CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURING SKELP3 FOR FIRE-ARIIB
Year: 1809

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOHN JONES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Gun Lock
and Barrel Maker, send grecting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Twenty-eighth day of September, in the forty-ninth year of His reign,
give and grant unto me, the said John Jones, my exors, adñors, and
assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said John Jones, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, should and
lawfully might, during the term of years therein mentioned, make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURING SKELP3 FOR FIRE-ARIIB;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso, obliging me, the said John Jones, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description
of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within two calendar months after the date of the said recited Letters

page_text: 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 John Jones, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described
in manner following, that is to say:
The principle of my Invention consists in manufacturing iron skelps
(for the making of barrels for military or such other fire-arms as are
subjected to strong proofs of gunpowder) by rolling or otherwise making
plates of iron in a taper-like form, sufficiently large to be divided into
several of them, and so that when cut into skelps the grain or fibres of
the iron may be drawn transversely in every skelp, instead of longi-
tudinally, as by the forge hammer, which is the present mode of
manufacturing them. Take a slab or piece of iron in a wedge-like or
other convenient form, the length of which must be in proportion to the
length of the skelps required, and the weight according to the number
of skelps desired to be cut out of each plate. Heat the slab or piece of
iron to the usual degree of heat observed in rolling plates of iron; "then,
with the common apparatus in general use for rolling plate iron, form
it into a plate thicker at one edge and side than the other, which thick-
ness must be according to the sort of skelps wanted. The thick edge
and taper-like form will be best produced by reducing the circumference
of one end of one roller, or one end of each roller, a few inches in the
longitudinal direction of it or them, according to the sort of skelps
wanted, or nearly the same effect may be produced with a pair of rollers
of equal diameter throughout by giving one end of the upper roller more
liberty than the other. The plate of iron is then to be cut or divided
into skelps, or strips for skelps, longitudinally from the thin to the
thick edge, or from the thick to the thin edge. But to prevent waste
in cutting or dividing the plate into skelps of the form wanted, it may be
cut or divided into strips about the width of the muzzle or fore end of
the skelp, in which case the plate must be formed somewhat thicker on
the thick side and edge, in order to admit of the strips being a little
widened by a forge or tilt hammer, or by any other means. Where it
may not be convenient to roll the plate wide enough to form the skelps
in one length, it may be done in two or more parts and joined in the

page_text: welding of the barrel or in the skelp form. The barrels manufactured
from these skelps I find to be more clear and more free from brays or
flaws, which I conceive arises from the great pressure and quickness of
the rollers upon the iron in so hot a state forcing the pure metallic
particles to cohere more closely than can be effected by the partial
strokes of the tilt hammer upon the iron less hot; and by the grain or
fibres being by this process laid round parellel with the edge of the
breech, they partake in some degree of the nature of what are termed
twisted barrels, gain a considerable addition of strength, and conse-
quently stand proof with less risque of bursting.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Jones, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and nine.
Inrolled the Twenty-seventh day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and nine.