IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF TUBES, RINGS, AND CORDS OF INDIA-RUBBER, AND IN COVERING TELEGRAPH WIRES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Josiah George Jennings, of Palace Road, Lambeth,
in the County of Surrey, Sanitary Engineer, and Manuel Leopold Jonas
Lavater, of Bath Street, Newgate Street, in the City of London, India-
rubber Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF TUBES, RINGS, AND CORDS OF INDIA-RUBBER, AND IN COVERING
TELEGRAPH WIRES."
Sealed the 13th May 1864, and dated the 18th November 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Josiah George Jennings
and Manuel Leopold Jonas Lavater at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 18th November 1863.
We, JOSIAH GEORGE JENNINGS, of Palace Road, Lambeth, in the County of
Surrey, Sanitary Engineer, and MANUEL LEOPOLD JONAS LAVATER, of Bath
Street, Newgate Street, in the City of London, India-rubber Manufacturer,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF TUBES, RINGS, AND CORDS OF INDIA-RUBBER, AND IN COVERING
TELEGRAPH WIRES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of tubes,
rings, and cords of india-rubber, and in covering telegraph wires.
In the manufacture of tubes of vulcanized india-rubber it is usual to take a
strip of india-rubber (compounded suitably for vulcanizing) of about the
length of the tube to be made, and by means of a knife used by hand to bevil

page_text: the edge of the strip, reducing at the same time the width of the strip exactly
to correspond with the circumference of the tube to be made. This process
is difficult, indeed it is practically impossible to obtain long strips for tube
making with edges uniformly bevilled from end to end.
Now according to our Invention we obtain strips the exact width and with
edges of the exact bevil required in the following manner :-We take a block
of india-rubber of suitable thickness and with parallel sides; such a block is
conveniently obtained by lapping india-rubber as it comes from the rolls around
a mandril, so as to make a large roll, cutting off lengths from this roll of
the thickness of the blocks required. This method of making blocks of india-
rubber is now commonly practised in india-rubber works. We cut the block
into a strip or strips by means of a knife or knives, either rotating or
oscillatory, and so placed as to cut at an inclination (by preference at an angle
of 45°) to the parallel sides of the block. When a circular block is taken, as
is most convenient, the cutting takes place spirally, so as to produce a
continuous tape; but spiral cutting is not essential. In this way tapes of
uniform width and with edges uniformly bevilled from end to end are obtained,
the parallel sides of the block becoming the bevilled edges of the strip cut
from it. If it is desired that the tube should be striped or variegated in
color, in place of being of the same color throughout, as they are now
made, we employ (from which to cut the strips) a block built up of different
colors of rubber compound, sheets of the different colors being laid the one on
the other till a block of sufficient thickness is built up, or particolored blocks
otherwise produced may be employed. The strips may be made into tubes in
the manner heretofore practised. Elastic bands or rings of india-rubber may
be produced by cutting off slices from tubes made with strips cut from parti-
colored blocks. Or in some cases, to produce a tube suitable to be cut up
into rings, we first lap on a mandril a strip of plain rubber, then a parti-
colored strip produced as already described, and exterior of this another
plain strip. The rings cut from such a tube will appear with an interior
and an exterior circle of plain rubber, with (between the two) lines of
variously colored rubber radiating from the centre of the ring. Or we
produce a tube suitable to be cut up into rings by covering a mandril in suc-
cession with several strips of rubber, each of a different color, and then the
rings cut from such a tube will appear with concentric circles of various
colors.
In producing a cord of india-rubber suitable to be used as a spring it is
now usual to roll up a strip of sufficient width to produce the thickness of
cord required, but it is very difficult to produce a truly round cord in this

page_text: According to our Invention, we cut a band of suitable substance
and square in section, and pass this when very plastic through rollers, which
press down the angles, and immediately we freeze the band so as to set it in
the round form into which it has been pressed. A band so made when
thawed and vulcanized will retain its round form. Before vulcanizing, how-
ever, we prefer to cover the cord with a strip of india-rubber, either
particolored or otherwise, which is lapped around it.
In covering telegraph wire we employ a strip with bevilled edges obtained
by cutting a block as already described for preparing strips for tube making,
and such strips we lap spirally around the wire or otherwise.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Josiah George Jennings and Manuel Leopold Jonas Lavater
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 18th May 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOSIAH
GEORGE JENNINGS, of Palace Road, Lambeth, in the County: of Surrey,
Sanitary Engineer, and MANUEL LEOPOLD JONAS LAVATER, of Bath Street,
Newgate Street, in the City of London, India-rubber Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said Josiah George Jennings and Manuel Leopold Jonas Lavater,. Her
special licence that we, the said Josiah George Jennings and Manuel Leopold
Jonas Lavater, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said Josiah George Jennings and Manuel Leopold Jonas Lavater, our
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 and Ireland, the Channel Islands,; and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TUBES,
RINGS, AND CORDS OF INDIA-RUBBER, AND IN COVERING TELEGRAPH WIRES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Josiah George Jennings
and Manuel Leopold Jonas Lavater, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us or them, should particularly describe and. ascertain, the

page_text: 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 Manuel Léopold Jonas Lavater, on
behalf of myself and the said Josiah George Jennings, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of tubes,
rings, and cords of india-rubber, and in covering telegraph wires.
In the manufacture of tubes of vulcanized india-rubber it is usual to take a
strip of india-rubber (compounded suitably for vulcanizing) of about the length
of the tube to be made, and by means of a knife used by hand to bevil the
edge of the strip, reducing at the same time the width of the strip exactly to
correspond with the circumference of the tube to be made. This process is
difficult, indeed it is practically impossible to obtain long strips for tube making
with edges uniformly bevilled from end to end.
Now according to our Invention we obtain strips the exact width, and with
edges of the exact bevil required in the following manner :---We take a block
of india-rubber of suitable thickness, and with parallel sides, such a block is
conveniently obtained by lapping india-rubber as it comes from the rolls
around a mandril so as to make a large roll, and by cutting off lengths from
this roll circular rings or blocks of the thickness required are obtained, this
method of making blocks of india-rubber is now commonly practised in india-
rubber works. Or, in place of forming circular rings or blocks, rectangular
or other blocks, or sheets of india-rubber may be produced. The blocks we
cut into a strip or strips by means of a knife or knives either rotating or oscil-
latory, and so placed as to cut at an inclination (by preference at an angle
of 45°) to the parallel sides of the block. When a circular block is taken, the
cutting takes place spirally so as to produce a continuous tape, but spiral
cutting is not essential. In order to cut the blocks spirally into strips we
employ a machine similar to the machines now used for cutting strips spirally
from blocks of india-rubber. Machines of this description are now well known;
in all such machines, however, the knife has heretofore been caused to cut at
right angles to the sides of the block, in place of this we cause it to cut at an
angle thereto, by preference at an angle of 45°, as before stated. In this way
tapes of uniform width, and with edges uniformly bevilled from end to end, are
obtained, the parallel sides of the blocks becoming the bevilled edges of the

page_text: strip cut from it. In place of cutting the strips from a circular block, they
inay, as before stated, be cut from a rectangular block or slab of the thickness
requisite for producing strips or tapes of the desired width when cut up into
slices by a knife cutting at an angle to the sides of the block. The blocks we
make of any desired length, and the strips are cut lengthwise from it, each
strip being of the thickness requisite for the thickness of tape desired, and as
the sides of the block or slab are parallel to each other, the slices will all be
of an even width, and their edges will also be uniformly bevilled as the paralle!
sides of the block become the bevilled edges of the strips. In place of cutting
up each block singly into slices, several blocks or slabs of the proper thickness
may be simultaneously cut into strips, the blocks being for this purpose con-
nected together side by side, and in order that as small a portion of the sheets
or slabs may be wasted as is possible, the sheets or slabs are placed together
thus
and they may be caused to adhere to each other by shellac or
otherwise; the block of sheets so produced is then by means of a recipro-
cating knife cut up into slices of the thickness requisite for the thickness of
tape desired to be made, the slices being cut in the direction above represented
by the dotted lines; each slice cut off by the knife will so be composed of
several tapes, each having bevilled edges; these several tapes are then separated
the one from the other, and are ready for being formed into tubes. Strips
with bevilled edges, obtained by cutting a block in the manner above described,
we also employ in covering telegraph wire, and such strips we lap spirally
around the wire or otherwise.
'
We would here remark that we are aware that it has before been proposed
to cut sheets of india-rubber compound into tapes having the requisite bevilled
edges by means of the knives or cutters that cut up the sheet into tapes, being
caused to cut at an angle to the sheet, the bevilled edges so produced being
formed by the knives or cutters as they cut the sheet into strips. According
to our Invention, however, the bevilled edges of the tapes or strips are not
produced by the knives or cutters, but are obtained from parallel sides of a
block, the knife being caused to cut at an angle to these sides. If it is desired
that the tube should be striped or variegated in color in place of being of the
same color throughout as they are now made, we employ (from which to cut
the strips) a block built up of different colors of rubber compound, sheets of
the different colors being laid the one on the other till a block of sufficient thick-
ness is built up, or particolored blocks otherwise produced may be employed.
The strips may be made into tubes in the manner heretofore practised.
Elastic bands or rings of india-rubber may be produced by cutting off slices

page_text: of the thickness desired for the band or ring from tubes made with strips cut
from particolored blocks as just described. Or in some cases, to produce a
tube suitable to be cut up into rings, we first lap on a mandril a strip of plain
rubber, then a particolored strip produced as already described, and exterior
of this another plain strip. The: rings cut from such a tube will appear with
an interior and an exterior circle of plain rubber with (between the two) lines
of variously colored rubber radiating from the centre of the ring. Or we
produce a tube suitable to be cut up into rings by covering a mandril in
succession with several strips of rubber, each of a different color, and then the
rings cut from such a tube will appear with concentric circles of various
colors. The tubes produced in the manner above described may either be
cut up into slices previous to being vulcanized, or the tubes may be first vul-
canized, and then cut up into rings or bands. In order to cut the tubes into
strips or bands, the tubes are by preference placed on a mandril and put into
a lathe, the rings are then cut off the tubes as is now commonly practised.
In producing a cord of india-rubber suitable to be used as a spring, it is
now usual to roll up a strip of sufficient width to produce the thickness of cord
required, but it is very difficult to produce a truly round cord in this manner.
According to our Invention we cut a band of suitable substance, and square
in section, and pass this when very plastic through rollers which press down
the angles, and immediately we freeze the band so as to set it in the round
form into which it has been pressed. This we prefer to do by passing the
band as it comes from the rolls through a fluid, such as salt and water, that
is kept at a temperature below the freezing point of water by means of
freezing mixtures or otherwise. A band so made when thawed and vulcanized,
will retain its round form. Before vulcanizing, however, we prefer to cover
the cord with a strip of india-rubber, either particolored or otherwise, which
is lapped around it. The cord may, however, if preferred, be at once vulcanized
without being so coated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Manuel Leopold Jonas Lavater, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of May, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
M. L. J. LAVATER. (L.S.)