1862 London Exhibition: Catalogue: Class 7.: R. Morrison and Co
1666. MORRISON, ROBERT, and CO., Ouse Burn Engine Works, Newcastle-on-Tyne.
Steam hammer with piston and bar forged solid.
ROBERT MORRISON'S PATENT DOUBLE-ACTING STEAM FORGE HAMMER of 20 cwt. with hammer bar and piston forged solid together.
The hammer is in full operation.
The above engraving shows a front and side elevation of a 20 cwt. double-acting forge hammer, and fully details the whole of the gear connected therewith. The steam cylinder is firmly bolted to the single frame, which is made of a box form, the side of the box looking from the cylinder being omitted.
This frame also contains the steam chest, steam passages, steam and exhaust pipes, shown by the dotted lines in the engraving. The hammer bar, an engraving of which is given in the centre of the letter-press, is forged in one solid piece, with the piston and claw for holding the different faces required for various classes of work. Two small steel rings are inserted in grooves turned in the piston, and render it effectively steam tight without the introduction of bolts, junk rings, or any additional parts calculated to destroy its solidity and simplicity. Above the piston the bar is planed flat on one side, a corresponding flat being left in the cylinder cover; this keeps the bar and the hammer face constantly in the same position relative to the anvil. On the top of the hammer bar there is a small roller which works in the slot of the slotted lever, shown attached to the cylinder cover; this lever, by means of a pair of links and a slide rod, gives motion to an ordinary box slide for admitting steam above and below the piston, and the slotted link is so shaped, that equal spaces traversed by the bar at any portion of its stroke, produce correspondingly equal, though smaller motion in the slide. This slide once set requires no further alteration.
The larger of the handles is attached by links to a movable slide face, which can thereby be moved up and down by hand, and regulate not only the length of the stroke but also its height from the anvil, according as the piece to be forged may happen to be thick or thin.
The smaller of the handles is attached to an ordinary stop valve, and is used for either shutting the steam oil entirely, or so far reducing its pressure as to strike light blows for swaying or other purposes. The steam pipe from the boiler is fixed to the underside of the frame, and runs up some distance inside the bell-mouthed part of the steam passage cast in the frame, which forms a trap for collecting any water that may accumulate in the pipes; a small cock placed at the bottom forms a communication between this tap and the exhaust passage, and can be opened at any time to carry off the water. A similar cock is placed higher up, which opens a communication from the bottom of the cylinder to the exhaust, for the purpose of getting rid of condensed water.
If at any time it should be required to strike a single blow, all that is necessary is to open the stop valve, and raise the lever attached to the movable face, and as the bar rises, suddenly depress it, when a single blow of any degree of intensity can be given, according as the stop valve is more or less open.
The foundation, anvil, and bed plate require no particular description, inasmuch as their form and size must depend on the nature of the ground and situation in which the hammer is required to be placed.
The momentum of the bar in rising and its impact with the forging in its descent, regulate the action of the valve to the greatest nicety. After the delivery of the blow, no more steam is admitted, and as it requires scarcely an eighth of an inch opening of slide to raise the bar while working with heavy blows on hot iron, the full force of the falling of the bar without any check from the steam below is obtained at the commencement, the reduction in thickness of the forging consequent on the blow being sufficient to open the slide to admit the requisite amount of steam to lift the bar, the momentum of which being unchecked in its upward course, opens the slide considerably more in that position, and admits the steam freely on the top of the piston, so that in all cases a very firm and powerful blow is obtained.