IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC CASKS FOR CONTAINING GUNPOWDER AND OTHER USES, AND IN MACHINERY FOR MANU- FACTURING THE SAME
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Haycraft, of Faversham, in the County
of Kent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN METALLIC CASKS FOR
CONTAINING GUNPOWDER AND OTHER USES, AND IN MACHINERY FOR MANU-
FACTURING THE SAME,'
"
Sealed the 22nd June 1875, and dated the 30th December 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Haycraft at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 30th December 1874.
I, GEORGE HAYCRAFT, of Faversham, in the County of Kent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN METALLIC CASKS FOR CONTAINING GUNPOWDER AND OTHER USES, AND IN
MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of metallic
casks for storing and transporting gunpowder, petroleum, and other
explosive or inflammable compounds or liquids, as well as for con-
taining mustard and other dry goods and paints.

page_text: According to my Invention I manufacture these casks entirely of
sheet metal, the barrel or body of the cask, which is cylindrical, being
united to the heads by turning the edges of the one over the other
(technically known as "riveting", no solder being used.

page_text: before. In this manner leakage or evaporation from the cask is
entiroly prevented. The outer neck may be applied to any oxisting
metal cask or drum used for containing paint, petroleum, or hydro-
carbons generally.
In order to adapt the same rolls to mould sheets of metal of different
widths for casks of various sizes the journals of the rolls are placed
sufficiently wide apart to admit the largest sheet required. The said
rolls are made solid and provided with fillets, grooves, and shoulders of
suitable form to mould the sheet at one end, and at the other end are
composed of sleeve pieces and collers having similar fillets, grooves, and
shoulders slipped or screwed on to the roll spindles and secured by a nut
or collar and suitable packing picces if necessary to make up the roll and
keep it uniformly rigid throughout.
By varving the length of the sleeve and packing nieces the rolls may
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Haycraft in the Great Scal Patent Office
on the 30th June 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HAYCRAFT, of Faversham, in the County of Kent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in
the thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said George Haycraft, Her
special licence that I, the said George Haycraft, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George
Haycraft, my executors, 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 METALLIC CASKS FOR CONTAINING GUNPOWDER AND

page_text: OTHER USES, AND IN MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING THE SAME," upon tho
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Georgo Haycraft, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 bo filed in the
Great Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Haycraft, do hereby declaro
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that
is to say) :-
My Invention relates to improvements in the manufacture of metallic
casks for holding gunpowder, petroleum, and other explosive or inflam-
mable compounds or liquids, or for containing mustard and other such
like dry goods and paints.
"
Those casks are manufactured entirely of sheet metal (preferably zinc),
the cylindrical barrel or body being united to the heads by "rivetting,
i.c., by turning down the edges of the barrel over those of the heads, and
if desirable further secured by soldering.
The sheet of metal of which the body of the cask is made is suitably
corrugated or moulded along two of its opposito edges to form a scat to
receive the heads and form the chime, the extreme edge being turned
down by means of a punch or "rivetter" when the cask is headed up.
This desired form is given to both edges of the sheet at once by passing
the same through a pair of rolls of suitable form, and an adjustable
curved guide piece at the back of the rolls serves to bend the sheet to a
shape approaching that of a cylinder. The longitudinal scam of the
cask may be made by a lap joint without solder, the said joint being
closed before the heads are put in. Or the edges of tho sheet to form
the body may be partly turned down by the rolls, the head in this casc
being put in before the longitudinal scam of the body is closed. This
seam is made by simply lapping and soldering the edges, the top and
bottom rims being completely turned down or rivetted on the licads as
before.

page_text: The heads of the cask are formed of sheet metal with flanged edges
struck up in dies of suitable form to correspond to the moulded edges of
the body of the cask.
An aperturo is provided in one of the heads surmounted by a neck of
sheet metal, also attached by rivetting or turning over the edges, the
said neck having a screw thread chased or indented in the thin metal, so
as to form a screw both internally and externally, a cork bung enclosed
in a metal cover or envelope, similarly screw-threaded on its periphery,
screws into this, and an outer metal cap similarly screw-threaded screws
on to the neck.
When the cask is intended to contain petroleum or other inflammablo
liquids, the neck is made plain without any screw thread, the edges of
the cloth usually wrapped around the bung being enclosed within a
second or outer neck screw-threaded and provided with an outer cap as
before. In this manner leakage and evaporation from the cask are
entirely prevented. The outer neck may be applied to any existing
metal cask or drum used for containing paint, petroleum, or hydro-
carbons generally.
In order to adapt the same rolls to form the requisite beading or
corrugation along the opposite edges of the sheet of metal of different
widths for casks of various sizes the journals of the rolls are placed
sufficiently wide apart to admit the largest sheet required. The said
rolls are made solid at one end and formed with fillets, grooves, and
shoulders of suitable configuration to crease or shape the edges of the
sheet as required, and at the other end are composed of sleeve pieces
and collars (having similar fillets, grooves, and shoulders) slipped or
screwed on to the roll spindles and secured by a nut or collar and
suitable packing pieces if necessary to make up the roll and keep it
uniformly rigid throughout.
By varying the length of the sleeve and packing pieces the rolls

page_text: Figure 3 is a cross section of a head; Figure 4 shows the same fitted
in the body, and the edges of the latter turned down on it.
Figure 5 shows the form given to the edges of a cask body by the
rolls when the longitudinal scam is soldered.
Figure 6 shows a pair of rolls (partly in section) constructed according
to my Invention.
The flat sheet of metal to form the cask body a is passed between a
pair of rolls, such as those shown in Figure 6, whereby the shoot is
shaped along two of its opposite edges with a bead or corrugation a' at a
suitable distance from each edge, as shown in Figure 1, to form scats
for the heads of the cask, and with a shoulder a² to receive tho flango a³
of head b. The sheet of metal bent into a cylindrical form is then united
at the edges to form the body a, this longitudinal scam being made by a
joint of the kind shown at a³ Figure 2.
The heads ↳ of the cask consist of discs of metal of larger diameter :
than that of the cask to allow of the discs being brought by means of
dies to the form shown in Figure 3, that is to say, with an angular
flange, as shown at c. After the head is inserted in the body the edges
of the latter are turned down thereon, as shown in Figure 4. This is
performed at two operations, by the first of which the edge is turned 2
down half way, as shown in dotted lines in Figure 1; and by the second
it is completely turned down, in both cases a descending punch or
"rivetter" being used. In Figure 5 the edges are already turned half-
way down by the rolls, so that only one operation is required to secure
the heads, which are inserted before the longitudinal scam is closed, the
scam in this case being made by a suitable lap joint soldered.
One of the heads is provided with a bung hole and neck, as shown in
Figure 3, or in Figure 4, the arrangement shown in the former Figure
being suitable for petroleum casks and that in the latter Figure for
gunpowder casks.
In Figure 3 d is a wood or cork bung wrapped in a cloth and fitted
into a neck e. This neck is secured around the edges of the bung hole
by turning over the edges, as shown. is another neck encircling
neck e at a suitable distance therefrom, and attached to the head by
soldering. This outer neck has a screw thread chased thercon to receive
a correspondingly screwed cap 9 which completely enclosos the bung d
and cloth, as shown.

page_text: In Figuro 4 is a neck attached to the head like neck c and provided
with an internal screw thread to receive the bung i and an external
thread for the correspondingly screwed cap k.
The bung i is composed of cork enclosed in a metal cover / screw-
threaded to correspond to the neck /. i aro holes in cover in which to
insert a key for unscrewing the bung.
Referring to Figure 6, m is the solid portion of the rolls in one with
their journals n, n, and screwed spindles n'. This solid portion of the roll
is suitably shaped, at one end there being a fillet o and shoulder p on
the one roll, and a corresponding groove and depression on the other
roll of the pair. The other extremities of the rolls are of a similar con-
figuration, but the fillet and shoulder and their corresponding groove
and depression are formed on adjustable portions capable of being
fixed at any point along the screwed spindles n³, according to the desired
length of the rolls. This is effected by using loose packing pieces s
slipped on the spindles, which may be readily removed and replaced by
longer or shorter picces, according as the length of the rolls is to be
increased or diminished. t, t, are nuts screwing on the spindles to keep
the portions in place, and u, u, are other packing pieces to fill up the
space between the nuts and the bearings of the rolls, and keep the
latter uniformly rigid throughout their length. These latter packing
pieces will of course be replaced by others of greater or less length,
according as longer or shorter packing pieces & are used.
Having described the nature of the Invention and the manner of
performing the same, I declare that what I claim as the Invention to be
protected by the herein-before in part recited Letter Patent is,-
1st. Moulding the edges of the sheet-metal cask body of the par-
ticular form in section shown in Figures 1 and 3, as and for the purpose
set forth.
2nd. The combination with the sheet-metal body of a cask having its
ends moulded as described of sheet-metal leads having flanged edges
turned up all round, and as and for the purpose shown & described.
3rd. The employment of an outer screwed neck to receive a screw
cap for enclosing the bung, substantially as described and shown in
Figure 3.
4th. The combination of an internally and externally screwed neck

page_text: with a bung screwing therein and a scrow cap fitting thereon, sub-
stantially as described and shown in Figure 4.
5th. Constructing the rolls with removable lengths or pieces on a
spindle at one end, as shown and described, to admit of the rolls being
practically lengthened or shortened without shifting their bearings.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Haycraft, havo hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
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