IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS FOR RAILWAYS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Hinton Bovill, of 24, Duke Street, West-
minster, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF RAILS FOR RAILWAYS."
Sealed the 15th February 1867, and dated the 28th August 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Hinton Bovill at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th August 1866.
I, GEORGE HINTON BOVILL, of 24, Duke Street, Westminster, Civil Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS FOR RAILWAYS," to be as follows:-
This Invention is for a mode of manufacturing rails when made of combined
Bessemer metal and ordinary wrought iron, and consists in heating the portion
of the pile, which is to be of ordinary wrought iron, to a welding heat, placing
it in a mould and running molten Bessemer metal to it in the position that
will form the wearing faces of the rails; the molten Bessemer metal will weld
itself securely to the heated face of the wrought-iron pile, which may then be
worked under the hammer and rolled out into a rail of the required size
with the Bessemer metal on the wearing surfaces.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Hinton Bovill in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th February 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HINTON BOVILL, of 24, Duke Street, Westminster, Civil Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Hinton Bovill, Her special licence that I, the said George Hinton Bovill,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George
Hinton Bovill, 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 RAILS FOR RAILWAYS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said George Hinton Bovill, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Hinton Bovill, 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
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists in the mode of manufacturing railway. bars from.
piles or blooms of ordinary wrought iron, and with which ordinary cast steel
or Bessemer steel is combined so that the steel shall form the wearing surface
of the rails when the pile is rolled out. And the mode in which I effect the.
same is as follows:-The pile or bloom, formed of ordinary wrought iron, is
first to be heated to a welding heat, and then to be placed in a mould of the
size and form required for the combined pile of steel and iron; this iron
portion of the pile is to be placed in the mould in the position for the molten
cast-steel or Bessemer steel metal to be run against the hot surface or surfaces
which are to be faced with steel, and the molten steel is then to be run into

page_text: the mould at such a high heat that the two metals will become fused together
and not be dependant on subsequent heating for welding the surfaces of the
two metals, which is a process of uncertainty, and combined steel and iron
rails have hitherto frequently failed from the imperfect welding of the metals,
causing the steel tops of the rails to separate from the iron shortly after being
put to work. The combined steel and iron pile is to be removed from the
mould immediately the fluid steel has set, and is then to be worked under the
bammer or rolled direct through the rolls into the bars with the steel on the
wearing face or faces of the rails.
I would have it understood that I do not claim as of my Invention the
combining of steel with iron for rails, or of casting molten steel against iron,
as such has been before proposed; but I claim the mode herein described of
casting steel against a hot pile of wrought iron at such a high temperature as
will cause the two metals to unite by fusion or a melting of the surface of the
iron with the steel, and thus render subsequent heating for welding the
surfaces of steel and iron unnecessary.
And, secondly, I claim the making a compound bar of one side iron and
one side steel according to the method herein described, and the subsequent
piling such compound bars with wrought iron; these compound bars are to be
piled with the wrought-iron surface in contact with the pile of iron or bloom;
the entire pile or bloom is to be heated in a furnace to a welding heat, and
then to be rolled out in the ordinary manner into the rail with the steel on
the wearing surface.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Hinton Bovill, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of February, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.