AN IMPROVE- MENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC CASKS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Maddocks Harrison, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVE-
MENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC CASKS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Maddocks
Harrison at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 11th June 1863.
I, THOMAS MADDOCKS HARRISON, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC
CASKS," to be as follows:-
In the ordinary method of manufacturing metallic casks, the top and bottom
are secured to the body by hoops, which bind together the edge of the top or
bottom and the end of the body. The several junctions are tinned or soldered
and thereby made sound.
My Invention consists in connecting the top and bottom of the cask to the
body of the cask in the following manner:-I make a rim or recess at or near
the circumference of the piece of metal forming the top or bottom of the
cask, the said rim or recess being of the same piece of metal as the said top
or bottom. The ends of the body are inserted in the said rims or recesses;
the said runs being closed or contracted upon the ends of the body; the top
and bottom are secured to the body; the said tops and bottoms may be
further secured by rivetting or grooving. I form the said rims or recesses by

page_text: the
processes of stamping or pressing, or otherwise. The tops and bottoms of
the casks are made air-tight in the bodies by the tinning or soldering process
as ordinarily practised.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Maddocks Harrison, in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 8th December 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
MADDOCKS HARRISON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Manufacturer, send greeting. .
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Thomas Maddocks Harrison, Her special licence that I, the
said Thomas Maddocks Harrison, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Thomas Maddocks Harrison, my executors, admini-
strators, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFAC-
TURE OF METALLIC CASKS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Thomas Maddocks Harrison, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Maddocks Harrison, 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:-
In the ordinary method of manufacturing metallic casks, the top and bottom
are secured to the body by hoops which bind together the edge of the top or
bottom, and the end of the body. The several junctions are tinned or sol-
dered, and thereby made sound.

page_text: My Invention consists in connecting the top and bottom of the cask to the
body of the cask in the following manner :-I make a rim or recess at or near
the circumference of the piece of metal forming the top or bottom of the
cask, the said rim or recess being of the same piece of metal as the said top
5 or bottom. The ends of the body are inserted in the said rims or recesses,
and the top and bottom forced on the ends of the body and secured to the said
body. The said tops and bottoms may be further secured by rivetting or
grooving. I form the said rims or recesses by the processes of stamping or
pressing, or otherwise. The tops and bottoms of the casks are made air-tight
in the bodies by the tinning or soldering process, as ordinary practised.
Having described the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to describe,
with reference to the accompanying Drawing, the manner in which the same
is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents, in vertical section, a metallic cask, the top and bottom
of which are connected to the body according to my Invention, and Figure 2
is a plan of the top of the same.
a is the cylindrical body of the cask, and 6 is the top, and c the bottom of
the cask. The top 6 is provided with a neck or opening d, and handle's as
is usual. In the plates forming the top and bottom, b, c, a rim or annular
recess, marked f, is formed in the manner herein-after described. The ends of
the body a are inserted in the rims or annular recesses f, in the top and bottom,
b, c, and the top and bottom are then driven on the ends of the body a, and
may be further secured by rivetting or grooving. The extreme ends of the
body a are turned slightly inwards to permit of the top and bottom being
readily driven on. The cask is afterwards finished by the ordinary tinning
or soldering process. In forming the rim or recess in the top or bottom of the
cask I prefer to proceed in the following manner, but I do not limit myself
thereto as other means may be employed for effecting the same object :-I
take a disc of sheet iron, and by means of a pair of dies of the ordinary kind,
worked in a stamp, I raise the said disc into the figure represented in section,
in Figure 3. I take this cupped disk, Figure 3, and place it upon the lower
die, represented in section in Figure 4. Figure 5 represents in section an
upper die, making a pair with the die, Figure 4. The cupped disc upon the
lower die, Figure 4, is marked g. By means of the said dies, Figures 4 and
5, the cupped disc 9 is operated upon and brought into the figure represented
in section in Figure 6, an annular rim or recess, h being formed near the cir-
cumference of the said disc. In order further to close the sides of the rim or
recess h, of the top or bottom, Figure 6, I place it upon the lathe chuck re-
presented in section in Figure 7, and by means of the wheel or pressing tool,

page_text: represented in Figure 8, I force the outer side k, of the rim or recess h into
contact with the periphery of the said chuck, and give the said side the form
represented in Figure 9. When the tops and bottoms are of small size this
closing of the sides of the rims or recesses may be effected by means of a bed
and punch or a pair of drawing through dies. The top or bottom, Figure 9,
is now ready to be secured to the body of the cask, in the manner herein-before
described..
The fashioning of the discs of sheet iron into the top or bottom of the cask,
may be effected with the iron, either hot or cold. When iron, however, of
good quality is employed, all the shaping operations may be done with the iron
in a cold state.
The dies, Figures 4 and 5, are fixed in and operated by a stamp or press of
the ordinary kind, which stamp or press I have not thought it necessary to
describe or represent. The chuck, Figure 7, is fixed in and made to rotate
by an ordinary lathe, and the wheeling process is performed by the tool,
Figure 8, in the ordinary way.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not
limit myself to the precise details herein described and represented, as the
same may be varied without departing from the nature of my Invention ;
but I claim, as my Invention, the improvement or improvements in the manu-
facture of metallic casks, herein-before described and illustrated in the accom-
panying Drawing, that is to say, connecting the tops and bottoms of metallic
casks to the bodies, by making a rim or annular recess at or near the circum-
ference of the disc forming the top or bottom, in which rim or recess the end
of the body of the cask is fixed, substantially in the manner described and
illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Maddocks Harrison, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
THOMAS MADDOCKS HARRISON. (L.S.)