Tyre bending machine and combined drill by W. Affleck, Swindon

Model of tyre bender and drilling machine combined, scale 1:4, by W Affleck, Prospect Works, Swindon

William Affleck was an engineer who worked as an apprentice in Gateshead before working for Maudslay's in London and then for the GWR works in Swindon before setting up business independently in 1853. The company seems to have been a flourishing general engineers, employing 17 men, making cast drain covers and the like as well as mechanisms like this tyre bending machine, which may have had applications in wagon-wrighting. Given Affleck's traning with Maudslay's, the prominent London engineers, the machine's construction might usefully compared with that of items known to have been made by that firm, to ascertain how far it followed the practices established by the Maudslay workforce.

This is an early example of a machine for bending a bar of iron into the form of a hoop, or for trueing up the hoop or tyre after the ends have been welded together.

The machine has three horizontal rolls, the middle one, which is driven by a four-armed handle, driving one of the side rolls by spur gearing. The bar to be bent passes under the central roll and over the two outer rolls, the undriven outer roll being adjusted on sliding bearings to give the desired curvature. To enable a welded tyre to be rolled the central roll is capable of being quickly withdrawn through its front bearing, so that the ring can be placed in position. A simple form of tyre drilling machine, with an adjustable rest, is combined with the bender.