IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDINGS FOR CANNON AND FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Crosley, of Camberwell Grove, in the County
of Surrey, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF WADDINGS FOR CANNON AND FIRE-ARMS."
Sealed the 5th April 1855, and dated the 10th October 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Crosley at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th October 1854.
I, HENRY CROSLEY, of Camberwell Grove, in the County of Surrey, Civil
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WADDINGS FOR CANNON AND FIRE-ARMS" to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists of making waddings from spent tan and spent hops,
or either of them, and mixed with vegetable or animal fibre. These matters
or substances are reduced to a dough or thick pulp, and placed in moulds of
the forms of the waddings desired, and pressed by hydraulic or other suitable
pressure. When it is desired that a wadding should itself become a destructive
projectile, then shot or small balls or other destructive matters are introduced
into, the moulds with fibrous dough or pulp, and enclosed in and form part of
the waddings.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Henry Crosley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
10th April 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
CROSLEY, of Camberwell Grove, in the County of Surrey, Civil Engineer, 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 fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign,. did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Henry Crosley, Her special licence that I, the said Henry Crosley,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henry
Crosley, 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 WADDINGS FOR CANNON AND FIRE-ARMS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Henry Crosley, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, 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 immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henry Crosley, 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 Invention consists of making waddings from spent tan and spent hops,
or either of them, and mixed with vegetable or animal fibre. These matters
or substances are reduced to a dough or thick pulp, and placed in moulds of
the forms of the waddings, and pressed by hydraulic or other suitable pressure.
When it is desired that a wadding should itself become a destructive projectile,
then shot or small balls or other destructive matters are introduced into the
moulds with the fibrous dough or pulp, and enclosed in and form part of the
waddings:

page_text: Now, in order to describe more fully the nature of the said Invention, and
the means by which it can be effected and applied for the purposes intended, I
class such cannon waddings as follows:-
First-class waddings, as substitutes for those now commonly used for the
service of the army and navy, and ship guns generally, which have been and
now are made with junk or old rope, oakum, and spun yarn, which description
is comparatively costly to those made with the materials named in the Pro-
visional Specification; but in addition to the spent tan and spent hops, it may
be advisable to use a small quantity of prepared old rope, junk, or other
vegetable or animal fibre, which may be prepared in a degree to the consistence
of the article termed "half stuff" by paper makers, by all or any of the means
described in the Specification to the Patent granted to me, dated the Fifteenth
day of September, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, for "Improve-
ments in the manufacture of paper, millboards, and felt, from materials not
hitherto so used," which Specification (to which I refer) was duly registered;
and to any such mixture as herein previously stated, to such compounded sub-
stances I admix a glutinous or adhesive substance, such as glue, size, Hamlin's
mastic, Roman cement, Portland cement, iron cement, plaster of Paris, or any
other suitable and binding or adhesive substance, adding thereto, according to
the properties thereof, boiled linseed oil, or water, or other proper liquid, which,
when thoroughly mixed with the other substances, forms a mastic or cement,
the quantity whereof to be admixed with the spent tan and spent hops, or
either or other materials, depending upon the required tenacity and solidity
of the waddings to be made, and such waddings may be made of the usual or
other shape or size and thickness. The mastic or cement, according to its
properties, may in some cases be prepared under the influence of heat ere it is
mixed with the spent tan, spent hops, and other materials, and then when so
mixed the compounded mass must be beaten by manual labour or mechanical
means until it becomes of an uniform mass, or consistency of dough or thick
pulp, in which state it is then fit for moulding, which may also be effected in a
variety of ways, eitheruel by man labour or machinery. I have employed for
experimental purposes a machine combined with a screw press, under which
the mould is placed and fixed, and with other appliances, the pressure being
apportioned to the required tenacity of the wadding, and as may be needful.
Two or three small curved projections are vertically made in the side of the
mould, and corresponding grooves in the rammer, to which the screw of the
press is fixed, and thereby, when the rammer descends into the mould, hollow
spaces are left on the side of the wadding for the escape of air in the cannon.

page_text: When the wadding is rammed down upon the shot and charge of gunpowder,
the bottom of the wadding may be made somewhat concave in the centre.
whereby it becomes more closely in contact with the shot. The bottom of the
lower and discharging end of the mould is in a trifling degree greater than the
calibre, which tends to give that part of the wadding a degree of elasticity,
whereby it fits tightly in the bore of the cannon. Or, in lieu of the means
described for the escape of the air in the cannon, two or three small holes may
be made through the wadding, by fixing to the bottom of the rammer of the
mould the like number of projecting metal bolts or rods, of the length of the
thickness of the wadding.
Second-class waddings, to constitute a destructive projectile at a certain
distance from the object fired or aimed at (the range of the wadding depending
upon the degree of the solidity and gravity and the projectile power of the
charge of gunpowder .in. the cannon) may be made of all or any of the
substances enumerated and combined with the ingredients named, with modi-
fications as to the quantity of each, so as to effect the objects desired; and
when such compounded materials are reduced to the consistence for moulding,
then shot or small balls or other destructive matters may be admixed with the
dough or pulp in bulk, or introduced and united therewith when it is put into
the mould, to make waddings of the usual form, the appliances as previously
described being followed; but if waddings are required of a conical form, or
partly so, other part being cylindrical to fit the bore of the cannon, in such
waddings the destructive matters, such as those previously named, may be
admixed with the dough or pulp, and placed centrically or otherwise, or
near unto the apex of the said conical-shaped wadding, and thus when it
strikes the object aimed at, it would be dissevered, and thereby its destructive
contents scattered, producing effects somewhat similar to those of canister
or grape shot.
Third-class waddings, to produce still greater destructive effects than those
lastly described. This third class may be made with all or any of the materials
named under the first class; but this third class should be made of the shape
of a sugar loaf or cone, in and through the centre of which, from the base to the
apex; a cavity is made by a metallic rod of, the length and shape of the cavity,
.the said rod being fixed at the lower end of the rammer of the mould, which
cavity must be of the size to receive a small iron or other metal bottle or tube
with a closed bottom, into which gunpowder, detonating powder, gun cotton,
or. any other destructive and explosive substance or compound, is to be put, and
the mouth of the bottle or tube hermetically. stopped with bladder, parchment,

page_text: or other suitable material, which can be pierced by a small sharp-pointed
metallic tube or fusee charged with gunpowder, to the upper end of which
tube a percussion cap is fixed, or such cap only made so as to pierce the
stopped or neck end of the said bottle or tube which contains the destructive
and explosive compound or matter; or in lieu of a percussion cap, and when
chloride of nitrogen is used as the explosive matter in such bottle or tube,
the mouth or neck thereof must be closed, by screwing. or otherwise, making
it air-tight, with a small hollow stopper, into which a very small quantity
of phosphorus is put, which, when it strikes against any hard substance, it
ignites, and causes the explosion of the chloride of nitrogen, which effect
would not be produced by the common percussion cap. These appliances
need only be attached when the wadding is about being put into the mouth
of the cannon, the lower end of the said cavity at the base of the cone having
previously been stopped by a plug of any proper material of such length, or
nearly so, to fill up the space between the base of the wadding and the bottom
of said bottle or tube.
The effect of such waddings would be, that when the percussion cap or small
hollow stopper containing phosphorus strikes the object aimed at, or comes in
contact with any hard substance, the contents of the bottle or tube would
explode, whereby the shot or small balls or other destructive matters would be
scattered in various directions, and thus such waddings would become destruc-
tive projectiles, and might, according to circumstances, be alone so employed
without shotting the cannon. If it should be desirable to produce a suffocating
effect, or the conflagration of flammable substances, then the said bottle or
tube may be charged with phosphorus, sulphur, or any other suffocating or
flammable compound, and the dough or pulp, with or without the shot or small
balls or other matters, may be mixed with pulverized rosin, spirit of turpentine,
nitre, or any other highly combustible substance or ingredient. Waddings of
this third class and manufacture might be found applicable for the Lancaster
gun, or other guns of improved construction, but particularly those rifled or
loaded at the breech. The principle and efficiency of a percussion cap or fusee
attached to a hollow ball or shell, charged with gunpowder and projected point
blank from a model breech-loaded cannon, the efficiency of both was demon-
strated at the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich, about forty-three years ago in the
presence of a committee of artillery officers, who reported that they did not
consider such percussion cap or fusee applicable to the service, as there would
be danger of explosion when removed and carried in hulk or in store; but
now, by the means and mode of applying them for the purposes stated and
اندامی مدد

page_text: cannon.
prescribed, as aforesaid, such danger of explosion (the usual precautions being
taken) would be obviated, as the body of the wadding would not be of a com-
bustible nature, and only rendered so when at the moment of loading the
The explosive and destructive matters were attached to the wadding,
and to prevent the explosion thereof, a hollow conical-capped ramrod, of sucli
depth or elongation as to avoid its coming in contact with the percussion cap,
must be used to ram or force the wadding down the bore of the cannon.
Waddings of conical or other shape, with or without shot or small balls or
other destructive matters, inay be fired or exploded without using a percussion
cap, by substituting for the same an ignited fusee, such as is used for bomb
shells, the effective range of such waddings being calculated or determined by
the angle of inclination of the cannon more or less, the gravity of the wadding,
and quantity of gunpowder used for the charge of the cannon.
The improvements in the manufacture of waddings for fire-arms, muskets,
rifles, or pistols, consist in making such waddings with spent tan and spent
hops, or either of them, and mixed with vegetable or animal fibre of all or
any of the description previously enumerated, and adding thereto such other
ingredients to form an adhesive and compact body, in which, or at either end
of the wadding, the ball or bullet may be attached or imbodied, and such
waddings can be made of various forms suitable for the purpose intended, and
moulded in a variety of ways and of any required elasticity. If advisable, in
lieu of attaching or imbodying the bullet to or in the wadding, a metallic tube
of small and proportionate bore may form and pass through the centre of the
wadding, of a conical or other form, which tube, closed at its lower end, may
be filled with gunpowder or other explosive substance, the other or top end
hermetrically closed, as before described, for cannon waddings of the third class.
And for the purpose of exploding the contents in the said tube, and when
putting the wadding into the muzzle of the fire-arm, a percussion cap may be
attached to the top end of the tube and wadding, which must be forced down
the barrel by a hollow circular-capped ramrod, made of any proper material;
and as the cap would be hollow, the bottom edge would press upon and around
the edge of the wadding, and thus by these means the risk of exploding the
percussion cap and the wadding would be avoided, and such wadding would
become a destructive projectile for fire-arms to a greater extent than a bullet,
and uniting therewith dispatch in loading, which possibly might be increased
and reduced to one movement or operation, by attaching to the wadding the
cartridge containing the charge of gunpowder for its projection. For rifled
arms, and those in particular which are loaded at the breech, this description

page_text: of waddings, with suitable modifications in the construction, might essentially
be rendered available.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Crosley, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of April, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
JAMES BOYES HENDERSON,
of Camberwell Grove.
HENRY CROSLEY. (L.S.)