IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PILES OF IRON OR STEEL, OR OF IRON AND STEEL, FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS, ANGLES, AXLES, TYRES, SHAFTS, AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Griffiths at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
October 1868.
I, JOHN GRIFFITHS, of Chesterfield, in the County of Derby, Manager
at Sheepbridge Iron Works, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PILES OF IRON OR
STEEL, OR OF IRON AND STEEL, FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF RAILS, ANGLES, AXLES,
TYRES, SHAFTS, AND OTHER ARTICLES," to be as follows:-
My said Invention consists in building up, in the manner herein-after
described, iron or steel, or iron and steel, into piles for the manufacture
of rails, angles, axles, tyres, shafts, and bars of other sectional forms
for various other purposes. I make the exterior of the pile of four bars
or plates, the top and bottom bars overhanging or embracing the side
bars and holding them in their places. The inner faces of the over-
hanging edges of the top and bottom bars are inclined and the edges
of the side bars are also inclined so as to fit against the inclined faces
of the top and bottom bars, and form therewith what is commonly known
as a scarf joint. The interior of the box or case of the pile thus formed
is filled with bars or scrap, the said bars or scrap being arranged to suit

page_text: the particular manufacture to which the pile is to be applied when
the pile is made wholly of iron or wholly of steel. The particular
arrangement of the bars or scrap in the interior of the pile is not of
much consequence, excepting that when the box or pile is composed
of steel, or partly of steel, I prefer to leave the pile hollow in its
middle, in order that in raising the pile to a welding heat the steel shall
be exposed as short a time as possible to the action of the fire. By
making the pile hollow the interior becomes heated nearly as soon as
the exterior. When the pile is required to be externally of steel and
internally of iron I make the hollow box or case first described of steel
and fill it with bars or scrap of iron. When two opposite faces only
of the pile require to be made of steel I make the herein-before described
top and bottom bars of steel and the side bars of iron, and I place the
bars in the interior of the pile upright so that their edges and not their
flat faces shall be presented to the top and bottom outer steel bars.
When only one face of the pile is required to be made of steel then
I make only the top or bottom outer bars of the pile of steel. When
either the top and bottom outer bars are made of steel or only one of
them is made of steel I prefer to roll the said bar or bars with a
projecting rib extending along the middle of the inner side, which inner
rib extends into but does not fill up the space in the middle of the
pile, so that the pile thus constructed is hollow and thereby becomes
more readily and uniformly heated preparatory to welding; the said rib
or ribs secure the more effectual welding of the stecl to the iron in
consequence of giving a greater surface for cohesion. Or I make the
bottom and sides of the pile of a bar of iron or steel rolled of a trough
or channel form, and I fill the interior of the trough or channel formed
iron or steel with bars or scrap; or I make the pile of a double trough
or channel made of two or more bars connected together by scarf joints,
the channels on either side the central part of the double trough being
filled with bars or scrap.
For a pile for making girders I roll or
otherwise form bars with projections on their ends from which the
flanges of the girder are made; I make the bottom, top, and sides of the
pile of these bars joined together by scarf joints, and fill up the interior
of the pile with bars of iron or scrap.