IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING STUFFING BOXES AND PISTONS
Year: 1851

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD
Jex CRICKMER and FREDERICK WILLIAM CRICKMER, 'of Pages Walk, Ber-
mondsey, Engineers and Copartners, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Third day of July,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, in the fifteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Richard Jex Crickmer and Frederick William Crickmer, our exors, admors,
and assigns, Her especial licence, full privilege and authority, that we, the said
Richard Jex Crickmer and Frederick William Crickmer, our exors, adñññors,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Richard Jex Crickmer and
Frederick William Crickmer, our exors, adñors, or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, our Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING STUFFING BOXES AND
PISTONS;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that we, the
said Richard Jex Crickmer and Frederick William Crickmer, or one of us,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, to be
inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters

page_text: that the nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is
to be performed, are fully described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed, and
to the figures and letters marked thereon; that is to say: - .
Our Invention consists of a mode of combining the use of metal, where there
is friction and motion, with flexible and elastic material in packing stuffing
boxes and pistons, as hereafter explained. And in order that the Invention
may be most fully understood and readily carried into effect, we will proceed
to describe the means pursued by us.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 shows a plan, and Figure 2 an edge view, of a packing ring for
stuffing boxes, which ring is by preference made to open at the side, in order
to its being passed round a piston rod without taking off the cross head or
other connection. One, two, three, or other number of these rings may be
used for a stuffing box, according. to the depth thereof, and the thickness to
which such. rings. are made. The opening is made slanting, that the steam or
fluid.may not pass; and where several such rings are used in the same stuffing
box, the openings in the several rings should not come over each other. On
the interior, where the friction consequent on the passage of the piston rod
through it, there are rings of wire cloth. We generally use three such rings, as
shewn at,a, a.
At the. back thereof there are rings of prepared canvas.b, b,
then a ring. of vulcanized india-rubber c, which, being compressed between
the piston rod and the interior of the stuffing box, will tend to expand, and by
expanding will tend to contract the opening through which the piston rod
moves, and thus keep the metal cloth up to its work against the piston rod;
and d is again prepared canvass.
Figure 3 shews a plan, and Figure 4 an edge view, of a ring for packing a
piston. In this case the rubbing of the parts being on the outer periphery,
the metal wire cloth, or. (what. we prefer for pistons) .the thin sheet metal rings
a, a, are outwards, then the prepared canvas b, then the india-rubber c, and
then the prepared canvas. The india-rubber being compressed tends to force
out the rings of wire cloth or sheet metal. When using sheet metal in place
of wire cloth, whether for stuffing boxes or pistons, we perforate the same with
numerous small holes. In preparing the canvas for such purposes, we saturate

page_text: it with the following composition; but we do not confine ourselves to the use
thereof, but find it advantageous when preparing canvas, or, it may be, other
woven fabrics or fibres, for the purposes of our Invention:-We melt sixteen
parts of grease or fat, and stir in a powder consisting of three parts of black-
lead, two parts of sulphur, and one part of alum, and we well impregnate the
canvas or other woven fabric or fibre employed in carrying out our Invention
with the same.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we would have it understood that we do not confine
ourselves to the details as herein described, so long as the peculiar character
of our Invention be retained; but what we claim is the mode herein described
of combining metal with flexible and elastic substances for packing stuffing
boxes and pistons.
In witness whereof, we, the said Richard Jex Crickmer and Frederick
William Crickmer, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Second
day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
RICHARD JEX (L.s.) CRICKMER.
FREDERICK WILLIAM (L.s.) CRICKMER.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Second day of January, in
the year of our Lord 1852, the aforesaid Richard Jex Crickmer and Frederick
William Crickmer came before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery,
and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the Specification
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that
purpose.
Enrolled the Third day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-two.