Iм- PROVEMENTS IN THE CONVERSION OF TIN PLATE SHEARINGS INTO TIN PLATES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hallam and Henry Joseph Madge, both
of Upper Forest Tin Works, near Swansea, in the County of
Glamorgan, Tin Plate Manufacturers, for the Invention of "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN THE CONVERSION OF TIN PLATE SHEARINGS INTO TIN
PLATES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hallam and
Henry Joseph Madge at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 29th September 1868.
We, WILLIAM HALLAM and HENRY JOSEPH MADGE, both of Upper
Forest Tin Works, near Swansea, in the County of Glamorgan, Tin
Plate Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONVERSION OF TIN PLATE SHEARINGS INTO TIN
PLATES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the economic conversion of the shearings
arising in the manufacture of tin plates into blooms preparatory to
their conversion into tin plates. By our improvements we propose to.

page_text: convert them at a less cost than by the ordinary mode of treating
shearings to obtain a larger per-centage of yield from a given quantity
of shearings and an improvement in the quality of the bar iron
produced.
It has been the practice of tin plate manufacturers when unable to
sell their shearings to convert them by putting them into a finery
furnace and sinking them down into a lump or ball in a fire of coke
or charcoal, or a mixture of both with the assistance of the blast or by
working them into a lump or ball in a puddling, balling, or other
suitable furnace. The lumps or balls thus formed are taken to the
hammer and forged into blooms, which are afterwards treated in the
usual modes of manufacture to form them into bars. Sometimes the
shearings are packed in suitable sized frames or boxes, and the bundles
thus formed being secured by wire or other metal bands are piled in
alternate layers. with puddled bars. The piles thus formed are heated
in the halling furnace, then taken to rolls and roughed down and
converted into finished bars. These and analogous modes of treatment
demand a great expenditure of labour, fuel, and material, and the bar
obtained is of very inferior quality, produeing when rolled into plates
many wasters. To remedy these defects we modify the last described
process in the following manner:-We pack the shearings in frames or
boxes of suitable size and form and apply pressure thereto to render the
bundle compact; we then secure the compressed bundles with bands of
wire or of shearings, having laid these bands transversely of the frames
or boxes before packing in the shearings. The bundles thus made and
secured we place alone and naked in a balling or other suitable furnace
and bring them to a welding heat; we then take the mass to a squeezer
or hammer and form it into a bloom, which bloom will be at once
passed through the rolls and formed into a bar, or may be reheated before
passing to the rolls for conversion into a bar. It has been found that
bars thus formed will yield far better plates than those hitherto formed
from shearings or from shearings piled with puddled bars and will also
throw less wasters.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Hallam and Henry Joseph Madge in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th March 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM-
HALLAM and HENRY JOSEPH MADGE, both of Upper Forest Tin
Works, near Swansea, in the County of Glamorgan, Tin Plate Manu-
facturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto we, the said William Hallam and Henry
Joseph Madge, Her special licence that we, the said William Hallam
and Henry Joseph Madge, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said William Hallam and Henry Joseph
Madge, our 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 THE CONVERSION OF TIN PLATE SHEARINGS INTO TIN
PLATES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William
Hallam and Henry Joseph Madge, our executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under our, 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 per-
formed, 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.
IN
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Hallam and Henry Joseph
Madge, 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 (that is to say) :-
This Invention relates to the economic conversion of the shearings
arising in the manufacture of tin plates into blooms preparatory to their
conversion into tin plates. By our improvements we propose to convert
them at a less cost than by the ordinary mode of treating shearings

page_text: and thereby to obtain a larger per-centage of yield from a given quantity
of shearings and an improvement in the quality of the bar iron produced
from converted shearings.
It has been and is still the practice of tin plate manufacturers when
unable to sell their shearings to convert them by putting them into
a finery furnace and sinking them down into a lump or ball in a
fire of coke or charcoal, or a mixture of both, with the assistance of
the blast, or by working them into a lump or ball in a puddling, balling,
or other suitable furnace. The lumps or balls thus formed are taken
to the hammer and forged into blooms, which are afterwards treated
in the usual modes of manufacture to form them into bars. Another
plan is to pack the shearings in frames or boxes of suitable size,
and to pile the bundles thus formed (which are secured by wire or other
metal bands) in layers alternately with layers of puddled bars. The
piles thus formed are heated in the balling furnace and then submitted
to the action of rolls, which rough down and convert the piles into
finished bars. These and analogous modes of treatment demand a great
expenditure of labour, fuel, and material, and the bar obtained is of very
inferior quality, producing when rolled into plates many wasters. To
remedy these defects we modify the last described process and render
it unnecessary to employ puddled bars to raise the quality of the
manufactured plates. The following is the manner of operating:-
We pack the shearings in frames or boxes of any convenient or suitable
size and form, and then apply pressure to the shearings by a plunger
or otherwise to render the bundles compact; we next secure the now
compressed bundles with bands of wire or selected strips of the shearings,
having laid these bands within and transversely of the frames or boxes
before packing in the shearings. The bundles thus made and secured
we place alone and naked in a balling or other suitable furnace and
bring them to a welding heat. We now quickly submit the heated
masses to a squeezer or hammer and thereby form them into a bloom,
which bloom we at once pass through the rolls of an adjacent rolling
mill and convert into a bar; or if found necessary the bloom may be
reheated before passing to the rolls for conversion into a bar. It has
been found that bars thus made notwithstanding that no new metal is
employed in the manufacture will yield far better plates than those
hitherto formed from shearings melted down, or from shearings piled
with puddled bars, and that they will also throw less wasters.
therefore effect an important economy in the process of conversion, and
We

page_text: also a larger marketable yield of plates than by the processes heretofore
employed.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "Improvements
in the Conversion of Tin Plate Shearings into Tin Plates," and explained
the manner of carrying the same into effect, we wish it to be understood
that under the above in part recited Letters Patent, we claim, treating the
shearings of tin plates in the manner above described for conversion
of the same into blooms preparatory to their being manufactured into
tin plates.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Hallam and Henry
Joseph Madge, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the
Twenty-fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witness,
WILLIAM JOWETT,
Morriston.
W. HALLAM.
(L.S.)
HENRY J. MADGE. (L.S.)