A METHOD OF MAKING BARRELS FOR FOWLING PIECES, MUSKETS, PISTOLS, AND OTHER SIMILAR FIRE-ARMS, AND RAMRODS FOR THE SAME
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
BENJAMIN COOK, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturer, do send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third,
by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-
eighth day of March now last past, did give and grant unto me, the said
Benjamin Cook, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Benjamin
Cook, my executors, adiiors, and assigns, 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,
my Invention of "A METHOD OF MAKING BARRELS FOR FOWLING PIECES,
MUSKETS, PISTOLS, AND OTHER SIMILAR FIRE-ARMS, AND RAMRODS FOR THE
SAME;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Benjamin Cook, under my hand and seal, to
cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His

page_text: Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters
Patent, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Benjamin Cook, do hereby declare that my said Invention of a
method of making barrels for fowling pieces, muskets, pistols, and
other similar fire-arms, and ramrods for the same, is described and
ascertained in the following manner, that is to say:
My first method is as follows: I take iron, steel, or other suitable
metal or mixture of metals, either cut from bars, or forged, or cast, or
otherwise made ready for boring or drilling into proper lengths, forms,
and sizes. I then draw them out round, or of any shape desired, by
passing then between rollers, or under the hammer, and then cut them
into such lengths or pieces as are suitable for the required purpose;
which lengths or pieces I then fix in a lathe or other proper machine,
and dril, cut, or bore out the inside (by any of the means now in use for
such purposes) through the whole or part of their length, as the case
requires. But in order that I may be more easily understood, I will
suppose the piece or carcass drilled thus-sce the Figure in the margin,
Number 1.-A, C, the part so drilled or taken out, leaving the black
lines B, B, on the outside, as the thickness of the sides of the carcass;
now if I only drill or cut out a core part of the way, instead of going
thro' the whole length, I only go to C, leaving the end solid. I then
draw or force the carcass through plates with holes graduated one size
below one another-see Figure 2, in the margin,-until it is drawn out
the full length desired, or I pass the carcass through rollers with groves
in them until it is brought to the length and form required. My
second method is to take plates or scalps of iron or steel, drawn under
the hammer, or rolled, or otherwise made to the proper size, form, and
thickness, which I turn over a mandril, beak iron, or anything suitable
for the purpose, and weld them: I then draw or force them through
holes or plates with graduated holes as above, or I pass them between
rollers with groves in them, as before specified, until they have attained
the length, size, form, and thickness desired. My third method, I take

page_text: round or other shaped plates of iron, steel, or other proper metal or
mixture of metals. I will suppose a round plate, Fig. 3, and one six-
teenth of an inch thick, or less or more. This plate, being forced
through a hole smaller than its own size, takes a concave form, thus-
see Number 4, in the margin; and as it passes through holes of smaller
dimensions, approaches, see Fig. 5, and at length assumes (a tube
form) the form required. I then continue to force it through holes, or
1 pass it thro' rollers or plates, as before specified, until it has attained
the size and length required. Now, as I before supposed, the plates
are one sixteenth of an inch in thickness before they began to pass
through holes, and as they increase in length by passing through
smaller and smaller holes the sides of the tubes increase in thickness,
so that in either of the methods before described, if the carcass passes
from six inches in length to four feet in length, and was only one six-
teenth of an inch or thereabouts in thickness when it first began to
pass the plates or holes, it will by the time it is four feet or thereabouts
have attained nearly or about four times the thickness, the diameter of
the tube being gradually diminished. Barrels for cannon are made by
any of the foregoing inethods, only requiring machinery proportionably
stronger. The slightest observation will fix upon the mind the great
advantage of these methods in the manufacturing of fire-arms. The
sides of the barrels will of necessity be of equal thickness throughout.
There can be little or no irregularity in any of the surfaces inside or
outside. In some cases it will bo necessary to keep a bar in the barrels.
while they are rolled, drawn, or forced, especially in cases where barrels
are required to be made of octagonal or other form in the bores or
holes; then a bar must be kept in the inside of the barrel, and as the
barrel lengthens, by rolling, drawing, &c. takes the form of the bar in
the inside. I make barrels also with a bar in the inside while it passes:
the rolls, with one or more straight ribs or flutes in the bore. By.
keeping a bar so shaped in the inside; while either rolling, drawing,
or forcing, whether hot or cold, it will leave in the bore or hole of
the barrel the shape of the ribs sunk in the insides of the barrel,
which said barrel may be, if required, twisted for rifle barrels. Barrels
made by these methods have this very great advantage, there can be

page_text: .
few or no unsound places in them. In two of the methods there is no
welding. They can seldom if ever be bursted, at least I should. sup-
pose not one in five hundred, for the very process so compresses the
metal, and the several times they are annealed so toughen's then, that
they become of the nature of wire: They may be made considerably
lighter:(perhaps one third, or even more than that,) than those now in
use, and also much stronger; and if in any case weight is desirable,
they may of course be inade quite as heavy as those now inade, for
all kinds of service, but especially for the Indian service: I'do conceive
that-if-the-barrels-can-bo-made-to-stand the proof required, and yet be
one third part lighter, or nearly that, they will be found to possess
incalculable advantages. By these methods of manufactory it is hardly.
possible that there can be one place in the barrel thicker than another,
asz is always the case in welded or forged barrels; they will of course'
act with more precision, and I presume with much greater effect...I do
not conceive it necessary to specify the different machinery requisite to
work the rollers, presses, or draw plates; the means are well known;
and form no part of my Invention; but it must be clear to every one
conversant in mechanics that powerful machinery will be required;.
either to roll, draw, or force, and when put in motion by steam or any
other power, the process will be regular and rapid, so that I apprehend
a musket-barrel will be drawn or rolled from its carcass to its full
length in about a minute, and a half, or two-minutes.. -I draw, roll, or
force the carcasses cither in a hot or cold state, as I find most suitable
for the purposes for which they are intended; either way will do, but if
worked cold it will be necessary to anneal-them-often: -My method
of making ramrods is simply to draw them as wire is drawn, or pass
them through groved rollers, from round, square, or any other shaped
iron, steel, or other suitable-metal-or mixture-of-metals, -and-either
leaving the thick end of the strength required, by not entirely drawing
the ramrod quite through the plate, or else I draw or roll them of one
-size throughout, and attach the thick head or button to them after-
wards, by screwing it on the top, and rivetting it, brazing it, or other-
ways fastened. If I make them in iron, 1. harden. them in the..usual
way, and afterwards teinper them down till found sufficiently elastic.

page_text: It will be observable that ramrods made by these methods require no
filing or grinding, as they leave the plates or rollers perfectly smooth
and regular.
In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and scal, this
Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eight.
Inrolled the Twenty-sixth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and eight.