IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BRASS AND COPPER TUBING
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
GREEN, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Gold Plater, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westmin-
ster, the Twenty-seventh day of June, in the second year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles Green, Her especial licence that I, the said Charles Green, my
exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Green,
my exors, adiñiors, and 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 OF BRASS AND COPPER TUBING;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Charles Green, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, and to cause the same to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six months next and immediately after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had,
will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW.. YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Green, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, is described and ascer-
tained as follows, that is to say :-
My "Improvements in the Manufacture of Brass and Copper Tubing" consist
in casting the copper or brass in short tubes, with the same, or nearly the same,
internal diameter, and a larger external diameter than those of the intended
tubes when finished, and afterwards drawing or forcing the tubes through holes
or dies until they have attained the length, form, and thickness desired, my
process being similar to that for which John Wilkinson obtained Letters
Patent in or about the year One thousand seven hundred and ninety, for a
method of making lead pipes, which latter process has since the expiration of
the said Patent become commonly practised, but the said process of Wilkinson,
so far as my knowledge extends, has never been applied to the fabrication of
tubes of copper or brass.
I shall now describe the method of making copper or brass tubes, as
commonly practised, in order to show more plainly the advantages of the
method for which I have obtained Her Majesty's Letters Patent. The
common method or mode of manufacturing copper or brass tubes or pipes
consists in first casting the copper or brass into ingots, and subjecting the
said ingots to the rolling or laminating mill, in order to reduce the thickness
of the said ingots to the thickness, or nearly so, of the intended tubes. The
metal is then sheared or cut into the necessary widths for making the tubes
or pipes required. The edges of the said strips are made to approach together
by bending the strips in the direction of their least dimensions, and by means
of solder connecting the edges or seams together, either by what is com-
monly known in the trade as a lap joint, or a jump joint, the former having
the edges bevelled, those of the latter being square. Such tubes, after having
their edges soldered or brazed together, are submitted to the operation of
the draw bench and draw plate or die, the tubes being drawn through a
number of holes, as in the drawing of wire or lead pipes, until they are suffi-
ciently reduced in diameter. Now in my improved method of manufacturing
copper and brass tubes, I cast the copper or brass upon a core or maundril of
core, sand, or other proper material, and within a matrix or mould of iron or
sand, as may be most convenient, the core being of the dimensions which I
intend to give to the tube internally, or nearly so, and the matrix mould of
the dimensions which I intend to give to the cast tube externally. I then
insert a maundril within the tube, and subject the cast tube to the operation of
a draw bench and draw plate or dies until the external diameter of such tube
is reduced to the thickness required; the internal diameter, being supported by
the maundril inserted within the tube, is prevented from diminishing, as it

page_text: would were the tube subjected to the operation of the draw bench and draw
plate or dies without the support afforded to it by the maundril. The copper
or brass tube being drawn or forced as above by a draw bench through a
draw plate, dies, whirtles; collets, or holes successively decreasing in area,
the copper or brass tube is reduced in external diameter, and extended to the
required length, retaining the necessary thickness of metal of the tube. The
brass tube being a mixture of zinc and copper (of which brass is composed), will
require after having been drawn or forced through the draw plate, dies, whirtles,
collets, or holes, to undergo a process called annealing, in order to restore
that degree of malleability to the brass of which the process of drawing
deprives it. Such annealing process is also necessary in manufacturing copper
tubes; but as copper is a softer metal than the different compositions of copper
and zinc called and known by the name of brass, tubes formed of copper
will require less annealing than those formed of brass, which annealing is a
process well known and commonly practised by workers in copper and brass,
and therefore need not be further described, as the quantity of annealing
requisite will depend upon the skill and judgment of the workman employed
in the manufacture of tubes, whether such tubes are formed of copper or of
brass.
As my improved method of making tubes of copper and brass without
any seam or soldered joint will require a draw bench of greater power than
those now in use, on account of the greater than ordinary thickness of metal
required in my process, I proceed to describe the apparatus by which I
manufacture the same, though I lay no claim to such draw bench or appa-
ratus, except so far as drawing brass and copper tubing without a seam or
joint is concerned, as before described. In the annexed Drawings, Figure 1
shews a plan or view of my draw bench, in which an endless screw A actuates
or drives a worm wheel B on the end of the shaft C, and firmly attached
thereto; a wheel D (round which the chain E coils by the rotation of the
wheel D) is actuated through the medium of the shaft C, and turns with it.
The end of the chain E is attached to the connector and maundril by the mode
shewn in the Drawing, or it may be attached by pincers in the usual method.
Motion is given by a steam engine or other power to the worm wheel, which
puts in motion the chain in a longitudinal direction, and draws the tube and
maundril within it, attached thereto by either of the methods above described,
through the hole in the die, whirtle, collet, or draw plate, which die,
whirtle, collet, or draw plate, is shewn at G, Figure 1, together with a
tube and a maundril or triblet within the said tube, upon which maundril
or triblet the said tube, whether of copper or brass, is extended to

page_text: the required length by being passed through holes which decrease in
area so as to. form the tube required. The wheel D to which the chain
is attached admits of being thrown out of gear or disengaged. The chain
being drawn back by hand, on re-engaging the wheel D the operation of
drawing the tube can be repeated. Figure 2 is a side elevation of my draw
bench, where corresponding parts of Drawing, Figure 1; are marked or desig-
nated by like characters. The draw plate, die, collet, or whirtle is shewn in
section with the tube and the maundril or triblet within the die, collet, whirtle,
or draw plate. Figure 3 shews a sectional elevation of a connecter to be
screwed on to the end of the maundril or triblet, and attached to the chain as
before described, after the end of the maundril or triblet has been forced through
the copper or brass tube, such connecter, being also used for the purpose of
drawing the maundrill or triblet out of the copper or brass tube at the reverse
end, previously to such tube undergoing the process of annealing, as before
described, and which maundril or triblet must be forced into such tube before
it is again subjected to the operation of the draw bench and draw plate or die
after each annealing; and the number of such annealing processes must
obviously depend upon the thickness and quality of the metal of which such
copper or brass tube is composed, as well as the skill and judgment of the
workman employed in the manipulation. Figure 7 is a sectional elevation of
the maundril, shewing the screwed ends with a finished tube upon the maundril.
Figure 8 is a sectional elevation of the said tube before being submitted to the
operation of the draw bench; and it will be perceived by the end view of
Figure 8, that the tube, whether of copper or brass, has no seam or soldered
joint, such tube being prevented from slipping over, the maundril by its trun-
cated or contracted end, as shewn in the sectional Drawings, Figures 7 and
8, which method for preventing the tube from slipping over the maundril is
commonly practised in drawing lead pipes or tubes under the said process of
John Wilkinson, before referred to. Figures 4, 5, and 6 are respectively a
side elevation of a copper or brass tube from the casting, a sectional elevation
of the same, shewing the thickness of metal and the form of the reduced or
truncated end to prevent the tube slipping over the maundril, and a sectional
elevation of a finished tube. Figure 9 shews another method which. I use in
the first process of drawing brass and copper tubes. A is a plan and B a
side elevation of a tool through which the tubes are passed, and is composed of
four sheaves or blocks revolving upon fixed axles, similar to the sheaves of
pulley blocks, placed as shewn in the Drawing, and which sheaves grasp
the tube on motion being communicated to it by the draw bench, which tool, as
above described, is when used fixed in like manner, and substituted for the

page_text: draw plate or whirtle, as shewn in the plan and elevation of the draw bench at
Figure 1 and 2. Figure 10 shews a section and elevation of an iron tube
upon which the cores are made. In order to facilitate the removal of the
maundril from the finished tube, I insert the finished tube and maundril within
another tube, the internal diameter of which is equal to the external diameter
of the finished tube, and which, on the maundril being withdrawn, prevents the
finished tube from puckering, bulging, or splitting.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the same is to be practised and carried into effect, I now proceed more par-
ticularly to what I claim under the Letters Patent granted to me for my
"Improvements in the Manufacture of Brass and Copper Tubing," that is to
say my "Improvements in the Manufacture of Brass and Copper Tubing "
consist in casting such tubes of copper or brass after the manner for which
John Wilkinson obtained Letters Patent for a method of making lead pipes,
and for the manufacturing such copper or brass tubes without seam or soldered
joint, by the methods inserted and described in this my Specification.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Green, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-second day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of December,
in the year of our Lord 1838, the aforesaid Charles Green eame before our said
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-seventh day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-eight.