CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WROUGHT-IRON WHEELS TO BE USED UPON RAILWAYS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN THE MACHINERY PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to. Thomas Cropper Ryley, of Haigh Foundry,
near Wigan, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer, and Edward
Evans, of the same place, Engineer, for the Invention of " CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WROUGHT-IRON WHEELS TO BE
USED UPON RAILWAYS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN THE MACHINERY
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Cropper
Ryley and Edward Evans at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 17th January 1853.
We, THOMAS CROPPER RYLEY, of Haigh Foundry, near Wigan, in
the County of Lancaster, Engineer, and EDWARD EVANS, of the same
place, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS, IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WROUGHT-IRON WHEELS
TO BE USED UPON RAILWAYS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN THE MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH," to be as follows:-
Our improvements apply principally to the construction of driving
and ruining wheels for engines and carriages to be used upon railways,

page_text: but are also applicable to the manufacture of other locomotive wheels,
fly or balance wheels, drums or driving pullies, and other wheels the
nave and spokes of which are required to be made of wrought iron.
Hitherto such wheels have been formed by forging the ends of a bar
of sufficient length into the requisite segmental form. The bar is then
bent into a triangular form, so that the two extremities come together,
forming part of the nave, whilst the middle part of the bar formed a
portion or are of the rim of the required wheel, and a very great
amount of time and labour was necessarily expended in filing, planing,
or otherwise fitting the said segmental parts to form the nave. Our
improvements consist, first, in so rolling the spoke iron that the ends
which are to form the nave shall be of sufficient thickness to admit of
their being cut (by circular saws or other nicchanical means) or pressed
into the exact segmental form required to constitute a portion of the
nave when bent, and the ends brought together without the necessity
of any subsequent operation of planing or fitting; secondly, our In-
vention consists in cutting or pressing the ends of the said spoke iron
into the said segmental form; and, thirdly, our Invention consists of a
certain novel construction, adaptation, or arrangement of machinery
for effecting the said obiects.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Cropper Ryley and Edward Evans in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 16th July 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we,
THOMAS CROPPER RYLEY, of Haigh Foundry, near Wigan, in the County
of Lancaster, Engineer, and EDWARD EVANS, of the same place, En-
gineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Thomas Cropper Ryley and Edward
Evans, our executors, administrators, and assigns, Her special licence

page_text: that we, the said Thomas Cropper Ryley and Edward Evans, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
Thomas Cropper Ryley and Edward Evans, our exccutors, adminis-
rators, 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 the Isle of Man, an Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF WROUGHT-IRON WHEELS TO BE USED UPON
RAILWAYS AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
CONNECTED THEREWITH," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Thomas Cropper Ryley and Edward Evans, by an instrument in
writing under our hands and seals, should particularly describe and as-
certain 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 we, the said Thomas Cropper Ryley and
Edward Evans, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement and accom-
panying Drawings, that is to say:
Our improvements in wrought iron wheels to be used upon railways
and for other purposes, and in the machinery or apparatus connected
therewith, relate principally to the construction of driving and running
wheels for engines and carriages to be used upon railways, but are also
applicable to the manufacture of other locomotive wheels, fly or
balance wheels, drums or driving pullies, and other wheels the nave
and spokes of which are required to be made of wrought iron. Such
wrought iron wheels have hitherto been forined by roughely forging or
rolling the ends of a bar of sufficient length into the requisite seg-
mental form. The bar is then bent into a triangular form, so that the
two extremitics comic together, forming a segment of the nave, whilst
the middle part of the said bar forms a segmental portion or are of the
inner rim of the required wheel. A sufficient number of these segments:

page_text: .
thus formed being suitably arranged and heated in a furnace, the
whole is welded into a solid wheel. In forming or, constructing
wrought-iron wheels in the above manner a very great amount of
time and labour was necessarily expended in filing or otherwise fitting
the said segmental parts to form the nave, so as to make a sufficiently
close and accurate joint previous to welding. Our improvements con-
sist, first, in so rolling the spoke iron that the ends which are to form
the nave shall be a sufficient thickness to admit of their being reduced
by means of suitable cutting machinery, or compressed by hydraulic or
mechanical pressure at once into the exact segmental form required to
constitute a portion of the nave (when bent and the ends brought
together) without the necessity of any subsequent operation of filing or
otherwise fitting. Secondly, our Invention consists in cutting or press-
ing the ends of the spokes into the requisite segmental form. And,
thirdly, our Invention consists in the use or employment of suitable
cutting or pressing machinery for effecting the said object. These
said bars may be formed in various ways, but the method which we
prefer as being the readiest and most economical is as follows:-We
roll a bar of iron of any convenient length (so as to form as many.
spokes in one bar as practicable), having suitable, thickened parallel parts:
or "swells" at proper intervals or distances apart, according to the.
dimensions of the wheel to be formed: A. bar thus rolled is repre-
sented at Fig. 1, in the annexed Drawing;.a, a, being the bar; and
b, b, the thickened parallel parts or "swells.". We then subject these
said parallel swells b, b, to compression in moulds, or dies by means of
suitable mechanical or hydraulic power, and thus reduce them to thie
double: wedge shape or form as represented at.c, c, in Fig. 2. If the
dies or.
moulds are accurately formed a bar thus produced, when:cut
at the red lines, and each piece Bent into the proper triangular form,
and the eight segments being placed together, will form a wheel, as
shewn in Fig. 8, the joints at the. nave requiring.no further fitting
previous to welding...
..
Having thus described the nature and object of our said improve-
ments in the construction of. wrought iron wheels to be used upon
railways and for other purposes; and in the machinery or apparatus

page_text: connected therewith, together with the manner of carrying the same into
practicable effect, we would remark that we claim as our Invention,
first, so rolling the spoke iron as to admit of the ends of the arms
being cut by machinery, or compressed by hydraulic or other power
into the exact form requisite to constitute a portion or segment of the
nave. Secondly, cutting or pressing the ends of the spokes into the
requisite exact form by mechanical means. And, thirdly, the use or
employment of any suitable arrangement of cutting or compressing
machinery for effecting the said object.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Cropper Ryley and
Edward Evans, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Fifteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-three.