IMPROVEMENTS IN UNITING IRON AND STEEL IN SHEETS, PLATES, RAILS, BARS, RODS, LINKS, BANDS, HOOPS, TUBES, OR OTHER FORMS APPLICABLE TO NAVIGABLE VESSELS, FORTS, BRIDGES, Roors, FLOORS, TANKS, OR CHESTS
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Bridges Adams at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st
February 867.
J, WILLIAM BRIDGES ADAMS, of Woodstock Lodge, Blackheath, in the
County of Kent, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN UNITING IRON AND STEEL IN SHEETS, PLATES, RAILS,
BARS, RODS, LINKS, BANDS, HOOPS, TUBES, OR OTHER FORMS APPLICABLE TO
NAVIGABLE VESSELS, FORTS, BRIDGES, Roors, FLOORS, TANKS, OR CHESTS," to be as
follows:-
First, my improvements consist in planing or otherwise making clean and
smooth the adjoining ends or edges of the plates or bars or other parts to be
connected or united, and placing them at such a distance from each other as
to admit a powerful gas or other flame or heat between them for the purpose of
heating their adjoining surfaces, and bringing them to the pasty condition
known as "welding heat," that is to say, a partial smelting, at the same time
enveloping the other adjoining portions of the metal in loam or bricks, or fire-
clay, or lime, or moulding sand or "ganister," or other material of a similar
kind refractory to heat, such material being rammed tight round the adjoining
metals in any convenient mode either with or without the aid of what we call
flasks or moulding boxes used for cast iron, in such mode that the applied
flame or heat will not burn away the edges of the metals to be united nor be
wasted, but will simply penetrate from the end or edge surfaces rapidly
inwards, thus accumulating the hent till the welding condition of the metal

page_text: is attained; and when the heat is sufficient I press the metals into contact by
any convenient method according to their size by hand or by screws, or by
hydraulic or other power, to induce homogeneous union; and in some cases
double sets of flame heat may be used so impinging as to act only on the
surfaces to be united without burning away the edges.
Secondly, in applying these improvements to the construction of navigable
vessels I form the separate sheets of iron or steel of which the vessel is made
to their respective proper forms by pressure or otherwise, and I plane their
edges so that they will fit accurately together, by preference "break joint,"
like bricks in a wall. If heavy the plates may be attached to frames with
screws or hydraulic rams, and so raised and lowered and pressed into union,
vertically or horizontally, or diagonally, to suit salient or re-extrant angles or
curves, the direction being given by guides or by the screws or rams; and
any irregularities in the succession of joints may be corrected by planing,
slotting, or other machines, applied to, the structure. in, situ. And the flame
heat used may be that of common coal gas or made from petroleum or shale,
or other oil, or a mixture of gases may be used, but of course in any case
urged by the mixture of atmospheric or other oxygenated air under pressure.
And the gas may be prepared on the spot or brought from a distance in tubes,
making the arrangement portable. And as, the flame will cover the whole
exposed surface of the metal no free oxygen will get access to it and scale will
not be formed to make the work imperfect. And this shell or outer shell of a
vessel may be formed of armour plates and partly of ordinary plates; and
when complete it may be launched and floated, and a second vessel may be
constructed inside of it in a similar mode, and connected to it by stays, and
the lower part may be filled in solid with asphalte or bitumen, or shale, to the
water level, and the upper part with solid sand or other material to prevent
the entrance of shot or shell. And the decks may be formed and connected
to the hull in the same manner; and the joints so formed, and welded together
may be of any required form or length, and the gas flame may be arranged. in
corresponding lengths and forms by circular or other pipes pierced with
lateral holes or continuous slits, and with double pipes, one set containing the
gas and the other the air under pressure, or with the two pipes concentric,
one inside the other, so that both air and gas issue together. and.commingle
in the joints, forming powerful flames; and these pipes can be covered. with
fire-clay to protect them from reverberatory heat or flame. And thin plates
of wood or other combustible substance may be placed in the joints as
distance pieces for accurate guage, which will burn out on applying the heat;
and this wood may be saturated with fluxes; and the gas pipes may be

page_text: arranged in lines or squares or circles, or in any other forms to suit the forms
of the joints.
Thirdly, the application of this same system to construct the armoured faces
of forts as well as tanks and chests. And as a variation when the surfaces to
be joined are very large I sometimes channel or groove the edges and place
in them small rods, wire or hoop iron, and pour melted iron or steel into the
heated joints, uniting the whole together; and portions which are imperfect
or injured by shot may be cut out and plates inserted and welded in the samo
manner; and in some cases the planed surfaces may be kept in close contact
while the heat is applied.
Fourthly, the application of the same system to unite the bars, rods, tubes,
links, plates, and other parts of bridges of large span as well as floors and
roofs, so as to form them solid, dispensing in a great measure with bolts
and nuts.
Fifthly, the application of the same system to the links of chains and
cables; and the iron or steel used may be wrought metal or malleable cast
metal; and these malleable metals may be cast in moulds and their edges
planed to shape and clean surface; and chemical fluxes may be used in uniting
them to a weld.