IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF IRON CABLES AND CHAINS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE. TO THE MANUFACTURE OF GOLD AND OTHER CHAINS
Year: 1858

page_text: by the Act.).
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Burn at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 23rd January
1858.
I, CHARLES BURN, of Blomfield Crescent, Westburne Terrace, Paddington,
'do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF IRON CABLES AND CHAINS, WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE.
TO THE MANUFACTURE OF GOLD AND OTHER CHAINS," to be as follows:-
Chain cables and other iron chains are made at present by subjecting the
metal to a variety of processes of forging, opening, and closing the. links or
bolts, and welding them, and the cost of making is considerable, while the
frequency of the weldings tends to weaken the links. Now my Invention.
consists of a mode of making chain cables and other iron chains from and out
of a bar of iron rolled to the form of an +, by and treated in the manner
herein-after described, and by which means no forging or welding is required.
And it will be seen that the same process may be applied to the manufacture
of gold chains or other ornamental chains, with such modifications as the
difference of material and the delicacy of the work may require.
Firstly, I take a bar of iron which is rolled or otherwise made to the shape
of a +, and may be called + iron, the width of the bar and thickness of
the metal corresponding with the outside width and thickness of the required
chain; a plan and cross section of this + iron are shewn in Fig. 1. Upon each
flange of this bar may be marked out the lengths of the links required, of

page_text: To be rounded, cach
which one set of links will be in flange A, as 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and the
alternate set of links in flange B, as 10, 11, 12, 13, &c.; the bar is then
placed on an anvil, Fig. 5, and passed under a punching machine, and the
spaces are punched out, which are shewn black in Fig. 2. The bar is then
turned over on the anvil, and drawn again under the punching machine, and
the spaces 10, 11, 12, &c., punched out in flange B, B; Fig. 3 shews a view
from the top. It will be seen that there will be a square piece of iron or bar
along the centre, cach side of which will be the dimensions of the thickness of
the iron. This bar now joins all the links together, but if the bar is placed
again on the anvil the punching machine will cut the centre bar through at
all the points of junction, & the effect will be to separate each link, one
being interlinked in the other and forming a chain. The chain is now
complete, but the links are square. instead of round.
link must be placed on an anvil, and each half link is to be punched and
rounded in succession, as shewn in Fig. 4, and the chain will be finished, and
when stretched out will be about one-third longer than the bar of iron out of
which it was made. I believe that a chain can be made on this principle out
of a bar of iron as it comes from the rolls without a fresh heat, as moving the
bar along the anvils, punching out the holes, cutting through the centre bar
separating the links, can all be done very quickly by machinery. The
machinery, form, and dimensions of the punches, also the mode of cutting
through the centre bar, will vary according to the dimensions of the chain, the
thickness of the iron or metal, nature of the same, and power employed.
When it is necessary to make a large chain cable similar to that shewn in
Fig. 7, then the parts to be punched out in the flanges must be those shewn
in black in Fig. 6. For very large chain cables a steam hammer will be
required to punch out the holes, the portion to be punched out at one blow
must be smaller in this case, and the iron must be hot; whereas, for smaller
chains, a common lever punching machine would do, and the iron might be
cold. It will be obvious that gold and other ornamental chains may be made
by an analogous process, with such modifications as the delicacy of the work
and the difference in material may require. And I believe gold chains may
Le made by the process I have described by punching out the links from
a piece of metal much cheaper than at present.