86 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER ND ARCHITECT'S JOURNAL. 



[MARcn, 



like the one now before tliem miglit l)c useful in lifting a great weight, where 

 the ordinary one would not he sufficient. 



Mr. liucKLE thought that the jack was an exceedingly useful instrument. 

 An orilinary jack would be much more liable to be put out of order than 

 the one before them; besides, it presented greater facilities for lowering 

 weights. 



Mr. MiLNEB was of opinion that as it was it could not be generally 

 useful. If it was thrown from a tender to the ground it would be destroyed, 

 and their endeavours iliould be to prevent it, if possible, from capsizing. 



The Chairman said Mr. Thornton's object in introducing it was to have 

 the benefit of their experience. 



Mr. FE.A.COCK said, that for locomotive purposes it was not equal to 

 Heeley's jack ; still, if in other respects it possessed advantages over ii, tliey 

 ought not of course to condemn it. 



In answer to other questions by various members, Mr, Thornton said it 

 would lift 20 tons; it weighed about 65 lb.; and its price was 12 guineas. 



Another member said he sliould give the preference to Heeley's jack. 

 Lifting jacks when laid aside, like fire-engines in a country town, not being 

 generally required, get out of order, and he was afraid that the one before 

 tliem would be much more liable to injuries of that kind than the ordinary 

 jack. 



The Chairman said, it appeared that it was objected against the jack, 

 that it was liable to get out of order, and that it had not the advantages of 

 Heeley's jack in lifting from below, but from the top; at the same time it 

 would be admitted that it was steady in action, and that in lowering weight 

 it was necessary to have power and command, so as to do it slowly and 

 easily. There was one important point in which it had not the advantage, 

 and that was in price. In articles of that kind, the price was a considera- 

 tion. 



Mr. Henderson thought that the jack possessed advantages where there 

 was a great weight to lift, and only one man to work it. Another advantage 

 was the steadiness of its action. The great objection against it was its 

 liability to get out of order. If they wanted a jack to raise 20 tons, he was 

 not aware that they could get any other to do it with the same degree of 

 steadiness. 



CYLINDER-BORING MACHINE. 



" On the Fitling-up of Ci/linders for Locomotive Engines, and a Descrip- 

 tion of a Mactiine for Boring them." By Mr. C. Beyer. 



The desirableness of having all the cylinders of every class of locomotive 

 engines perfectly alike, so that they may, at any time, be changed in case of 

 accident, or be replaced by spare ones, it is presumed will he admitted by all ; 

 the difficulty of accomplishing this with the tools hitherto employed, will be 

 known to most who are engaged in this branch of the business. These con- 

 siderations, and the defect of cylinders, the author, from time to time, found 

 necessary to have rectified before passing them to be used, induced him, in 

 1843, to direct his attention to the boring-machine. 



The conditions which a good cylinder boring-machine should fulfil, may 

 be stated as follows: — 1. That it should make the cylinder perfectly round 

 in its diameter, and parallel in the direction of its axis. 2. That the bored 

 inside should be perfectly concentive or parallel with the outside of the 

 barrel. 3. That the projections beyond the flauches, if there be any, should 

 be true with the internal bore. 4. That every strain or pressure upon the 

 barrel of the cylinder whilst boring should be avoided. The boring-machine 

 hereafter to be described has been found, during several years' practice, to 

 have answered these conditions. 



Messrs. Sharp, Brothers & Co. cast their cylinders from wood patterns in 

 green sand, and commence the process of fitting-up by describing or gauging 

 off a circle upon each end of the cylinder, concentive to the barrel, and 

 having formed this circle the ends are bevelled inwards by chipping to an 

 angle corresponding to that of the plates of the cone mandrill. The cylin- 

 der being fastened to the mandrill is put into a two-foot slide lathe, with 

 facing motion, and has its ends faced to a gauge, and its projections turned 

 to a gauge, and cut to a length to gauge. There are further two uotches cut 

 out of two cone discs, so as to allow of applying an internal gauge for the 

 cmt-and-out length of the cylinder. Thus prepared by turning, it is removed 

 to the boring-machine, inserted between two plates, the faces of which are 

 planed, and the holes for receiving them bored from the boring-bar in their 

 places ; it is at once perfectly concentive with setting, and needs nothing but 

 clamping to the plates by headed bolts or clamps by its flanches to be ready 

 for commencing boring. For placing the tops of the steam-chests and valve 

 facings the turned ends are again made use of for setting, by placing upon 

 the planing-machine table brackets placed on their faces and bored out to 

 the same gauge ; the cylinder is turned to, in order to insure the parallelism 

 of these parts with the axis, as for similar reasons the inside of the cylinder 

 could not be otherwise than concentive with the outside of the barrel. The 

 author prefers making a separate set of gauges, tackling, &c. for each size of 

 cylinders rather than economise by making one do for many, and risk the 

 chance of mistakes ; and he believes that the plan here described, to work 

 always from the same point, is most likely to insure accuracy, as the faults 

 made by neglect of the workmen are not multiplied by subaequent opera- 

 tions. 



The boring-machine bores by two cylinders at the same time, and is ar- 

 ranged to bore cylinders of 2' G" strokes and from 10 to 20 inches diame- 



ter. The bed is that of a common slide lathe, suffi 'iently long to carry a 

 double set of driving gear, and admits of a sufficient traverse of the boring- 

 carriage. The boiing-bar is supported by three bearings, the former of 

 which is stationary anil firmly fastened to the bed to resist tlie end and 

 pressure of the cub when boring ; the latter are fixed upon the carriage 

 and travel with it along the boring-liar, and serve for securing the cylinder 

 during boring, as will be shown hereafter. To cause the boring-carriage to 

 move endways, a train of wheels descends at the back of the machine to give 

 motion to the shaft, and is transferred by means of a feathered worm to the 

 worm-wheel and pinion, both of which move loose above the fast stud of 

 the carriage. This same stud serves as a fulcrum for the lever, carrying upon 

 opposite projections the intermediate pinions, which gear into the stud 

 pinions. It will be clear, therefore, that hy setting the lever in such a posi- 

 tion as to bring one pinion into gear with another pinion fast on the rack- 

 pinion shaft, motion will be given to the boring carriage in one direction ; 

 and in an opposite or contrary direction by moving the lever so as to bring 

 the pinions to gear with each other; and this carriage will be stationary or 

 independent of the driving gear altogether, by keeping the lever in its 

 middle position. The rack pinion shaft is extended towards the front of 

 the machine, to work the ca,-riage by hand when putting in or taking out 

 the cylinder. A provision is also made in the train of wheels for varying 

 the traverse of the carriage by changing the pinion. 



To hold the cylinder while boring, the top of the carriage is formed into 

 a kind of square frame, by means of two plates, planed on the inside and 

 fastened to the sides of the bearings or standards and two cross stretchers. 

 These latter are also placed upon their inner faces and are secured to the 

 sides and top of the boring-carriage, and have holes bored in them when 

 secured in their places, by means of the boring head upon the bar corre- 

 sponding in diameter to the turned projecting ends of the cylinder to be 

 bored. It will be seen, therefore, that if the figure of the cylinder to be 

 bored be turned to the same gauges as the holes are bored to, it needs only- 

 inserting and clamping fast by the T bolts to be ready for boring without 

 requiring any setting in its pan whatever. One of the cross stretchers is a 

 fixture, whilst the other is removed every time a new cylinder is to be fixed. 

 The boring head is a fixture upon the bar, and has only one plain square 

 tire for boring, ground to cut either way. This tool fits into a planed recess 

 made slightly dovetailed, and is held fast by a set screw, and easily adjusta- 

 ble to any diameter by another of these machines. We employ three of 

 these machines — ^two double ones and a single one, and one man attends to 

 these and the lathe for facing and turning the ends of the rough castings of 

 the cylinders. The cylinders are cast as hard as we are able to cut them 

 with the best cutting tools we can make, and we find it more advisable to 

 complete the boring in three cuts; the first is often as much as J inch in 

 depth, the second we leave about ^ inch, and the third can hardly be called 

 cutting, but is merely dealing up or finishing. The advance, or traverse, we 

 rarely change, and is set to -^ of an inch for each revolution of the boring- 

 bar ; or is, for quickest speed of the bar, 3 revolutions per minute ; in the 

 second, 1"8 revolution per minute; in the third, or lowest speed, 1'2 revolu- 

 tion per minute. For boiing 15 inch cylinders — for roughing out, TS revo- 

 lution per minute, or cut at 7 feet per minute ; for boring, 3 revolutions per 

 minute, or cut at ll'78feet per minute; and for finishing, 1'2 revolution per 

 minute, or cut at 5-65 feet per minute. 



Mr. Crampton said they should be doing very great injustice to the very 

 valuable paper they had heard read were they to discuss it at that late hour, 

 and he should propose that the further consideration of it should be ad- 

 journed till the next meeting. The suggestion was adopted and the meeting 

 terminated. 



JACQUARD PERFORATING MACHINE. 



" Description of a Perforating Machine," made for Mr. Evans, the con- 

 tractor for the iron tubular bridge which is to carry the Chester and Holy- 

 head Railway over the river Conway. By Mr. Fothebgill. 



This machine is employed to perforate the plates for the above-named 

 bridge, and is at present adapted to punch such pitches only as that work 

 requires, viz., 3 inches and 4 inches from centre to centre of rivet holes, with 

 latitude for departing considerably from those (general) pitches in the lateral 

 rows of the holes. This machine is constructed to perforate, at each stroke, 

 a row of holes across a plate 3 ft. 5 in. broad ; but, by employing a series of 

 card plates (similar to the cards used in the Jacquard loom), any number of 

 punches may be put out of action at pleasure ; and by meaus of a blank 

 card at the end of the series, the machine is put out of action at a point 

 where no obstacle is presented to the taking out of the perforated plate and 

 putting a blank plate in its stead. The operation of changing plates, 

 weighing six or seven hundredweight each, is performed by half a dozen 

 men in less than one minute, and whilst one plate is being punched, these 

 men get another ready to put into the machine. As these machines take 

 eleven to twelve strokes per minute, it follows that (with a 4-inch pitch) a 

 12 feet plate may be punched in less than four minutes, and consequently 

 that (allowing one minute for changing) it may perforate twelve such plates 

 per hour. Many of the plates in the bridge are 12 feet long, 2 ft. Sin. 

 broad, and J inch thick, and are punched for rivets I inch in diameter. As 

 there are but few engineering concerns where such a perforating machine as 

 that at Conway could be employed more than an hour or two per day, it 

 appears to be very desirable that ironmasters should have them, and that 



