AN IMPROVED METHOD OF FORGING OR SWAGING RAZEROAD CARRIAGE AND VIR WHEELD.
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of ""AN IMPROVED METHOD OF FORGING OR SWAGING
RAZEROAD CARRIAGE
AND VIR WHEELD.
"-A communication.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st November 1854.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF FORGING OR SWAGING
RAILROAD CARRIAGE AND OTHER WHEELS" to be as follows :--
The object of this Invention is to make wrought-iron railway wheels in one
piece, by swaging or hammering from one piece of heated metal.
In carrying out this Invention, the swaging or hammering of the block
of heated metal into the form required is effected within a die box or anvil of
the reversed form of one face of the wheel, the rim or tread, and one face of the
flanch, by means of a hammer of the reversed form of the opposite face, rim,

page_text: and flanch of the wheel. This hammer has an intermittent motion between
the periods of striking the metal, and the face of the hammer is waved in the
line of a circle concentric with the hub, and formed with alternato curved
projections and recesses, extending from the hub to the rim, or nearly so.
Instead of rotating the hammer, it may be found more convenient in
practice to give an intermittent axial motion to the die box containing the
block of metal under operation.
After the heated block of metal is placed in the die box, the hammer is
caused to strike rapid and heavy blows in succession, and between each blow,
and whilst the hammer die is raising, the anvil or box die is turned a portion
of a revolution, about equal to half 'the space between the flutes on the face of
the die, so that at the next blow the ridges of the die will strike on the ridges
formed on the block of iron by the cavities of the hammer die by the previous
blow, and this operation is repeated until the required form of a wheel has
been given to the block. The ridges on the hammer die, and the rotation of
the die box with the block of iron, facilitates the spreading of the metal towards
the periphery of the die box to form and complete the tread and flanch, which
is thus thoroughly compacted.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office 2
on the 1st May 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters 2
Patent, bearing date the First day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alfred Vincent Newton, Her special licence that I, the said Alfred
Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 a

page_text: Invention for "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF FORGING OR SWAGING RAILROAD
CARRIAGE AND OTHER WHEELS," being a communication from- abroad, upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and
to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
The object of this Invention is to make wrought-iron railway carriage and
other flanched wheels in one piece, by swaging or hammering from one piece
of heated metal.
The Invention consists in swaging or hammering the block of heated
metal into the form required within a die box or anvil of the reversed form
of one face of the wheel, the rim or tread, and one face of the flanch, by
means of a hammer of the reversed form of the opposite face, rim, and flanch
of the wheel, when the said hammer or anvil is made to rotate with an inter-
mittent motion between the blows of the hammer. The face of the hammer is
waved in the line of a circle concentric with the hub, that is, formed with
alternate projections and recesses extending from the hub to the rim, or nearly
so; the effect of which projections and depressions, in combination with the
intermittent rotary motion of the anvil, die, or hammer swage, is to spread
the metal towards the circumference, and thereby insure the reduction of the
thickness of the block of iron between the hub and rim, and forcing it to
the rim, to form a solid and compact tread and flanch.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is a vertical section of the machinery ;
Fig. 2, a plan of the rotating anvil; Fig. 3, a face view of the hammer or
upper die; and Figs. 4 and 5, an elevation and section of the wheel pro-
duced on the improved plan. The same letters indicate like parts in all the
Figures..
a represents the wheel as it comes from the dies, with the hub b, plate c,
rim or tread d, and flanch e, all forged or swaged from one block of iron. A
block of iron of the required size, and of the form represented at Figures 6, or
any other suitable form, and heated to a white or welding heat, is put into an
anvil die box f, Fig. 1, the cavity g of which is the reverse of the outer face,

page_text: the tread, and flanch of the wheel to be formed, and thence extending up to
about an equal height above in a cylindrical form, of the diameter a little
greater than that of the wheel at the flanch. This die is made of great.
strength below and around the cavity, and its base is made flat and rests on a
base block h, and is kept centrally thereon by a spindle i, fitted to turn in a
corresponding socket in the base block. This die box is formed with a ledge
jor projection, all around the upper surface of which is cogged, to receive the
cogs of two bevelled pinions k, k, one on each side, the arbors 1, 1, of which are
mounted in suitable boxes in standards m, m, attached to the base blocks, and
these arbors can be provided with crank handles or ratchets, or other suitable
means, by which the anvil die box can be turned a portion of a revolution after
every stroke of the hammer or upper die n, which is to be attached to the
slide of a steam or other hammer having vertical motion. The circumference
of this, die or swage fits freely the upper part of the cavity of the die box
above the part representing the flanch, and the face represents the reverse of
the other or flanch face of the wheel to be produced, so that when this die is
in the die box to the depth required, the cavity between the two will present a
mould of the form of the intended wheel. The projecting part o of the face
of the hammer die is fluted, from the hub to the rim of the wheel, the reverse
of the flanch face of the wheel.
After the heated block of metal is placed in the die box, the hammer die is
made to strike heavy blows in rapid succession, and between each blow, and
whilst the hammer die is rising, the anvil or box die is turned a portion of a
revolution, about equal to half the space between the flutes on the face of the
die, so that at the next blow the ridges of the die will strike on the ridges
formed on the block of iron by the cavities of the hammer die by the previous
blow, and this operation is repeated until the required form of a wheel has
been given to the block. The ridges on the hammer die, and the rotation
of the die box with the block of iron, facilitates the spreading of the metal
towards the periphery of the die box to form and complete the tread and flanch,
which is thus thoroughly compacted. It will be obvious from the foregoing,
that instead of rotating the die box and block of metal, the die hammer can
be rotated, and a like result produced.
I do not wish to confine myself to the special structure of the parts, nor to
the means employed for operating them, as these may be varied at pleasure
without changing the principle or character of the Invention.
What I claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is, the method, substantially as herein described, of
making wrought-iron wheels of single solid blocks of heated iron within a die

page_text: box, and by the swaging action of. a hammer when the said die is fluted or
ribbed on the face, substantially as herein specified, and the die box (with the
block of metal thereon), or the hammer die is made to rotate with an inter-
mittent motion, substantially as and for the purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the First day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)