IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PRODUCTION OF STEEL GUN BARRELS AND ORDNANCE
Year: 1885

page_text: Barrels and Ordnance.
I, MAJOR ROSE of Birch Hill House, Halesowen, in the County of Worcester,
Gun Barrel Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of said invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PRODUCTION OF STEEL GUN BARRELS
AND ORDNANCE" to be as follows:-
My invention consists of the improvements hereinafter described in the process
or combination of processes for the production of steel gun barrels and ordnance
from sheet or strip steel which has heretofore not been accomplished.
In the ordinary process of manufacture, steel gun barrels have been produced by
taking a thick short tube of steel which has been previously drilled and by a
succession of rollings upon a bulbous mandril, the tubular blank is elongated and
reduced in thickness to the proper proportions at a red heat or unwelding heat
required; or further, barrels have been produced by combined rolling and drawing
processes from blanks or short tubes. This process of manufacture is most
expensive and laborious, from the fact that the metal has to be squeezed into
shape, by the herein before described successive rollings or drawing through.
I will describe my invention as applied to a gun barrel.
In making a steel gun barrel according to my invention, of the kind known as
twisted gun barrels, I take a long strip of square, or flat, Siemens's or other mild
steel and twist it spirally into convolutious equal in diameter. These convolutions
or coils are then pressed or closed together by longitudinal compression (after
having been heated) into a cylinder or gun barrel, the joints are then welded by
passing through the eyes of rolls or by other welding expedients. The last named
rolling or welding is effected when the whole has been raised to a welding heat.
The gun barrels are afterwards finished and trued by processes commonly
known.
The production of steel ordnance differs in no essential respect from the
production of a gun barrel herein before described.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture or Production of Steel Gun
Barrels and Ordnance.
I, MAJOR ROSE of Birch Hill House, Halesowen, in the County of Worcester,
Gun Barrel Manufacturer do hereby declare the nature of said invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OR PRODUCTION OF STEEL GUN BARRELS
AND ORDNANCE," and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
My invention consists of the improvements hereinafter described in the process
or combination of processes for the production of steel gun barrels and ordnance
from sheet or strip steel which has not heretofore been accomplished.
In the ordinary process of manufacture, steel gun barrels have been produced by
taking a thick short tube of steel which has been previously drilled and by a
succession of rollings upon a bulbous mandril, the tubular blank is elongated and
reduced in thickness to the proper proportions (at a red heat or unwelding heat)
required; or further, barrels have been produced by combined rolling and drawing
processes from blanks or short tubes-This process of manufacture is most
expensive and laborious from the fact that the metal has to be squeezed into
shape, by the herein before described successive rollings or drawings through.
I will describe my invention as applied to a gun barrel.
In making a steel gun barrel according to my invention, of the kind known as
twisted gun barrels, I take a long strip of square, or flat, Siemens's or Rose's
Composite Steel or other mild steel and twist it spirally into convolutions equal in
diameter These convolutions or coils are then pressed or closed together by
longitudinal compression (after having been heated) into a cylinder or gun barrel,
the joints are then welded by passing through the eyes of rolls, or by other welding
expedients-The last named rolling or welding is effected when the whole has
been raised to a welding heat.
The gun barrels are afterwards finished and trued by processes commonly
known.
I will now proceed to describe with reference to the accompanying Drawing, the
manner in which the same is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents in front elevation a steel gun or rifle barrel made according
to my Invention, figure 2 is the muzzle end of the same and figure 3 is the
breech end.
In producing the steel barrel figure 1, I take a band or strip of steel of a sufficient
length and thickness to form the barrel to be made (see figure 4) and I twist this
said strip or band of steel, which may be of any desired section, spirally or into
convolutions, which are preferably equal in diameter as represented at figure 5-
The open joints of the said convolutions or coils thus formed are then closed by
longitudinal compression, so as to bring the adjacent or meeting edges of the strip
into intimate contact, thereby forming a tube having closed joints-This helically
formed tube is then raised to a welding heat and the closed joints thereof welded
by the passage of the tube through the eyes of rolls, or operated upon by other
welding expedients-This welded tube is represented in figure 6 which is slightly

page_text: elongated by the former process of welding the joints-This tube figure 6 is then
again operated upon by subsequent rollings and drawings through until a gun
barrel figure 1 has been produced therefrom-The finishing being conducted and
carried out in the usual manner.
The production of small ordnance for transport service, differs in no essential
respect from the making of a gun or rifle barrel.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
Making or producing steel barrels for sporting and other guns by twisting bands
or strips of steel or Rose's Composite Steel into coils, which are subsequently
welded and drawn down by the process or combination of processes hereinbefore
described and illustrated.
Dated this thirteenth day of August 1885.
MAJOR ROSE.
By Henry Skerrett,
6, Livery Street, Birmingham,
Agent to the Applicant.