The Bedson Continuous Mill
About 1867 George Bedson of England, invented the first “continuous” mill.
Instead of looping the rod around and back through the rolls he put several sets of rolls each in front of the other with every other pair vertical. This alternate horizontal and vertical roll arrangement was necessary because the reduction of the billet or rod in any pass can be only in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the rolls. The roller and catcher had given it a quarter-turn twist each time they started it into the two-high rolls. Bedson’s successive pairs of rolls were set close together, each pair being speeded enough that it took the rod exactly as fast as the preceding pair delivered it. The billet or rod, therefore, traveled through them in a straight line.
This continuous process was, of course, of great advantage in that considerable speed could be attained and there was not the rapid cooling nor the opportunity for loss by scaling from exposure to the air which occurred with the long loops of the Belgian Mill. It was a great advance, but the speed was yet held down by the finishing pass and the inability of the reel to coil the rod fast enough.
The greatest development came through the inventive genius of two men, Charles Morgan and George Garrett, who developed the two separate types of mill which have made the rod rolling industry what it is to-day. The work of both was done in this country.