A NOVEL METHOD OF WELDING IRON OR ANY OTHER METAL IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF EVERY KIND OF WATER OR GAS PIPE, BOXES FOR POWER SHAFTS, AXLE Boxes, TUBES, COUPLING BOXES, GUN BARRELS, AND GENERALLY OF ALL THE CYLINDERS AND CONES ENTERING INTO THE MANUFACTURE OF FIRE-ARMS, AS ALSO IN ALL ANALOGOUS MANUFACTURES
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Edward Gedge at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
30th October 1809.-A communication from abroad by Gustave
Lion, of 21, Boulevard du Prince Eugène, Paris, France.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD GEDGE, of the Firm of John Gedge and Son,
of No. 11, Wellington Street, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"A NOVEL METHOD OF WELDING IRON OR ANY OTHER METAL IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF EVERY KIND OF WATER OR GAS PIPE, BOXES FOR POWER SHAFTS, AXLE
Boxes, TUBES, COUPLING BOXES, GUN BARRELS, AND GENERALLY OF ALL THE
CYLINDERS AND CONES ENTERING INTO THE MANUFACTURE OF FIRE-ARMS, AS ALSO
IN ALL ANALOGOUS MANUFACTURES," a communication to me from abroad by
Gustavo Lion, of 21, Boulevard du Prince Eugène, Paris, France, to be
as follows:-
Struck with the exorbitant prices of the barrels of fire-arms con-
sequent upon the complication of their system of manufacture the
Inventor of the novel mode of manufacture herein-after described
believing that mechanical science possessed the elements necessary to
its simplification sought amongst its immense resources on the one hand
a unique power, and on the other its point of concentration. He has

page_text: found the power in the steam hammer and its concentration in a fixed
or moveable matrix, to which main engines are added as auxilliaris, a
furnace, a rolling or flatting mill, and a mandrel. The furnace is
built in a confined part of the workshop, and of a size regulated by the
manufacture. At a few paces from it, say, at the precise distance necessary
to prevent the smith from being too much inconvenienced by the heat
of the furnace, not too far however in order that the iron may have no
time to cool, is installed the steam hammer, the flatting mill also driven
by steam being behind it, sufficient space being left for circulation
around the steam hammer.
Having set forth the arrangement of the factory I will proceed to
describe the manufacture of, for instance, the barrel of a fire-arm. The
furnace receives several plates of about an inch in breadth, this being
regulated beforehand according to the length and thickness to be
obtained in the fire-arm. Directly the proper degree of heat is attained
the smith takes the first (immediately replacing it by another) and
submits it to the action of the steam hammer. The workman in charge
of the flatting mill sets it going, and in his turn seizes this iron plate, rolls
it spirally around a slightly conical iron bar until of the dimensions of the
barrel, when he detaches it by pushing out the mandrel and removes this
embyro barrel to a small carriage placed for this purpose at the side of
the flatting mill. At the moment of rolling the bar of hot iron around
the flatting mill the workman should at each turn make a rough weld
by means of a small hammer. These barrels thus prepared to the
number of a hundred, for example, the carriage laden with them is
directed towards the furnace always kept at a very great heat, a few
are replaced in the furnace and heated at a white heat until the iron is
in the state termed by blacksmiths rotten "pourri," one is then removed
and immediately replaced by another. The one withdrawn is presented
to the matrix placed beneath the steam hammer, the mandril intended
to give the shape and breadth of the barrel is introduced, steam turned
on, and the steam hammer brought down with force upon the mandrel,
which it carrics with the barrel into the matrix where it effects its entire
transformation. On the matrix being again exposed the mandril is
pushed back to permit the removal of the barrel now welded in the
most perfect manner by means of the lateral pressure it has undergone,
which pressure is everywhere equal and twenty times more powerful
than by the ordinary processes. By this process not more than five
minutes is required for the manufacture of a gun barrel, the exterior is

page_text: afterwards reduced, and thus in a very short time an arm is obtained
without any imperfection and which may rival in quality the best makes.
For rifled guns the same system is adopted, but the mandril instead of
being round will be of a polygonal form in order to reproduce within
the barrel the groove which distinguishes this kind of arm. The same
process applies to another kind of barrel which winds in one piece on
the flatting or rolling mill, and that the welding of which is longitudinal
instead of spiral. To obtain it without any danger it is only requisite
to thin the ends so that the weld spreads over at least three-fourths of
the barrel, and once solidified by the lateral pressure it gives every
possible guarantee.
With proportionate machinery this system may be applied to the
manufacture of ordnance, in which case the breech would form the
object of a subsequent operation. To sum up this system of lateral
pressure by means of the steam hammer may be applied to the welding
of any iron tube for whatever purpose it may be intended, such, for
example, as boxes for the naves of wheels whether grease or patent axle
boxes. The strength of this instantaneous welding is incontestable, and
it has the immense advantage of greatly diminishing the cost price,
hitherto so high as to prevent the use of wrought-iron boxes, which
nevertheless have a marked superiority over those of cast iron, and the
more so as in addition to their indisputable strength their small size
permits additional strength being given to the nave hitherto weakened
by the large portion cut away for lodging the cast-iron axle box which
was only strong in proportion to its thickness.