IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BAR IRON
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Clay, of Liverpool, in the County of
Lancaster, Iron Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF BAR IRON."
Sealed the 18th April 1856, and dated the 15th December 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Clay at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
December 1855.
I, WILLIAM CLAY, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Iron Manufac-
turer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVEMENTS,
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BAR IRON, to be as follows:-
My Invention of improvements in the manufacture of bar iron relates to,
the manufacture of bar iron, either in the form of plain bars, or as angle iron,
or T or channel grooved or trough iron, in such a manner that the said bars.
of whatever form or section, may be made taper, or gradually diminishing or
increasing from one point to another, so that the bar iron so made being of:
different strengths at different points, may be used for various purposes where,
greater strength or rigidity is required at one point than another.
Besides rolling taper bar iron, as above mentioned, I also propose to roll iron.
of other irregular forms, as, for instance, with enlargements, projections, pro-.
tuberances, or indentations on or in the bars at different points, according to.
the particular purposes for which the iron may be required.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Clay in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
14th June 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
CLAY, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Iron Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Clay, Her special license that I, the said William Clay, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Clay, 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 BAR IEON," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Clay, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 William Clay, 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)-
"My Invention of "Improvements in the Manufacture of Bar Iron" relates to
the employment of rolling pressure for the conversion of bar iron of various
sectional figures, as, for example, plain, straight, square bars, or bars of angle
iron, or T or channel grooved or trough iron, into taper bars, or bars which, in
their cross section, gradually diminish or increase from one point of their
length to another, the object being to impart to bars of iron so made, different
strengths or powers of resistance at different points, and thereby to adapt rolled
metal to various uses, where greater strength or rigidity is required at one
point than at another.
My Invention also relates to the adaptation of rolling pressure to the
formation of bars, with sudden as well as gradual irregularities of depth or

page_text: thickness, by which means I propose to form projections, protuberances, or
indentations on or in the bars at different points, according to the particular
purposes for which the iron may be required.
Instead of allowing the top roll to rise gradually in its bearings, and thus
afford increasing space between the rolling surfaces, as in the Patent granted
to me on the Sixteenth day.of December, One thousand. eight hundred and
forty-eight, I adjust the rolls to the work they have to perform, and keep
them to that position until the operation is completed, my object being to
produce a class of work, the irregularity in the section of which is too great
to permit of its being manufactured with facility by the rising roll process.
"
the diminution of
This plate I take
For forming a taper on the extremity of bars suitable for railway "points,"
I set the rolls to a distance apart, that will correspond with the greatest depth
which the formed bar is required to measure, say, for example, three inches,
and assuming also, for example, that the extremity of the bar is to be tapered
down to, say, one inch in depth, I provide a plate of iron or steel of a
taper form, and of a thickness corresponding exactly with
thickness required in the end of the bar under operation.
in its cold state, and place over the end of the bar of red hot metal, and I then
pass the two between the rolls. The taper plate acting as a filling piece, or as
an excentric projection on one of the rolls would act, enables the rolls to put
a severer pressure on the bar at the part overlaid by the plate, and thus by
simple rolling in an ordinary rolling mill, a tapered bar may be produced.
The application of this principle of rolling may be further extended by giving
to the contact face of the overlying plate, such projections or indentations
(whether gradual or sudden) as circumstances may require, such projections
or indentations corresponding to or rather forming a counterpart of the figure
to which the contact surface of the bar is required to be reduced. A plate
thus formed, being placed over a heated bar of metal and submitted with it to
the pressure of a pair of rolls, will leave the counterpart impression of its
face upon the heated bar of metal. In like manner, when projections or
indentations are required on the opposite sides of the bar, as will be the case
when rolling the spokes for railway wheels, I propose to enclose the metal to
be rolled (the same having been previously heated) between two suitably
shaped pressure plates, and then to submit the pile to the rolling pressure. In
this way it will be obvious that I can reduce to unequal thicknesses not merely
flat bars or plates of iron, but also angle iron and metal bars, having a concave
or convex surface.
Having now explained the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in
the Manufacture of Bar Iron," and described the manner of carrying the same

page_text: into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited
Letters Patent, I claim imparting.a rolling pressure to bar iron, in the manner
and for the purpose above set forth.
.In witness whereof; I, the said William Clay, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness!
J: W. MOFFATT,
66," Chancery Lane.
WILLIAM CLAY (L.S.)"