IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BITUMINOUS PIPES AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL
ATION left by Benjamin
orge
Rhodes at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 12th October 1860.
We, BENJAMIN RHODES and GEORGE RHODES, both of the Town and County
of the Town of Nottingham, Mechanists, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND IN APPARATUS CONNECTED
THEREWITH FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BITUMINOUS PIPES AND OTHER ARTICLES," to
be as follows:-
The object of our Invention is to manufacture pipes and other articles from
bitumen.'
By these improvements a more perfectly cylindrical pipe can be made.
possessing greater strength by reason of the fabric not becoming carbonized in
its passage through the hot pitch, as it may be run through the boiling bitumen
at greater speed than heretofore after it has been soaked in the tar or other
liquid, and by compressing the pipes they become harder and tougher, and
consequently they are capable of withstanding greater pressure than pipes
heretofore made of similar material, they can moreover be produced at much
less cost; and the improved apparatus constructed according to our Invention
consists, mainly, in the following arrangement of parts, viz., of two troughs
which are heated by fire placed underneath them. The troughs are made of
any suitable material in which bitumen or pitch can be melted and kept in a
melted state. These two troughs are placed a convenient distance apart in a

page_text: line with each other; at the front of one trough we place a smaller trough in
which a roller revolves, the ends of the roller turning in bearings at the ends of
the trough. This trough we will call the first trough. At the centre of the
second trough which contains the bitumen we place a roller the axles of which
we rest in bearings at each end of the trough. In this trough, below the roller,
we place a shallow trough, which we cause to fall towards the bottom of the
large trough, and then to rise towards the under side of the roller above
mentioned. The third trough we provide with a shallow trough. Both these
troughs are similar to the last described, the shallow trough having a rising
and falling motion. Intermediately between the second and third troughs we
place bearings in which the axles of a drum turn, which we propose should be
hollow and be filled with cold water through the axle at one end, and which
is allowed to escape gently through the other end, thus keeping up a
stream of water through the drum when-it-is requisite to keep the drum cool.
We also place a tube a little above the drum, and of the length thereof, which
tube we perforate with a series of small holes, through 'which 'a constant or
intermittent supply of jets of water. is directed upon the outside of the drum.
At each end of the second and third troughs there is a framing lying between
them, which carry the bearings of the drum and tube; there are bearings
secured to one of the frames and one end of each of the second and third
troughs which support a horizontal shaft. This shaft is moved either by hand
or power, and upon it are bevel wheels which gear into similar ones on one end
of the axles of the roller in the second trough and the axle of the hollow drum
containing water. Between the bevel wheel on the water drum axle and the
drum is placed a fast and loose pulley, round which a belt or cord is passed
and also round a pulley fast on an axle working in bearings secured to the
end of the second trough. This axle is free to move horizontally in its
bearings so that the end of the axle may take into a hole in the end of the axle
of a mandril which is supported above the roller. By these means the mandril
will be made to revolve as required, the mandril and pulley axles being free to
rise vertically a short distance. Near the ends of the horizontal shaft are
wheels which move other wheels, these latter wheels carry round two endless
chains, one at each end of the troughs, upon which are placed bearings to carry
a number of mandrils as before described. The chains have an intermittent
motion given them, so that the mandril will rest over the centre of the second
trough over the water drum, and over the third trough and also over a second
water drum the same in all respects as the water drum first described. This
drum is placed beyond the third trough and is made to revolve by a wheel on
its axle gearing into a similar one on the horizontal driving shaft.
We may

page_text: sometimes prefer to carry the mandrils along by means of levers, or of a rack
and pinion, or other suitable contrivance. Over each water drum is a trough
the length of the drum, in which is placed sand, small gravel, crushed or
ground coke, or other similar substance.
We use our machine when manufacturing cylindrical pipes or other similar
articles in the manner herein-after mentioned. We take a quantity of tar,
naptha, or creosort, or other suitable material, and place it in the first trough
in which a roller revolves, under the roller we pass the end of a sheet of paper,
cloth, wire gauze, looped fabric, or other webbing made of any description of
fibrous material, the roller keeping it under the surface of the tar or other
liquid, from which it is passed to and under the roller revolving in the second
trough, the roller being partly immersed in bitumen in a liquid melted state;
from under this roller it is passed to a mandril, which has a groove planed out
its whole length, in which is truly fitted a feather or wedge, the end of the
paper being placed in the groove when the wedge is out, the wedge being
inserted will hold the paper fast, the mandril is then turned a sufficient number
of times according to the thickness of pipe required, the bitumen being brought
up to the surface of the paper as it passes under the roller by the rising of the
shallow trough under it, the endless chains, rack, or lever are then put in
motion, and the mandril is carried forward to the first water drum, where the
pipe is sprinkled with sand, its surface compressed, rendered even, and cooled
as it revolves on the surface of the water drum, it is then carried forward to the
third trough, where a thin coat of bitumen is laid on it by the shallow trough
rising up to it while revolving; it is then passed to the second water drum
and there further compressed and cooled to insure a perfect cylindrical pipe,
pressure being put upon the axle of the mandril by means of cramps and
screws; the mandril is then carried a little farther by the chains, the 'bearings
as they pass from under it leave the ends of the mandril resting upon rails,
from whence it is taken, and the pipe is removed by the wedge or feather
being withdrawn. The pipe being now completed may be easily slipped off
the mandril.
its bearings.
The same process is repeated as each mandril is placed in