US12000A - James newman - Google Patents

Description

J. NEWMAN. MAKING METAL RODS OR TUBES.

No. 12,000. Patented Mar. 23, 1854.

"U ITE STATES PATENT OFFICE.

JAMES NEWMAN, OF BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND.

MAKING METAL RODS AND TUBES,

Specification of Letters Patent No. 12,000, dated November 28, 1854.

To all whom it may concern Be it known that I, JAMES NEWMAN, of Birmingham, in the county of \Varwick, in that part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, manufacturer, a subject of Her Britannic Majesty, have invented Improvements in the Manufacture of Metallic Rods, Rails, Bars, and Tubes; and I do hereby declare that the following is a description of the nature of my said invention and of the manner in which the same is to be performedthat is to say The nature of my said invention of improvements in the manufacture of metallic rods, rails and bars consists in the production of a strong and economical metal rod, rail or bar having the appearance of solid metal made with a core or center of sand, sandy, earthy, ashy or other arenaceous material rendered solid and stony or vitreous by ramming or pressure and the action of the fire during the course of manufacture and the nature of my improvements in the manufacture of metallic tubes consists in producing such rods as aforesaid and afterward boring or drilling out the core or center of the rod and the manner in which my said invention is to be performed is ascertained as follows, namely: WVhen iron is the metal employed and bars or rods are intended to be made I take a skelp or strip of iron of the requisite length, breadth and thickcers or dies having bell-mouthed apertures therein, by the aid of a draw-bench put in motion by a steam engine or other suitable power, and, thus I bring the beveled or straight edges (as the case may be) closely together. In some cases I also heat the turned up skelp to a welding heat in an air furnace or a reverberatory furnace, and weld the joint by any of the known means,

namely, by peening upon a mandrel in swages or by beating the joint upon a mandrel inserted in the skelp with a hammer on a grooved anvil, or by passing the turned-up skelp through grooved rollers or by drawing the same through dies or pincers having in them a bell-mouthed aperture by the aid of a draw bench moved by suitable power by either of which means the joint may be firmly welded and a tube or hollow cylinder formed. I

into the billet by hydraulic pressure or by any other severe pressure, where great pressure is necessary, or by hand pressure only where it is not. I then place the billet so charged into an oven, stove, muffle or other suitable medium, to dry the sand or other material within the billet and when the sand is dry I insert a plug within the other end of the billet and drive or weld the plug into the billet as is before mentioned in respect of the opposite end. I then place the billet (so charged and plugged up) within a suitable furnace, which maybe a common furnace, an air furnace or a reverberatory furnace and when the billet has obtained'a proper heat (which may be for some purposes a cherry red heat while for others a welding heat may be required) and while at such heat I pass the charged billet through a pair of grooved rollers put in motion by a steam engine or other suitable power, by which means the charged billet is drawn out or lengthened to'a rod or bar of any desired length, the sand or other material within the billet being drawn out or reduced in diameterat thesame time in the same proportion as the metal and it will be found when cold to have become vitreous or stony in texture according to the material used for charging the billet and a cross section of the rod or bar will present the appearance of a' core of stone or glass (as the case may be) coated with iron, the thicknessof the iron coating being determined by the weight or quantity of that metal used in preparing the billet. 'In the process of lengthening the charged billet similar rollers may be used to those now used in the ordinary manufacture of flat or round iron rods, or instead of the diagonal section roughing rollers now used for the process ordinarily termed breaking down the rods or bars, rollers having circular or elliptical grooves on their external circumference may be used by which the rod or bar will not be subjected to so severe a strain as in the first mentioned rollers.

In preparing the billets according to my process for larger purposes such for instance as for railway rails it will be necessary and I find it desirable on account of theheavy nature of the work to pile the iron in the ordinary manner that is practised for making railway rails leaving a hollow in the center of the pile of a requisite diameter to receive the sand or other material.

In some cases I prefer a difierent mode of inserting the sand in which cases I make a cylinder or case of the requisite length and diameter of thin sheet iron and of sufiicient size to contain as much sand or other material as Idesire to employ. I close one end of this case, fill it with sand or. other material, ram in the sand thoroughly, dry it, and loosely close the other end of the case (which I denominate a core). I then place in the center of a pile of iron and after heating the pile so made I roll or draw it out as before mentioned with respect to rods or bars. The core may be placed in any part of the pile (other than the center) where more advantageous to effect a saving of the better kind of iron when desired. This mode of filling the billets would apply of course only to such descriptions of rails as are or may be made of various qualities of iron, but certain classes of rails are of but one quality of iron throughout and to provide for the core in such rails it will be necessary to stamp out or otherwise remove a sufficient portion of iron from the center of the bloom or pile after it has undergone the necessary forging, this may be done by means of a steam hammer or a tilt or forge hammer provided with a suitable punch fixed on either the hammer or anvil block or by any other suitable apparatus for punching or striking out the center of a bloom or pile. In some instances I have found it to be unnecessary to plug or close the billets or cores, the doing of which depends entirely upon the nature of the article to be produced.

To produce copper and brass rods, rails and bars according to my invention I either cast or bore an ingot or billet of the form already described and after charging the same with sand or other material and plug ging up the ends as before mentioned I pass the billet in a cold state through dies,

pincers or tongs having a suitable aperture therein, by the aid of a draw bench put in motion by a steam engine or other suitable power. I anneal the billet as occasion may require. hen I use Muntzs metal to produce a rod, rail or bar I either cast the ingot or bore the billet and afterward roll or draw it in a red hot state toform the article. Copper billets may also be rolled hot if preferred.

My improvements in the manufacture of metallic tubes consist in producing tubes of various descriptions of metal by treating the various metals to be used in the same manner as is already described for producing solid rods and bars ofiron, copper and brass and after having produced the metal rod of any desired length I cut it into suitable pieces for the purpose desired and bore or drill out the core of sand or other material by any suitable drills worked horizontally or vertically in a lathe or otherwise as may be found most convenient.

When I find the sand of the locality in which the manufacture of articles according to my process is carried on to be of a nature to be rendered by fusion too hard and stony to be afterward drilled out economically I use in its stead for charging the billet silica or other similar earth incapable of fusion which may readily be removed by boring or drilling. By these means I am enabled to produce a tube in iron, copper, brass or Muntzs metal parallel on its external and internal surfaces or taper from end to end if desired by using a billet tapered internally without either welding or brazing. In the drawing hereto annexed and making part of this specification, Figure 1 represents a composite billet, i. (2., a metallic tube, filled with sand and plugged at both ends ready to be drawn out to the required length and diameter; Fig. 2 represents a section of said billet, one end plugged up and the plug ready to be inserted and welded into the other end; Fig. 8 represents a round composite rod of sand and metal, formed by the extension of the billet between grooved drawing rolls; and Fig. 4 represents a section of the same; Fig. 5 represents the rod with its metallic ends cutoff, and Fig. 6 represents a section of the same; Fig. 7 represents a metallic tube formed by removing from the rod, shown by Figs. 5 and 6, and Fig. 8 represents a section of the tube.

In all these figures a denotes the metallic tube or casing, Z) the end plugs of metal, and s, the sand or filling.

Having thus described the nature of my said invent-ion of improvementsin the manufacture of metallic rods, rails, bars and tubes, and the manner in which the same is to be performed I declare that I do not confine myself to the precise details hereinbefore mentioned so long as the main features and particular nature of my invention be retained, but

I claim? The production of metallic rods, rails and bars having the appearance of solid metal with a core or center of sand, sandy, earthy, ashy or other arenaceous material in man-

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