【PROVE- MENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN MAKING TUBES."
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Robertson, of Nitshill, in the County of
Renfrew, North Britain, Engineer, for the Invention of “【PROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN MAKING TUBES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Robertson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
6th July 1870.
I, JOHN ROBERTSON, of Nitshill, in the County of Renfrew, North
Britain, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE USED IN MAKING TUBES," to be as
follows, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object to improve and cheapen the process
of making tubes, and relates to what is sometimes termed "nosing," a
part of the process hitherto generally performed by hand, and, which

page_text: consists in bending round the edges of the plate at the end to enable it
to be entered through the dies of the draw bench.
By the present Invention the nosing is effected without requiring a
special heating of the plate, the plate being submitted to the improved
apparatus either on leaving the last pair of plate rolls or just before
being entered into the drawing dies.
The improved apparatus comprises a table on which the end of the
plate is laid, and which has a slight hollow along the middle; a
mandril fixed on a slide at the back moves forward, and by bearing
down the middle of the plate into the hollow causes its edges to turn up;
two bending blocks or dies fixed on slides then move towards each
other from the sides of the table, and bending the edges of the plate over
and round upon the mandril complete the operation; the three slides
then retire and the nosed plate can be removed. The slides may be
actuated in various ways, but in one simple arrangement there is a
horizontal rocking shaft at the back having fast on it a segmental cam
for pushing forward and drawing back the mandril slide, whilst inclined
cams act on the other two slides. The shaft is actuated by means of a
lever worked by hand, or by steam or other motive-power apparatus.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Robertson in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 4th January 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ROBERTSON, of Nitshill, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said John Robertson, Her special licence, that I,
the said John Robertson, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said John Robertson, my executors, adminis-

page_text: whilst at the left-hand side of Figure 1, which is the front of the machino
some parts are shown in vertical section.
The apparatus comprises a table 1 on which the end of the plate is
laid, and which has a slight hollow 2 formed along the middle. A
mandril 3 fixed on a slide 4 at the back moves forward, and by bearing
down the middle of the plate end into the hollow 2 causes its edges to
turn up.
Two bending blocks or dies 5, 6, fixed on slides 7, 8, then
move towards each other from the sides of the table 1, and bending the
edges or corners of the plate over and round upon the mandril 3 com-
plete the operation. The three slides 4, 7, 8, then retire and the nosed
plate can be removed. The slides 4, 7, 8, may be actuated in various
ways, but in the simple arrangement shown in the Drawing there is
a horizontal rocking shaft 9 mounted at the back on frame standards
10, 11, and which has fast on it a sector-shaped flanged cam 12 for
pushing forward and drawing back the mandril slide 4, whilst two other
sector-shaped cams 13, 14, with suitably inelined edges and keyed on
the same shaft 9 act on the two other slides 7, 8. Antifriction rollers a
are applied to all three slides 4, 7, 8, for the cams 12, 13, 14, to bear
upon when pushing in the slides, and these slides are all fitted to work
in V guides upon the table 1. The rocking shaft 9 may be actuated
by a long lever worked by hand or by steam or other motive-power
apparatus. When it is intended to effect the "nosing," just before
submitting the plate to the drawing operation the nosing apparatus
should be fitted up in proximity to the draw bench, and the rocking
shaft 9 is in that case most conveniently worked as shown in the
Drawing from the spur wheel 15 (indicated by a red circle in Figure 2),
by means of which the drawing chain is actuated, that wheel being
provided with an adjustable crank pin from which a connecting rod 16
proceeds to an extension 17 of one of the cams 14 or to a separate lever
fast on the rocking shaft 9. The mandril 3 works through a fixed stop
plate which prevents it from drawing the nosed plate backwards as it
rctires.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I have to state that I do not
restrict myself to the precise details herein described or delineated; but
that what I believe to be novel and original and claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,

page_text: the application of apparatus substantially the same as or equivalent to
what is herein-before described for "nosing" plates for tubes so as to
dispense with a separate heating for that operation.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Robertson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow,
JOHN ROBERTSON. (L.S.)