IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN KINDS OF METALLIC VESSELS
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Amédée François Rémond, of Birmingham,
in the County of Warwick, Gentleman, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN KINDS OF
METALLIC VESSELS."
Sealed the 25th April 1854, and dated the 27th October 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Amédée François
Rémond at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 27th October 1853.
I, AMÉDÉE FRANÇOIS RÉMOND, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CERTAIN KINDS OF
METALLIC VESSELS" to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to such kinds of metallic vessels as are of a
cylindrical form, and are made of wrought or malleable iron, such as the
iron bottles used for holding and transporting mercury. In making the
said vessels or bottles I take a sheet or plate of iron, and making it hot
pass it through a pair of rolls, properly formed to bevil the two opposite
edges of the plate, the said bevilling being on the opposite sides of the
said plates. I then bend the plate into a cylindrical form by passing it

page_text: between rolls, which force it into a cylindrical case surrounding one of
the rolls. On drawing the cylindrical sheet from the roll I heat it to a
welling heat, and place it on a horizontal core or support, and cause a
concave roll to pass quickly and with sufficient pressure over the lap-
ping edges to weld the same together. I then again raise the cylinder
to a welding heat, and introduce the dises to form the top and bottom of
the bottle or vessel, (the disc forming the top having an opening and
short neck,) the said 'discs being also heated to a welding heat, and I
subject the partially formed vessel to the action of a tilt hammer and
swage or dic, by which the top and bottom edges of the cylinder are
welded to the discs, constituting the top and bottom of the bottle; or
instead of welding the top and bottom by a tilt hammer, I effect the
same by means of rolls or rolling-
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Amédée François Rémond in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 25th April 1854..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
AMÉDÉE FRANÇOIS REMOND, of Birmingham,. in the County of War-
wick, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of October, in the
year of our Lord One, thousand eight. hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said. Amédée François Rémond,
Her special licence that I, the said Amédée François Rémond, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Amédée François Réniond, my executors, administrators, and assigns;
should at any time, agree with, and no other's, 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 CERTAIN

page_text: KINDS OF METALLIC VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said Amédée François Rémond, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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 Amédée François Rémond; do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same. is to be performed; to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
My Invention relates to such kinds of metallic vessels as are of a
cylindrical form, and are made of wrought or malleable iron, such as
the iron bottles used for holding and transporting mercury.
In making bottles of wrought iron, after the manner of my Invention,
I proceed as follows:-I form the body of the bottle of a sheet of iron
rolled up into a cylindrical form, and the edges of which are joined by
welding. I afterwards weld upon this hollow cylinder a top and a bottom.
I conduct these processes by means of the machinery hereafter described
and represented in the accompanying "Drawings. The first s stage of my
improved method of manufacturing bottles in wrought iron consists in
bevilling the edges of the sheet of iron (of which the body of the bottle
is to be made) which are to be welded together. The bevilling is
effected by passing the heated plate between rolls; so fashioned as to
Devil the opposite edges of the plate, the said bevilling, being effected
on opposite sides of the said plate, that is to say, as the said plate
passes through the rolls a bevil is made on the two edges of the plate,
which are simultaneously passing between the rolls, but the bevil on one
edge is on the upper side, and the bevil on the opposite edge is on the
lower side. Figure 1, represents in section a plate having its edges
so bevelled.
".
I would here remark, that the several processes herein-after described
ire made to follow each other as quickly as possible, in order to econo-
mize heat, and that immediately before being subjected to any of the
welding processes herein described the iron is brought to a welding beat

page_text: pair of
in a suitable furnace. After the edges of the plate have been bevilled
as described, the said plate is coiled into a cylindrical form, the two
bevilled edges being made to overlap cach other. Figure 2, represents
in vertical section one of the machines which I use for bending the
The said machine consists of a
plate into a cylindrical form.
rolls a, b, and a cylindrical case or mould c, surrounding the upper
roller a.
The iron is introduced between the rolls a, b, Figure 2; the
said rolls a, b, being at such a distance apart that they gently grip and
carry forward the plate d. The end e of the plate d is brought, by the
action of the rolls, against the edge f of the case or mould c, and is bent
by the interior concave cylindrical surface of the said mould into a
cylindrical form, that is to say, it is made to occupy the space between
the interior of the said mould and the upper roll. As soon as the plate
of iron has been bent into a cylindrical form, and its posterior end has
passed from between the rolls a, b, the said cylinder is drawn off the roll
a. Figure 3, represents in longitudinal section another machine for
bending the plates into a cylindrical form. g, is a horizontal cylindical
block; h, is a hollow cylindrical case surrounding the block g; i, is a
slide working on the base plate k, and having a reciprocating sliding
motion communicated to it from a crank or wheel 1, by the crank rod
m. The heated and bevilled plate is laid upon the bed plate k, when
the slide i, has receded to its farthest point from the block g, and as
the said stop advances by the revolution of the crank or wheel 7, it
forces the said plate into the space between the cylindrical block g and
After being
the case ; the coil is drawn off the block g endwise.
brought to a welding heat the coiled plate is subjected to the action of
the machine represented in side view in Figure 4, and in end view in
Figure 5. The said coil is supported internally by the fixed core or
mandril n, and its lower half is supported externally by the semi-cylin
drical support o. The overlapping edges of the coil are placed uppermost
in the machine. By the revolution of the eccentric p, the arm
carrying the roller is made to perform an alternating motion, by which
the roller is passed over the heated coils, and welds the edges
thereof together during its passage over them. The pressure exerted
by the roller may be regulated at pleasure by loading the arm t

page_text: which, acting through the arm u, gives vertical pressure to the roller 1.
Or the edges of the coiled plate may be welded together by the
machine represented in vertical section in Figure 6. The coil v is
placed in the mould w of cast iron; the said mould being kept hot by
fire placed on the bars a, a stamp or plunger y is allowed to fall into
the coil, and by pressing against the sides of the mould w, weld its
edges together; the welded coil is raised from the mould by the arm z.
It is necessary that the coil v, mould w, and stamp y, be slightly conical.
The sheet of iron having been made into a hollow cylinder by the
treatment described, a top and bottom require to be welded to the said
cylinder. The said top and bottom consist of circular discs of iron
introduced into the ends of the cylinder; the disc of which the top of
the bottle is made is perforated at its middle, and a short neck raised
thereon. The discs constituting the tops and necks of the bottles are
cut from sheets rolled by rolls of the form represented in elevation in
Figure 7, the upper roll 1 being so formed as to leave, at intervals on
the plates of iron rolled between it and the lower roll 2, shoulders or
projections from which the short neck of the bottle may afterwards be
made. The iron rolled by the machine Figure 7, is cut into circular
discs by the machine represented in Figure 8; the plates are laid on
the lower fixed die 3, so that one of the shoulders or projections on the
said plate shall be in the axis of the die when the moveable die 4
descends and cuts the disc 5 from the plate 6. The hole 7, in the
disc 5, may also be cut at the same time. The discs of which the
bottom of the bottles are made are cut from plain sheets of metal.
The cylinder, with the bottom placed in one end, is raised to a welding
heat and subjected to the action of a tilt hammer 8, Figure 9, which
strikes the die or tool 9, on the edge of the bottom of the partially
formed bottle, and welds the said bottom to the cylinder. The said
cylinder is supported on an anvil or die, similar in form to the die 9,
and during the action of the tilt hammer 8 the cylinder is turned
rapidly round by a second treatment with the tilt hammer 8, and the
die or tool 9, and the lower tool or anvil; the top of the bottle is
welded on the cylinder, and the bottle is completed. Instead of welding
the top and bottom of the bottle to the cylindrical part thereof by

page_text: '
means of a tilt hanimer, I sometimes effect the same by a rolling
process, as: represented in side elevation in Figure 10: The plate
10 and 11 have, shoulders, as represented; and the upper plate 10 is
capable of á reciprocating motion by means of the arm 12, connected
with a crank or excentric on the, main shaft of the machine. The said
plates 10 and 11 are slightly inclined to each other. The botton
plate.11 is raised and lowered by levers placed-in the screwed nuts
11, 11', for the purpose of giving the requisite pressure and facilitating
the removal of the cylinder. The cylinder, with its top or bottom placed
therein, is raised to a welding heat, and being introduced between the
plates 10 and 11 at their widest end, the said partially formed bottle
is, by the motion of the plate 10, carried: by a rolling motion to the
narrow end of the said plates 10 and 11, during which time every part
of the shoulder of the bottle has been subjected to pressure, and the top
or bottom welded to the cylindrical part of the bottle. Or the tops and
bottoms of the said bottles may be welded therein by the same being
placed between four or other convenient number of rollers, as repre-
sented in Figure 11, where 17 represents the bottle, and 13, 14, 15,
and 16, the rollers between which it is rolled; the rollers 13 and 14
are capable of rising. vertically to permit of the introduction of the
bottle under them. Or the tops and bottoms of the said bottles may
be welded therein by the pressure of dies, as represented in Figure 12,
in which said Figure, 18 is the bottle, in which the top 19 is to be
welded. The said bottle is laid on a bed or fixed die 20, and a move-
able die 21 descending compresses the end of the bottle 18 between the
said moveable die 21 and fixed die 20. A rapid reciprocating motion
is given to the die 21, by means of the excentric 22. On the axis 23,
a rotatory motion is given to the bottle 18, during the time it is acted
upon by the dies 20 and 21. The machine may be made double, as
represented. I sometimes make the said bottles with a bottom in one
piece so as to require but one welding, that is to say, the welding in of
the top, to complete the same; for this purpose I raise a disc of iron
into a cup-like forni, and subject the same to the action of the machine
Figure 13; that is to say, I place the partially formed vessel 24 upon a
fixed. mandril 25, situated between the rollers 26 and 27; by the rota-

page_text: tion of the said rollers the partially forined vessel. 24.may be drawn.or
elongated on the mandril. 25 to the required extent.
. Having now, described the nature of iny said Invention, and the
manner of carrying the same iiito effect, I wish it to be, understood
that I do, not limit myself. to the precise, methods, herein.described and
represented in the accompanying. Drawing, as the same may be varied
without departing from the nature of my said Invention. But what I
claim as my Invention is,--
.
Firstly, bevilling on opposite sides the parallel edges of iron plates
to be rolled into a cylindrical form, and welded at the said edges for
the purpose of making iron bottles or vessels.
ATE A
Secondly, rolling up sheets of iron into a cylindrical form by forcing
the-same-into-the-space between a cylindrical roller-or-block-and a
nearly cylindrical case, as herein-before; described and illustrated in
Figures 2 and 3 of the accompanying. Drawings
Thirdly, welding together the edges of a coiled sheet of iron by
rolling, as illustrated in Figures 4 and 5, or by pressure, as illustrated
in Figure 6 of the accompanying Drawings..
.
Fourthly, making the tops of metallic vessels or bottles by rolling
sheets of metal, with a projection for the neck of the bottle, and cutting
discs therefrom, as herein-before described and represented in Figures
7 and 3 of the accompanying Drawings.
Fifthly, welding the tops and bottoms of metallic vessels to the
cylindrical part thereof by means of a tilt hammer and dies, as repre-
sented in Figure 9 of the accompanying Drawings.
Sixthly, welding the tops and bottoms of metallic vessels to the
cylindrical part thereof, by rolling the same between plates having
shoulders or projections, as herein-before described and represented in
Figure 10 of the accompanying Drawings.
Seventhly, welding the tops and bottoms of metallic vessels to the
cylindrical part thereof, by rolling the said vessels between four or other
suitable number of rollers, as herein-before described and illustrated in
Figure 11 of the accompanying Drawings.
Eighthly, welding the tops and bottoms of metallic vessels to the
cylindrical part thereof, by pressing the same between a moveable and

page_text: fixed die, as herein-before described and illustrated in Figure 12 of the
accompanying Drawings.
Ninthly, the method herein described, and illustrated in Figure 18,
of forming or partially forming metallic vessels.
In witness whereof, I, the said Amédée François Rémond, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of
April, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-four.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
AMÉDÉE FRANÇOIS REMOND. (L.S.)