IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE FITTINGS FOR GAS. STEAM, AND WATER PIPES
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Brotherton, of the Imperial Tube Works,
Wolverhampton, in the County of Stafford, Tube Manufacturer, for the
Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE FITTINGS FOR
GAS. STEAM, AND WATER PIPES."
Sealed the 8th February 1867, in purnsance of an Order of the Lord Chancellor,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Brotherton at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
July 1866.
I, JOHN BROTHERTON, of the Imperial Tube Works, Wolverhampton, in the
County of Stafford, Tube Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE FITTINGS
FOR GAS, STEAM, AND WATER PIPES," to be as follows (that is to say):--
My Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for shaping and
lap welding tees, crosses, elbows, sockets, and other junctions, and also the
cocks for gas, steam, and water pipes.
The machine consists of a bed, upon which is mounted a number of carriages
corresponding with the number of arms or ways required in the finished
fitting each of these carriages supports at one time a shaping tool, at another
a mandril, according to the description of work the machine is required to
perform at the time, and each carriage is governed by an excentric driven by
mitre wheels upon the same shaft. so that all the tools or mandrils, as the case

page_text: may be, carried simultaneously to the centre of the machine, at which point is
fixed a block to receive the swage tools.
The first operation in making a cross is to shape the two parts of which it
will ultimately be formed, and for this purpose a plate of metal is placed upon
the die in the block and a top tool worked by stamp hammer. hydraulic press,
or oliver is brought down to dish or sink it into a semi-cylindrical section.
For this operation the carriages are furnished with shaping tools to form the
mitres, these tools advancing towards the centre block by the action of the
excentrics and mitre wheels. Two similar parts having been thus stamped or
forged the top tool is removed, and a counterpart of the bottom one or die is
substituted, and the side shaping tools are exchanged for mandrils. Two of
the dished plates are then put together and heated, and are laid on to the tool
upon the block: the four mandrils are advanced instantly towards the centre
and lie in the four arms of the dished plates the hammer stamp, press,
is brought into action and perfectly welds the parts.
oliver
In making a fee or elbow joint a plate. the same size as is now commonly
used for these purposes, is to be placed on the lower die, and the hammer
descends and doubles it. Two dies are made to advance from opposite
sides of the machine by the same action as before described. and bend the
plate into the form of a tee or elbow joint ready for welding in manner
before named. Bending and welding are thus both done by one machine, but
the machine having been set for bending a sufficient number of parts are first
struck off before the machine is rearranged for welding. Wrought-iron cocks
are made in the same way as a cross. The machine may be worked by
manual or other power by means of a driving wheel and pinion, gearing on to
one of the shafts, upon which are hung the mitre wheels, before mentioned.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor. by the said John Brotherton in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th February 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BROTHERTON, of Wolverhampton. in the County of Stafford, Tube Manu-
facturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-six. in the thirtieth year of Her reign,
did, for Ilerself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said

page_text: John Brotherton, Her special license that I, the said John Brotherton,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Brotherton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time, and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MAKING THE FITTINGS FOR GAS, STEAM, AND WATER
PIPES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Brotherton,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly
describe and ascertain 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 Great Seal
Patent Office on or before the Thirteenth day of February, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-seven.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Brotherton, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the saine is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to
the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
My Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for shaping
and lap welding tecs, crosses, elbows, sockets, and other junctions, and also
the cocks for gas, steam, and water pipes. The machine consists of a bed
upon which is mounted a number of carriages, one or more of which may be
brought into action according to the number of arms or ways required in the
finished fitting; each of these carriages supports at one time a shaping tool,
at another a mandril, to suit the description of work the machine is required
to perform at the time, and each carriage is governed by an eccentric driven
by mitre wheels upon the same shaft, so that all the tools or mandrils, as the
case may be, may be carried simultaneously to the centre of the machine, at
which point is fixed a block to receive the swage tools.
The first operation in making a cross is to shape the two parts of which it
will ultimately be formed, and for this purpose a plate of iron cut and shaped
to the proper form, and bevilled on the edges if required, is placed upon a
concave die in the anvil block, and a top tool or convex die worked by stamp
hammer, hydraulic press, or oliver is brought down to dish or sink it into a
semi-cylindrical section. Two similar parts, but one rather larger than the
other having been thus stamped or forged, the top tool or convex die is removed
and a counterpart of the bottom one or concave die is substituted, and two of
these sunk plates are then put together and heated, and are laid into the con-

page_text: cave die upon the anvil block; the four mandrils are advanced instantly towards
the centre and lie in the four arms of the sunk plates; the hammer stamp,
press, or oliver is brought into action and perfectly welds the parts.
In making a tee or elbow joint a plate, the same size as that which is now
commonly used for these purposes, is to be placed on a suitable lower concave
die, and the hammer descends and doubles it. Two dies or swage tools are
made to advance from opposite sides of the machine by the same action as
before described, and bend the plate into the form of a tee or elbow joint
ready for welding in manner before named. Bending and welding are thus both
done by one machine with exchange of tools, but the machine having been set
for bending a sufficient number of parts are first struck off before the machine
is rearranged for welding. Wrought-iron cocks are made in the same way as
across. The machine may be worked by manual or other power by means of
a driving wheel and pinion gearing on to one of the shafts, upon which are
hung the mitre wheels before mentioned.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure is a front elevation of the machine; Figure 2, a plan, partly in
section, and as seen from above; Figure 3, a vertical section upon an enlarged
scale of one of the carriages and slides. The remaining Drawings illustrate
various stages of the manufacture and the tools employed therein; these will be
more particularly alluded to in their proper places in the following description:-
The machine represented in the Drawings, Figures 1 and 2, is shewn as it
would be fitted for closing and welding a cross-formed junction, that form
being the most difficult of production, other descriptions requiring only the
exchange of tools to adapt the machine to their manufacture. Upon an anvil
block situated centrally upon the bed of the machine is placed a mould or
concave die of the form seen in plan, Figure 4, and elevation, Figure 5, firmly
held in position by the poppets (j), Figure 2. In this mould or concave die
is laid a heated plate of iron, previously cut into the form shewn at Figure (6).
A convex die of the form shewn in plan (Figure 7) and elevation (Figure 8)
is fixed to the rod (k), Figure 1, of the steam hammer, and steam being
admitted to the cylinder () the force of the descending die strikes the heated
plate of iron, sinking or dishing it into the form shewn at Figure 9. Two
similar plates but, as before stated, one larger than the other, having been
thus produced, they are heated sufficiently for a workman to squeeze them
slightly together with a pair of tongs into the form seen at Figure 10, and
they are then heated to a welding heat. The convex die and concave mould
are then exchanged for two concave dies of the form shewn in plan (Figure 11,

page_text: and elevation Figure 12), one of which dies is fixed upon the anvil block
and the other to the hammer rod, and the heated blank or pair of plates being
laid in the anvil dic, the four mandrils carried by the slides (c), Figures 1
and 2, are advanced towards the centre.
The machine is thrown into operation by the clutch and bevil wheel gearing
(c) operating the slides (c) which carry the mandrils in the following manner :-
Referring to Figure 3 it will be seen that (a) is the slide carriage or box
containing the slide (c), upon which a mandril is mounted in the position
which the die or swage (¹) occupies in this Drawing for this purpose; (e) is
the driving shaft, upon which is formed, solid with it, a cam or eccentric (f).
which is enclosed between two steel plates (", ") secured to the slide (c),
which slide works in dovetails in the box (a); the forward throw of the cam ()
advances the slide (c) and with it the mandril. The peculiar contour of the
cam allows a certain rest or stop after the slides have been propelled forward,
during which rest the hammer (k, Figure 1,) is operated. Thus the four man-
drils carried by the four slides being inserted into the four arms of the cross, the
hammer is at this moment actuated by the admission of steam to the cylinder;
the counterpart or second concave die upon the hammer rod strikes the heated
plates and completely welds them together. The continuing revolution of the
cams or eccentrics (), by which the slides are propelled, also withdraws the
slides, and with them the mandrils from within the cross before the heated
iron shall have had time to cool and close around them.
I have thus described the operation of the machine as in bending and
welding a single cross, shewn in (Figure 13), but it will be evident that
it would be more economically worked, either by the employment of two
machines, one for bending the plates and the other for welding them, or by
fitting one machine and bending all the plates required before proceeding to
welding any, as the loss of time involved by the exchange of tools would then
be avoided. The web or bracket (c, Figure 13), which will also remain on
tees, and elbows as well as crosses and cocks, is for the purpose of strengthen-
ing the junction and preventing any blowers in the weld. Cocks are produced
in the same way as cross junctions, but with three mandrils only in action,
one of which must be a tapered mandril to form the tapered way required;
the iron in the first instance is shaped to the form seen at Figure 13º.
Tee and elbow junctions may also be produced in this way; but I prefer
another mode, which is as follows: For a tee junction, or the form shewn in
Figure 14, the iron is cut into the form seen at Figure 15, and then doubled
up into a trough form in a suitable concave mould or lower die, and by a
convex upper die as before described, in which form it is laid upon its back

page_text: in a concave die upon the anvil. Two flat-ended mandrils are carried from
opposite sides of the machine by the slides (c) and lie on the iron. A third
similar mandril is fitted to the rod of the steam hammer, and is brought down
on the top of the two horizontal mandrils. The remaining two slides (c), at
right angles to those before in use, are fitted with swage tools of the shape
seen in plan at Figure 16, and in section at (h), Figure 3, and these being
advanced towards the centre close the heated iron round the three-way
mandrils. This being done the mandrils are withdrawn by the returning
action of the slides and hammer rod, the blank is removed. reheated. and laid
upon its side in a comave die on the anvil; a similar concave die is fitted to
the hammer rod. Three of the carriages and slides (c) are fitted with mitre-
ended mandrils, which are advanced into the heated blank; the hammer
descends and welds the whole. In making an elbow, on the form seen at
(Figure 17), the metal is cut into the form seen at Figure 18, and doubled
into the trough form in manner before stated; it is then heated and laid in
the concave die (Figure 18") upon the anvil block, and one horizontal mandrit
on one of the slides (c) is advanced on to the iron, where it is met by a vertical
mandril on the hammer rod. Two of the slides (c) at right angles with the
mandrils are fitted with swage or bending tools of the form seen at Figure 19,
and these being advanced towards the centre close the metal round the
mandrils. The mandrils being withdrawn the blank is laid upon its side in
a concave anvil die, and two of the slides (c), one at right angles with the
other, are fitted with mitre-ended mandrils, which are advanced and lie in the
two arms of the elbow and the hammer rod, furnished with a proper welding
die, descends and welds the whole together. In making a coupling of the
description seen at (Figure 20), the iron in the form of a flat plate is bent up
in a heated state into the shape seen at (Figure 21); this is done by the
employment of a concave lower die or mould of the form shewn in plan and
elevation (Figure 22), and a convex top die corresponding to the lower die,
which top die is represented in end elevation (Figure 23, and side elevation
Figure 24), is then fixed in the rod of the steam hammer, and all the other
parts of the machine remaining at rest the heated plate of iron is laid upon
the concave lower die, and steam being admitted to the hammer cylinder the
power of the descending top die strikes the iron into the form seen at
(Figure 21); a fresh heat is then taken upon the iron, after which it is again
placed in the same lower die, and in this next process the operation of the
steam hammer is suspended, and the slides (c) carrying the mandrils and
swage tools are brought into action. Upon throwing the machine into gear
by the clutch apparatus and bevil gear already described, the mandrils in the

page_text: one pair of slides advance and lic in the sunk plate of iron upon the lower
die, whilst the swages or tools carried by the other pair of slides, and which
tools are of the section shewn at (h¹), Figure 3, close down the iron into the
form of a tube with a lap joint, as seen at Figure 25. Thus far the coupling
is formed but not welded, and for this purpose the tube is heated to a welding
heat, and a tool of the form seen at (Figure 26) is fixed to the hammer rod
in place of the bending die before used, and a concave lower die of the form
shown in elevation and plan (Figure 27) is placed on the anvil block. In this
lower die the tube is laid with the lap uppermost, and by working the slides (c),
as already described, the flat-ended mandrils upon the one pair close into the
tube and the swage tools upon the other pair close on to it, thus holding it
firmly, whilst steam being admitted to the cylinder drives the hammer and
with it the welding tool (Figure 26) down upon the lap joint, and thus effects
a perfect weld.
In conclusion. I would remark that the tools employed in the various
processes herein described, and designated mandrils. dies, or swage tools, arc
the same as those at present in use for performing the same operations and
producing the same results by hand labour; I therefore make no claim to the
exclusive use of such tools, or to any of the parts separately of the machinery
in which I employ the said tools; but that which I claim is, the arrangement
and combination of the several mechanical appliances into machinery capable
of being employed for the purposes and in manner herein more fully set forth
and specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Brotherton, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
TOYK