IMPROVEMENTS IN STUFFING BOXES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Michael Henry, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN STUFFING
BOXES." A communication from abroad by Francisque Million, of 33,
Boulevard Saint Martin. Paris, France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the 'said Michael Henry at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th
March 1862.
I, MICHAEL HENRY, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN STUFFING BOXES," communicated to me from abroad by Francisque Million,
of 33, Boulevard Saint Martin, Paris, France, to be as follows:-
On the Twenty-second of November 1861, I applied for a Patent No. 2940,
as a communication from Francisque Million, for an arrangement for
rendering parts of engines and machines steam-tight and fluid-tight, which
arrangement mainly consisted in the employment of a moveable box or tube,
or tubular or bored piece surrounding the piston rod (or other article to which
it is applied), and partaking of the play or wabbling motion thereof, and which

page_text: box, tube, or piece was called in the Specification of that Invention a "packing
or surrounding appliance." Now the object of the present Invention is to
render the aforesaid arrangement still more effective, especially when applied
to engines working at very high and continuous pressures. For this purpose,
according to the present Invention, a stuffing box or other mechanical con-
trivance for retaining packing is connected or attached to or formed on or with
the surrounding or packing appliance, so that the said stuffing box or other
mechanical contrivance, together with the hempen or other packing with which
it is furnished, or which it retains, shall move with or partake of the motion
of the said surrounding or packing appliance.
For convenience of description, the stuffing box or mechanical contrivance
so applied to the packing or surrounding appliance is herein-after called the
guard," and the packing or surrounding appliance itself is designated the
"tube."
65
The "guard" may be connected to the "tube" in various manners; in one
arrangement, for example, the "guard" may be a box screwed to the tube, and
having a gland screwed to it; in another arrangement the guard may consist.
of a gland, inverted box, or hollow cap or nut screwed to the tube, the packing
in both instances resting on the top edge of the tube; the guard may be kept
duly in place by a screw. Other arrangements may be adopted. The tube
may be prevented from turning with the guard when the latter is screwed up
or down by making it plain at parts of its periphery, so that it may be held 'by
a spanner, or the like, or by furnishing it with studs or gudgeons, which
project into recesses in the cylinder cover, or box thereon, and allow the tube
its play, but prevent its turning, or other means may be used. Packing may
be fitted on the bottom of the stuffing box, on the cylinder cover, or under the
tube, so that the bottom edge of the tube may press upon it. The guard is
frequently fixed to the top of the tube or surrounding appliance, but it may
be at other parts of such appliance. Thus sometimes the tube or surrounding
appliance may be composed of two or more tubes or tubular pieces placed one
above the other, and connected by means of an intervening stuffing box; ring,
or other contrivance for retaining packing, or the lower tube may be so con-
structed as to form a stuffing box at its top, the tube next above it being
screwed or otherwise connected to it, and forming a gland at bottom, so that
they retain the packing between them.. The tube may be divided at various
parts, and the portions suitably connected. Sometimes the tube may be
divided longitudinally, or made in two or more longitudinal pieces or in
longitudinal sections, or semi-cylindrical portions (as if a tube divided length-

page_text: wise or from end to end) held together by a collar, bevilled inside, and fitting
on bevilled parts of the tube, or the pieces may be otherwise secured. The
tube and guard combined constitute an improved stuffing box..
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Michael Henry in the Great Seal Patent Office on
13th September 1862.
.the
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MICHAEL
HENRY, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellont Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Michael Henry; Her special licence that I, the said Michael Henry,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Michael
Henry, 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
STUFFING BOXES," communicated to me from abroad by Francisque Million, of
33, Boulevard Saint Martin, Paris, France, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Michael. Henry, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Michael Henry, do hereby declare the
nature of the 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 thereof, as communicated to me, reference being had .to the
accompanying Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that
is to say:
On the Twenty-second of November 1861, I applied for a Patent numbered.

page_text: 2940, as a communication from Francisque Million, for an arrangement for
rendering parts of engines and machines steam-tight and fluid-tight, which
arrangement, as described in the Specification accompanying the said applica-
tion for Patent, mainly consisted in the employment of a moveable box or
tube, or a tubular piece, or a block or piece having a passage bored or formed
through it, such box, tube, piece, or block surrounding the piston rod or other
article to which it was to be applied, and partaking of the play or wabbling
motion thereof, and the said box, tube, or piece (which might be made in one
or more pieces) was called in the said Specification a packing or surrounding
appliance. Now the chief object of the present Invention is to render the
aforesaid arrangement more effective, especially when applied to engines
working at high and continuous pressures. For this purpose, according to the
present Invention; a stuffing box or other mechanical contrivance for retaining
packing is connected or attached to or is formed on or with the surround-
ing or packing appliance in such manner that the said stuffing box or other
mechanical contrivance, together with the hempen or other flexible packing
with which it is furnished or which it retains shall move with or partake of
the motion of the said surrounding or packing appliance.
For convenience of description, the stuffing box or other mechanical con-
trivance so applied according to this Invention to the packing or surrounding
appliance is herein-after called the "guard," and the packing or surrounding
appliance itself is designated the "tube."
The guard may be fitted to or combined with the "tube" in various
manners; in one arrangement, for example, the guard may be a box screwed
to the tube, and having a gland screwed to it; in another arrangement the
guard may consist of a gland, inverted box, or hollow cap or nut screwed on
to the tube, the packing in both these instances resting on the top edge of the
tube. The guard may be kept duly in place by a screw. Other forms of
guard may be adopted. The tube may be prevented from turning with the
guard when the latter is being screwed up or down by making the tube plane
at parts of its periphery, so that it may be held by a spanner or like instru-
ment while the guard is being adjusted, or the tube may be formed with studs
or gudgeons projecting into recesses in the cylinder cover or in the stuffing
box thereon, and allowing the tube its required play, but preventing it from
turning; but other means may be used for this purpose. Packing may be
laid at the bottom of the stuffing box on the cylinder cover under the tube, so
that the bottom of the tube may press upon it. The guard may frequently be
fixed to the top of the tube or surrounding appliance, but it may be at other

page_text: parts of such tube or appliance. Thus sometimes the tube or surrounding
appliance may be composed of two or more tubes or tubular pieces, placed
one above, the other, and connected by means of an intervening stuffing box,
ring, or other contrivance for retaining packing; or the lower tube may be so
constructed as to form a stuffing box at its top, the tube next above it being
screwed or otherwise connected to it and forming a gland at bottom, so that
they retain packing between them. The tube may be divided at various
parts, and the portions connected together. Sometimes the tube may be
divided longitudinally or made in two or more longitudinal pieces or sections
or in semi-cylindrical portions, as if a. tube were divided lengthwise or from
end to end, the sections or portions may be held together by a collar, bevilled
inside, and fitting over bevilled parts of the tube, or they may be held together
by other means. The tube and guard combined constitute an improved
stuffing box.
Having thus set forth the nature of the Invention, I proceed, with reference
to the accompanying Drawings, to exemplify more particularly arrangements
for carrying it into effect.
Figure 1 is a vertical section, and Figure 1° a plan of one arrangement.
P is a piston rod, or other rod, round which the stuffing box is applied; A is
the upper part of the tube or surrounding appliance, which consists of a tube
surrounding the rod, and free to follow it in its lateral motion, as described;
B is a deep ring or tubular cap screwed to the tube A, and D is a gland or
lid screwed to the cap B. The parts B and D combined form the "guard";
C is spun yarn or other elastic packing, retained in place by the guard,.
which being screwed to the tube partakes of its motion. Figure 2 is a
vertical section of another arrangement. A is the piston rod, or other rod,.
round which the stuffing box is applied; B, the tube; D, a gland or
pressing piece fastened by screws E' to a stationary stuffing box. E, cast
on the cylinder cover or other surface. in which is the orifice through
which the rod works; G is the guard, consisting of a hollow nut, gland,
or cap, screwed on the upper part of the tube B, and retaining spun yarn,
or other elastic packing H. To prevent the guard from coming loose while
the engine is working, it may be secured by a thumbscrew I, or other
ordinary contrivance. The tube B is formed with a collar or annular
shoulder c, on the under side of which is a flange e, which drops into a groove
in the top of the stuffing box E, and d is a flange on the gland D, dropping
into a groove in the shoulder c. The grooves are of sufficient width to allow
the tube B the necessary play for it to follow the lateral motions of the rod.;

page_text: elastic packing, f, g, is laid in the grooves, the packing g being under the
flange d, and f under the flange e; his elastic packing under the tube B.
Figure 5 shows a similar arrangement without the guard and without the
packing h. The parts are indicated by similar letters to like parts in Figure 2.
Figure 3 is a longitudinal section, and Figure 3 transverse section of an
arrangement in which the tube is constructed of two or more pieces. fitted
closely together. This arrangement is chiefly applicable to rods formed with
a boss or collar. B and B are the halves composing the.tube; c, c¹, register
marks to guide the workman in adjusting the halves. The halves are secured
together by rings D, D, bevilled on the inside, and driven on round the
bevilled parts E, E, of the halves; but they may be secured together by other
means. A is the piston rod, or other rod, round which the tube B, B', is
applied.
The arrangement, Figure 1, may be modified by constructing the tube
of two lengths, or tubular pieces, set one above the other round the rod. The
top of the lower piece forms a box or recess to receive elastic packing, as if
the parts A and B, Figure 1, were cast in a piece, and the bottom of the
upper piece screws into it, like the bottom of the gland D, and keeps the
packing in place. These portions (viz., top of lower piece and bottom of
upper piece) combined constitute the guard. Or the tube may consist of more
than two such lengths, with a guard, formed as described, between every two.
contiguous lengths.
I would here remark that when the arrangement shewn in Figure 4 is
adopted, which arrangement is similar to that referred to in Figure 1 of the
Specification of my aforesaid Patent, No. 2940, the sides of the fixed
stuffing box or recess B, cast on the cylinder cover or other surface, through
which the rod works, and those of the gland D screwed to the said stuffing box,.
should not come quite in contact; but a small space should be left between
them, as shewn in Figure 4, so that if they become oxidized they may be pre-
vented from adhering, and rendering it difficult to take the contrivance in
pieces. It will be observed that space is also left between the surfaces of the
tube C and the gland D, and between those of the flange c on the tube and
the stuffing box B, to allow the tube the necessary play for it to partake of the
lateral motion of the rod.
In the Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, the stuffing boxes are in section, but the
portions of the rods shewn are in elevation.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same may be performed, I declare that I claim,

page_text: First, the combination of what I herein call a guard or mechanical con-
trivance for retaining packing, with what I herein call a tube or surrounding
or packing appliance; such guard being connected or attached to or formed
on or with the tube, so as to move with it.
Second, the arrangements of apparatus represented in and described in
reference to Figures 1, 1, 2, 3, & 3ª of the accompanying Drawings, that is
to say, each such apparatus in the arrangement and combination of parts of
which the same consists, substantially as set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Michael Henry, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twelfth day of September, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
S. E. A. NEWSOME,
Patent Office,
84, Fleet Street, London.
M. HENRY. (L.S.)