IM- PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METAL TUBES, AND AXLES OR SHAFTS
Year: 1857

page_text: (This Invention received Provisional Protection, but notice to proceed with the
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Henri Marc Muntz at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th.
June 1857.
1, GEORGE HENRI MARC MUNTZ, of Handsworth, in the County of Stafford,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METAL TUBES, AND AXLES OR SHAFTS," to..
be as follows:-
My Invention of "Improvements in the Manufacture of Metal Tubes, and.
Axles or Shafts," relates in the first place to a novel or improved mode or.
modes of forming the joints of metal tubes for whatever purpose they may
be employed; and, secondly, to an improved arrangement or construction of
furnace or apparatus for heating those parts of tubes which are intended to
be welded together to form the longitudinal joint.
In manufacturing tubes according to my improvements, different modes of
forming the longitudinal joint may be employed according to the purpose for
which the tube when made is intended to be used. The tubes are proposed
to be made of sheet or plate iron, or steel, and if tubes of large diameter are
required, two or more sheets or plates must be employed, and, of course, two
or more longitudinal joints will be required to produce a complete. cylinder.
One mode of forming these joints, and which I prefer when tubes of small
or moderate dimensions are made from one sheet or plate of metal, and with

page_text: only one joint, consists in bending up the sheet or plate of metal to the
proper form, and bringing the edges of the sheet together or nearly so,
leaving a kind of wedge-shaped space between the edges that are to be united.
In this space, between the two edges, a strip or bar of metal must be
inserted, and when these parts have been brought to a welding heat in a
suitable furnace, they are firmly united by passing them between suitable
rollers or dies, whereby they are welded together, and a perfect tube is pro-
duced. If the tubes are made of steel, I proceed in the same way as if sheet
or plate iron be employed, with the addition of employing a suitable flux for
facilitating the union of the edges of the steel in the welding operation. The
flux I prefer to use is composed of borate of soda (common borax), alum,
resin, and sal ammoniac, but any other suitable flux may be used if preferred.
The above is the process I prefer to use for making hollow axles for locomo-
tive or other purposes.
In making tubes of large diameter the lap joint must be used, and the
sheet or sheets of iron or other metal must be first turned or bent up into the
required form, so that when brought together they will form a complete
cylinder. Instead of placing the parts of the tubes in a furnace to bring
them to a welding heat, the edges of the sheets that are intended to form the
longitudinal lap joint are brought opposite to or in front of a long opening
made in the side of the welding furnace, which forms the second part of my
Invention. From this long opening a blast of flame is impelled, and forced
to impinge against and heat the parts that are intended to be welded, and
when these parts are brought to a welding heat they are to be hammered or
pressed, so as to firmly weld and unite the parts together, and form a strong
and perfect joint. In effecting the welding operation, I propose to use a
mandril which is placed inside the tube to act as the point of resistance to the
hammer or roller which works above it.