AN IMPROVED METALLIC STUFFING Box
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Victor Duterne, of No. 4, Rue des Fourneaux,
in the City of Paris, in the Empire of France, a Mechanician, for the
Invention of "AN IMPROVED METALLIC STUFFING Box."
Sealed the 1st December 1865, and dated the 7th June 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Victor Duterne at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
June 1865.
I, VICTOR DUTERNE, of No. 4, Rue des Fourneaux, in the City of Paris,
in the Empire of France, a Mechanician, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVED METALLIC STUFFING Box," to be as follows:-
My improved stuffing box is intended to replace hemp, cotton, or other
filamentous packing, and although I herein describe it in its application to a
steam engine, it is equally applicable to other machinery or apparatus requiring
a stuffing box.
On the accompanying Sheet of Drawing forming part of this iny Pro-
visional Specification, Figure 1 shews a longitudinal section of my stuffing box,
and Figures 2 and 3 detached parts of same. It is composed of a bi-conical
socket a divided lengthwise into two parts (one of which is shewn detached,
Figure 8), and enveloping the rod b. On this socket, and on the side where
the steam exerts its pressure is the ring or sector c (shewn detached Figure 2),

page_text: which a spiral spring d constantly presses against the socket. The object of
this sector is to keep the two parts of the socket exactly set in each other.
The sector c and the spring d may be replaced by a sector of vulcanized india-
rubber, gutta percha, or other elastic material in hydraulic engines or steam
engines working at low pressure. On the other side of the socket presses a
piece e, one extremity of which is beveled and lodges between the socket and
the box f which covers it. This piece is itself surmounted by a cap 9, which
can be removed to give passage to the enlarged part of the rod when the
engine is being set up, and is attached to the box f by two bolts h. A small
cavity o is left in the cap to contain hemp or other fibrous material impreg
nated with oil. A ring i covers the piece e. This ring, the sector c, and
the socket a are of very malleable metal.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Victor Duterne in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
4th December 1865."
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, VICTOR
DUTERNE, of Number 4, Rue des Fourneaux, in the City of Paris, in the
Empire of France, a Mechanician, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-five,. in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Victor Duterne, Her special licence that I, the said Victor Duterne,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Victor Duterne, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any]
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 IMPROVED
METALLIC STUFFING Box," upon the condition (amongst others) that 1, the said
Victor Duterne, 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 calendar months next and immediately - after
the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Victor Duterne, do hereby déclare
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" Drawing
forming part of this my Specification, and to the figures and letters of reference
placed thereon.
T
My improved metallic stuffing box or packing, which I term self-closing, is
intended to replace hemp, cotton, or other filamentous packing...
Figure 1 of the Drawing shews in vertical section a stuffing box arranged
after my method. On examining this Diagram it. will be seen that the
bi-conical socket a is divided lengthwise into two parts, and envelopes the
shaft or rod b. On this socket, and on the side where the steam exerts its
pressure bears a sector c, divided at c' (see Figure 2), and which a spring d
placed in the box f causes to constantly press against the socket. This sector c
has for object not only to exercise a pressure tending to push the socket in
the direction of the pressure exercised by the steam or other fluid, and to
keep the two parts of this socket fitting exactly into each other, but further
to resist the action of the vacuum if produced in low-pressure engines, which
renders my stuffing box self-closing in the two cases of pressure or vacuum.
On the other side of the socket comes a piece e, the end of which is beveled,
and lodges between the socket and the box f; this piece itself surmounted
by a cap 9, capable of being removed to permit the passage of the enlarged
part of the rod in setting up, is united to the box f by means of the bolts h; a
small cavity o is left in the cap to contain either hemp or any other filaments
always kept impregnated with oil. The piece e is further covered by a jacket
or ring i of somewhat malleable metal in order to give under the pressure of
the nuts according to requirement, and it thus forms a second hermetical joint.
The stuffing box thus arranged is of simple and easy construction, and pos-
sesses, all the hermetical, solid, and good working properties that characterize
my system. The socket a of white metal very malleable is from a casting
without retouch as well as the sector c, and the two identical parts which
compose it fit into each other by a system of inclined lines which form a joint
very superior to that which would be obtained by plain lines (Figure 3 shews
one of these parts in plan). It is evident that the distinctive character of all
the arrangements of stuffing box which might be fitted on my plan consists in
the use of shells or metallic segments surrounding the rod and enlarging as
they go to constitute a simple or a double cone, but the large base of which
is always opposed to the interior part containing the fluid, the loss of which is
to be prevented. This arrangement is always combined with a guide cap or

page_text: suitable piece so arranged that the pressure of the steam, water, or gas acts
the more energetically upon the packing the stronger the interior pressure.
I specially reserve the right of replacing the metallic sector c by a sector of
vulcanized india-rubber, gutta percha, or other elastic body which would
occupy all the space filled up by the said sector c and by the spiral spring,
which would then be suppressed. It will be readily understood that the new
india-rubber sector occupying exactly the space existing between the socket a
and the box will always exercise the same pressure on this socket; this
sector may itself be compressed according to requirement by means of nuts.
This arrangement is specially applicable to bydraulic machines and steam
engines working at low pressure, I nevertheless reserve to myself the right of
applying it to all machines acting by steam, gas, or expansion of air.
I claim as being of my Invention the special arrangement of self-closing
metallic stuffing box or packing above described and illustrated on the
accompanying Sheet of Drawing, no matter what modifications may be made
in shape, material, and dimensions.
In witness whereof, I, the said Victor Duterne, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
VICTOR DUIERNE. (L.S.)