New or Improved Machinery for the Manufacture of Steel and Iron. Tubes Circular or Oval in Cross Section and having Different Diameters in Different Parts.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Nov., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 13th Aug., 1895-Accepted, 28th Sept., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
New or Improved Machinery for the Manufacture of Steel and Iron.
Tubes Circular or Oval in Cross Section and having Different
Diameters in Different Parts.
We, CHARLES FAULKNER. and FRANCIS HENRY LLOYD, and WILLIAM
ELLIS LLOYD, and WILLIAM HENRY LLOYD, trading as The Weldless Steel
Tube Company, of No. 303 Icknield Port Road, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Tube Manufacturers do hereby declare the nature of this invention to
be as follows:-
The said invention has reference principally to the manufacture of steel and
iron tubes used for making the forks of bicycles, tricycles and other velocipedes.
The said tubes are oval or circular in cross section but have different diameters at
different parts; that is, in tubes elliptical in cross section while the diameter passing
through the shorter axis of the ellipse is approximately the same throughout the
whole length of the tube, the diameter passing through the longer axis of the
ellipse is of a varying diameter, passing at uniform distances alternately into a
maximum and a minimum. When the tubes are of a circular figure in cross
section the diameter passes from a maximum to a minimum and from the minimum
to a maximum, that is, the tube made has the figure of two conical tubes connected
at their smaller ends. In making tubes elliptical in cross section we first make
tubes circular in cross section and afterwards convert them into tubes elliptical in
cross section the said circular and elliptical tubes being made by the machinery
constituting the said invention.
The said machinery consists of pairs of grooved rolls mounted and driven in
the ordinary way. The rolls by which tubes circular in cross section are made
have a series of three or four grooves of a diameter at each end equal to the
diameter of the ends of the double coned tubes to be made but tapering from their
ends to their middles the tapering increasing from the first to the last groove the
said last groove having the figure of the finished tube.
The machinery by which the double cone tubes made by the machinery last
described are converted into tubes elliptical in cross section, and tapering from a
maximum to a minimum and from a minimum to a maximum, consists of rolls
having a series of grooves progressively passing from the figure of the double cone
tubes on which the rolls have to operate to the figure which it is intended the
finished tube shall have.
In the machinery for making the double cone tubes we prefer to make the rolls
of such a size and the grooves of such a figure that the tube made shall consist of
at least two conical parts connected at their smaller ends, and in the machinery
for giving an elliptical figure to the double cone tubes, we either employ rolls
having grooves of such a figure as to fit the said rolls either to operate on double
cone tubes or on single cone tubes made by dividing the double cone tubes at their
minimum diameter.
The double cone tubes when divided at the part of smallest diameter give
ordinary conical tubes which may be used for various purposes and the double cone
flattened or elliptical tubes when divided at their least diameter are suitable for the

page_text: manufacture of the forks of bicycles, tricycles and other velocipedes and for other
purposes.
Dated this Twenty-third day of November 1894.
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicants.
New or Improved Machinery for the Manufacture of Steel and Iron
Tubes Circular or Oval in Cross Section and having Different
Diameters in Different Parts.
We, CHARLES FAULKNER, and FRANCIS HENRY LLOYD, and WILLIAM
ELLIS LLOYD and WILLIAM HENRY LLOYD, trading as The Weldless Steel
Tube Company, of No. 303 Icknield Port Road, Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Tube Manufacturers, 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:-
The said invention has reference principally to the manufacture of steel and iron
tubes used for making the forks of bicycles, tricycles and other velocipedes. The
said tubes are oval or circular in cross section but have different diameters at
different parts, that is, in tubes elliptical in cross section while the diameter
passing through the shorter axis of the ellipse is approximately the same throughout
the whole length of the tube the diameter passing through the longer axis of the
ellipse is of a varying diameter passing at uniform distances alternately into a
maximum and a minimum. When the tubes are of a circular figure in cross
section the diameter passes from a maximum to a minimum and from a minimum
to a maximum; that is, the tube made has the figure of two conical tubes
connected at their smaller ends. In making tubes elliptical in cross section we
first make tubes circular in cross section and after wards convert them into tubes
elliptical in cross section the said circular and elliptical tubes being made by the
machinery constituting the said invention.
The said machinery consists of pairs of grooved rolls mounted and driven in
the ordinary way. The rolls by which tubes circular in cross section are made
have a series of three or four grooves of a diameter at each end equal to the
diameter of the ends of the double coned tubes to be made but tapering from their
end to their middles the tapering increasing from the first to the last groove, the
said last groove having the figure of the finished tube.
The machinery by which the double cone tubes made by the machinery last
described are converted into tubes elliptical in cross section, and tapering from a
maximum to a minimum and from a minimum to a maximum, consists of rolls
having a series of grooves progressively passing from the figure of the double
cone tubes on which the rolls have to operate to the figure which it is intended the
finished tube shall bave.
In the machinery for making the double cone tubes we prefer to make the rolls
of such a size and the grooves of such a figure that the tube made shall consist of
at least two conical parts connected at their smaller ends, and in the machinery for
giving an elliptical figure to the double cone tubes we either employ rolls having
grooves of such a figure as to fit the said rolls either to operate on double cone
tubes or on single cone tubes made by dividing the double cone tubes at their
minimum diameter.
Figure 1 of the accompanying drawings represents in front elevation machinery
constituting the said invention for manufacturing from cylindrical iron or steel

page_text: tubes double cone tubes the gearing for the rolls of the said machinery being
oniitted ;
Figure 2 represents in side elevation the rolls detached with a cylindrical tube
passing between them.
Figure 3 represents a side elevation and sections at different parts of a double
cone tube produced from a cylindrical tube by the rolls Figures 1 and 2.
Figures 4 and 5 represent respectively in front and side elevation a pair of rolls
for producing from tubes of the kind represented in Figure 3, tubes oval in cross
section the said oval tubes having different diameters in different parts; the tube
represented in connection with the rolls in Figure 5 is seen in edge view.
Figure 6 represents a side elevation (that is, a view of the broader side) and
sections at different parts of a tube after it has been operated upon by the rolls
Figures 4 and 5.
We will first describe the machinery Figures 1 and 2.
The said machinery consists essentially of the pair of rolls a, b having the series
of semi-grooves marked 1, 2, 3. The said grooves 1, 2, 3 are taper, that is to say,
they diminish both in depth and width at different parts of the rolls, the diameter
of the grooves in passing from one point on each of the rolls to the opposite point
gradually diminishes, the part of each of the grooves of maximum diameter
being the same or approximately the same as the cylindrical tubes to be operated
upon. The part of minimum diameter of each groove of the series progressively
diminishes in size.
In operating on a cylindrical tube by the pair of rolls Figures 1 and 2 it is first
introduced into the eye formed by the grooves 1, 1 when the parts of the grooves
of largest diameter are coincident. In passing between the said rolls the diameter
of the tube is gradually reduced until the parts of the grooves of least diameter
coincide, that is, when the rolls have turned through a semi-rotation. On the
further rotation of the rolls the eye gradually expanding the tube is less and less
reduced until the parts of the grooves of maximum diameter again coincide when
the action above described is repeated. Thus the diameter of the tube is made to
vary throughout its whole length passing at uniform distances alternately from a
maximum to a minimum and from a minimum to a maximum. After the tube has
been passed through the eye of the grooves 1, 1 it is passed in succession through
the eye of the grooves 2, 2 and 3, 3 the tube Figure 3 being thereby produced.
The double cone tubes or the series of double cone tubes thus produced when
divided at the parts of largest and smallest diameter give ordinary conical tubes
which may be used for various purposes.
When it is desired to form tubes oval in cross section and having different
diameters in different parts suitable when divided at their maximum and minimum
diameter for use in the manufacture of the forks of the wheels of bicycles, tricycles
and other velocipedes and for other purposes we employ a pair of rolls of the kind
represented in Figures 4 and 5, the said rolls being marked a², 63 and we operate
on tubes of the kind represented in Figure 3 in the way herein before described
with reference to Figures 1 and 2; there is thereby produced a tube of the kind
represented in Figure 6, that is, a tube elliptical in cross section the diameter of
which through the longer axis of the ellipse passes from a maximum to a minimum
and from a minimum to a maximum while the diameter through the shorter axis
of the ellipse differs but slightly throughout the whole length of the tube.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that we claim as
the said invention of :-" New or improved machinery for the manufacture of steel
and iron tubes circular or oval in cross section and having different diameters in
different parts."
First. In machinery for the manufacture from cylindrical steel and iron tubes,
of double cone tubes or a series of double cone tubes passing one into the other,
the employment of a pair of rolls having semi-circular tapering grooves, that is,

page_text: grooves varying both in depth and width at different parts of the rolls substantially
as herein before described and illustrated in Figures 1 and 2 of the accompanying
drawings.
Secondly. In machinery for the manufacture from double cone tubes of tubes
oval in cross section and having different diameters in different parts, the employ-
ment of a pair of rolls having semi-elliptical tapering grooves substantially of the
kind hereinbefore described and illustrated in Figures 4 and 5 of the accompanying
drawings.
Dated this Thirteenth day of August 1895.
W. T. WHITEMAN,
Agent for the Applicants.