IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER TUBES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hounsell, Coppersmith, of the Steam
Engine Works, Greenwich, in the County of Kent, for the In-
vention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER TUBES."
Scaled the 20th May 1873, and dated the 14th March 1873.

page_text: The process of bevelling the edges has always heretofore been per-
formed by hand hammering, and it is a long and laborious operation.
According to this Invention I bevel the edges much more expe-
ditiously and economically by means of two cone rollers upon the ends
of two strong spindles or axes which are geared together and driven at a
slow speed by a worm and worm wheel. The work is suspended in
front of the rollers, and presented to them by the workman. The edge
of the metal is thus caused to be nipped, and as the rollers revolve they
carry the work forward, the workman all the time guiding the metal and
controlling the distance the edge enters between the rollers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Rounsell in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 13th September 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HOUNSELL, Coppersmith, of the Steam Engine Works, Greenwich, in the
County of Kent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Hounsell, Her special
license that I, the said William Hounsell, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Hounsell, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF COPPER TUBES," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Hounsell, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands
and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six

page_text: calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Hounsell, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
copper tubes.
In the manufacture of copper tubes of large diameter it is usual, first,
to prepare two parts of semicircular section, then to fit these parts
together by bevelling (or as it is technically called "thinning"), and
cramping their edges, and afterwards the joints are brazed.
The process of thinning the edges has always heretofore been per-
formed by hand hammering, and it is a long and laborious operation.
According to this Invention I thin the edges much more expeditiously
and economically by means of two cone rollers upon the ends of two
strong spindles or axes which are geared together and driven at a slow
speed by a worm and worm wheel. The work is suspended in front of
the rollers, and presented to them by the workman. The edge of the
metal is thus caused to be nipped, and as the rollers revolve they carry
the work forward, the workman all the time guiding the metal, and
controlling the distance the edge enters between the rollers.
In order that my said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect. I will proceed to describe the Drawings here.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a front view, and Figure 2 is a side elevation, partly in
section, of the machine which I employ.
a, a, is the frame of the machine; it carries in suitable bearings the
worm b, which is driven by a pulley and belt. Suitable provision is
made to sustain the thrust of the worm whilst it drives the worm
wheel c.
d is a pinion bolted to the side of the worm wheel c in
Figure 2; these parts are shewn partly in elevation, and partly in sec-
tion. The pinion d drives pinion e on the axis f; g is another axis

page_text: parallel to f, and driven from it by the pair of pinions h, h. On the ends
of the axes fand g at the front of the machine are the two conę rollers
i, i, and at the back of the machine the axes carry the two ordinary
steel cutting discs k, k, which are useful for shearing the metal to form.
The rollers i, i, are roughened by turning a number of fine grooves in t
their circumference. The axes fand 9 are carried in brasses, as is shewn,
and when it becomes necessary to compensate for wear packing pieces
are inserted beneath the brasses.
In order to thin the edges of a sheet of copper for forming a tube, the
workmen present the edge to the roughened bevelled rollers and pass it 1
between them, guiding the metal the while, so that the metal may be
drawn down gradually and regularly, and so that undue and irregular
strains upon the machine and the metal may be avoided as far as
possible. The after operations of cramping and brazing are performed
as heretofore.
The operation of thinning the edges may, when making straight tubes,
be performed whilst the copper is flat; but for bends the copper should
be shaped into the "saddle" and "back," as the two parts of the
bend are technically termed, before the edges are thinned. Straight
tubes of moderate dimensions may, as is now the practice, be made
from a single strip of copper. The strip is thinned on both edges in the
manner already described; it is then turned up to the tubular form and
brazed together. These tubes, where the sizes are small, can if necessary
be bent after they have been brazed.
I claim as my improvement in the manufacture of copper tubes the
means of thinning the edges of the sheet metal where they are required
to be joined together by the use of cone rollers, substantially as
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hounsell, have hereunto set
mu hand and roal this Thintoonth dex of Sentember in the woar
WILLIAM HOUNSELL. (L.S.)