IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE CP TUBES FOR GAS AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
SOUTHWOOD STOCKER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Ninth day of June, in the third year of Her reign, did, for Herself,
Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Alexander South-
wood Stocker, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, my exors, adiñors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, my exors, adiñors,
or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
CP TUBES FOR GAS AND OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters Patent is con-
tained a proviso, that I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, shall cause a
particular description of the nature of my Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto bad, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Alexander Southwood Stocker, do hereby declare the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully
described and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, that is
to say:-
My Invention relates to the manufacture of tubes without a seam or
joint from certain compounds of copper and zinc, or from compounds of
copper, zinc, and tin, by means of external pressure when in a heated
state, and internally supported; and in order to give the best information
in my power, I will proceed to describe the means pursued by me, and
which I have found fully to answer in carrying out my Invention; first
stating that the certain compound metal which I employ is at the rate of
sixty pounds of the best selected copper to forty pounds of zinc, and although
these quantities may be very slightly varied in making tubes without a seam,
when hot, according to my Invention, yet the relative quantities of the two
metals must never be such as to prevent the compound metal from rolling at
a red heat; and it should be stated, that I have found that by adding fourteen
ounces of tin to one hundred pounds of the compound metal above mentioned,
that the mixture becomes more hard and close, and where such properties are
desired in tubing, the adding of tin in very small quantities to the compound
of copper and zinc will be found advantageous. In mixing the metals above
mentioned, I mix the same in the same manner as is now pursued in making
brass, and which is well known and in general practice; and the compound
metal employed by me, in fact, is what may be called a poor brass, owing to
the quantity of zinc employed in respect to the copper; but by such compound
I am enabled to work the metal into tubes without a seam when hot, and
hence requiring comparatively little power for such manufacture. Having
obtained the compound metal above mentioned, I form a short tube or cylinder
thereof by casting with sand or other proper core of the size of the intended
diameter of the finished tube, or I obtain a short tube by drilling a hole
through a short length of a cylinder of such compound metal, which can
readily be obtained by rolling the compound metal when heated at a low red
heat (a cherry red in the dark). I then heat such tube to a low red heat, and
insert a mandril, which is nearly a true cylinder, for it only tapers about one-
sixteenth of an inch in eight feet), and immediately place the tube with the
mandril within it.between a pair of grooved rollers (similar to what are used
in rolling circular rods of iron), and pass the tube three or four times between
the rollers, each time passing it between grooves of a less diameter than the
previous rolling, by which the tube will be elongated on the mandril, the

page_text: thickness of the metal progressively decreasing as the tube is elongated, the
internal diameter remaining the same. It will be evident that the number of
times of passing between the rolls will depend on the quantity of extension in
length required to a particular tube; and it is desirable to remark, that care
should be observed in turning the rolls that the successive grooves should
decrease in diameter from one to the other in very small degrees, for I prefer
passing a tube between the rolls often, rather than rapidly, to decrease the
diameter of the grooves around the rolls. If the tube is not reduced (to the
external diameter in one heat to the size required, then I again heat it without
the mandril to a low red heat, and again insert the mandril, and proceed further
to reduce the external diameter of the tube, and consequently to encrease the
length till I have obtained the external diameter of tube desired. In using
rolls for rolling cylindrical tubes or cylindrical rods, it is well known that owing
to the different speeds at which the different parts of the surfaces of the grooves
travel (depending on their respective distances from the centre of the rollers),
that good and true cylindrical surfaces cannot be practicably obtained, for this
reason, when I have reduced the diameter of the tube to the size desired,
I immediately draw the tube through a draw plate, such as is now used in the
manufacture of brass or copper tubes, and as is well understood, by which I
finish off the external surfaces; and I would remark, that although I prefer the
use of grooved rollers for progressively reducing the external diameter and the
thickness of metal, and increasing the length of the tube, yet the same opera-
tion may be performed by drawing the short tube in a heated state, having a
mandril within it, through draw plates or dies, progressively passing the tube
through a less and less opening till the same is reduced to the external
diameter required, the internal diameter depending on the mandril within.
I would remark, that I am aware that welded and therefore wrought-iron
tubes with seams have been elongated by passing them with mandrils in them
between grooved rollers, and it has before been proposed to make short cylin-
ders of iron or steel, and of mixtures of metals, and to convert them, when in a
hot or cold state, into gun barrels by means of grooved rollers or draw plates
by progressively increasing the length of such tubes and decreasing the internal
diameter, the metal cylinder progressively becoming thicker, and a Patent
was taken by Benjamin Cook, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and eight, for such Invention, and it was proposed that the barrels
when made should have their internal figure formed by placing a bar of
the figure required on the inside, and thus forming the interior into an
octagonal figure, or with spiral grooves for rifles; and it has been since
proposed by others to make what are called metal tubes, without seams or

page_text: longitudinal joints, from brass by drawing out short tubes when cold on a
mandril, and a Patent has been taken for the same by Mr. Green, in One
thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight. I have, however, mentioned these
methods in order to state that I make no claim thereto; and I would further
have it understood that I do not claim the compounding of copper and zinc within
the proportions above specified, nor the further compounding such metals with
tin, in order to procure a compound metal which may be drawn out when in
a heated state, similar metal having been made before, and Patents have been
taken for modes of applying the same, when uncombined with tin, to various
purposes; nor do I claim the making tubes therefrom generally; nor do I claim
the mode of employing grooved rollers or draw plates when elongating tubes,
with mandrils within them, when employed on other than the compound metal
above described, that process and machinery having been long used in making
wrought-iron tubes.
Another part of my Invention relates to the manufacture of iron tubes
without a seam by the employment of cylinders formed from malleable cast
iron, and submitting them to pressure through grooved rollers or dies with
internal support to elongate such cylinders into the length and thickness of
tubes desired. And in order that this part of the Invention may be readily
understood and carried into effect, I will describe the process pursued by me,
and which I have found fully to answer. I obtain cylinders of malleable cast
iron by casting it, as is well understood when using malleable cast iron for
other purposes, in the form of a cylinder. The cylinders so used by me being
of an internal diameter similar to that which I desire to have the finished tube
produced therefrom, the thickness of the metal of such cylinder evidently
depending on the length of tube to be obtained and the thickness of the metal
thereof. And such cylinders of malleable iron I submit to the operation of
annealing, in order to render the same into the malleable state, and which
process of annealing is well understood by persons working with such metal
for producing other articles of manufacture. I, however, prefer the annealing
process to be performed by using the rich iron ores from which malleable cast
iron is made as the material for annealing, and which I believe is now
generally considered the best material for such process; and in annealing such
cylinders of malleable cast iron, I introduce them into a suitable vessel or box
or chamber, as is well understood, closely surrounded with such iron ore, and
close the chamber or vessel, and submit the whole to a bright red heat for
several days, and I have found that about eight days will be sufficient for most
tubes, but it is well known that the time depends on the thickness of the
metal. Having obtained such annealed malleable cast-iron cylinders, I operate

page_text: on them according to my Invention, which consists in elongating them by
means of grooved rollers or other dies, such as are now commonly used in
welding wrought-iron tubes, and in the same manner as I have above
described for making the compound metal tubes above described, heating
the annealed cylinders to a very bright red heat from time to time, as the
same become reduced in temperature, in order that the elongating process
may be carried on with facility, a mandril being inserted into each cylinder or
tube during the time of elongating the same, and quickly withdrawn, in order
to avoid its being set fast by the shrinking of that metal as it cools.
What I claim as the Invention secured by the present Letters Patent is the
mode of manufacturing tubes, herein-before described, without a seam, and of a
compound of copper and zine (with or without tin), before mentioned, by elon-
gating, in manner herein-before described, a thick bored or cast cylinder when
in a heated state and on a mandril, as before described.
And I also claim the mode of making iron tubes without a seam by elon-
gating annealed cylinders of malleable cast iron by pressure and internal
support, as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Southwood Stocker, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of December, One
thousand eight hundred and forty