IMPROVE- MENTS IN PACKING FOR VARIOUS PARTS OF STEAM AND OTHER ENGINES AND MACHINERY
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alexander Dudgeon, of 19, Cullum Street, in the
City of London, Steam Ship Furnisher, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PACKING FOR VARIOUS PARTS OF STEAM AND OTHER ENGINES AND
MACHINERY."
Sealed the 27th May 1863, and dated the 28th November 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alexander Dudgeon at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th November 1862.
I, ALEXANDER DUDGEON, of 19, Cullum Street, in the City of London, Steam
Ship Furnisher, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING FOR VARIOUS PARTS OF STEAM AND OTHER ENGINES AND
MACHINERY," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the preparation and manufacture of a packing
especially applicable for use where superheated or high-pressure steam is
employed, but which can also be used in all places and for all purposes in and
for which the ordinary packing is at present applied.
My Invention consists in plaiting cotton or other vegetable fibre by
machinery into the form of a gasket, or otherwise twisting it so as to form &
rope, which gasket or rope I make either with or without a core of elastic or
non-elastic material. In order further to prepare the said packing and render

page_text: it more suitable for the purposes for which it is required, I either treat the
vegetable fibre or the manufactured gasket or rope with a solution of silicate
of potash or silicate of soda, stannate of soda, or arseniate of soda, or other
chemical substances or compounds possessing similar properties of enabling
the material treated therewith to resist the action of great heat. I propose
also to incorporate with the said gasket or rope packing a mixture of paraffine
or of tallow, or other lubricating substance or fluid, with or without blacklead,
or an amalgam of mercury and tin, or other amalgam possessing lubricating
properties, so as to form in conjunction or combination with the mechanically
and chemically prepared gasket or rope, as herein-before described, a silicated
lubricating packing.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alexander Dudgeon in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th May 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
DUDGEON, of 19, Cullum Street, in the City of London, Steam Ship Furnisher,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alexander. Dudgeon, Her special licence that I, the said Alexander
Dudgeon, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Alexander Dudgeon, 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
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING FOR VARIOUS PARTS OF STEAM AND OTHER ENGINES AND
MACHINERY," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alexander
Dudgeon, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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,

page_text: *NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alexander 'Dudgeon, 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
following statement, that is to say:-
My Invention relates to the preparation and manufacture of a packing
especially applicable for use where superheated or high-pressure steam is
employed, but which can also be used in all places and for all purposes in and
for which the ordinary packing is at present applied.
(I.) My Invention consists in plaiting cotton or other vegetable fibre into
the form of a gasket, or otherwise twisting it so as to form a rope, which gasket
or rope I make either with or without a core of elastic or non-elastic
material.
(II.) In order further to prepare the said packing and render it more
suitable for the purposes for which it is required, I either treat the vegetable
fibre or the manufactured gasket, or rope by steeping it in a vessel or vat
containing a solution of silicate of potash or of silicate of soda, or of stannate
of soda, or of arseniate of soda, or of other chemical substances or compounds
possessing similar properties of enabling the material treated therewith to
resist the action of great heat. The said chemical solutions may be contained
in vats or vessels of any convenient form or size, according to the quantity
required to be made at one time; and the fibre or gasket is left in the solution
for such a length of time as will enable it to absorb as much of the solution
employed as from its bulk and other properties it will take up. After this it
is taken out and dried. If it be fibre which has been treated in the manner
above described it can when dry be either plaited by machinery or twisted, as
in the part of this Specification marked (I.) described.
(III.) The chemically treated gasket or rope I next steep in a melted
solution of paraffine or of the preparations made therefrom, together with
blacklead, French chalk, or with an amalgam of mercury and tin, or any
other amalgam possessing lubricating properties.
(IV.) When the said gasket or rope has absorbed as much as it will take
up of the solution next above described or alluded to, I, in order thoroughly to
incorporate the said materials with the rope or gasket, pass the rope or gasket
through or in between rollers rotated by any convenient mechanism; and the
faces of these rollers are so constructed that they press or mould the prepared
gasket or rope into the precise form which may be desired, which may either
be round in section, as in Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, in the Drawings accompanying
this Specification; square, as in Figures 5, 6, 7, 8; oblong, as in Figures 9, 10,
11, 12; angular, as in Figures 13, 14, 15, 16, or of any sectional form that

page_text: may be found suitable for the various purposes for which this packing may be
required.
In the Drawings, Figures 2, 6, 10, 14, show the various forms of improved
packing made with a round core; Figures 3, 7, 11, 15, with a square core;
and Figures 4, 8, 12, 16, without a core, either of elastic or non-elastic
material. I find india-rubber a very suitable material for the elastic core, but
I do not limit myself solely to the use thereof.
(V.) Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I wish it to
be understood that what I more particularly claim as of my Invention is, the
preparation and manufacture of a silicated lubricating packing, as described
in the parts of this Specification numbered (I.), (II.), (III.), and (IV.)
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Dudgeon, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
ALEXANDER DUDGEON. (L.S.)