AN IMPROVED TUBE EXPANDER AND STOPPER
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Wilson Martin, of Liverpool, in the
County of Lancaster, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
TUBE EXPANDER AND STOPPER."
Sealed the 17th March 1874, and dated the 19th September 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Wilson Martin
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 19th September 1873.
I, JAMES WILSON MARTIN, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED TUBE EXPANDER AND STOPPER," to be as follows:-
This consists essentially in forming a tube expander or stopper with
end plates, and a split expanding ring. The end plates are each formed
or constructed with a conical or inclined surface, and the ring with
O corresponding or inclined conical or inclined surfaces. The said ring
A screwed bolt and nut, or their
may be in one or more pieces.

page_text: equivalents, one of the plates being free to move on the said bolt, serve
to bring the plates together and expand the ring, hence any tube in
which the apparatus may be placed is expanded in proportion to the
nearness with which the plates are brought to each other, or such tube
is stopped by surface contact only.
Instead of an expanding metallic ring as described flexible or elastic
packing may be employed.
When two of the apparatus above described are used in combination,
one bolt being common to both, and a sleeve separating them, they
provide an entirely new appliance whereby both ends of a tube can be
quickly and efficiently stopped at the same time. As an instance, such
apparatus can be used on board ship for stopping the ends of a boiler
tube without letting down the fires.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said James Wilson Martin in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 19th March 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
WILSON MARTIN, of Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in
the thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said James Wilson Martin, Her
special licence that I, the said James Wilson Martin, my executors, 1
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Wilson
Martin, 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 a
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for

page_text: "AN IMPROVED TUBE EXPANDER AND STOPPER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said James Wilson Martin, my executors or admini-
strators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of
the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Wilson Martin, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement, reference being had to the accompany-
ing Sheet of illustrative Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
:
-
This consists essentially in forming a tube expander or stopper with
end plates and a split expanding ring. The end plates are each formed
or constructed with a conical or inclined surface, and the ring with
corresponding or inclined conical or inclined surfaces. The said ring
may be in one or more pieces. A screwed bolt and nut, or their
equivalents, one of the plates being free to move on the said bolt, serve
to bring the plates together and expand the ring, hence any tube in
which the apparatus may be placed is expanded in proportion to the
nearness with which the plates are brought to each other, or such tube
is stopped by surface contact only.
Instead of an expanding metallic ring as described flexible or elastic
packing may be employed.
When two of the apparatus above described are used in combination,
one bolt being common to both, and a sleeve separating them, they
provide an entirely new appliance whereby both ends of a tube can be
quickly and efficiently stopped at the same time. As an instance, such
apparatus can be used on board ship for stopping the ends of a boiler
tube without. letting down the fires.

page_text: Third. The conical end plates a, a³, in combination with the grooved
ring or rings b, and sleeve f, for stopping both ends of a tube.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Wilson Martin, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Seventeenth day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.
JAMES WILSON MARTIN. (L.S.)
In the presence of
JAMES JOHNSON,
Patent Office,
Clayton Square,
Liverpool.