AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING RODS,- SHAFTS, AND TUBES OF IRON AND STEEL
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING RODS,-
SHAFTS, AND TUBES OF IRON AND STEEL."-A communication.
Sealed the 25th March 1856, and dated the 7th January 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
7th January 1856.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,'
in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby declare
the naturo of the said Invention for AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING
RODS, SHAFTS, AND TUBES OF IRON AND STEEL, to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to manufacture rods, shafts, and tubes of
iron and steel, which shall have great tenacity of fibre, and shall be capable of
effectually resisting sudden or continuous strain or force of greater intensity
than rods, shafts, and tubes of the same weight, but produced by the ordinary
process of manufacture. In carrying out the object of this Invention, bar iron
or steel, heated to a red heat, is twisted so as to lay the fibres in a helical
direction, somewhat like the strands of yarn. The metal is then subjected to
the operation of hammering, to convert it into a solid bar, and weld the proxi-

page_text: mate edges of the helical twist together. If a round bar thus produced is
required to be manufactured into a gun barrel, it is then bored out, and it will
be found to possess great tenacity of fibre.
This mode of producing barrels, it will be understood, is distinct from the
system at present pursued, of lapping the metal in a coil round a mandril.
SPECIFICATION in pursuanco of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by tho said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 7th July 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, Hor special license that I, the said
Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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
"AN IMPROVED MODE OF MANUFACTURING RODS, SHAFTS, AND TUBES OF IRON AND
STEEL," being a communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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 per-
formed, 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 Alfred Vincent Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
bo performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say):-
The object of this Invention, as communicated to me by my foreign corre
spondent, is to manufacture rods, shafts, and tubes of iron and steel, possessing

page_text: great tenacity of fibre, and capable of effectually resisting sudden or continuous
strain, or a force of greater intensity than rods, shafts, and tubes of the same
weight, but produced by the ordinary processes of manufacture, are able to
resist.
In carrying out this Invention, which is applicable chiefly to the manufac-
ture of gun barrels, the operator takes, by preference, a round bar of iron or
steel of suitable size and quality, and heats one end thereof red hot in a smith's
forge or furnace; he then fixes one end of the bar, say, the heated end, in a
vice, and turns the cooled part of the bar round on its axis. The heated part
of the bar will then yield under this strain and take a twisted form, the fibres
of the metal at the same time being laid in a helical direction, somewhat like
the fibres of yarn. The metal while red hot is subjected to the operation of
hammering the blows of the hammer being delivered on the end of the bar,
by which means the proximate edges or projections of the helical twist will be
welded together, and solidity will be given to that part of the bar. The next
thing is to re-heat the bar a little below the part just operated upon, and
the like operation of twisting and hammering is repeated. When one half the
length of the bar has been thus twisted and knocked up, the workman turns
ends, and proceeds in like manner with the other half; or be may commence
in the middle of the bar and work towards the ends, in which case the same
effect, (viz.,) the laying of the fibres of the iron around the axis of the bar,
will take place.
I
may
remark, that the fibres of the iron, although they will necessarily be
all twisted, will take variable amounts of twist, according to their situation in
the bar, that is to say, those which lie in the middle of the bar will have consi-
derably less twist than those which lie at the periphery, and it is this difference
of twist or non-parallelism of the fibres which renders this new manufacture
specially applicable to fire-arms; for in boring a round bar made according
to this Invention, in order to convert it into a gun barrel, it will be found that
the direction of the fibre of the metal forming the inner periphery of the barrel
will be comparatively but a slight divergence from the axis of the barrel, the
shot will therefore act upon the barrel more nearly in the direction of the fibre
of the metal than in twisted metal barrels of the ordinary construction, and
consequently with less wear or injury to the gun.
Having now set forth the nature and object of the Invention of an improved
mode of manufacturing rods, shafts, and tubes of iron and steel, as communi-
cated to me by my foreign correspondent, and explained the manner of carrying
the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part
recited Letters Patent 1 claim, in the manufacture of rods, shafts, and tubes,

page_text: the mode of treating bar iron and steel as above described, for the purpose of
increasing its tenacity.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, tho Seventh day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
A. V. NEWTON. (L.S.)