A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING COPPER ROLLERS, CYLINDERS, AND TUBES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Lacey, of the Lozells Lane, in the Parish o
Aston-juxta-Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Agent, for the
Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING COPPER ROLLERS,
CYLINDERS, AND TUBES."
Sealed the 22nd December 1854, and dated the 7th July 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Lacey at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
July 1854.
I, WILLIAM LACEY, of the Lozells Lane, in the Parish of Aston-juxta-
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING COPPER
ROLLERS, CYLINDERS, AND TUBES" to be as follows:-
My said Invention consists in making the said rollers, cylinders, and tubes
from old rollers in the following manner :-I take two old copper rollers (which
have been used for printing fabrics), and I remove the pattern from the said
rollers by turning. I also remove the "nib" out of one or both of the said
rollers. I expand one of the said rollers (from which the "nib" has been
removed, by passing a draw burr through its interior, or otherwise. I next
heat the said expanded roller in a suitable furnace, and introduce the smaller
roller within it. By cooling, the outer roller contracts upon the inner one,
and becomes firmly attached thereto. By drawing, rolling, or otherwise, the
compound roller may be brought to the proper size to be used as a new roller,
or reduced to cylinders or tubes of any required sizes.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Lacey in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
3rd January 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
LACEY, of the Lozells Lane, in the Parish of Aston-juxta-Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Lacey, Her special licence that I, the said William Lacey,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Lacey, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire-
land, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW OR
IMPROVED METHOD OF MAKING COPPER ROLLERS, CYLINDERS, AND TUBES," upon
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Lacey, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Grent Seal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the
said Letters Patent.
the
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Lacey, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof (that is to say):-
The first part of my Invention consists in making copper rollers, cylinders,
and tubes from old rollers in the following manner:-I take two old copper
rollers, which have been used for printing fabrics or for other purposes, and I
remove the pattern or design from the said rollers by turning or otherwise. I
also remove the "nib," (that is to say, the feather or rib by which the said
roller is connected with its axis,) out of one or both of the said rollers. I
expand one of the said rollers, from which the "nib" has been removed, by
passing a draw burr through its interior, or otherwise. I next heat the said
expanded roller in a suitable furnace, and introduce the smaller or unexpanded

page_text: roller within it. By cooling, the outer roller contracts upon the inner one, and
becomes firmly attached thereto. By drawing, rolling, or otherwise, the com
pound roller may be brought to the proper size to be used as a new roller; or
reduced to cylinders or tubes of any required.size.
The second part of my Invention consists in the method of casting hollow
copper cylinders, to be used as rollers or for the manufacture of tubes. This
part of my Invention consists in casting the said hollow cylinders in cast-iron
moulds, so constructed that the liquid metal shall enter the said moulds at the
bottom thereof, so that the said metal in the said mould shall be undisturbed
by air bubbles carried down by the stream of metal, and the casting con-
sequently sound. Figure 1 represents in elevation a mould for casting hollow
cylinders of copper according to my Invention; and Figure 2 represents in
elevation a portion of the same; and Figure 3 represents a transverse section
of the same: The said mould consists of two nearly semi-cylindrical portions
a, b, which, when placed together, and fixed in the positions represented by the
rings c and wedges d, constitute a cylindrical mould. A central core or mandril
e is fixed in the axis of the cylindrical mould, as represented. The said core or
mandril e may either be solid or hollow, or formed of an iron, copper, or other
tube, slit from end to end, and the edges made to overlap each other, so that
when compressed by the rings and screws f, f, the diameter of the said core
may be diminished, and the said core may readily be removed from the
interior of the hollow cylinder cast upon it. The exterior of the core e and the
interior of the mould are washed before using with a mixture of charcoal and
milk. g, h, are passages extending from, the upper part of the mould to the
lower part of the same; the said passages g, h, communicate with the annular
space i, in which the hollow cylinder is cast by two lateral apertures 9", h"; a
slot running the whole length of the mould is formed on opposite sides of the
cylinder, as shown at k, l, and as will be understood by an inspection of the
transverse or horizontal section, Figure 3. The said slots k, l, may be of a
quarter of an inch in breadth, or thereabouts; but I do not confine myself to
any particular size. The melted metal is poured into the passages g, h, at their
expanded mouths g', h', and, running down the said passages, enters the annular
i between the mould a, b, and core or mandril e, by the apertures 9", h".
The said melted metal also enters into the said annular space by the slots k, l,
and as the surface of the metal rises by the filling of the mould it chases the
air before it, which escapes by the opening m. By the said melted metal
entering the mould at a point at or below the level of the metal in the interior
of the said mould, the said metal is not disturbed, as it is in the ordinary
method of pouring, and a sound casting is the result. When the mould is full,
space

page_text: it is indicated by the escape of the metal from the aperture m. The feeding
passages g, h, are also full of metal, which said metal, when the two halves of
the mould are separated, is in the form of solid cylindrical rods, connected to
the cast roller or cylinder by ribs or feathers filling up the slots k, l. The
said cylindrical rods formed in the passages g, h, may be detached from the
cylinder by a circular saw, or in any other convenient manner, and drawn
down for wire or bolt rods. The interior of the core or mandril e may be filled
with sand or other suitable material. When the hollow cylinders cast according
to my Invention are to be used for printing rollers, they are cast with a "nib"
in their interior, which said "nib" is produced by making a groove or depres-
sion in the core or mandril, as is well understood. The said cylinders when cast
without "nibs" may be drawn or rolled into tubes of any required size.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise methods herein described, as the same may be varied
without departing from the nature of my said Invention; but I claim as my
Invention,-
Firstly, making copper rollers, cylinders, and tubes from old copper rollers,
by contracting one of the said rollers upon another, as herein described.
Secondly, the method of constructing moulds for casting copper rollers and
cylinders, in the manner herein described, and represented in the accompanying
Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Lacey, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Second day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
WILLIAM LACEY. (L.S.)