230 



THE CIVIL ENGINEER AND ARCHITECTS JOURNAL. 



[Jl'LY, 



perhaps, the exact end wliich may be attained by 

 our individual labour; but hereafter it will be a source of satisfac- 



Wt know not. 



tion to con^side^ that we have been humble jiioneers in a region 

 which may be productive of benefits at present unimagined and 

 unforeseen. 

 Hmthampton, May 18M, 1850. 



REGISTER or NE^W PATENTS. 



RAILWAY CHAIRS. 



Joii.N' ToRKiNGTON, of Bury, Lancaster, railway contractor, for 

 ■ '■'■certdin improvements in the construction of chairs for riiilways." — 

 Granted October 12, 1849; Enrolled April'ia, 1850. [Reported in 

 Keu-ton's London Journal.^ 



The object of this invention is to obviate the serious inconve- 

 niences which result from the yielding of the rails at the joinings 

 or points where the different lengths of rail meet or ci-oss, during 

 the passage of trains over the same; and it consists in certain 

 improvements in the chairs used for su])porting such rails, whereby 

 the patentee produces what he calls the "uniformly-supporting 

 joint chair." — Fig. 1 is a longitudinal elevation of the improved 

 chair; fig. 2 is a plan view thereof; fig. 3 is an end view; and fig. 

 4 is a transverse section taken at the centre of the chair. It 



jp,y. J 



consists of an iron rib or beam a, about three feet long, on the 

 •upper side of which three holders or chairs h, b, h', similar in form 

 to the ordinary chairj?, are cast; and the rib or beam rests at each 

 end upon a transverse sleeper c, to which it is secured by spikes or 

 trenails rf, d. The top of the rib or beam serves to support the 

 ends of the two adjacent rails e, e', which meet at the centre of the 

 middle holder or chair /j, and are secured there by the insertion of 

 a key or wedge/; and similar keys or wedges are driven into the 

 two end holders or chairs b, l: the bearing of the ends of the rails 

 xm the chair, w Inch now seldom exceeds two inches, is thus increased 

 to about eighteen; and there will consequently be a proportionate 

 increase in the unyieldingness of the rails under pressure and in 

 the steadiness of the carriages passing over them. This arrange- 

 nient is stated to combine all the advantages of the longitudinal 

 system of laying sleepers with those resulting from the employment 

 of transverse sleepers or blocks. Instead of the holders or chairs 

 fc, being cast in one piece with the rib or beam «, they may be cast 

 separately, and afterwards secured thereto by inserting their bases 

 (which are suitably formed for the pur])ose) into dovetail recesses 

 in the top of the rib or beam, and tlien driving in the wedges j. 

 In place of only three holders or chairs being cast on or attached 

 to the rib or beam a, the number may be increased to five. 



BOILER TUBES. 



James Ban.mster, of Birmingham, manufacturer, for ^'■a certain 

 improvement or certain improvements in tubes for locomotive and other 

 boilers." — Granted October 12, 1849; Enrolled Ajiril 12, 1850. 



The invention relates to manufacturing tubes suitable for loco- 

 motive and other boilers, by combining three tubes of different 

 metals into one tube; and to a mode of manufacturing tubes of 

 copper, brass, and other alloys of copper, suitable for the purposes 

 of locomotive and other steam-boilers. In the first part of the 

 invention for making each tube, three tubes of different metals are 

 employed. First, a brass tube; second, an iron tube; and, third, 

 a copper tube, are placed one on the other, the brass tube being on 

 the interior; the iron tube next; and the copper tube exterior; 

 and in preparing such separate tubes they are made of such sizes 

 that they will readily enter one within the other. Brazed tubes 

 are preferred, because thin metal tubes for the purpose can be 

 more readily obtained. Having placed the tubes one on the other, 

 a slightly tapering mandril is introduced, and the combined tube 

 drawn through a series of dies till they are closely combined; and 

 as the tubes are employed in a soft or annealed state when put 

 together, it has not been found necessary to anneal them after- 

 wards between the successive processes of drawing, seeing that the 

 extent of drawing down is but small. By this mode of constructing 

 tubes for boilers the advantage is obtained of having the beneficial 

 results consequent on using brass where the rusli of the flame and 

 products from the fire takes place, together with the advantage of 

 having the copper next the water; and the whole stiffened by the 

 use of iron; but when the fire is to act externally, then the order 

 of arrangement is to be reversed. 



The second part of the invention consists of new means of joining 

 the seams of tubes made of copper or brass and other alloys of 

 copper. The metal is to be bent over into the form of a tube, so 

 that the edges come together, and then, by the edge of a triangular 

 file remove the edges of the metal, so as to form as it were an 

 angular gutter. The tube is then filled with sand, and the exterior 

 covered with sand, leaving a gutter in the sand so as to increase 

 the size of the gutter made by the coming together of the cham- 

 fered edges of the metal, and in this condition the tube is heated 

 to a bright red heat. Melted metal (similar to that used for the 

 tube) is then poured into the gutter, which will partially fuse the 

 edges of the metal of the tube, and then the whole will set into 

 a solid mass; and when the same is cold the projecting-ridge of 

 metal at the seam is removed; and this is best done by passing it 

 in contact with a circular saw. The tubes thus made are caused to 

 pass t«o or three times through between grooved rollers, having a 

 mandril in them, and then they are completed by drawing them 

 through dies with a mandril, as when drawing other similar tubes 

 for like purposes, and which is well understood. 



MANUFACTURE OF STEEL. 



JosiAH Marsh-all Heath, of Hanwell, Middlesex, gentleman, 

 for '■'•improvements in the manufacture of steel." — Granted September 

 (i, 1849; Enrolled March 6, 1850. 



The invention consists in the application of iron, produced from 

 iron ores without being brought to the state of pig or cast-iron, to 

 the manufacture of steel, the iron so produced being manufactured 

 by the process described, which renders it more suitable for conver- 

 sion into steel than any iron hitherto made by the processes actually 

 in use. The excellence of the steel depends upon the comparative 

 purity or freedom from mixture with extraneous substances of the 

 iron from which it is made. All iron made by smelting the ores of 

 that metal in a blast furnace contains impurities, in consequence of 

 the alloys formed between the fluid metal and the earthy alkaline 

 or other extraneous substances contained in the ores, the fuel, and 

 the matters used to flu.x the ores. These impurities can never be 

 completely removed from the metal by the operations in use for 

 converting the pig into malleable iron. 



Any pure ore or oxide of iron from which the earthy or other 

 extraneous matters can be easily separated by the mechanical 

 operations of crushing, winnowing, washing, or magnetic attrac- 

 tion, may be treated in the manner the inventor proposes, but he 

 prefers the magnetic ore of iron to all others. The ore is to be 

 reduced to the state of grains, or even of fine powder, in order to 

 facilitate the separation from it of the earthy or other extraneous 

 substances; the jiure ore is then to be reduced to the metallic state 

 by any of the well-known processes for depriving the metal of 

 oxygen, by acting upon it with carbon, or any other reducing agent 



