CERTAIN. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GUN BARRELS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Perry, Roll. Turner, of Wednesbury, in the
County of Stafford, for the Invention of "CERTAIN. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF GUN BARRELS."
Sealed the 5th September 1861, and dated the 12th March 1861:
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Perry, at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
March 1861.
I, WILLIAM PERRY, Roll Turner, of Wednesbury, in the County of Stafford,
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GUN BARRELS," to be as follows (that is to say) :-
My improvements appertain to that description of gun barrels (known as
twisted barrels) and consist in rolling iron of such a section that when twisted
instead of the joints abutting one against the other they shall overlap in such
a way that the subsequent process of rolling (which my improvements permit
to be done for the purpose of welding and elongating,) shall tend to press
the joints together rather than to open them; by this means twisted gun
barrels of a very superior kind for military and other purposes may be made
as economically as common straight grained barrels are now manufactured.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Perry in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
12th September 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
PERRY, Roll Turner, of Wednesbury, in the County of Stafford, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Perry, Her special license that I, the said William Perry, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Perry,
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 ex-
pressed, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GUN
BARRELS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William
Perry, 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.
2.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Perry, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the fol-
lowing statement (that is to say):-
My improvements appertain to that description of gun barrels known as
twisted barrels, and consist in rolling iron of such a section that when twisted
into a helix, for forming what is technically termed a mould, instead of the
joints or edges abutting one against the other they shall overlap in such a
way that the subsequent process of 'rolling (which my improvements permit
to be done for 'the purpose of welding and elongating) shall tend to press
the joints' together rather than to open them. By this means twisted gun
barrels of a very superior kind for military and other purposes may be made as
economically as common 'straight grained barrels are now manufactured. But
to fully appreciate my improvements it may be necessary to state that the present
mode of making common gun barrels is by preparing the iron in a short
thick piece of sufficient width to bend up, and welded so as to assume the

page_text: form of a short stout tube, and in this condition or form such tubes are known
and technically called moulds, and from which they are heated and gradually
elongated, by using an internal mandrel, and passing the mould between
suitable grooved rolls, repeating the operation until sufficiently elongated 'or
reduced in thickness, a process well understood by gun barrel makers, but
inasmuch as gun barrels formed of straight grained iron, and with a straight.
join or weld, are objectionable from the fact that they are generally, made
heavy for the purpose of increasing the strength as a precaution against the
bursting of such barrels, as accidents to gun barrels so constructed are
generally attended with fatal results from the barrel bursting or breaking
and separating in its fibre lengthway, a circumstance that occurs from over
charging, or an imperfect weld, or hidden defects in the iron of which the barrel
may be composed, while on the contrary gun barrels made of hammered rod
iron, bent into a coil or helix and welded (by being beaten and hammered
together by hand, a tedious and expensive process which my Invention is
intended partly to supersede) if yielding to the internal pressure arising
from over or bad charging, the breakage or separation of the fibre will follow
the spiral form of the grain of the iron, and not be attended with the dangerous
consequences of bursting in a straight or lengthway direction, which frequently
separate and break pieces of the barrel away from the bulk, thereby forming
missiles of destruction to the user and others that may be near at the time
of such accidents. And the making of gun barrels with the common and
simple appliances now used in their production, and yet to form them with
the fibre or grain of the iron solidly welded and laminated together with the
grain or fibre and the welding twisted in a spiral form, is the object of my
Invention; in the realization of which I roll or draw the iron intended to
be used in such gun barrels into flat strips with the edges of an acute ogee
form, that when twisted in a close helical form the hollow and round of one
part shall fit into the round and hollow of the other, so as to produce a kind
of lock lap helical joint or union. And in this condition the mould is fit to
be treated in the same way, and with the common appliances as if made
with a straight joint as before described by being heated and passed through
rolls for welding and elongating, the process. of which will not tend to
open the joints, but rather to squeeze and amalgamate the iron together
right through the spiral joining.
But as my Invention will be more clearly understood by referring to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, I will proceed to describe the same, reference
being made to the figures and letters marked thereon.

page_text: Fig. 1 represents the section of a strip of iron, rolled of the shape on its
edges necessary for giving effect to my Invention; and Fig. 2 represents a
coil before welding, partly in section, made of a strip of iron of the section as
exhibited in Figure 1, the strip being twisted into the helical shape here
shown to form what is technically called a mould. In this condition I prefer
cutting the surplus iron square, as at a, a, and through the. dotted lines b, b,
and after heating the mould to a good welding heat in an ordinary furnace
used in the making of gun barrels it will be ready to pass through grooved
rolls for the purpose of welding the helical joint and elongating, before doing
which I insert a mandrel as represented at Fig. 3, with its shank c, broken off,
for convenience of space, this mandrel is represented in dotted lines partly
within the mould at a, a, and the arrows d, d, represent the direction in
which the said rolls are intended to revolve, as also their position in regard
to the mandrel, which being a fixture immediately between the periphery
of the rolls in contact with the mould (in the process of rolling) the mould
will be rolled forward in the direction of the arrows, leaving the mandrel in
the same place as here shown, and this internal and external pressure welds
the joints, and elongates the mould, which being now thoroughly welded and
partially elongated will require to be reheated and rerolled until drawn down
internally and externally to the size required, which at all times is parallel in
the bore, but slightly taper on the outside for the purpose of giving additional
strength at the breech end, and effected by the rolls being slightly eccentric,
and of a sufficient diameter, that their circumference shall be equivalent
to the length of the barrel desired to be rolled. Fig. 4 is drawn simply
for the purpose of showing that I do not purpose confining myself to any
particular size or proportion as heavy gun barrels for a variety of purposes may
be made on this principle with great advantage, as well as light field guns
or pieces suitably mounted. And Fig. 5 represents a mould, also partly in
section, formed of a strip of iron of the proportions given at Figure 4. The
sectional part of Figures 2 and 5 are drawn for the purpose of showing how
the edges of the metal lock and lap one over the other so as to prevent the
process of welding and rolling opening the joints.
Having given a general description of my Invention, and the best way I am
at present in possession of for giving effect to the same, I wish it understood
that I do not purpose confining myself to the exact section on the edge or
width of the strip, as described and represented at Figures 1 and 4, from which

page_text: I purpose making gun barrel moulds, as the shape and proportion may be
altered without affecting the object of my Invention. But what I claim and
wish to protect by these my in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First the general lock lap section of iron herein described.
Secondly, the forming of twisted gun barrel moulds of such formed iron.
And, thirdly, the application to the welding and forming of such moulds
into twisted gun barrels by the process of rolling and heating, commonly used
in the forming and making of common straight grained gun barrels.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Perry, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of September in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
JAMES S. COCKINGS, C.E.
Patent Agent,
Birmingham.
WILLIAM PERRY. (L.S.)