IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CASKS OR BAERELS, AND IN THE MACHINERY TO BE USED THEREIN
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Hadfield, of Carlisle, in the County of
Cumberland, Varnish Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CASKS OR BAERELS, AND IN THE MACHINERY TO BE
USED THEREIN."
Sealed the 4th December 1860, and dated the 5th June 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Hadfield at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
5th June 1860.
I, GEORGE HADFIELD, of Carlisle, in the County of Cumberland, Varnish
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM.
PROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF CASKS OR BARRELS, AND IN THE MACHINERY
TO BE USED THEREIN," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the manufacture of casks or
barrels bythe aid of certain novel mechanicalarrangements, andalso materially
to improve their construction and increase their durability. In order to avail
myself of the back as well as the forward traverse of the saw or the work, to
cut the bevilled edges of the stave, whether the stave be bent or straight, I
propose to mount a pair of circular saws on a rocking frame or arm, one at
each end thereof,and to give them rotary motion in opposite directions. These
saws I raise alternately to a level with the work, and fix them in position by a
catch or its equivalent, so that theymaybyone backward and forward traverse
cut both sides of the stave. When the staves are to be cut bent I mount
them on an elastic bed, which yields to the pressure of a cam or screw, and
thus allows the stave to assume the required curve. But when cutting the
[Price 8d1

page_text: stave from straight wood I cause the work or the saws to undulate by means
of curved guides, which impart the required depressing motion thereto during
the traverse that will ensure the necessary taper cut to the staves. The plates
in which these curved grooves are formed I fix to vertical plates forming part
of the bed of the machine, and in such manner that they may be readily re-
moved and replaced byother grooved plates having greater or less undulations
to suit various degrees of taper. For regulating the angle of the bevil
to which the edges of the staves are to be cut in machines having stationary
headstocks, I propose to hinge the headstocks which carry the saw spindles to
the bed of the machine, and to raise them therefrom to any desired angle by
the insertion of wedges or analogous contrivances which will retain them
at the required elevation. This adjustment will set the rotary saws at an
inclination suitable to the work to be performed, and when thus set they will
cut both edges of the stave at one operation. The same object, viz., that of
advancing the saws to or drawing them back from each other I propose also
to effect by mounting the saw spindles in slotted radial guides, which are
adjustable vertically by means of a screw passing through a crosshead, and
laterally to alter the angle by being clamped to a graduated segment bar.
In order to centre the work on the carriage before fixing it thereto, I
apply two side boards or gauges to the front of the machine and give them
a simultaneous adjustment, that they may close upon the stave holder when
it is brought between them, and thereby centre the stave before it is submitted
to the saws.
As an improvement in the construction of casks, I propose to increase their
strength by attaching to the ends of the staves by dowelling, dovetailing, or
otherwise,cross pieces of wood, which will form rings for receiving the heads
of the cask. I also propose to line soft wood casks with thin staves of oak or
other hard wood, putting the double series of staves together, say, pine for the
outside, and oak for the lining, that the staves of one series shall break joint
with those of the other series. The interior of casks and barrels I propose
also to pay over with a tasteless composition consisting of shellac dissolved in
methylated spirit, or spirits of wine, or a solution of tanno-gelatine in volatile
ammonia, to render the same waterproof. And I further propose to saturate
oak staves with a weak solution of gelatine, with or without the addition of
sulphate of iron, for the purpose of fixing the tannin in the form of tanno-
gelatine in the staves, which substance being insoluble in water will prevent
the wood from coloring or otherwise damaging the liquor; it will also increase
the durability of the wood.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent. filed
by the said George Hadfield in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
5th December 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
HADFIELD, of Carlisle, in the County of Cumberland, Varnish Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Hadfield, Her special license that I, the said George Hadfield, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George
Hadfield, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the
terin 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 MANU-
FACTURE OF CASKS OR BARRELS, AND IN THE MACHINERY TO BE USED THEREIN,'
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Hadfield, 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 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 George Hadfield, do hereby declare
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 Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
This Invention relates, firstly, to certain mechanical arrangements for
facilitating the manufacture of casks er barrels.
Secondly, to certain improvements in the mode of constructing casks with
the view of increasing their strength.
And, thirdly, to certain means of treating the wood of which casks are
made for the purpose of increasing their durability.
In the accompanying Drawings, Sheets I., II., and III. shew an arrange-
ment of machinery for cutting the staves of casks, the chief peculiarity of
which is a provision for advancing or retracting the circular saws (of which

page_text: there are two for cutting the opposits sides of the stave either simultaneously
or separately, as desired) by a vertical adjustment of the slotted radial guides
on which they are mounted, such adjustment not only determining the width
of the stave, supposing the saws to act on both sides simultaneously, but
also the angle of the cut made.
Fig. 1, Sheet I, is a side view of this improved arrangement of stave-cut-
ting machinery; Fig. 2 is an end elevation of the same; Fig. 3, Sheet II., is
a vertical cross section taken in the line 1, 2, of Fig. 1; and Fig. 4, Sheet III.,
is a plan view of the machine, the carriage for bringing the staves under
the action of the saws being removed from the machine.
A, A, is the bed of the machine slotted from end to end thereof to allow of
the passage through the machine of the carriage B, which bears upon and is
made to embrace a vertical projection or horizontal guide A¹, cast with and
forming part of the bed A. At the middle of the machine and standing across
it are two arched standards C, C, which are bolted securely to the table A, and
connected together at top by a cross head. The standards at the part above
the arch are slotted to form guides for a pair of sliding bearings a, a, which
carry a short cross shaft 6 (see Fig. 3). These sliding bearings are tapped to
receive severally a supporting screw c, for which footsteps are provided at the
sides ofthe standards, their upper bearings being in the cross head. Between the
standards C two radial slotted frames D, D, are mounted, for carrying the cir-
cular saws D. These frames are slotted to receive sliding brasses d,d, through
which the cross shaft passes, and serves as the fulcrum on which the vibrating
frames rock. To secure these brasses in position in their respective slots the
frames are slotted at their outer edges at right angles to the slots that receive
the brasses, as shewn in the detached views, Fig. 5, Sheet II, to allow of the
insertion of a clamping screw e into the brasses d, d. The lower ends of these
frames form each the bearings for their respective saw spindles, and on the
outer ends of these spindles the driving pulleys E are mounted. Attached to
the under side of the radial frames D' are pendent arms D, which are intended
by means of a crank fand coupling rods f¹ (sce Figures 1 and 3, and also the
detached views, Figs. 6, Sheet I.) to connect the two frames D together
below the table of the machine. The crank is keyed to the end of a
longitudinal shaft F, which carries at its outer end (see Figures 1 and 2) a
hand lever f. This lever works over a slotted segment plate g, which is
graduated to allow of the setting of the lever to any required angle, such angle
of the lever determining, through the arrangement just described, the angle of
inclination of the saws D'. When the saws are intended to cut both sides of
a stave simultaneously they are set at corresponding distances from the oppo-

page_text: site sides of the carriage, as shewn at Fig. 3, the wood to form the stave being
properly set or centred on the carriage before bringing up the work to the
action of the saws; but when it is intended to bring the saws alternately into
action on the wood, which will most generally be the case when the wood runs
of unequal widths, I apply the adjustable stops g'g',to the graduated segment
plate g, and having set them to suit the width of the sorted wood, I throw the
lever into contact first with one stop and then the other. The saws will thus
alternately operate upon the wood and cut the edges to the desired bevil. For
ensuring the required bulge in the cask, the wood is fixed in the carriage in a
bent form (see Fig. 1), its ends being wedged up by blocks, and its middle
pressed down by a curved bar G, which works in a central guide formed by a
pair of plates B' that constitute the cross bead of the carriage. Attached to
this cross head, which is made adjustable on its standards by means of screws
h, h, are flat springs h*, which lie between the plates, and serve to support the
ends of the curved bar G and raise it up when released from the pressure of a
cam ', mounted in the cross head and operated by a hand lever h². By cut-
ting the edges of the staves while thus bent to the curve they are intended to
take when put together, the exact taper required is given to them, as is now
well understood. In order to centre the work on the carriage B before fixing it
thereto, I apply adjustable gauges to the side of the machine, as shown in the
end view, Fig. 2, and in the plan view, Fig. 4. These gauges may be made in
various ways, but perhaps the simplest construction is that shewn in the Draw-
ing, where i, i, are horizontal screws tapped into bracket arms H, bolted to the
side of the table A. Loosely attached to the ends of the screws are flat plates,
which are to be pressed up to the edge of the wood as it lies loosely upon the
carriage; the centre of the wood may thus be brought immediately under the
centre of the pressing bar G. The excentric is then to be applied and the wood
will be clamped to and properly centred or adjusted in the carriage. As the
breadth of the sorted wood to be cut into staves increases, it will be requisite
to elevate, in relative proportion, the central on which the radial saw frames
hang, and also to increase the curve to which the stave is bent (before cutting)
in the carriage. The proportion of relative adjustment thus required may be
readily formed by practice, but as it forms no part of my Invention I have not
thought it desirable to insert here a table for attaining such nice results as
may be necessary to secure the greatest economy in the used of the wood. I
may, however, remark that one of the standards C is graduated to assist in the
adjustment of the fulcrum shaft b, for the purpose just mentioned, and that
the standards also of the carriage Bare graduated to allow of the adjustment
of the cross head to suit the curve desired to be given to the wood, the sup-

page_text: porting blocks being changed to correspond to the new adjustment. To
facilitate the adjustment of the shaft 6 there are keyed to the screws c, c, spur
pinions c,c, above the cross head of the standards C, and these pinions are
geared together by an intermediate pinion c², on the stud of which is keyed a
hand wheel c, for giving rotation to the screws. By merely turning this wheel
therefore, the shaft b, which is the fulcrum of the radial saw frames, can be
raised and lowered at pleasure. The manner of giving the traverse motion to
the carriage B is as follows:-I, I, is the main driving shaft of the machine
on which two sets of fast and loose driving pulleys are mounted. Keyed to this
shaft are two worms h, k, which take into worm wheels ', ', keyed to short
cross shafts, which have their bearings below the table A, as shewn best in
the detached views, Figures 7 and 8. On the inner end of these cross shafts
are spur pinions, e, which take into the rack formed on the under side
of the carriage B. As, therefore, the shaft I receives rotary motion from
any first mover, the carriage will be traversed through the machine, and
the direction of rotation will be determined according to which of the fast
pulleys receives its driving strap from the adjacent loose pulleys.
As a modification of the above-described machine, I propose in some cases
to arrange the slotted radial frames D, as shewn in Sheet IV.of the Drawings,
where Fig.9 shews the stave-cutting machine, or so much of it as will explain
the nature of the modification, in cross section, and Fig. 10. in partial side
elevation. Similar letters of reference to those above used refer in like parts
to these Figures, The frames 1), instead of being slotted at their upper
parts to receive brasses which are adjustable therein, to allow of the cross
shaft being raised and lowered, are in this arrangement hinged to the cross
shaft, to which also the lifting screw c is attached. This screw passes through
the cross head, and being fitted with a fly wheel b*, the boss of which is
tapped to receive it, the turning of this wheel will raise and lower it, and
with it the saw frames, as desired. The construction of these frames, and the
means of fitting the bearings for the saw spindles thereto, will be best under-
stood by reference to the partial edge view, Fig. 11, of one of the frames, and
the sectional plan of the same, shewn at Fig. 12. The block, it will be seen,
that forms the bearing is adjustable vertically on its frame, it being slotted to
receive the radial bars which constitute the frame, and it is clamped at the
required elevation by clamping screws. The saw frames are slotted at their
under parts to receive the pins of the connecting rods f", by which the frames
are coupled together beneath the tableA, and rocked into and out of position
through the agency of the crank arm f, and rock shaft F, which are operated
by the hand lever f*, (Fig. 13,) set in front of a graduated segment plate g

page_text: and working between adjustable stops, as before explained. In other respects
this machine is precisely like that above described.
The second part of my Invention, which relates to improvements in the
construction of casks, consists, firstly, in the employment of compound rings
for receiving the heads of the casks, whereby the weakening of the staves by
cutting the ordinary annular grooves therein for receiving the heads is avoided.
This part of my Invention is illustrated in Sheet IV., wherein Figure 14
shews my improved construction of cask in longitudinal vertical section, and
Fig. 15 shews a view of the inner face of a stave constructed according to
my improvement. To increase the strength of casks I attach to the ends of
the several staves by dowelling, or otherwise; cross pieces of wood a, a
which when the staves are put together will form rings for receiving the
heads of the cask. In the rings thus formed I turn an annular groove and
insert the head therein in the usual manner.
As a further improvement in the construction of casks, I also propose to
line soft wood casks with thin staves of oak or other hard wood, putting the
double series of staves together, say, pine for the outside, and oak for the
lining, that the staves of one series shall break joint with those of the other
series.
The third part of my Invention relates to the preparation of staves, by
causing them to be impregnated with the substance known as tanno-gelatine.
The object of this part of my Invention is, first, to render insoluble, and
therefore incapable of being extracted, so as to impart color or flavor, or both,
to a liquid contained in the cask, the tannin or tannic acid natural to the wood
from which the staves are made; secondly, to inject or introduce into the
pores or cells of staves made from wood not naturally containing tannin, or to
cause to be formed therein tanno-gelatine, with the object of rendering such
staves more impervious to the liquid contained in the cask, and less liable
to decay than when the wood is in its natural state.
In order to effect the above objects, I vary my manuer of operating
according to the circumstances of the case, that is to say, if I intend to operate
upon staves, the wood of which naturally contains tannin, as is the case with
oakwood, I introduce into the pores or cells of the wood gelatine, obtained
from any source, dissolved in water heated to the necessary temperature, or
gelatine dissolved in water containing ammonia in solution, and in order to
effect more speedily and more completely the introduction of the gelatine I
previously extract from the pores of the wood, wholly or in part, the air and
other gaseous or liquid matters which may be contained therein, and this Ido
by placing the staves or the wood from which they are to be cut, in a closed

page_text: vessel or chamber, and by exhausting, more or less completely, the air by
means of an air-pump or other contrivance, as is now practised, or what is
called the kyanizing of timber. After the exhaustion of the chamber, the
solution of gelatine is admitted to the wood, the emptied cells of which it is
.enabled to penetrate with much greater facility than if it was in its usual
condition. By the introduction of gelatine into the wood in this mauner that
substance is brought into contact with the tannin contained in the wood, and
the consequence is the formation of the compound called tanno-gelatine, which
is insoluble in water. If I employ the solution of ammonia as the vehicle for
the introduction of the gelatine, the tanno-gelatine which is formed by the
union of the gelatine with the tannin will be dissolved by the ammonia, in
which tanno-gelatine is soluble. In that case the ammonia may be expelled
by heat after the action of the tannin upon the gelatine is completed, and the
tanno-gelatine be so rendered again insoluble in water; or the ammonia may
be allowed to evaporate spontaneously, or it may be neutralized by dilute
nitric, hydrochloric, sulphuric, acetic, or other acid, and so the insolubility of
the tanno-gelatine in water may be restored, and that substance left occupying
the pores of the wood in which it has been formed.
If I intend to operate upon staves made from wood naturally free from
tannin, or nearly so, I follow one of the two following methods, as the case
may be, viz., I exhaust from the pores or cells of the wood, in the manner
already mentioned, the whole or part of their liquid and gaseous contents,and
I then cause to be introduced into such pores a solution of tannin of a con-
venient strength, which solution may be heated to a moderate temperature.
When the wood is thoroughly saturated with the solution of tannin, I withdraw
from the vessel the excess of liquid containing tannin, and subject the wood to
the action of a hot solution of gelatine alone, or mixed with ammonia, as
before mentioned. If the gelatine be alone in solution the operation is
complete so soon as the combination of the gelatine with the tannin is effected,
but if ammonia be used it must be expelled by heat, or allowed to pass off
spontaneously, or neutralized by dilute acid, as I have before described, in
order that the insolubility of the tanno-gelatine may be restored. If it be
thought desirable, the gelatine alone or mixed with ammonia may be first
introduced into the wood, and the tannin secondly, the other parts of the
operation being the same.
Instead of employing two successive operations to effect the impregnation of
the wood, I can arrive at a similar result by means of one operation only, that
is to say, I prepare artificially tanno-gelatine, by combining tannin or tannic
acid, obtained from any source, with gelatine, and I then make a solution of

page_text: the tanno-gelatine in liquor of ammonia, more or less diluted, and this solution
I introduce into the pores of the wood by the means already pointed out, and
when the wood is saturated with the solution of tanno-gelatine, I expel the
ammonia by heat, or allow it to evaporate spontaneously, or neutralize it with
dilute acids, as I have described above.
When in either of these processes a solution of gelatine in water, or in
ammonia and water, is employed, it is not only necessary that the solution
should be hot, but the wood itself must be heated sufficiently to prevent the
gelatine from setting or becoming semi-solid, which would entirely prevent
it from passing into the pores of the wood in which the tannin or tannic
acid is contained.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in
the manufacture of casks or barrels, and in the machinery to be used therein,"
and having explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it
to be understood that, under the above in part recited Letters Patent, I
claim,-
First, the adaptation to stave-cutting machinery of radial saw frames.
constructed and operating as above described.
Secondly, I claim the improvements in the construction of casks or barrels,
as above described, for increasing their strength.
And, lastly, I claim fixing the chemical substance known as tannin in staves
(whether the same be supplied to the wood by nature or artificially) by means
of a solution of gelatine or its equivalent, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Hadfield, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
GEO. HADFIELD. (L.S.)