An old engraving of a rolling mill during Victorian times. It is from a book of the 1890s on discoveries and inventions during the 1800s. Rolling is a metal forming process in which metal is passed through pairs of steel rolls (revolving rollers) to reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform or create a specific profile from shaped rolls. The process can be hot rolling (as here) or cold rolling. Here workers draw the hot metal wire through the revolving rolls. It will then be passed back over the machine and through smaller rolls until the correct profile is achieved.
An old engraving of a rolling mill during Victorian times. It is from a book of the 1890s on discoveries and inventions during the 1800s. Rolling is a metal forming process in which metal stock is passed through one or more pairs of steel rolls (revolving rollers) to either reduce the thickness, to make the thickness uniform or create a specific profile from shaped rolls. Rolling is classified according to the temperature of the metal – it can be hot rolling (as here) or cold rolling. Here workers draw the hot metal through the revolving rolls. It will then be passed back over the machine and through smaller rolls until the correct profile is achieved. The work is overseen by a man in a top hat (left). Rolling mills can be traced back to the Swedish engineer Christopher Polhem, who in 1761 described rolling mills for both plate and bar iron. He also explained how rolling mills save on time and labour because a rolling mill can produce 10 to 20 or more bars at the same time. A patent was granted to British engineer Thomas Blockley in 1759 for the polishing and rolling of metals. Another patent was granted in 1766 to Richard Ford for the first tandem mill, where the metal is rolled in successive stands for hot rolling of wire rods.
Size: 3543px × 3319px
Location: UK
Photo credit: © M&N / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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