IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ROLLING RAILS AND GIRDERS AND OTHER SECTIONS OF IRON AND STEEL AND OTHER METALS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Brown, of Smethwick, in the County
of Stafford, Ironmaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR ROLLING RAILS AND GIRDERS AND OTHER SECTIONS OF IRON
AND STEEL AND OTHER METALS."
Sealed the 23rd November 1869, and dated the 5th August 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Brown at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th August 1869.
I, WILLIAM BROWN, of Smethwick, in the County of Stafford, Iron-
master, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ROLLING RAILS AND GIRDERS AND OTHER SECTIONS
OF IRON AND STEEL AND OTHER METALS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in arranging in the manner herein-after.
described the rolls of machinery for rolling rails and girders and other
sections of iron and steel and other metals, the object of my Invention
being principally to facilitate the rolling of large and heavy masses of
iron and steel, and to obviate the necessity for lifting the said masses

page_text: from one groove to another of the rolls as is necessary in rolling by the
ordinary machinery.
In arranging the rolls of rolling machinery according to my Invention
I mount two pairs of rolls by preference in the same standards or
housings, one pair being placed in advance of the other pair. One pair
of the rolls rotates in an opposite direction to that in which the other
pair rotates, that is, one pair rotates in a direction proper to seize the
pile, bloom, or bar and carry it through the rolls, while the other pair
rotates in a direction proper to push the advancing pile, bloom, or bar
back again to the pair of rolls from which it has just passed. The two
pairs of rolls are driven by two large toothed wheels gearing together;
one toothed wheel being fixed on the end of the shaft of one of the rolls
of one pair, and the other toothed wheel being fixed on the end of the
shaft of one of the rolls of the other pair. One of these toothed wheels
is driven in the ordinary way. The grooves of the two pairs of rolls are
situated in the same line. The pile, bloom, or bar being passed between
the grooves of one pair of the rolls from the front of the rolls is seized
by the said pair of rolls and operated upon by them, and carried between
the second pair of rolls in advance of the first pair.
The said pile,
bloom, or pair in passing through the second pair of rolls is not operated
upon by them, parts of the said second pair of rolls being cut away to
allow the pile, bloom, or bar to pass through them without being seized by
them, the said second pair of rolls acting in this case as guides for the
pile, bloom, or bar delivered from the first pair. The pile, bloom, or bar
is thus only operated upon by the pair of rolls through which it was first
passed. The pile, bloom, or bar is received by the workman in the front of
the second pair of rolls, and is returned through the said second pair of
rolls, which now seize the pile, bloom, or bar, operate upon it, and deliver
it to the first pair of rolls, parts of the said first pair of rolls being cut
away to allow the pile, bloom, or bar to pass through them without
operating upon it. The pile, bloom, or bar is thus passed backwards
and forwards through the grooves of the two pairs of rolls until it is
sufficiently reduced and finished, the pile, bloom, or bar being operated
upon only by one of the pairs of rolls at each passage through the two
pairs of rolls, the pair of rolls which for the time being do not act
upon the pile, bloom, or bar serving as guides for the pile, bloom, or bar
issuing from the other pair. I apply the same arrangement of rolls to
all the rolls of the mill, that is to say, to the blooming rolls, roughing
or billeting rolls and finishing rolls. By the arrangement described of

page_text: the rolls of the mill great facility is afforded for passing heavy masses
through the rolls, as the grooves of both pairs of rolls being in the same
line no lifting of the pile, bloom, or bar is required to pass it from one
groove to another.
Although my Invention is specially suited for rolling heavy masses of
iron or steel, yet the same arrangement may be applied to the rolling of
small sections of iron or steel; and to the rolling of other metals..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Brown in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st February 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BROWN, of Smethwick, in the County of Stafford, Ironmaster, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent bearing date the Fifth day of August, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and -nine, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Brown, Her special licence
that I, the said William Brown, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Brown, 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
MACHINERY FOR ROLLING RAILS AND GIRDERS AND OTHER SECTIONS OF IRON AND
STEEL AND OTHER METALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Brown, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Brown, 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 arranging in the manner herein-after
described the rolls of machinery for rolling rails and girders and other
sections of iron and steel and other metals, the object of my Invention
being principally to facilitate the rolling of large and heavy masses of iron
and steel, and to obviate the necessity for lifting the said masses from
one groove to another of the rolls as is necessary in rolling by the
ordinary machinery, and to dispense with the three high rolling and the
heavy machinery required for the ordinary reverse gear.
In arranging the rolls of rolling machinery according to my Invention,
I mount two pairs of rolls by preference in the same standards or
housings, one pair being placed in advance of the other pair. One pair
of the rolls rotates in an opposite direction to that in which the other
pair rotates, that is, one pair rotates in a direction proper to seize the pile,
bloom, or bar and carry it through the rolls, while the other pair rotates
in a direction proper to push the advancing pile, bloom, or bar back
again to the pair of rolls from which it has just passed. The two pairs
of rolls are driven by two toothed wheels gearing together, one toothed
wheel being fixed on the end of the shaft of one of the rolls of one pair,
and the other toothed wheel being fixed on the end of the shaft of
one of the rolls of the other pair. One of these toothed wheels is driven
in the ordinary way. The grooves of the two pairs of rolls are situated
in the same line. The pile, bloom, or bar being passed between the
grooves of one pair of the rolls from the front of the rolls is seized by the
said pair of rolls and operated upon by them and carried between the
pair of rolls in advance of the first pair. The said pile, bloom, or bar in
passing through the second pair of rolls is not operated upon by them,
parts of the said rolls being cut away to allow the pile, bloom, or bar to
pass through them without being seized by them, the said second pair of
rolls acting in this case as guides for the pile, bloom, or bar delivered
from the first pair. The pile, blooni, or bar is received by the workman
in front of the second pair of rolls and is returned through the said second
pair of rolls, which now seize the pile, bloom or bar, operate upon it,
and deliver it to the first pair of rolls, parts of the first pair of rolls
being cut away to allow the pile, bloom, or bar to pass through them

page_text: without operating upon it. Or the pile, bloom, or bar may be first passed
through the guiding or cut away parts of the rolls into the next pair of
rolls to be operated upon. It is preferred in all cases to adopt the last-
described arrangement. The pile, bloom, or bar is thus passed backwards
and forwards through the grooves of the two pairs of rolls until it is
sufficiently reduced and finished, the pile, bloom, or bar being operated
upon only by one of the pairs of rolls at each passage through the two
pairs of rolls, the pair of rolls which for the time being do not act upon
the pile, bloom, or bar. serving as guides for the pile, bloom, or bar passing
from or into the acting rolls. I apply the same arrangement of rolls to
all the rolls of the mill, that is to say, to the blooming rolls, roughing
and billetting rolls, and finishing rolls.
I will now proceed to describe, with reference to the accompanying
Drawings, rolling machinery arranged according to my Invention..
Figure 1 represents in front elevation, Figure 2 in plan, and Figure 3
in side elevation, and Figure 4 in cross section, two pairs of finishing
rolls for rolling flanged rails constructed and arranged according to my
Invention. The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in all
the Figures.
The two pairs of rolls are marked respectively A and B, one pair
being situated in advance of the other pair. The two pairs of rolls
A, B, are carried by the same standards or housings. The grooves of
the two pairs of rolls are situated opposite to one another or in
the same horizontal line, as seen by the section, Figure 4. The pair
of rolls A rotate in a direction contrary to that in which the pair
of rolls B rotate, that is to say, the pair A rotate in the direction
indicated by the arrows near them in Figure 4, while the pair B rotate
in the direction indicated by the arrows near them in Figure 4. This
motion is given to the two pairs of rolls by the toothed wheels c, d,
gearing with one another, the said wheels c, d, being situated on the shaft
of the bottom roll respectively of each pair. The wheel o is driven by
the ordinary shaft . The motion of the toothed wheels c, d, is
transmitted to the respective pairs of rolls by the speed wheels or
pinions d', d', and wabblers d², d, in the ordinary way. Every alternate
groove of each pair of rolls A, B, is cut away for permitting the bar to
pass through them without being operated upon. Opposite the non-
acting groove in one pair of rolls an acting groove is situated in the

page_text: other pair of rolls. In Figures 1 and 2 those grooves of the pairs of
rolls which do not operate upon the bar are marked e, f, g, h, i, while
those grooves which shape the bar are marked e, f, g, h, 2. I prefer
in all cases to pass the bar to be operated upon first through the non-
acting grooves. In operating upon a bar of iron or steel by my improved
arrangement of rolling machinery the bark in Figure 2 is passed by
the workman in front of the pair of rolls B between the non-acting
grooves of the said rolls B into the acting grooves e² of the pair of rolls
A. By the rotation of the rolls A the said bar k is seized by the said
grooves e, shaped by them, and carried to the workman in front of the
rolls A. In passing the bar k through the grooves the said bar is not
operated upon by them in consequence of the said grooves being so cut
away that the bar is not seized by them, the said grooves facting only as
guides to the bar. The bar marked in Figure 2, which has been
delivered to the workman at the front of the rolls A is returned by him
through the non-acting grooves e in the said rolls A into the acting
grooves h² in the rolls B, which grooves 2 seize the bar, shape it, and
carry it to the workman in front of the rolls B. The cut away grooves e
do not operate upon the bar but simply act as guides as before explained
with respect to the cut away grooves f; the bar is thus passed back-
wards and forwards in the manner described through the several acting
and non-acting grooves of the two pairs of rolls A, B, until it is finished,
the bar being operated upon only by one pair of rolls at each passage
through the two pairs of rolls, the bar being guided to the acting grooves
by the non-acting grooves of the pair of rolls into which the bar is first
introduced, as will be understood by an examination of Figure 2. Two
bars may be similtaneously rolled by the machinery represented by
being passed through the rolls in opposite directions, that is to say,
one bar may be passed through the non-acting grooves of the pair of
rolls A into the acting grooves of the other pair of rolls B, while a
second bar is being passed through the non-acting grooves of the pair of
rolls B into the acting grooves of the pair of rolls A. On either side
the rolls are rollers p, q, (either worked by friction or driven by gearing)
upon which the bar is supported as it passes between and leaves the rolls,
and on the outsides of both pairs of rolls A, B, are guides m, between
which the bar passes as it is pushed between and leaves the rolls, the
said guides being situated in a line with the grooves in the rolls. The
direction of the motion of the two pairs of rolls A, B, may be reversed,
that is, the pair of rolls A may so rotate that a bar passed into their
(...

page_text: acting or shaping grooves is carried through the pair of rolls B instead
of being carried to the front of the said pair of rolls A, and the pair of
rolls B may so rotate that a bar passed into their shaping grooves is
carried through the pair of rolls A. When I give motion to the rolls
in the manner last described I pass the bar through the rolls in the
following way-The workman first passes the bar into the acting
groove e of the pair of rolls A, which seize it and carry it into and
through the non-acting grooves fin the rolls B to the workman in front
of the rolls B. It is then returned through the acting groove h³ of the
rolls B, by which it is seized, shaped, and carried into and through the
non-acting grooves e of the pair of rolls A to the workman in front of the
rolls A, and so on through the whole of the grooves of the two pairs of
rolls. Instead of making the acting and non-acting or guiding grooves
of the rolls alternate with one another the whole of the acting grooves
may be placed at one end of the rolls and the non-acting grooves or
parts at the other end of the rolls, the whole of the non-acting grooves
or parts of one pair of rolls being arranged opposite the whole of
the acting grooves of the other pair of rolls.
This modification of my Invention is represented in Figure 5, which
represents a plan of the bottom rolls of two pairs of rolls arranged as
described. The acting grooves are marked 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, and the
non-acting grooves or parts are marked 6, 7. Each of the non-acting
grooves or parts consists of a broad groove or plain cylindrical part
formed by making the rolls at that part plain. By this arrangement a
much larger space is left to push the bar through the guiding groove to
the acting grooves, or from the acting grooves to the guiding groove,
than in the arrangement first described. The bar is passed through the
acting grooves in these rolls in the order in which they are marked,
that is, the bar after passing through the guiding groove 7 is pushed
into the acting grooves 1, then through the guiding groove 6 into the
acting grooves 2, and so on.
Figure 6 represents in side elevation, and Figure 7 in plan an arrange-
ment of rolls for finishing double-headed rails constructed according to my
Invention. Figure 8 is an end elevation of the driving wheels. These
rolls are the same as those represented in Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, excepting
that the non-acting grooves are made of a rectangular figure and of a
size considerably greater than the bar to be rolled, instead of making
the grooves of the general configuration of the bar to be rolled. The

page_text: non-acting grooves are marked r, r, and the acting grooves 8, 8, in
Figures 6 and 7. The driving wheels c, d, are in this arrangement
situated between the same pair of housings as the speed wheels, d.
c is the driving shaft provided with an ordinary clutch for throwing it
into and out of gear with the prime mover.
The arrangements of rolls represented in the Drawings for finishing
railway rails I apply to the roughing or preparing rolls and other rolls
of the mill, and I
I pass the bar prepared by the roughing rolls to the
finishing rolls represented.
By the arrangement described and represented of the rolls of the mill,
great facility is afforded for passing heavy masses through the rolls, as
the grooves of both pairs of rolls being in the same line no lifting of the
pile, bloom, or bar is required to pass it from one groove to another as is
required when rolls three high are used, and the rolls can work at a
much quicker speed and roll a bar or other section of a much greater
length than usual. There is also a good end of the bar to enter the
grooves, instead of the pile or bar opening and catching the guard as
sometimes happens in ordinary rolling.
Although my Invention is specially applicable for rolling heavy masses
of iron or steel, yet the same arrangement may be applied to the rolling
of small sections of iron or steel, and to the rolling of other metals.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do
not limit myself to the precise details herein described and illustrated,
as the same may be varied without departing from the nature of my In-
vention but I claim as my Invention, the improvements in machinery
for rolling rails and girders and other sections of iron and steel and
other metal herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say, arranging two pairs of rolls one pair in advance
of the other pair, the grooves of each pair of rolls being opposite one
another, and each pair of rolls rotating in opposite directions, so that
the pile, bloom, or bar is operated upon only by one of the pairs of rolls
at each passage through the two pairs of rolls, the pair of rolls which for
the time being do not act upon the pile, bloom, or bar serving as guides
for the pile, bloom, or bar which is about to be operated upon by the
other pair, or which has been operated upon by the other pair, sub-
stantially as and for the purposes herein described and illustrated. Also

page_text: the modification described and illustrated in Figure 5 of the accom-
panying Drawings.
In witness, whereof, I, the said William Brown, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of January, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw,
Birmingham.
WILLIAM BROWN. (L.s.)