AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SAFETY FUZES FOR MINING AND MILITARY PURPOSES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Simon Davey, of Tucking Mill, in the Parish of
Illogen, in the County of Cornwall, Safety Fuze Manufacturer, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SAFETY FUZES FOR
MINING AND MILITARY PURPOSES."
Sealed the 14th September 1855, and dated the 28th June 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Simon Davey at the
Office of the Commissioners of, Patents, with his Petition, on the 28th
June 1855..
1, SIMON DAVEY, of Tucking Mill, in the Parish of Illogen, in the County
of Cornwall, Safety Fuze Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SAFETY FUZES FOR
MINING AND MILITARY PURPOSES " to be as follows:-
A new and improved application of the inflammable threads saturated with
common gunpowder, as described in my Patent of April the Fifteenth, One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.
First, in the use of one of these threads to be drawn through the centre of
the column of gunpowder-in-the ordinary miner's fuze, by which the continuity
of the powder is not only ensured as it might be by a simple thread, but which
also ensures tlie certain action of the fuze, even in case tlie greater part of the
column of powder should be damaged by damp or other causes of injury.

page_text: Secondly, by inserting one or more of these, inflammable threads in the
centre of an ordinary coating of flax, cotton yarn, or, tape, in the usual manner
of mining fuzes, as the inflammable material in this particular manner, namely,
the inflammable thread or threads, are drawn around a fixed wire or metal
mandril, during which the flax, yarn, or tape coating is applied; and before
leaving the wire the whole is passed through a bath of dissolved gutta percha.
Immediately after passing through this bath the fuze leaves the wire, which
occasions a small vacuity in the centre of these inflammable thread or threads,
'the coating being kept firmly.in its former position by the gutta, percha. The
effect of this arrangement is to make a fuze, which I have denominated the
electric fuze, as it conveys fire any moderate distance so rapidly that the lapse
of time is scarcely appreciable, thus affording what has never been obtained
by means of a fuze before, the almost instant ignition of a charge of gunpowder
in mining, submarine blasting, or in military operations.
SPECT
pursuance
by the said Simon Davey in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th
December 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SIMON
DAVEY, of Rouen, in the Kingdom of France, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day
of June, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, and in the nineteenth
year of Her reign; did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
'grant unto me, the said Simon Davey, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that
I, the said Simon Davey, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
'others as I, the said Simon Davey, my executors, administrators,, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times thereafter during the term of years therein expressed, should and law-
fully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, my Inven-
tion of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF SAFETY FUZES FOR MINING
AND MILITARY PURPOSES," upon the condition, amongst others, that I, the said
Simon Davey, my executors or administrators; should particularly describe and

page_text: ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed; by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, 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, in part recited Letters Patent.
* NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Simon Davey, hereby declare the nature
of my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and, ascertained in and by the present
Specification thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
that is to say:
Firstly, my Invention, in so far as it relates to an improvement in the
manufacture of safety fuzes for, mining purposes, consists in the application of
a thread saturated either with the inflammable composition,, described in the
Specification of the Patent granted by Her present Majesty to me and' Adolphe
Ludovic Chann, bearing date the Fifteenth day of April, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-two, or, with some other preparation or composition equally
adapted to convey fire! This saturated thread I propose to use as a centre
thread, as now, commonly employed in the manufacture of Bickford's safety
fuzes, the improvement, consisting in the use of an inflammable thread instead
of the common thread, by which means the continuity of the powder is not
only, secured, but the action of the fuze made perfect, even in case the column
lof powder in the centre of the fuze should become broken or divided..
Secondly, my Invention, is so far as it relates to the improvement of fuses
for military purposes, consists in the, manufacture of a fuse which communi-
cates fire almost instantaneously any moderate distance. This improvement is
effected, by enclosing several of the before-mentioned inflammable threads in
tape, in the manner, berein-after described, and coating the fuse thus made
with gutta percha, or some other suitable substance, at. the same time pre-
serving a central cavity, throughout the whole length of the fuse.
The means by which I effect this I describe as follows::-I prepare a conical
tube; of brass or other, hard metal, which tube is shewn at Fig. 1 in the annexed
Drawing Ais a view of the larger end of this tube, which is perforated with
several holes One of these holes, passes through its centre, the whole length;"
four other holes equidistant around the centre converge towards the central
hole; and fall into it about the middle of the length of the tube. Besides these
there is a flat hole, which is made, only through the projecting collar or rim
of the conical tube at B. The small end of this tube tapers away nearly to
the size of the centre-hole?
Inext provide a brass cylinder D, an end view, of which is shewn; Fig. 2.

page_text: This cylinder is fixed by a bracket to a stancheon or other support. Through
this cylinder a conical aperture passes large enough at the end, exhibited in the
Drawing, to receive the conical tube already described, and which aperture is
reduced at the other end to the size the fuze is intended to be before it is coated.
A moveable pulley or driver E is made to revolve around this cylinder, and to
this pulley a reel of thread F is attached, which is carried round with it in its
revolutions.
In Fig. 3 I shew the manner in which the manufacture of the fuze is con-
ducted. Here G represents a vertical section of a gatta percha bath, the
contents of which are kept fluid by heat from a surrounding chamber filled
with steam or boiling water. Two tubes pass through the opposite sides of
this chamber from the exterior surface to the gutta percha in the bath. One
of these, the entrance tube H, is just large enough to admit the fuse in its
uncoated state; the other, being the exit tube J, is the size the fuse is intended
to be after it is coated by having passed through the gutta percha. The
metallic cylinder D, before described, which with the other parts is also shewn
in section in Figure 3, is then fixed, so that its centre is in a straight line with
the tubes already mentioned in the sides of the bath. The conical tube A is
then placed in the aperture made in the cylinder to receive it, and a wire K,
the size of the centre hole in the conical tube, passes through this central hole
and the cylinder, and extending through the intermediate space, enters through
the entrance tube H into the gutta percha bath, and passing through it leaves
it by the exit tube J, and terminates at L, a little beyond this tube. The
pulley E is to be connected by an ordinary friction belt to a drum acted on by
some motive power. Inflammable threads are then drawn through the four
holes in the end of the conical tube, and, passing along the course of the wire K,
emerge at L. A tape of a suitable-breadth is passed through the flat aperture
in the collar of the conical tube, and passing between its tapering end and the
cylinder which contains it, is thrown into a cylindrical form, and on leaving this
tube encloses the inflammable threads around the wire. When this tape is
drawn out at L, it with the inflammable threads is fastened to a suitable roller
M. This roller and the drum, which gives motion to the pulley E, are now set
in motion. By these means the inflammable threads are drawn on in a line
with the wire, and as nearly as possible equidistant from each other. In this
position they are wrapped around by the tape, which is secured with sufficient
firmness by the thread N, from the reel continually passing round it, so as to
prevent any derangement of the threads or tape whilst passing through the
bath. On leaving the point of the wire L, the gutta percha coating gives the
fuze sufficient firmness to prevent it from collapsing, and thus a central cavity

page_text: is maintained throughout the whole length of the fuze, the effect of which is
to ensure an almost instantaneous communication of fire by means of the
inflammable threads.
The Drawings annexed represent the full size of the different portions of
the machinery used by me for the aforesaid purposes, with the exception of the
distance between the roller M and the gutta percha bath, and which distance
should in practice be sufficient to allow the coating of gutta percha to cool.
In witness whereof, I, the said Simon Davey, have hereto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
SIMON DAVEY. (L.S.)