IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CAST STEEL AND OTHER METAL TUBES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF GUN BARRELS AND ORDNANCE, AND TO THE RIFLING OF SAME
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Louis Christoph, of Paris, in the Empire of France,
William Hawksworth, of Linlithgow, North Britain, Steel Manufacturer,
and Gustavus Palmer Harding, of Paris, Merchant, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CAST STEEL AND OTHER METAL
TUBES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, PARTS OF
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF GUN BARRELS
AND ORDNANCE, AND TO THE RIFLING OF SAME,"
Sealed the 4th April 1862, and dated the 10th October 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Louis Christoph, William
Hawksworth, and Gustavus Palmer Harding at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 10th October 1861.
We, LOUIS CHRISTOPH, of Paris, in the Empire of France, WILLIAM HAWKS-
WORTH, of Linlithgow, North Britain, Steel Manufacturer, and GUSTAVUS
PALMER HARDING, of Paris, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CAST STEEL AND
OTHER METAL TUBES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN,
PARTS OF WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF GUN
BARRELS AND ORDNANCE, AND TO THE RIFLING OF SAME," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the manufacture or production of tubes of a
cylindrical, conical, or other form from cast steel or other metals or alloys, and
consists in making conical, cylindrical, or other shaped tubes without welding,
by a peculiar mode of drawing or rolling, or of drawing and rolling combined,
either in a hot or cold state. In drawing or rolling tubes of an uniform
diameter throughout according to this Invention,a peculiar form of mandrill is
employed, having two or more swellings or enlargements thereon, the oue
which comes into action first being rather smaller than the others, which

page_text: should be of a gradually increasing size. The draw-plate to be employed with
these mandrills is made considerably thicker than the ordinary draw-plate or
wordle, and has a conical draw-hole or aperture therein to correspond to the
graduated sizes of the enlargements on the mandrill. In the making of
conical or tapered tubes, such, for example, as are required for gun barrels,
we employ a conical mould or matrix, into which a cylindrical tube is intro-
duced, and through this tube a mandrill similar to the one above described is
drawn, so as to expand and elongate the tube until it entirely fills the conical
mould or matrix, the result being a conical tube with a cylindrical bore; this
tube may have rifle grooves indented or drawn therein, in lieu of cutting such
grooves, by using a mandrill having suitable projections therein, and to which
a proper rotatory motion is imparted during the time it is being drawn through
the tube or barrel. The tubes or blanks are originally produced either by
casting in the form of hollow cylinders or piercing them from a solid bar or
block, or by boring or punching. The steel to be used in the manufacture of
tubes should be of a pure and highly ductile nature, in order that it may be
readily worked either hot or cold by the draw-plate and mandrill or rolls.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Louis Christoph, William Hawksworth, and Gustavus
Palmer Harding in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 10th April
1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, LOUIS
CHRISTOPH, of Paris, in the Empire of France, WILLIAM HAWKSWORTH, of
Linlithgow, North Britain, Steel Manufacturer, and GUSTAVUS PALMER
HARDING, of Paris, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Louis Christoph, William Hawksworth, and Gustavus Palmer
Harding, Her special license that we, the said Louis Christoph, William
Hawksworth, and Gustavus Palmer Harding, our executors, administrators,"
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Louis Christoph, William Hawks-
worth, and Gustavus Palmer Harding, our executors, administrators; and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time

page_text: 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 CAST STEEL AND OTHER
METAL TUBES, AND IN THE MACHINERY OF APPARATUS EMPLOYED THEREIN, PARTS OF
WHICH IMPROVEMENTS ARE APPLICABLE TO THE MANUFACTURE OF GUN BARRELS AND
ORDNANCE, AND TO THE RIFLING OF SAME," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Louis Christoph, William Hawksworth, and Gustavns
Palmer Harding, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing.
under our hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of them, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Louis Christoph, William Hawksworth,
and Gustavus Palmer Harding, do hereby declare the nature of our said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be par-
ticularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the letters and figures
marked thereon, that is to say:-
Our said Invention relates to the manufacture or production of tubes of a
cylindrical, conical, or other form from cast steel or other metals or alloys, and
consists in making conical, cylindrical, or other shaped tubes without welding,
by a peculiar mode of drawing or rolling, or of drawing and rolling combined,
either in a hot or cold state. In drawing or rolling tubes of an uniform
diameter throughout according to this Invention a peculiar form of mandrill is
employed, having two or more swellings or enlargements thereon, the one
which comes into action first being rather smaller than the others, which
should be of a gradually increasing size. The draw-plate to be employed
with these mandrills is made considerably thicker than the ordinary draw-
plate or wordle, and has a conical draw-hole or aperture therein to correspond
to the graduated sizes of the enlargements on the mandrill. In the making of
gun barrels,
conical or tapered tubes, such, for example, as are required for
we employ a conical mould or matrix, into which a tube is introduced after it
has been rolled to a tapered form, and through this tube a mandrill similar to
the one above described is drawn, so as to expand and elongate the tube until
it entirely fills the conical mould or inatrix, the result being a conical tube
with a cylindrical bore. This tube may have rifle grooves indented or drawn
therein, in lieu of cutting such grooves, by using a mandrill having suitable

page_text: projections thereon, and to which a proper rotatory motion is imparted during
the time it is being drawn through the tube or barrel. The tubes or blanks
are originally produced either by casting in the form of hollow cylinders, or
piercing or boring them from a solid bar or block, or by punching. The steel
to be used in the manufacture of tubes should be of a pure and highly ductile
nature, in order that it may be readily worked either hot or cold by the draw-
plate and mandrill or rolls.
And in order that our said Invention may be fully understood we shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose we shall
refer to the several Figures in the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all the
Figures.
"
Figure 1 of our Drawings represents a longitudinal vertical section of one
arrangement of draw-bench for drawing cold cast steel tubes without weld
according to our Invention; Figure 2 is a plan of the same; and Figure 3
is a transverse vertical section of the draw bench; Figures 4 to 7 inclusively
represent various details of the parts used in connection with the apparatus
illustrated by Figures 1, 2, and 3.
The main framing A of the draw-bench is cast in one piece, and is monnted
upon the wrought-iron supports B, B, which are bolted down upon the brick-
work C. The main frame is composed of a lower rectangular box 1, intended
to receive one half of the endless chain E, and of an upper box F, containing
a complete system of hinged grippers G, and attaching hook H. These two
cases or compartments are parallel to each other, and are situate one over
the other throughout the entire length of the frame. At the two ends are
fixed the bearings I, I, which carry the shafts of the endless chain pullies or
wheels J, J. The driving gear is situate at the front end of the machine,
and consists of two standards K, which support the main driving shaft L,
driven by a pulley M, which receives its motion from any prime mover.
Upon this shaft L is fixed a pinion M, which gears with the spur wheel O, or
disengaging clutch box l', being also fitted on the same shaft. This clutch
is actuated by the combined action of the levers Q, and is capable of being
operated upon by the attendant at any part of the machine. The wheel () is
mounted upon the shaft R, which carries at one extremity pinion $, gearing
with the spur wheel T on the shaft U, and at the other end is fitted a
pinion V, which gears with the intermediate wheel X, driving the wheel Y,
fitted on to the axis of the chain wheel J. This train of gearing is so arranged
as to reduce the speed of the machine, and so prevent heating of the parts
when at work. At the opposite end of the framing is a bracket or upright Z,
a

page_text: having a circular aperture made therein corresponding exactly to the position
of the aperture of the draw-plate. In the draw-bench is fixed a wooden
table a, by means of the lug b, which is bolted to it. This table à is itself
firmly fixed into the ground by the four legs or supports c, c; it carries at
its outer extremity a cast-iron bracket or upright d, firmly secured thereto by
bolts, also having a circular aperture made therein. The draw-plate or
wordle e, Figure 4, is of a rectangular form, and about four inches in thickness;
it is perforated with a number of conical or tapered holes rounded at the
inner edges, of a gradually decreasing diameter, their sizes varying, of
course, according to the size of tube to be drawn. In combination with
this draw-plate is used a series of correspondingly graduated mandrills f
(Figures 5, 6, and 7). These mandrills are formed with two or more swellings
or enlargements g, g', gl, at their acting extremities, the enlargement gra-
dually diminishing in size from the end one g, so that when in operation, as
shewn in Figure 1, the smaller swelling will first act upon the tube, and the
larger ones will succeed it, thereby gradually reducing the thickness of and
expanding the metal between the circumference of the mandrill and the
interior of the draw-plate; or the enlargements may be all made of the same
size if preferred.
In making drawn-steel tubes according to this Invention, a small cylindrical
piece of cast steel of sufficient ductility for drawing is first taken, and having
had an opening drilled or otherwise forced through it in the direction of the
axial line of the cylinder, and of sufficient diameter to allow of the passage
therethrough of the stem of the mandrill f, it is passed on to the mandrill,
and the latter is secured to the bracket d (see Figure 1) by means of the
nut d, after having previously passed over the piece of steel, the draw-plate e
(Figures 1 and 4), and secured it to the draw-bar h. It is obvious that so
soon as the draw-bar h is entered upon in a retrograde direction by means of
the hook H and endless chain E, the piece of steel or short hollow cylinder
being forced or drawn between the interior of the aperture in the draw-
plate e and the exterior of the enlargements on the mandrill, will be of
necessity elongated into a tube of any thickness and bore, according to the
sizes of the aperture in the draw-plate and the enlargements on the mandrill.
When large pieces of steel are to be operated upon, it is necessary to subject,
them in succession to a series of apertures and mandrills of a gradually
decreasing diameter.
In the manufacture of drawn conical steel tubes, we first produce a
cylindrical tube by drawing, as herein-before described, and then pass this tube
through a pair of rolls having tapered grooves or channels made therein, in

page_text: lieu of parallel ones. Figure 8 represents a front elevation of a conical
tube rolling mill; Figure 9 is a longitudinal vertical section of the rolls;
Figure 10 is a transverse section of the same, shewing the decreasing depth
of the grooves in dotted lines; and Figure 11 is a plane projection of the
surface of one of the rolls. This mill consists of a pair of standards A, and
one or more pairs of rolls B, C, having a series of semicircular grooves or
channels made therein of a conical or tapered form, as shewn clearly in
the plane projection, Figure 14. The tube to be rolled has a mandrill
inserted therein, in order to prevent it from being crushed or flattened, and, as
the series of grooves or channels in the rolls are of a gradually decreasing size,
the tube may be reduced to any desired diameter by passing it successively
through the different grooves in the rolls. It is obvious that any section of
tapered tube other than circular may be produced, such as oval, flattened,
polygonal, or otherwise, by having the grooves of a corresponding form, whilst
the bore of the tube may be made either to correspond in section to the
shape of the tube, or be cylindrical throughout. The desired taper of the
tube having been thus obtained, we finish the same by internal drawing, that
is to say, by drawing a mandrill through the tube, whilst the tube itself is
held in a species of mould or matrix, shewn in longitudinal section at A,
Figure 12.
This mould is made slightly tapered or conical inside, and is
provided at the smaller end with a strong plug B screwed therein. The
tube C to be finished is introduced into this mould after leaving the rolls, and
a mandrill, having three enlargements g, g¹, g¹¹, formed thereon is intro-
duced into the tube, the smallest enlargement entering the end of the first,
and being followed by the two larger ones g¹, gl. The stem of the mandrill
is passed through the plug B, which is made hollow for that purpose, and is
secured to any convenient driving apparatus. Whilst the mandrill is being
drawn through the tube, the latter is held in position by bearing against the
inner end of the plug B, as shown. The action of the mandrill is to force
out or expand the sides of the tube against the interior of the matrix, and at
the same time to smooth the bore of the tube, and leave it perfectly parallel.
This apparatus will be found of great service in making gun barrels. When
it is desired to rifle a barrel, the mandrill shewn at Figure 7 may be employed,
having its enlargements toothed or grooved as at a, a, so as to indent the rifle
grooves in the barrel in lieu of cutting such grooves; but to accomplish the
rifling it is obvious that a proper rotatory motion should be imparted to the
mandrill at the time it is being drawn through the tube, or to the tube itself
In some cases parallel tubes may be taken direct from the draw-bench, and
placed inside the matrix, Figure 15, where they are rendered round by the

page_text: sole action of the maudrill and matrix; but we prefer to submit the tubes
previously to the action of the rolls herein-before referred to.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our said
Iuvention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, we would observe, in conclusion, that what we consider to be novel
and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to us by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
1st, the system or mode of manufacturing drawn cast-steel and other metal
tubes, and the general constructions, arrangements, and combinations of
machinery or apparatus employed in such manufacture, as herein-before
described.
2nd, the application and use to and in the manufacture of metallic tubes of
a mandrill, having two or more enlargements formed thereon of the same or
of different sizes, as herein-before described.
3rd, the combination of the peculiar draw-plate or "wordle" with a
mandrill having two or more enlargements formed thereon, for the manu-
facture of drawn steel or other metallic tubes, as herein-before described.
4th, the application and use to and in the manufacture of conical tubes of
a pair of conically-grooved rolls in conjunction with a conical matrix and
mandrill having two or more enlargements formed thereon, as herein-before
described.
5th, the system or mode of making drawn conical steel or other metal
tubes by the aid of a conical matrix and a mandrill having two or more
enlargements formed thereon, as herein-before described.
6th, the system or mode of rifling gun barrels and ordnance by indenting
the rifle grooves therein by the aid. of a mandrill having two or more
enlargements formed thereon, such enlargements being made with notches or
projections therein corresponding to the grooves to be produced in the barrel,
as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Gustavus Palmer Harding, on behalf
of myself and the said Louis Christoph and William Hawksworth,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, the Ninth day of April, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
G. P. HARDING. (L.S.)