IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TUBES, RODS, BARS, AND PLATES, AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Gustavus Palmer Harding, of Paris, in the Empire
of France, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
TUBES, RODS, BARS, AND PLATES, AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Gustavus Palmer Harding
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
3rd March 1864.
I, GUSTAVUS PALMER HARDING, of Paris, in the Empire of France, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF TUBES, RODS, BARS, AND PLATES, AND IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED
THEREIN," to be as follows:-
The first part of my improvements consists in the employment of an expand-
ing die or draw plate, by means of which conical or cylindrical tubes or tubes of
an octagonal, square, or other section outside of different sizes may be drawn ;
or a tube may be drawn down by stages to any required size without changing
the draw plates. Bars, rods, and plates as well as tubes may be drawn. I
suit the dies to the article operated upon. The machinery I employ, say, for
instance, for drawing and tapering gun barrels, is composed of a cast-iron box,
in which I insert four loose pieces of metal with slots to receive four draw
plates. These loose pieces of metal are supported by four shoulders left in
corners of the cast-iron box; four screw pins act on the back of the draw

page_text: plates. These pins are worked by four beviled wheels gearing into each other
outside the box. One of these wheels carries a pinion driven by some prime
mover. The tube is drawn over a mandril and through the draw plates fixed,
say, at 1 in. diameter, but as the drawing proceeds the draw plates expand by
the action of the driving pinion on the bevilled wheels and screws, and if the
original reduction of the tube by the draw plates bein. it can be lessened
gradually to nothing in 6 in., 12 in., or more of length, so that by repeating
the draw and reduction conical tubes with a cylindrical bore would be obtained
perfectly true throughout. Or in cases where great pressure is necessary the
wheels and screws may be replaced by hardened steel sliding bars of tapered
form. These bars being drawn through between the box and the draw plate
at the same time, and by the same motion as the tube, would reproduce on the
tube their own differences of shape, and thus with proper guide bars and
moderate reductions at each draw irregularities or tapers can be obtained on
the tube drawn. Where rods, bars, or plates are drawn the mandrils are
dispensed with. I form irregular conical tubes or bars from a cylindrical tube
or bar by drawing the said tube for a certain extent through various sized
draw plates graduated so as to decrease the size of the tubo or bar every few
inches. This I call drawing in stages, and the table should be supported
during the process by mandrils varying with the size of the draw plates. I
also draw conical tubes by means of small taper grooved dises made to revolve
at a different rate of speed from that at which the tube passes, the portion of
the revolution allowed during one draw being just sufficient to produce the
degree of taper required on the tube. If a hydraulic press be the power
employed motion may be obtained by a wormed shaft, over which a nut runs
with pins working into the worm, the nut being carried along by the piston.
As the nut moves the screw revolves, and may be made to turn any gearing
attached.
The foregoing relates to tubes and bars externally coned. In order to
obtain a tube conical both internally and externally I employ a mandril
tapered to the cone required, and a tube slit in four places at one end with an
inner tube also slit projecting a short length beyond the outer one. These
tubes, when in their passive state, are the size of the smaller end of the cone,
and each with a strong lip on the portions slit, if required. Supposing a lap
welded tube to be made, I place the tapered mandril with the slit tubes over
its thicker end under the grooved rolls (the grooved rolls being tapered also),
the end of the mandril being drawn through with the heated tube, leaving the
two split tubes always in their place under the rolls; it is evident as the conical
mandril in passing offered a smaller section to the rolls, the split tubes

page_text: collapsing in the same-proportion, the heated tube in manufacture, also held
by the tapered grooves, necessarily issues from the rolls of a taper form. The
split tubes being only the size of the smaller end of the tubes to be made can
be readily fixed from above or below with their ends beyond the furnace. The
object of the inner tube is to fill up the vacancies arising in the lip or mandril
head by the slits in the outer one.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Gustavus Palmer Harding in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 3rd September 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GUSTAVUS
PALMER HARDING, of Paris, in the Empire of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patont, bearing date the Third day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Gustavus Palmer Harding, Her special licence that I', the said Gustavus
Palmer Harding, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Gustavus Palmer Harding, my 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, RODS, BARS, AND PLATES, AND
IN MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Gustavus Palmer Harding, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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 Offico within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Gustavus Palmer Harding, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
The first part of my improvements consists in the employment of an
expanding die or draw plate by means of which conical or cylindrical tubes or

page_text: tubes of an octagonal, square, or other section outside of different sizes may
be drawn; or a tube may be drawn down by stages to any required size
without changing the draw plates. Bars, rods, and plates as well as tubes
may be drawn. I suit the dies to the article operated upon. The machinery
I employ, say, for instance, for drawing and tapering gun barrels, is composed
of a cast-iron box, in which I insert a number of loose pieces of metal with
slots to receive a similar number of draw plates. These loose pieces of metal
are supported by shoulders left in the cast-iron box. Screw pins act on the
back of the draw plates. These pins are worked by bevilled wheels gearing
into each other outside the box. One of these wheels carries a pinion driven
by some prime mover. The tube is drawn over a mandril and through the
draw plates fixed, say, at 1 inch diameter, but as the drawing proceeds the
draw plates are moved by the action of the driving pinion on the bevilled
wheels and screws, and if the original reduction of the tube by the draw plates
be inch it can be lessened gradually to nothing in any desired lengths, so
that by repeating the draw and reduction conical tubes with a cylindrical boro
would be obtained perfectly true throughout.
But in order that my Invention may be more fully understood and
readily carried into effect I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a front view, Figure 2 a sectional plan, and Figure 3 a side
view of an expanding die constructed according to my Invention.
a, a, a, a, are four draw plates such as I employ when producing tubes,
gun barrels, or solid rods of an octagonal form on the exterior. These draw
plates fit in and are capable of sliding in grooves or slots b', 63 (see Figure 5),
formed in four loose pieces b, which are supported by four shoulders c, left in
the corners of the cast-iron box d; e, e, e, e, are four screws acting upon the
backs of the draw plates a for the purpose of increasing or decreasing the size
of the aperture through which the tube or rod is drawn. The screws e receive
motion from the screw shaft f in the following manner :-Upon the stem of
each of the screws e a bevilled toothed wheel e¹ is fixed; these bevilled
wheels e' are all geared together, so that when motion is given to one motion
is simultaneously given to all the others, and consequently to the screws e and
draw plates a. Upon the stem of one of the screws e is also affixed a bevilled
pinion e, which is taken into by and receives motion from a bevilled pinion g
on the axis of which is a screw wheel g³; this wheel.g' is taken into by and
receives motion from the screw shaft f.

page_text: Figures 4 show three views of one form of the draw plates a, and Figure 5
a plan of one of the loose pieces b separately.
If it be desired to draw down a tube parallel for any part of its length, a
hand wheel is fixed on the screw shaft f, by which the draw plates a are fixed
to the desired distance apart, and when the tube has been drawn down one
stage motion is given to the shaft f till the draw plates a are set to the desired
size for the second drawing, and if it be desired that the interior diameter
should be changed also, then the mandril previously used will be changed at
the time of altering the die, and so on until the tube has been drawn down to
the length and diameters desired. I prefer to support the tube internally by
a mandril such as is shown and described in the Specification of a Patent
granted to Messrs. Cristoph, Hawksworth, and Harding, dated October 10th,
1861, (No. 2533,) but other forms of mandril may be employed. When it
is desired to draw a bar, rod, or plate, draw plates a of the desired form would
be employed as previously described, but the mandril would be dispensed with..
The expanding die or draw plate such as described may be fixed in the position
occupied by the die, wordle, or draw plate of any well-known form of draw
bench, and the screw f may be worked by hand or from any part of the
drawing apparatus after a tube has been drawn down one stage, in order to
its being set to the size desired for the next drawing. But when it is desired
to draw a conical tube, then the pinion would receive motion from any
suitable part of the drawing apparatus in such manner that the draw plates
may be caused to gradually approach to or recede from each other, by which
means the desired taper will be given to the tube simultaneously with its being
drawn through the draw plates a. It will be necessary after each draw to
reset the draw plates a to the size desired for commencing the next draw.
For this purpose it will be found convenient to put the pinion out of gear
with the driving apparatus, and by means of a hand wheel mounted on the
stem of one of the screws e or otherwise the draw plates may be readily set to
the size desired.
I would here state that I prefer to draw a conical tube from the smaller to
the larger end, but I do not confine myself thereto.
In some cases (when drawing gun barrels for instance) I find it convenient
to cause the draw plates gradually to recede from and approach to each other,
by which means tubes may be drawn in the form of two cones united at their
bases, which would (in the case of gun barrels) be afterwards cut apart and
thus form two gun barrels. Although I have described the expanding die to
consist of only four draw plates a, other numbers of such plates may be

page_text: employed, and any desired form may be given to their acting surfaces,
depending upon the form of tube, plate, or rod. desired to be drawn.
Figure 6 shows four draw plates of a form suitable for giving a cylindrical or
nearly cylindrical form to the outside of a tube, rod, or bar.
In cases where great pressure is necessary the wheels e' and screws e may bo
replaced by hardened steel sliding bars of tapered form. These bars being
drawn through between the box and the draw plates at the same time and by
the same motion as the tube, would reproduce on the tube their own
differences of shape, and thus with proper guide bars and moderato reductions
at each draw, irregularities or tapers can bo obtained on the tube drawn.
Where rods, bars, or plates are drawn the mandrils are dispensed with.
If a bydraulic press be the power employed for drawing, as described in tho
Specifications of Patents granted to Messrs. Christoph, Hawksworth, and
Harding, dated April 10th, 1862 (No. 1029), and December 5th, 1862
(No. 3262), then motion may be given to the draw plates a by means of a
wormed shaft, over which a nut runs, the nut being fixed to the piston of the
bydraulic press. As the piston moves the nut carried thereby causes the
screwed shaft to revolve, and by means of suitable gearing motion may bo
communicated therefrom to the draw plates a as desired.
I form irregular conical tubes or bars from a cylindrical tube or bar by
drawing the said tube for a certain extent through various sized draw plates
graduated so as to decrease the size of the tube or bar every few inches; this
call drawing in stages, and the tube should be supported during the process
by mandrils varying with the size of the draw plates. A tube drawn according
to this part of my Invention is shown at Figure 7.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself
to the preciso details herein shown and described, but I claim the improve-
ments in the manufacture of tubes, rods, bars, and plates, and the machinery
employed therein, substantially as shown and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Gustavus Palmer Harding, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Second day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
$
G. P. HARDING. (L.S.)