IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AND IN THE MACHINERY AND APPLIANCES FOR HOLDING, DRILLING, TURNING, TAPPING, FITTING, AND SHAPING CERTAIN PARTS OF STEAM, WATER, GAS AND LAMP FITTINGS
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Thomas Stroud at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with bis Petition, on the 25th
April 1863.
I, JOHN TпомAS STROUD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Lamp
and Chandelier Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of my Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF AND IN THE MACHINERY AND
APPLIANCES FOR HOLDING, DRILLING, TURNING, TAPPING, FITTING, AND SHAPING
CERTAIN PARTS OF STEAM, WATER, GAS AND LAMP FITTINGS," to be as follows
(that is to say):-
The object of my Invention is not only to economise the cost of production
of the various parts and details appertaining to and connected with the use of
gas or other fluids, such as water and steam, but also to render such parts and
details more perfect, sound, and uniform in their construction, and for
illustration I will suppose that the use of gas involves the means of stopping.
opening, and regulating its flow from the main or principal supply to any local
requirement, where, by means of a union joint, its ingress and egress is effected
with a meter to indicate the quantity used, and thence by means of tubing,
rough or bright, (according to the position in which it may be placed,) to the
various burners that may be required; and in effecting this the details require
considerable variation for proper adaptation necessary in conveying or main-
taining a sound tubular course for the distribution, flow, or regulation of the
gas to the jets for illumination, such as T and elbow joints, with unions or
otherwise, cross pieces, brackets for side lights, swing and universal pendant
joints, main pillar, nose, and other cocks, and a variety of other parts, with

page_text: various technical defined terms well known to the manufacturers of such kind
of fittings, involving in their manufacture internal and external drilling,
tapping, shouldering, and turning, and in many instances square, octagonal, and
other plain forms are given to parts of the same, which involve the necessity
of various mechanical appliances, so arranged and regulated that not only the
various sizes of the same description of article may be made with great
accuracy, but without the employment of skilled labour, as by my improved
appliances boys will be enabled to do work much faster and with greater
accuracy than what has hitherto been done by skilled manual labour.
The appliances for carrying my Invention into effect consist in a series of
mechanical arrangements, apportioned and separately arranged for the more
convenient division of labour, separately adapted to the various requirements,
and that the non-occupation of one shall not necessarily involve the stoppage
of the whole, which are fitted on suitable beds, and by preference receive
notion from a driving shaft, pulleys, and bands. The means of holding the
work and tools for performing the necessary requirements are varied as
required, and will be hereafter referred to; the articles vary so much in shape
and character, it is absolutely essential that the series of apparatus should bo
so divided as to apportion them to particular classes or parts of the fittings
necessary.
My improvements relate, firstly, to a machine for turning, drilling, and
tapping the inside and outside of fittings, and consists of the means of holding
the dies and tools, which are made to advance and retire by means of eccentrics
consecutively brought into action for performing these operations.
Secondly, my improved apparatus consist in being duplex in character, by
which I am enabled to put in motion simultaneously two or more distinct
tools, causing them to advance and retire in the order in which they are
required, thereby drilling, turning, and tapping the work. My apparatus
generally are so arranged that the motion regulating the tools may be dis-
connected, so as to throw in or out of gear any of the tools, which are all 8
self-acting; and when the work is performed, the operator, by means of a
handle, simultaneously expands the parts that hold the work, thereby per-
mitting the ready removal and replacement of the work as it proceeds.
Thirdly, my apparatus consist in an arrangement for clearing out hollow
parts of fittings to the exact size required, and following up the operation, 3
when required, by a self-acting tap for tapping or screwing the part so cleared
out, provision being made for regulating the tapping motion according to the
thread required, and a compound holder, so arranged that the action of the
fout or otherwise liberates the work from the apparatus.

page_text: Fourthly, my improvements relate to an apparatus also for drilling, tapping,
and turning, the drill and tap being arranged for receiving independent
motions, the work being held between adjustable jaws, and by a cam shifted
from the operation of the drill to that of the tap, and I increase the power,
when necessary, by geared wheels; this is also applicable to other of my
apparatus.
Fifthly, my apparatus consist in a reciprocating spindle deriving its motion
by means of arms and a gut or its equivalent fastened first to one arm passing
around the spindle, and then to the other arm, by which means a backward
and forward revolving motion is imparted as a modification. I use a sliding
bar to guide the gut or its equivalent into its place; and as a further
modification, I obtain the backward and forward motion by a shifting band in
connection with bevilled wheels.
Sixthly, my improvements relate to an apparatus for preparing certain
portions of work for subsequent operations requiring exact central adjustment,
and is arranged for centring as well as drilling such kind of work, and 'I effect
this by an adjustable rest fixed in front of a revolving tool, and which rest is
fitted with radial adjusting bolts, and against the inner angular ends of these
bolts the work to be operated on is placed, and held by a lever to the
operation of the tool; as a modification of this I use, instead of adjustable
bolts, moveable dies; and as a further modification I use two or more
guide bars.
Seventhly, my improvements relate to apparatus for holding work requiring
flat surfaces to be cut thereon, and I effect this by an arrangement placed in
front of a revolving cutter suitably put in motion; the apparatus has an
advancing and retiring motion at right angles with its centre, so that such
plain surfaces are accurately produced, and by the centre or centres being
arranged with a dividing plate, the surfaces are accurately divided, and with
the necessary alteration of tools and parts the apparatus herein described is
rendered capable of doing the heads and thumb bits of plugs, and such like
parts, and, if necessary, 1 increase the number of cutters and articles to be
operated on, and sometimes apply a traversing motion to the rest that holds
the work.
Eighthly, my improvements relate to an arrangement for turning articles of
any shape, and consists in a spindle and pulley for giving motion to the work,
and a chuck for holding the same, which I construct thus:-The part that
holds the work has a conical base, which works through a hole in the front,
and is held up by a back centre; by this contrivance the work and chuck
revolve together for the operation of the tools. This chuck and modifications of

page_text: it I use generally for holding work requiring two centres or otherwise during
the operation of turning; but for articles requiring to be held concentrically
independent of the use of a centre, I construct the chuck for holding such
work in a different way; the base is tapped or otherwise for applying it to the
spindle for giving it motion, and by means of a rectangular slot, and a conical
collar, and the front or fore end of the chuck being divided, I am enabled, by
means of a wedge working through the slot, to securely hold and readily free
such parts of the work requiring to be held and turned. The rest for receiving
the turning tools may be single or compound, say, a tool or tools in front for
performing a portion of the work, and a tool or tools behind for other portions
which are advanced, either separately or simultaneously, and the tool carrier
being held or worked on a centre axis to the work, which revolving will be
reduced to the exact size required, according to the setting of the tools, and by
lowering the handle, thereby withdrawing the tool or tools in front, the tool
or tools behind are in like manner brought into action. In some cases instead
of working the tool rest by hand, the tools can be brought consecutively into
action by a self-acting motion, so that the juvenile attendant has only to
remove and apply the work, which in this, as in the apparatus herein-before
described, is effected in the simplest and most efficient way, without blows to
apply or remove the work, as such means which are now commonly used
occupy much time, and frequently destroy or disfigure the work.
Although under the last head I have mentioned an oscillating rest, never-
theless a reciprocating motion could be used conveniently, if preferred, for
carrying the tools, the tools being regulated and advanced to the work by a
templet the exact shape and formni of the article desired to be turned.
Ninthly, my improvements relate to the manufacture of pulley wheels used
for carrying the counterpoising weights in lamps for raising or lowering the
lights, and consist in forming the periphery of such pulleys of short pieces of
tube, and by placing them between to revolving collars, and applying pressure
to the centre, which will be sufficiently depressed to form a groove for the
chain to lic in.
Tenthly, my improvements relate to an apparatus in connection with
upright drilling, and consists of a bed supporting at the back a regulating
centre, and in the front open jaws fixed to a slide, which when the operator
puts his foot on a treddle below the jaws close, and carry back the work until
the centre at the back enters an inverted centre. In the process by which
I drill the hole in work for receiving plugs (technically termed rimering)
I dispense with the centres and jaws, and use a bed at right angles with the
action of the drill, and upon this bed I fit a rest, consisting of an angle piece

page_text: with an open slot in the bottom for receiving an adjustable bolster, and the
vertical side of this angle piece is fitted with a slide, to which a strong collar
is formed, and through this collar a pin is fitted with a small wheel and handle
on the outside, while the inner end of the pin is tapped, so that by applying
the large part of the cock to the tapped end, and turning the handle round,
the cock will be thereby firmly held. The wheel at the outer end of the pin
1 form into a dividing plate for drilling holes in work any angle.
Eleventhly, my improvements relate to an apparatus for outside turning and
screwing, having a hollow spindle with holes, in which I place tools; this being
set in motion, I pass the work through the spindle and tools by means of
a following-up headstock fixed on each end.
Twelfthly, my apparatus consist of a machine fitted with brace and turning
screw placed perpindicularly with an elastic coil or band, and by placing the
foot upon a treddle the operator presses the turning screw down upon the
work to be screwed.
Thirteenthly, my improvements relate to screwing tubes and other work.
I introduce a chuck for holding dies, which dies are adjusted to ensure the
thread in any number of tubes being of the same diameter. For holding tubes
or other articles to be screwed, I have a conical hollow following-up head-
stock, into which I insert a hollow split spindle, and in which spindle I intro-
duce the article to be screwed, and pressing the spindle into the headstock
securely holds the article.
Fourteenthly, my improvements consist of a duplex tool, by means of which
I am enabled at one operation to make a screw both inside and outside of a
piece of work.
Lastly, I will state that many of my improvements described under separate
heads are more or less applicable to and may be used with the apparatus
separately described, but as the articles are various, and the division of labour
important, I have preferred describing them under separate heads, each one
being capable of considerable modification from the description here given
without affecting the general object of my Invention, which is that of
facilitating and improving the manufacture of parts of gas and such like
fittings.