A NEW AND IM- PROVED METHOD OF FORMING AND MAKING OF HOLLOW CYLINDERS, GUNS. ORDNANCE, RETORTS, AND VARIOUS OTHER HOLLOW AND USEFUL ARTICLES IN WROUGHT IRON, IN STEEL, OR COMPOSED OF BOTH OF THESE METALS
Year: 1827

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOSHUA HORTON, of West Bromwich, in the County of Stafford, Boiler
Maker, send greeting:
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King George the
Fourth did, by his Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain,
bearing date at Westminster, the Eleventh day of October, One
thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, in the Eighth year of lis
reign, give and grant unto me, the said Joshua Horton, His special
licence, that I the said Joshua Horton, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said Joshua Horton, my exors, adñiors, 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 mentioned, should and law-
fully might make use, exercise, and vend within England, Wales, and
the town of Berwick upon Tweed, and also in all His said Majesty's
colonies and plantations abroad, my Invention of "A NEW AND IM-
PROVED METHOD OF FORMING AND MAKING OF HOLLOW CYLINDERS, GUNS.
ORDNANCE, RETORTS, AND VARIOUS OTHER HOLLOW AND USEFUL ARTICLES IN
WROUGHT IRON, IN STEEL, OR COMPOSED OF BOTH OF THESE METALS;" in
which said Lteters Patent there is contained a proviso, that I the said

page_text: Joshua Horton shall cause a particular description of the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
inrolled in his 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 had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I the
said Joshua Horton do hereby describe the nature of my Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed and carried into effect,
reference being had to the drawings hereunto annexed (that is to say):
My Invention of forming and making hollow cylinders, guns, ord-
nance, retorts, and various other hollow and useful articles in wrought
iron and in steel, or of a combination of both these metals, consists of
preparing and placing together longitudinally any adequate number of
competent or suitable iron or steel bars, or of pieces. formed of a com-
bination of both these metals sufficient to constitute and form a hollow
cylinder of any suitable.or practical dimensions that may be required.
These bars of iron or steel, or pieces composed of both metals,
I recommend that they should taper and radiate latitudinally. (but
bars formed as shewn in Figs. 11, 12, & 13, will answer), according
to the substance or thickness of the hollow cylinder that is required to
be made. The bars or pieces so prepared must be. placed together: in
the required form, leaving a space between bar and bar at the extremé.
diameter which they constitute, and in that state. they must be bound
and held together securely with a sufficient number of iron binding
hoops, as shown at B, B, B, B, Fig. 1, or other competent means: In
that situation they must be placed in a suitable furnace or fire, till.a
proper welding heat is produced upon them, and then withdrawn from
such furnace or fire and placed on an anvil or swedge, and by. the
rapid action and blows of a competent hammer or hammers, by which
means they will be firmly united and welded together. Such: hammer:ór
hammers may be worked by manual force or by any engine or power,
as may be found to be most convenient. The operation of uniting or
welding the said bars together into one consolidated mass when first
placed on an anvil or swedge will be greatly facilitated by: placing an

page_text: iron or steel 'mandril in the orifice of such hollow cylinder: The heating,
uniting, and welding process must be continued until every part of
every bar of which any hollow cylinder is composed is made perfectly
sound and good. When this is effected, then any such cylinder will be
in a fit condition to be turned and bored, or for either of these opera-
tions, as the object of such cylinder. may require, in any of the usual
ways in which such operations are generally effected: My Invention
only extends to the making or förming of cylinders and other hollow
articles as far as what is commonly called." the Forging.".
"I will now explain my method of making and forming of guns and
ordnance, and which constitutes part of my Invention. The same prepa-
ratory means as those adopted for the making of cylinders must also be
observed for guns and ordnance by forming, placing, and binding toge-
ther suitable bars of iron or steel, or of bars formed of both these metals,
so that the inside or bore of any gun'or piece of ordnatice may be consti-
tuted of steel, if so required; taking care that in the preparation of such
bars that they vary in their latitudinal dimensions to suit the conical or
external form of any gun or piece of ordnance that may be required to
be made. The same process of heating, uniting, and welding must also
be adopted as I have before recommended for the making of cylinders.
The trunnions of such gun or piece of ordnance, if required, to be
formed and consolidated with the gun or piece of ordnance. It will in
that case be adviseable that they should form a component part of two
of the bars that are to constitute a portion of: the gun or piece of
ordnance; and which bars must be as wide as the full diameter of the
trunnions may require; or the trunnions may be welded to the gun after
the barrel is constructed and consolidated into one body or mass; or the
trunnions. niay be formed of a distinct wrought iron ring or frame, as
shewn at Figure 4, which must be fitted and fixed securely on the
extreme of gun or piece of ordnance by cross screw or screws, key or
keys, wedge or wedges; or by forming a female screw in trunnion ring
or frame to suit the male screw on the extreme of gun or by any other
secure and convenient inode by which it can be attached to or removed
from that part of the gun at which it is proper to place and station the
trunnions The advantages which will result from. adopting" moveable

page_text: or
trunnions to a gun or piece of orduance will be very considerable, and
which I claim as part of my Invention: first, their accuracy and strength;
second, the facility and economy of repair; third, the rapid manner of
dismounting and disabling a gun or piece of ordnance by displacing or
taking away the moveable trunnions, or by disconnecting the breech
piece froni the gun when rendered necessary to do so by flight.
Figs. 1, 2, 12, and 13, shew the bars and manner of forming hollow
cylinders before the operation of welding is performed. Fig. 3, shews
a gun or piece of ordnance with a male screw cut on its outside for
receiving and attaching the trunnion ring or frame to the gun.
Fig. 4, shews the trunnions with the ring or frame in one piece, and
the set screw or screws for fixing it to the gun or piece of ordnance.
Fig. 5, is a view of part of a gun or piece of ordnance with the trunnion
ring or frame attached to the gun by the agency of the male screw on the
gun fitting correctly and securely the female serew in the trunnion frame.
Fig. 6, is a view of part of a gun with its ring or trunnion frame fixed
to the gun by one or more keys wedges that will firmly secure it to
the gun. Fig. 7, is a section of part of a gun, showing the female
screw cut in at the breech end of the barrel or body of the gun for the
reception of the breech piece. Fig. 8, the wrought iron breech
piece. Fig. 9, is a complete gun or piece of ordnance, made on my
iniproved plan, with a moveable trunnion frame and breech piece firmly
attached to the gun as before described, which will be found to con-
stitute a most useful and superior gun for its strength, lightness,
durability, and general convenience. Fig. 10, is a complete gun or
piece of ordnance made on my improved method, with fixed and
unmoveable trunnions and breech piece all welded to and forming with
the gun an inseparable and consolidated body. My Invention does not
extend to small arms, nor to making guns or pieces of ordnance of
wrought iron or steel, or of a combination of both these metals, but for
the forging of that part of the gun or piece of ordnance which con-
stitutes the barrel, or that part of the gun which forms the whole rango
of the bore of such gun or piece of ordnance. My improved method of
forging guns or pieces of ordance, although it affords great convenience
in the operations of boring and turning, yet I do not claim this, but as

page_text: a consequence resulting from my improved method of making such guns
and pieces of ordnance. My improved method of making wrought iron
hollow articles will be found particularly advantageous and convenient
for retorts employed for the generating of gas cither under great or
small pressure as may be required. My Invention, however, is not for
making of retorts and other articles of wrought iron or steel, or of a
combination of these metals, as before and hereafter described, but for
the mode of doing so, which consists in preparing a sufficient number of
wrought iron bars of the whole length required for any retort or hollow
article, and after putting and binding them together, as shown at
Fig. 11, and heating them in that state in a suitable furnace or fire
until they reach the welding point, they must be then taken out of it
and united by the action of a hammer or hammers, on a suitable auvil
or swedge, with the assistance of a mandril, as before described, until
the whole are formed into one solid mass, as described in my mode of
making hollow cylinders and guns. The ends of such retorts or any
hollow article may be formed either by welding them on or screwing,
or by any other well known means of uniting ends to retorts, or other
hollow articles or vessels, that require to be closed. The primary part
of my Invention extends only to what is termed the forging of these
articles. By this mode of making hollow articles of wrought iron, steel,
or a combination of these metals, I am enabled to make such articles as
before expressed, of larger capacity, encreased strength, superior sound-
ness, and greater accuracy than such articles have hitherto been made.
I do not, however, claim the exclusive right of making any of the
articles I have mentioned, but for the mode I have described of making
them, and that mode principally extends to what is termed the forging
and not for the materials of which they are composed, nor for their
capacity, strength, soundness, durability, or accuracy, further than these
properties are produced as the effects of my improved method of forging
these articles beyond what has hitherto been accomplished by any of the
established modes of making such articles, as before expressed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joshua Horton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.
JOSHUA (L.S.) HORTON.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the eleventh day of April, in the
year of our Lord 1828, the aforesaid Joshua Horton came before our
said Lord the King in his Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, 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.
Enrolled the Eleventh day of April, in the year of our Lord One
-thousand eight hundred and twenty-eight.