guide and worked in an oliver or otherwise I swage or forge down the central
part of the tube so as to fit into the said annular recess in the mandril. The tube in
this state has to be removed from the mandril which can readily be done by the latter
being formed so as to divide at the centre of the annular recess, that part of the
mandril which forms one side of the recess being made in the form of a collar which
fits on to the reduced end of the other part of the mandril and is there removably
secured. The cylindrical ends of the partly formed guide are now in part removed
from the central or grooved part (which can be accomplished by tools worked in a
press or by sawing or other means) leaving a projecting foot at each side which are
pierced for fixing screws and the guide is finished.

page_text: I make ship thimbles and the like from wrought metal tubes in a similar manner to
part of that above described as applying to communication cord guides, that is to
say I take a short piece of tube a trifle longer than the required ship thimble and
then by means of the mandril and top and bottom tools above described 1 swage or
forge down the tube to fit in the annular recess as above described.
When making the communication cord guides or ship thimbles or the like above
described from brass tubes they are worked cold and annealed when required.
Dated this 3rd day of February 1888
Improvements in the Manufacture of Railway Communication Cord
Guides, Ship Thimbles, and the like
I, THOMAS SMITH, of Hale Bank, Kingswood Road, Moseley, Worcestershire, Brass-
founder, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement
This invention has reference firstly to improvements in the manufacture of guides
for supporting the communication cords along railway carriages and for other like
uses, which guides have heretofore usually been made of malleable cast iron or cast
brass in the form of an eyelet well rounded off at each side and through which the
communication cord passes and having a pair of feet by which the guide can be fixed
to a railway carriage or other place as may be required. These cast guides, being
rather awkward castings to make, are comparatively expensive and moreover they are
often rough inside which is injurious to the cord.
Now the object of this part of my invention is to improve the finish and appearance
of the said guides and to produce them at a lower cost by making them from wrought
metal (preferably iron or steel) tubes as follows:-I take a piece of round metal tube
(preferably steel or iron) which is about equal in diameter and length to
the largest diameter and length respectively of the required guide and of
about the same thickness. This tube is heated and placed upon a cylindrical
mandril which has an annular groove corresponding in form and size with the
inside of the required guide. By means of a pair of top and bottom tools
having internally the form of the outside of the guide and worked in an oliver
or otherwise I swage or forge down the central part of the tube so as to fit into the
said annular recess in the mandril. The tube in this state has to be removed from the
mandril which can readily be done by the latter being formed so as to divide at the

page_text: centre of the annular recess, that part of the mandril which forms one side of the
recess being made in the form of a collar which fits on to the reduced end of the other
part of the mandril and is there removably secured. The cylindrical ends of the
partly formed guide are now in part removed from the central or grooved part (which
can be accomplished by tools worked in a press or by sawing or other means) leaving
a projecting foot at each side which are pierced for fixing screws and the guide is
finished.
I make ship thimbles and the like from wrought metal tubes in a similar manner to
part of that above described as applying to communication cord guides, that is to
say take a short piece of tube a trifle longer than the required ship thimble and
then by means of the mandril and top and bottom tools above described I swage or
forge down the tube to fit in the annular recess as above described.
:
When making the communication cord guides or ship: thimbles or the like above
described from brass tubes they are worked cold and annealed when required.
I will now proceed to describe with reference to the accompanying drawing the
manner in which my invention is to be performed.
Fig. 1 represents in longitudinal section, front elevation and in end elevation a rail-
way communication cord guide made according to this invention; Fig. 2 shews a piece
of tube from which the communication cord guide represented by Fig. 1 has been
formed and Figs. 3, 4 and 5 illustrate the process of manufacture and the tools
employed therein; Figs. 6, 7 and 8 illustrate on a smaller scale how my invention is
carried out as applied to the manufacture of ship thimbles and the like.
The same letters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the several figures of
the drawing.
Referring firstly more particularly to Figs. 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, a is the eyelet part
of the communication cord guide and a a² are the feet by which it is fixed. is the
cylindrical mandril and is its loose collar fitting on the reduced part of the
mandril and removably secured by the cotter d. c is the annular groove formed partly
in the collar and partly in the mandril. The collar and mandril correspond in size
and form with the inside of the required guide a. e is the top tool and is the bottom
tool having internally the form of the outside of the guide, the top too! being moved
up and down by an oliver or otherwise. The tube from which the communication
cord guide is required to be formed is placed upon the mandril band collar 61
as shewn by Fig. 4 and then by the top tool e and bottom tool the central part of
The collar is now
the tube is swaged down so as to fit in the annular recess c.
removed from the mandril and the tube g (which will have the form represented in
Fig. 3) is removed also. The cylindrical ends of the partly formed guide are now
partly removed from the central or grooved part a, which can readily be accomplished
by tools worked in a press or by sawing or other means, leaving the projecting
feet a a² one on either side of the central eyelet part a. Each foot is then pierced
with a hole for the fixing screw and the guide is finished to the form shewn
by Fig. 1.
The tubes which 1 employ in the manufacture of the railway communication cord
guides, ship thimbles and the like can either be solid drawn tubes or raised from sheet
metal blanks similarly to the well known method employed in making cartridge cases
or other tubular articles, where a circular blank is by gradual drawing through or
raising processes formed into a dome shape and finally into a parallel tube which has
to have the end pierced out or otherwise removed before being treated on the mandril
as above described.
In making ship thimbles and the like according to my invention the tube from
which they are formed can either be a trifle longer than the required ship thimble so
as to form one ship thimble or the like from each, or as shewn by Figs. 6, 7 and 8,
the tube may be long enough to form several ship thimbles or the like the end of the
tube being swaged down in the groove of the mandril and collar as above described so
as to have the form of a ship thimble or the like which is then sawn off the end of the
tube as shewn by Fig. 8 leaving the tube ready to form another in a similar
manner.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1st. The process of forming communication cord guides, consisting in swaging down
on a mandril a solid drawn tube to the form of an eyelet part with cylindrical ends
and then sawing off or otherwise removing part of the said ends so as to leave the
two feet of the guide integral with the eyelet part, substantially as set forth and
.shown.
2nd. The process of forming communication cord guides, consisting in raising a
cylindrical vessel from a sheet metal blank, piercing out or otherwise removing the
closed end thereof swaging down on a mandril the cylindrical part to form an eyelet
part with cylindrical ends and then sawing off or otherwise removing parts of the said
ends so as to leave the two feet of the guide integral with the cyclet part, substantially
as set forth and shewn.
3rd. A wrought metal communication cord guide having the central eyelet part and
the two feet formed together from a metal tube or cylinder substantially as set
forth.
4th. The process of forming ship thimbles and other like articles from metal tubes
or cylinders hereinbefore described with reference to the accompanying drawing.
Dated this 2nd day of November 1888.