Ix- PROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR STRAIGHTENING, STAMPING OUT, SHEARING, AND OTHERWISE SHAPING AND TREATING IRON, STEEL, Copper, AND OTHER METALLIC PLATES AND SHEETS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Hermann Wedekind, of 2, Great Tower Street,
in the City of London, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "Ix-
PROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR STRAIGHTENING, STAMPING OUT,
SHEARING, AND OTHERWISE SHAPING AND TREATING IRON, STEEL, Copper, AND
OTHER METALLIC PLATES AND SHEETS."-A communication from abroad
by Gustave Piedboeuf, of Jupille, near the City of Liege, in the
Kingdom of Bolgium, Engineer.
Scaled the 2nd August 1870, and dated the 7th February 1870,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Hermann, Wedekind
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 7th February 1870.
I, HERMANN WEDEKIND, of 2, Great Tower Street, in the City of
5 London, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS FOR STRAIGHTENING
STAMPING CUT, SHEARING, AND OTHERWISE SHAPING AND TREATING IRON, STEEL,
COPPER, AND OTHER Metallic PLATES AND SHEETS," a communication from

page_text: Gustave Piedboeuf, of Jupille, near the City of Liege, in the Kingdom
of Belgium, Engineer, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates more especially to apparatus for preparing
certain parts of steam boilers before such parts are rivetted or otherwise
united together, though it may also be adapted to other operations in
which metals moro particularly in plates or sheets have to be treated
so as to modify their shape or shapes.
The apparatus can be used for executing a number of operations on
iron boiler plates more especially, and these several operations can be
carried out cither separately or at one and the same time. It may thus 1
be used for flattening and straightening plates, for punching out holes
in such plates, for stamping them into different shapes, for bending or
turning round the edges of plates, for shearing out such plates, and
generally for giving any form or shape whatever that can be taken by
the metal by mcans of appropriate matrices and blocks or dies or also 1
shears. It is thus peculiarly applicable to blocking out the fire-box and
smoke-box ends of locomotive and portable engine boilers, the dished
out ends of ordinary boilers, wrought iron fire-door frames, and to other
uses well known to experienced boiler makers.
The apparatus by which the power is obtained consists by preference, 2
though a steam cylinder could also be used, of a hydraulic press with the
ordinary well known construction of cylinder and ram.
This press
stands vertical and rests on a framing carrying vertical columns. The
columns at their bottom ends serve as guides to cross picces fixed to the
top of the ram and also to other cross pieces at their upper ends. These
upper cross pieces are adjustable at a greater or less distance from the
plunger by means of nuts on the screwed ends of the columns, so that
the stroke of the press plunger can be easily and rapidly adapted to any
of the operations above mentioned. The hydraulic pressure is obtained
in the usual well known way by pumps driven by any prime mover;
by preference the well known hydraulic apparatus known under the
name of "accumulator," is erected between the pumps and the press,
so that the load can be varied as required. The valves can be arranged
in such wiso that they can work alone or with an accumulator.
In order, for instance, to stamp or shape out a circular piece of plate
into a semi-spherical form such as is used for the tops of steam domes
and other purposes, the plate is laid preferably when at a red heat on
a ring which constitutes the matrix or outside mould of the object tu

page_text: be shaped. This ring rests on a stand, parts of which are at pleasure
removable in order to allow the plate when finished to be easily taken
out. The dic is bolted to a ring on the top adjustable framing. On the
plunger being forced up it carries with it the plate resting on the ring
until it meets the top die, which first imparts its convex form to the
plate, and as the plunger travels further up then forces the plate through
the ring. The plate thus squeezed between the outside of the die and
the inside of the matrix takes the required shape and falls below the
ring on the head plate of the ram or plunger. It is then ready for use
and is casily removed by taking out the movable supports of the ring
or matrix.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Hermann Wedekind in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 5th August 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HERMANN
WEDEKIND, of 2, Great Tower Street, in the City of London, Civil
Engineer, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy, in the
thirty-fourth year of IIer reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Hermann Wedekind, Her special licence
that I, the said Hermann Wedekind, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Hermann Wedekind, 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 MEANS OR
APPARATUS FOR STRAIGHTENING, STAMPING OUT, SHEARING, AND OTHERWISE SHAPING
AND TREATING IRON, STEEL, COPPER, AND OTHER METALLIC PLATES AND SHEETS,”
a communication to me from abroad by Gustave Piedboeuf, of Jupille,
near the City of Liege, in the Kingdom of Belgium, Engineer, upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Hermann Wedekind, my exe-
cutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,

page_text: or one of their hands and scals, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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 Hermann Wedekind, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and' in 'what manner the samo
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to
say:-
The said Invention relates more especially to apparatus for preparing
certain parts of steam boilers before such parts are rivetted or otherwise
united together. The apparatus can be used for executing a number of
operations on iron boiler plates, and these several operations can be:
carried out either separately or at one and the same time. It may
thus be used for flattening and straightening boiler plates, for punching
out holes in such plates, for stamping them into different shapes, for
bending or turning round the edges of boiler plates, for shearing out
such plates, and generally for giving any form or shape whatever that
can be taken by the metal by means of appropriate matrices and blocks
or dies or also shears. It is thus peculiarly applicable to blocking out
the fire-box and smoke box ends of locomotive and portable engine
boilers, the dished out ends of ordinary boilers, wrought-iron fire-door
frames, and to other uses well known to experienced boiler makers.
The apparatus by which the power is obtained consists by preference,
though a steam cylinder could also be used, of a hydraulic press with
the ordinary well known construction of cylinder and ram. This press
stands vertical and rests on a framing carrying vertical columns. The.
columns at their bottom ends serve as guides to cross pieces fixed to
the top of the am, and also to other cross pieces at their upper ends.
These upper cross pieces are adjustable at a greater or less distance
from the plunger by means of nuts on the screwed ends of the columns,
so that the stroke of the press plunger can be easily and rapidly adapted
to any of the operations above mentioned. The hydraulic pressure is
obtained in the usual well known way by pumps driven by any prime
mover by preference the well known hydraulic apparatus known
under the name of "accumulator " is erected between the pumps and

page_text: the press, so that the load can be varied as required. The valves
can be arranged in such wise that they can work alone or with an
accumulator.
In order, for instance, to stamp or shape out a circular piece of plate
into a semi-spherical form such as is used for the tops of steam domes
and other purposes, the plate is laid preferably when at a red heat on
a ring which constitutes the matrix or outside mould of the object to bo
shaped. This ring rests on a stand, parts of which are at pleasuro
removable in order to allow the plate when finished to be easily taken
out. The die is bolted to a ring on the top adjustable framing. On
the plunger being forced up it carries with it the plate, resting on the
ring until it meets the top die, which first imparts its convex form to
the plate, and as the plunger travels further up then forces the plate
through the ring. The plate thus squeezed between the outside of the
dic and the inside of the matrix takes the required shape and falls below
the ring on the head plate of the ram or plunger; it is then ready
for use and is easily removed by taking out the movable supports of
the ring or matrix.
And in order that the said Invention may be fully understood, I shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that
purpose I shall refer to the several Figures on the Sheets of Drawings
hereunto annexed,
The apparatus consists of three main portions, firstly, the press,
properly so called; secondly, the prime mover; thirdly, the tools.
The press, the form of accumulator preferably employed, and one form
of die and matrix are shewn on Sheet I., of the Drawings and different
forms of the dies and matrices employed are shewn on Sheet 2.
.
On Sheet I., Figure I. gives the apparatus in front elevation with the
tools. Figure II. in sido elevation, and Figure III. in plan. Figure IV.
affords a cross section of the form of accumulators employed. In
Figures I. II. and III., a is the press cylinder, b is the plunger, c is
the moveable cross piece guided by four bored out bushes d, d, dl, d,
embracing the columns e, e, e, e, of the press; fis the upper moveable
cross piece, the heighth of which can be regulated at will by means of
nuts I, I, I, I; his the supply pipe for the water. In Figure III. some
of the letters have been omitted. The hydraulic pressure is given by
pumps driven by any prime mover. In order to transform the continuous
work of the pumps into instantaneous work at the required moment,

page_text: I preferably place between them and the press an accumulator, the
load on which can be varied at will. This accumulator is shown in
cross section in Figure IV.; in which is the supply pipe; o is the
cylinder; p, its base plate; q, the moveable plunger; r, the packing; 8, its
outer casing; t, the sand or other material for weighting it; v, the tube
forming the inner portion of the receptacle for the weight of the accu-
mulator; w, a socket fitted into a neck on the end of the plunger.
On Sheet I., Figures I. and II., is shown in action a form of tool cm-
ployed for producing a semi-spherical end of a boiler. The plate i,
indicated in red, is first heated, and is then placed on the ring &, con-
stituting the matrix or outer swage or mould, and resting on supports 1, 1, 1,
a portion of which is moveable in order to allow the finished plate to
be removed. As the whole is forced up it encounters the die m, the
shape of which it first receives, and is then forced through the ring k,
having then acquired the shape n, indicated by red lines.
Sheet 2 shews in detail two sets respectively of what we have termed
the dies and matrices. Figures 1, 2, and 3 are views of a die for an
end plate of a locomotive boiler, and Figures 4, 5, and 0, its appropriate
matrix. The lugs for fastening it to the frame on the moveable cross
picce of the press are indicated by letter a. Figures 7, 8, and 9 show
the die for a circular boiler end plate; Figures 10, 11, and 12 the
appropriate matrix. It will be observed that the dies are cast hollow
to save metal. In order to gradually bend the plate without injury
it has been discovered that the parabolic curve is best for the internal
surface of the matrix which gives the external shape to the plate to be a
bent.
In witness whereof, I, the said Hermann Wedekind, have hercunto
set my hand and scal, this Fourth day of August, in the year of