IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TOBACCO PIPES
Year: 1848

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ENOCH
STEEL and WILLIAM BRITTER, both of Lambeth, in the County of Surrey,
Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at Westminster, the Sixth day of July,
in the twelfth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Enoch Steel and William Britter, our
exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that we, the said Enoch Steel and William Britter, our
exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Enoch Steel
and William Britter, our exors, adiñors, and assigns, might at any time.
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the
continuance of the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
night make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and tho
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and in the Islands of Guernsey, Jersey,
Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, our Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TOBACCO
PIPES;" in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging us,
the said Enoch Steel and William Britter, to cause a particular description
of our Invention, and in what manuer the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under our hands and scals, to be enrolled in Her
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
Enoch Steel and William Britter, do hereby declare that the nature of our

page_text: said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, is duly
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters of referenco
marked thereon (that is to say):-
Our Invention relates to a peculiar mode of manufacturing tobacco
pipes, by which the stem and bowl (forming a complete pipe) are simul-
taneously produced from a ball or piece of clay at one and the same operation,
allording much greater facilitics in such manufacture than any means hitherto
employed. The clay having been properly amalgamated and reduced to the
requisite consistency, we further prepare it by introducing the clay into a
cylinder or other vessel furnished with a perforated bottom, such as shewn at
Fig. I., through which it is forced by a piston actuated by any suitable means,
thus producing a number of rolls or cylinders of clay of the same diameter as
the external diameter of the pipe bowl to be manufactured. These rolls while
in a plastic state are to be cut in short lengths, each piece containing the
necessary amount of clay to produce a pipe, which will in a great measure
depend on the length and diameter of the stem. Instead of forcing these rolls
of clay out at the bottom of a cylinder, they may be projected in a longitudinal
direction, through a plate, Fig. II., and received on a suitable table, where they
are subdivided with ordinary cutting wires or slides similar to the well-known
manufacture of drain and other tiles when produced by forcing the clay through
dies or plates furnished with suitable appertures, or small cylinder of clay may
be produced by rolling with the hand in the ordinary manner of rolling
pipe clay.
Fig. 3 represents a side elevation of an apparatus arranged for the purpose
of facilitating the manufacture of tobacco pipes according to this intention, and
Fig. 4 a front elevation of the same.
Our improvements consist in compressing the clay by means of a piston or
plunger within moulds suitable for forming the bowl of the pipe, and at the
same time suffering a sufficient quantity of clay to escape from an aperture
at the lower end for the purpose of producing the stem.
Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11 represent one of these moulds & plunger or
piston in detail. Fig. 5 is a side elevation of the mould complete with the
piston or plunger A fitted thereto. This mould is divided into two halves B
and B', and shewn at Fig. 6, with the half mould B removed; these are
accurately fitted together and held in their relative positions by four steady
pins a, a, a, a, fixed in the one and received by corresponding holes in the other.
The interior capacity of the moulds are bored out the diameter of the pipe
bowl, preference being given to a cylindrical form as being more casily pro-

page_text: duced and readily fitted with the plunger A. The bottom of the cavity is formed
so as to impart the proper shape to the pipe, a small recess being left at 6 to
receive the spur, while an opening c is carried through the front at a suitable
angle to produce the stem, as will be hereafter explained. Fig. 7 represents
a front view of the mould, Fig. 8 a back view, and Fig. 9 a plan of the top,
Fig. 10 showing the under side of the same. In conducting this manufacture,
we place a number of these moulds in a chase or frame C, C, as seen at
Fig. 4, and each mould fitting a separate cell (seen in plan at C', C'); the two
halves are held securely together so as to withstand the pressure from within, or,
instead of placing them in separate cells, they may be made flush on the sides,
and the whole placed in close contact, in which position they are retained by a
binding screw at the end of the chase C, C. D, D, is a base or pedestal on which
a standard E is erected, the top of which forms the fulcrum F for a hand
lever G, to which is attached by links 3, 3, the upper end or a continuation of
the plunger A at a suitable distance from the fulcrum to give the necessary
movement without inconvenience to the operator. The upper part of the
plunger A is fitted to a guide H, which maintains its parallelism in a line
perpendicular to the base D forming the support of the moulds. A feather d
is let into the side of plunger A to prevent its turning round in the guide H.
The chase C, C, having been filled with moulds, and each mould charged with
the necessary quantity of clay, or one of the small cylinders of clay before
mentioned, one end of the chase C, C, is introduced between two guide ribs
T, T, on the base D, which, as the chase is pushed along, causes the moulds
to come successively under the plunger in such a position as to ensure its
proper entrance into the mould. On one of the moulds coming under the
plunger A the lever handle is depressed, causing the plunger to enter the
mould, but which is of sufficient depth to admit of the enlarged or sliding
piece e, e, entering the cylindrical part of the mould before the lower end
comes in contact with the clay; and this sliding piece accurately fitting the
mould, it prevents any escape of clay in that direction. The downward pressure
being continued, the whole of the clay not required in the formation of the
bowl, excepting a small portion, as will be hereafter explained, is forced out at
the aperture c, the lower end of the plunger A. forming the interior of the
bowl, as seen at Fig. 6.
In order to produce the hole through the stem, we introduce a pin f, f,
through an opening in the back part of the mould, and which is held suffi-
ciently tight between the two halves of the mould as to maintain its position
in the orifice c, through which it is continued in the shape of a long wire g in
order to support the stem during the time the pipe continues in the mould.

page_text: This wire being in a central position with regard to the orifice c, the clay, as it
is protruded, envelopes the wire, as shewn in Fig. 5, and forming a stem of a
length according to the quantity of clay introduced into the mould, and with
which the length of the wire g will necessarily correspond. The sliding piece e, c,
consists of a tube fitted to the plunger A, and having a collar h, which prevents
its descending too low in the mould. This collar abuts against a collar i, from
which it receives its downward pressure. The collar when in contact with
the mould slips under the inclined ends of two springs k, k, which exert
sufficient force to retain the sliding piece e, e, in the mould, while the plunger
is partially withdrawn, and this piece e, e, bearing on the top of the bowl,
prevents the possibility of the clay adhering thereto, the withdrawal being
effected to a small extent; the piece e, e, is carried upwards by the pins 7, 7,
which pass through slot holes m, m, to admit of the necessary pause in its
motion. In order to admit of the more ready withdrawal of the plunger A
from the mould, we form an air passage n up the centre, as seen in the section
Fig. 11, which is fitted with a valve o, the stem of which passes up the passage
& is sustained by the cross pin p, which suffers the valve to drop sufficiently to
admit air on the withdrawal of the plunger from the mould, the valve being
again forced into its seat by the pressure on the clay during the downward
stroke of the plunger A. To the bottom of the valve a small wire a is affixed,
which enters a hole in the pin f, this forming the communication between
the bowl and the hole or bore of the stem. Previous to using the moulds it
is advisable to oil or grease the interior surfaces of the moulds, and also the
plunger, to prevent the clay adhering to the surface. When the pressure first
takes effect on the clay in the mould, a portion enters the cavity b, forming the
spur, which, by the continued expulsion of the clay at the aperture c, becomes
disconnected from the pipe at its completion. We therefore provide an open-
ing q, where a small portion of the clay is suffered to escape towards the end
of the stroke, which is affected as follows:-To the plunger A a slot arm I is
affixed at right angles, to which an arm K is secured, the pendant end of which
is immediately over the band lever L, pivoted at one end to the side of the half
mould B on the pin r. The friction of the different parts are sufficient to
keep this in the position it is placed at the commencement of the operation,
shewn in Fig. 3. A pin s, which is bent at right angles, projects from the side
of the lever L, taking into the forked arm of the lever M, the opposite end of
the lever M embracing the short end of the lever N pivoted on the under side
of the mould, as seen in Figs. 8 and 10. The pin s when in an elevated
position brings the lever M to the position shewn by the dotted lines Fig. 8,
thereby covering the aperture q with the lever N. See dotted lines, Fig. 10.

page_text: This prevents any escape of the clay till the arm K comes in contact with the
lever L, when the pins will enter the stop t, the inclined position of the upper.
part of which causes the aperture 7 to be opened, the contrary incline again
closing it, and the sharp edge u of the lever N cuts off that portion of the
clay so expelled. The size of the aperture and the time it is allowed to remain
open should be so arranged as only to allow the escape of a little more clay
than would be contained in the cavity forming the spur. We may here
observe that pipes made without spurs will not require any such contrivance.
As it is desirable to vary the size of the stems of the different pipes manu-
factured, we place a slide O on the face of the mould, the lower end of which
embraces the aperture c, at which the stem issues, this being regulated by the
hand lever P (also pivoted to the stud r) according to the size of stem required.
The pipe moulds having been successively brought under the plunger and acted
upon in the manner described, the moulds are removed from the chase C, C,
and the two halves B, B', separated so as to extract the pipe, which may be
handled by the button head v of the pin f; this button head, it will be seen,
fits on a projection w, which ensures its being in correct position to receive the
pin x. In manufacturing the better descriptions of such pipes we subject
the stems to pressure in dies or moulds, an end elevation of which is shewn at
Fig. 12, and a longitudinal section at Fig. 13. It consists simply of two plates
having grooves on their edges, which, when together, form a hole y corre-
sponding with the shape to be imparted to the pipe stem. The pipe stem
being laid on the under half R, and the upper half S forced down between the
guides,, the stem is compressed to the shape of the hole y, and the super-
fluous portion of the clay is cut off by the sharp edges 11 & 22. The pin fand
wire g may now be withdrawn, and the small aperture formed thereby in the
back part of the bowl squeezed or plugged up, when the pipe will be com-
pletely formed, as represented at Fig. 14; a suitable curve may either be
imparted to it by the dies R and S, or it may be afterwards produced by hand.
a, a,
In Figs. 15 and 16 another form of mould is shewn, in which the clay is
compressing to produce a tobacco pipe according to this Invention.
Fig. 15, being one half of the mould which is fitted to a corresponding half
mould with steady pins b, b, b, b. This mould is surmounted by a hollow
cylinder c, c, shewn in section, which fits into a recess in the upper part of the
mould. Instead of placing the ball or cylinder of clay within this mould, as
before explained, this cylinder c, c, may be removed at each operation, and a
piece of clay stamped therewith from a sheet of that material prepared of a
suitable thickness, that such stamped piece shall contain the proper amount
of clay. The charged cylinder being replaced on the mould, the plunger,

page_text: Fig. 16, is brought down as before shewn, or by other equivalent means, the
whole of the clay is (as before) confined by the collar d, d, the surplusage
beyond what is necessary to form the bowl is expelled at the orifice e at the
bottom, thereby producing the pipe stem. The point f of the plunger should
be sufficiently long to pass out at the orifice c before any of the clay is expelled
in order to insure a perfect bore or hole. In this case it is not necessary
that any wire should extend to the length of the stem, as its being in a pen-
dant position prevents its breaking. A groove g, g, is shewn in the plunger,
Fig. 16, for the introduction of packing, if required. The burning or firing of
these pipes is conducted in the ordinary manner.
Having described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of carrying
the same into effect, we would have it understood that what we claim as of our
Invention is,
First, the compressing of clay or other suitable material within a mould or
moulds, thereby forming the bowl part in the manufacture of tobacco pipes,
the stems of such pipes being produced by expelling a portion of the clay or
other material from the said mould or moulds, by which means the bowl and
stem are simultaneously produced, as herein-before described.
Secondly, we claim the employment of the apparatus constituted by the
combination and arrangement of mechanical parts shewn and described with
reference to Figs. 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, & 11 in the said manufacture.
In witness whereof, the said Enoch Steel and William Britter have
hereunto set their hands and seals, this Sixth day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.