IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR CONSTRUCTION OF CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS "
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Ransome, of, Lower Norwood, in the County
of Surrey, Civil Engineer, and Benjamin Lumsden Thomson, of Ingram Court,
Fenchurch Street, in the City of London, Merchant, for the Invention of." IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR CONSTRUCTION OF CASKS AND OTHER
VESSELS
"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Ransome and
Benjamin Lumsden Thomson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on
the 11th February 1878.
FREDERICK RANSOME, of Lower Norwood, in the County of Surrey, Civil
Engineer, and BENJAMIN LUMSDEN THOMSON, of Ingram Court, Fenchurch Street,
in the City of London, Merchant. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR
CONSTRUCTION OF CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS."
"
This Invention relates to the manufacture and construction of casks or vessels
wherein there is a conjoint employment of iron and wood, although in some
instances the same mode of construction may be advantageously applied to casks
constructed wholly of metal, or partly of metal and partly of other substances.
Our Invention is capable of being carried out in various ways; for the purpose of
illustration we will proceed to describe its application to the construction of casks
for brewers and other like purposes.
We first make a cylinder of iron (by preference employing the best charcoal iron),
this cylinder forming the body of the cask is afterwards vitrified or enamelled on
its interior surfaces; one or both ends of the cask is or are made of wood, which end
or ends may be dropped into a corrugation specially formed to receive it upon the
end of the metal body; this separate end may be secured in its position by means of
an iron or other separate heading formed so as to drop upon the exterior of the

page_text: wooden end, and securely hold it in its proper position by means of a screw or
otherwise.
It is obvious that the separate end or ends may be secured in their position in
various other ways.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Frederick Ransome and Benjamin Lumsden Thomson in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 10th August 1878.
FREDERICK RANSOME, of Lower Norwood, in the County of Surrey, Civil
Engineer, and BENJAMIN LUMSDEN THOMSON, of Ingram Court, Fenchurch Street,
in the City of London, Merchant. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR CON-
STRUCTION OF CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS."
Our said Invention relates to casks and other similar vessels, and consists in con-
structing the same with a body of enamelled or vitrified iron or other suitable
metal, and with heads or ends of wood or other suitable material, such heads or
one of them being so constructed and attached to the body as to admit of the head
or heads being readily removed when required.
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 shall refer
to the several Figures on the annexed Sheet of Drawings, the same letters of
reference indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures. "
¿
Figures 1, 3, 5, 7, and 9 represent longitudinal sections of portions of casks con-
structed according to five respective modifications of our said Invention, the same
being given as examples of the mode of carrying out the same; and Figures 2, 4, 6,
8, and 10 are end views corresponding respectively to Figures 1, 3, 5, 7,
and 9.
A is the body of the cask composed of iron or other suitable metal enamelled or
vitrified, either on its interior surface only, or upon both its interior and exterior
surfaces. This body may be of any convenient shape, but in all cases it is provided
at either one or both ends with a suitable recess or device to admit of the head or
heads being secured in such a manner as to enable it or them to be readily removed
when required.
Any suitable packing may be inserted between the head and the body more
effectually to ensure a liquid tight joint.
In the modification, Figures 1 and 2, the body A is provided with a corrugation
or recess a, a; into this is first fitted the head proper B, upon which is placed a
cover C having cam-shaped surfaces at 6, and carrying a pin c.
In the spaces left free at are placed wedges D, and the head is securely
retained in position by turning the cover C on its axis c until the wedges D are
jammed tightly between the cam surfaces b and the interior of the recess at a.
In the modification, Figures 3 and 4, the cover C is made in two segments, and
the head is secured by means of a wedge C¹ fitted with a pin c¹, and formed with

page_text: curved surfaces at 6', which when the wedge is turned securely retain the segments
C, C, and consequently the head B, in position.
According to the modification illustrated in Figures
and 6, the head B is
securely retained in its recess at a by means of a spring ring C2, which may be
contracted or expanded as required by means of a screw e or other suitable
means.
.
In the modification shewn in Figures 7 and 8, the body A is formed with a
flange f, and the recess at a is made for a portion of its length in the shape of an
internal screw, into which after the head B has been inserted the screw ring C³ is
screwed so as to secure the head in position.
According to the modification illustrated in Figures 9 and 10, the head B is
secured in position against the flange f by means of a ring E of angle iron attached
to the body A by screws or pins g, the recess or corrugation a being in that case
dispensed with.
The bodies A may be made in two or more parts and formed with annular bulges
or corrugations, and of any convenient shape, and the details of constructions and
of attachment of the heads may be otherwise modified, according to the purposes to
which the casks or like vessels are to be applied.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our said
said Invention 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, constructing casks and other like vessels with a body
of metal vitrified, or otherwise enamelled, and with heads or ends of wood or other
suitable material, such heads or one of them being so constructed and attached to
the body as to admit of the head or heads being readily removed when required,
substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Ransome, on behalf of myself and
the said Benjamin Lumsden Thomson, have to this our Specification set
my hand and seal, this Ninth day of August, One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-eight.
FRED. RANSOME. (L.S.)