Year: 1897

page_text: A communication from CHARLES SAMUEL SMITH, Machinist, of Milwaukee, County
of Milwaukee, State of Wisconsin, United States of America.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 111 Hatton Garden in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
The main object of this invention is to produce from sheet metal a seamless
connection or T-fitting for bicycles, without welded, brazed, or other joints.
It consists of the method of making the fitting hereinafter particularly described
and pointed out in the claims.
In the accompanying drawing like letters designate the same parts in the several
figures.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a T-fitting constructed according to this invention,
a part of the fitting being broken away and shown in medial vertical section;
Fig. 2 is a top or plan view of the same, a portion being broken away and shown
in section on the line 2, 2, Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a plan and sectional view, and Fig. 1
a side elevation and diagram illustrating the steps in the process of making the
fitting.
For the purpose of illustration I have shown and will describe the process of
making a fitting designed particularly to connect the steering head and one of the
reaches of a bicycle frame, but with slight modification the process is applicable to
the construction of seamless handle bar stems and T's, and seat posts and T's, one
of the arms of the fitting for either of these purposes being made considerably
longer and of smaller diameter than in the fitting herein shown and described,
and for a handle bar stem and T the short arm being formed at right angles to
the longer arm or stem.
Referring to Figs. 1 and 2 of the drawing, A designates a seamless sleeve, fitted
in this case to be brazed upon the steering head of a bicycle frame, and B desig-
nates a hollow, seamless, cylindrical lug, arm or extension formed on one side of
the sleeve A transversely thereto and integrally therewith, the two parts consti-
tuting a fitting that is approximately T-shaped. In this case the arm or
extension B is adapted to be brazed upon the end of one of the reaches and to
connect it with the steering head of a bicycle frame. Heretofore fittings of this
character have been made by drawing from a sheet metal blank a seamless tube
to form the part B, and wrapping the metal at one end of the tube around a
mandrel to form the part A, the meeting edges of which on the opposite side from
the part B are brazed or welded together; or by wrapping a sheet metal blank, the
ends of which have been pressed by dies into semi-cylindrical shape to form the

page_text: part B, around a mandrel to form the part A, the meeting edges along opposite
sides of the part B being brazed or welded together.
It is the purpose of this invention to avoid brazed, welded, or other joints in the
construction of a fitting of this kind. By this method of construction a sheet
metal blank is drawn by dies into the form of a tube or cylinder C, having a closed,
rounded, or semi-spherical end, as shown in Fig. 3. This tube or cylinder is
punched, or otherwise formed in opposite sides and near its closed end with
holes c c of considerably smaller diameter than the diameter of the tube. The end
of the tube is, then expanded into cylindrical form, the edges around the holes c
being flanged or turned outwardly, as indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 4, by massing
a mandrel or suitably shaped die through said holes. A light, seamless fitting is
thus easily and cheaply produced without lapping, welding or brazing.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this said In-
vention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :
The herein described method of making scamless T-shaped fittings of sheet
metal without lapping, welding or brazing, which consists in first forming from a
sheet metal blank a tube or cylinder having an open end and a closed end, forming
transversely through and in opposite sides' of said tube or cylinder near its closed
end and in line with each other, holes of smaller diameter than the cylinder,
expanding the closed end of the tube or cylinder and flanging or turning outwardly
its edges around said holes into cylindrical form, substantially as and for the
purposes set forth.