IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Valentine Baker, Lieutenant-Colonel of Her Majesty's
10th Regiment of Hussars, at present stationed in Dublin, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Valentine Baker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th May 1863.
I, VALENTINE BAKER, Lieutenant-Colonel of Her Majesty's 10th Regiment
of Hussars, at present stationed in Dublin, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the construction of ordnance, and consists in
making guns from a sheet or sheets of metal rolled and soldered either upon
themselves or upon inner tubes. When inner tubes are employed, they may
be formed of sheets of metal, rolled and forged in place of being soldered, as
above described with reference to the outer casing. If necessary outer rings
of metal may be shrunk over the whole or parts of the gun for the purpose of
further securing the same. In some cases sheets of homogeneous iron or steel
may be employed in combination with sheets of other metal, such as brass or
copper, in the manufacture of the outer casing of the gun firstly described.
The sheets of metal may in some cases be prepared of decreasing width,
so that when rolled the breech part will contain more metal, and be of con-
siderably increased strength.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Valentine Baker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th November 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, VALENTINE
BAKER, Lieutenant-Colonel of Her Majesty's 10th Regiment of Hussars, at
present stationed in Dublin, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Valentine Baker, Her special license that I, the said Valentine
Baker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Valentine Baker, my executors, administrators or assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN ORDNANCE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Valentine Baker, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, or under the hand and seal of one of them, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Valentine Baker, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to the construction of ordnance, and consists in
making the outer portion or casing of a gun from a sheet or sheets of metal,
which may be of a diminishing width towards one end, but is of uniform thick-
ness or nearly so throughout, such sheet or sheets being rolled or coiled either
upon themselves or upon an inner tube intended to form the lining or interior
of the bore of the gun. The object of making the sheet or sheets of a
diminishing width towards one end is to obtain the requisite strength or thick-
ness at the breech, and produce the desired taper of the gun towards the
muzzle. The roll or. coil so formed is now submitted to a soldering process,

page_text: with a view to the uniting formly of the several coils or laps to each other; or if
preferred, the several coils or laps of this tube may be welded together by forging
in any well-known manner; the soldering being accomplished during the
process of rolling or coiling the tube. In some cases I propose to roll or coil
successively over one another sheets of homogeneous iron or steel in com-
bination with sheets of other metals or alloys, such as copper or brass, in the
manufacture of the outer portion or casing of a gun, the different sheets
being coiled or rolled in any desired order, by which means I am enabled to
make a wrought iron or steel gun with an external casing of copper, brass, or
other metal. I further propose to make the inner tubes or linings of guns
by rolling or coiling sheets of metal in the manner herein-before described,
but as such inner tubes may be of an uniform thickness throughout, it will
not be necessary to employ sheets of a diminishing width towards one end.
These tubes are welded or forged in any well-known manner for the purpose
of thoroughly uniting the coils or laps after the process of rolling or coiling,
or they may be soldered during the coiling process, and may be employed
either with my improved coiled gun herein-before referred to, or introduced
into existing cast-iron or other guns for the purpose of strengthening the
same. If necessary outer rings of metal may be shrunk over the whole or
portions of the gun for the purpose of further strengthening the same.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I
shall refer to the several Figures on the Sheet of Drawings hereunto annexed,
the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 of the Drawings represents a plan of a portion of a sheet of metal
employed in forming the outer portion or casing of a gun. It is by preference
tapered in width towards one end, as shown at a, b, c, d, the remainder of the
sheet being left of uniform width, as shown, or if preferred the entire sheet
may be of equal width throughout. Figure 2 shews in perspective the outer
portion or casing of a gun in the process of rolling or coiling. a, b, represents
the sheet, and A the tapered tube produced by rolling or coiling such sheet.
Figure 3 is a perspective view of an inner tube for a gun in the process of
being rolled or coiled from a sheet of uniform width a, b, representing the
sheet, and B the tube partly formed.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion, that what I consider to be novel and
original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-

page_text: First, the general construction of ordnance in the manner berein-before
described.
Second, the construction of the outer portion or casing of ordnance by
rolling or coiling a sheet or sheets of the same or different kinds of metal, and
-uniting the coils or laps by soldering or forging, as herein-before described.
Third, the constructing of the inner tubes or linings of guns by rolling or
coiling a sheet or sheets of metal, and uniting the coils or laps by forging or
soldering, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Valentine Baker, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of November, One thousand eight
V. BAKER. (L.S.)