AN IMPROVED METHOD OF MANUFACTURING HOOPS FROM OLD IRON Hoops
Year: 1812

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BUNN, of Lower Halliford, in the County of Middlesex, Iron Hoop Manu-
facturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the First did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day of
September, in the fifty-second year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said John Bunn, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Bunn, my exors,
admors, 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 "AN IMPROVED
METHOD OF MANUFACTURING HOOPS FROM OLD IRON Hoops;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said John Bunn, shall not
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be iurolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within two calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly

page_text: cease, determine, and become void, anything herein-before contained to the
contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with; the said proviso, I, the said
John Bunn, do hereby declare. that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
in manner following, that is to say :-
I do cut the old hoops into pieces of..the same length (rejecting as waste
the rivetted part, at which the hoop is double), and hammer out or straiten
the pieces, and carefully and closely faggot the same together, and do, if
requisite from the size of the faggot, bind the same together with a piece or
pieces of nail rod, or other thin iron rod, and in this state I do couvey the
same to the furnace, and do, raise it to a good welding heat, and in this
condition I do pass it successively thro' two or three grooves of the shingling
rollers until properly reduced, and do then pass it thro' the flat-grooved
rolls, that is to say, usually thro' three grooves thereof, and between one
flat or parallel part; by this means the piece is flattened, and drawn ready
to be passed between the cutters to which I proceed, and thereby so divide
or slit the whole into separate pieces or bars; and lastly, I do convey the said
bars successively to and between the plain or cylindrical case-hardened rolls,
which duly flatten and complete the same ready to be made into hoops. But
vat hoops and other hoops above two inches broad do not require to be slit,
but are at one carried from the flat-grooved rolls to the case-hardened rolls,
where they are finished. And I do further declare, that I do perform and
completely effect the whole process or course of work herein-before described,
"by means of and during the continuance of one and the same heat, instead of
repeatedly heating the iron, as has heretofore been done in the like kind of
work; and that in order to such performance and complete effect, I do cause
my said rolls and cútters to move with very considerable velocity; and I.do
'make up my said faggots of such size or weight as may be adapted to the
description of hoops intended to be manufactured, and to admit of sound and
perfect welding throughout, and as may not be too great to allow of the same
being speedily passed thro' or between the said rolls or cutters, as before
'described, by and during one and the same heat, and before the ignition of the
iron shall have gone off; and for these purposes I do usually make my faggot
about fifty pounds weight, more or less, for hoops, and from twenty to seventy
pounds for round rods, according to the intended sizes, which commonly run
from half an inch to three inches diameter; and in the making of rods the
faggots are carried from the shingling rolls to the rod or bolt rolls, where they