AN IMPROVE- MENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN SHAPING METALS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Daniel Joseph Fleetwood, of Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Copper Agent, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVE-
MENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN SHAPING METALS."
Sealed the 9th December 1859, and dated the 27th June 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Daniel Joseph Fleetwood
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th June 1859.
I, DANIEL JOSEPH FLEETWOOD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Copper Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN SHAPING METALS," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the method or methods herein-after explained of
shaping metals for the purpose of producing vessels or articles having a form
more or less resembling a hollow sphere or spheroid. I will explain my
Invention as applied to the production of a globular vessel, such as the body
of a teapot. I take a hollow cylinder of the metal to be fashioned into the said
vessel, the said hollow cylinder being open at both ends; I fill the said hollow
cylinder with lead or other soft metal or alloy, or with a non-metallic substance
such as pitch, which will yield under great pressure. I place the filled bollow
cylinder in the interior of a strong cylinder, in which a piston or ram works, the
said piston or ram being actuated by a hydraulic press or other power. The end
of the ram or piston that enters the cylinder is cupped or made of a concave
figure similar to that to be given to one end of the hollow cylinder to be shaped.
By the action of the hydraulic or other press, the cupped end of the piston is
made to act upon the end of the filled cylinder to be shaped, the said end of
the cylinder being gathered in or contracted into the form of the concave end

page_text: of the piston. The lead or other substance with which the cylinder to be
shaped is filled, escapes by a hole made in the axis of the piston. After one
end of the hollow cylinder has been operated upon, it may be removed from
the machine and replaced in an inverted position. The other end may now
be contracted. In the last-named case the metal under treatment must be
supported upon a bed or support, into which its hemispherical bottom fits.
Instead of operating on one end of the cylinder at a time as described, two
cupped pistons may be employed, which said pistons by closing upon the
opposite ends of the hollow cylinder to be operated upon, close in or contract
both ends simultaneously. By my Invention hollow cylinders of metal
may be made into globular vessels without puckering or wrinkling of the
contracted ends. The lead, pitch, or other substance with which the partially
formed vessel is filled may be removed by fusion or otherwise.
Although I have described my Invention as applied to the closing of the
two ends of a hollow cylinder, yet my said Invention may be applied to the
closing of one or both ends of cylindrical or other shaped articles.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Daniel Joseph Fleetwood in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 23rd December 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DANIEL
JOSEPH FLEETWOOD, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Copper Agent,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of June, in the year of our Lord,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Daniel Joseph Fleetwood, Her special licence that I, the said
Daniel Joseph Fleetwood, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Daniel Joseph Fleetwood, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, 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 "AN IMPROVEMENT OR IMPROVEMENTS IN SHAPING METALS,'
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Daniel Joseph Fleetwood,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,

page_text: 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Daniel Joseph Fleetwood, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
My Invention consists of the improvement or improvements herein-after
explained, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, in shaping metals,
the object of my said Invention being to produce vessels or articles having
more or less the figure of a hollow sphere or spheroid, or having a spheroidal
body with a taper neck or prolongation. I will explain my Invention as
applied to the manufacture of a globular vessel with a neck such as the body
of a tea or coffee pot or claret jug. I take a hollow cylinder of metal, either
open at both ends or closed at one end. I prefer to take a hollow cylinder
closed at one end, and raised without seam out of a sheet of metal, or cast or
otherwise produced without joining. I force this cylindrical vessel by means
of a mandril in its interior through a die of exactly the same size as the hollow
cylinder herein-after described, and marked a in the accompanying Drawing.
I fill the cylindrical vessel with lead or other soft metal or alloy, or with a
non-metallic substance, such as pitch, which will yield under great pressure;
I then cup or curve inwards the mouth of the vessel to a slight extent, so as
to contract the said mouth, which I effect in any convenient manner.
I next
subject the cylindrical vessel to the action of the machine, represented partly
in vertical section and partly in elevation in Figure 1 of the accompanying
Drawing.
a is a hollow cylinder, placed in the metallic bed b. The filled hollow
cylinder to be shaped is placed in the hollow cylinder a, as represented at g.
the bottom of the said vessel resting upon and fitting the upper surface of the
die c, which said die c is externally of a cylindrical figure, and accurately fits
the hollow cylinder a. The die c is fixed to the ram or piston d. The said
ram or piston d is capable of being raised by hydraulic or other power, as
herein-after explained, so as to raise the die c in the hollow cylinder a. A
cylindrical die e, the under surface of which is of a cupped figure, as repre-
sented in the Drawing, is attached to an upper ram or piston f, and by
hydraulic or other power acting on the ram or piston f, the said die e is brought
down upon the cylindrical vessel g. As the said die e descends, it gathers or

page_text: The
turns inwards the upper end of the vessel g, the sharp edge of the die e entering
between the hollow cylinder a and the vessel g, and contracting the mouth of
the said vessel g, causes it to assume the figure of the end of the die e.
lead or other substance with which the vessel g is filled escapes through holes
or passages h in the die e during the contraction of the said vessel g. The
diese and c move simultaneously in opposite directions in the cylinder a,
during the contraction of the mouth of the vessel g, that is to say, the die c
ascends in the said cylinder a during the descent therein of the die e, the vessel
under treatment being supported externally at every part by the dies c and e
and the cylinder a, and internally by the lead or other substance in the said
vessel. I would remark that although it is preferred to combine and form the
apparatus as shown and described, the same may be varied provided that the
dies c and e and the cylinder a, or parts acting in place thereof, be so arranged
that all parts of the exterior surface of the vessel g be supported when the
alteration of shape of the vessel g is taking place. Although I prefer to cause
both the dies cand e to move as described during the shaping of the vessel g,
yet the same or nearly the same effect is produced by the motion of one only
of the said dies. After the die e has contracted the vessel g until the upper
part of the vessel has assumed the form of the said die, the said die e is raised
and another die substituted therefor, the second die having the form repre-
sented in section in Figure 2. The said die, Figure 2, is made to operate
upon the vessel g in the manner described with respect to the die e, and after
the said die, Figure 2, a die of the form represented in section in Figure 3 is
made to operate upon the vessel g in a similar manner, the said dies
I have found in
Figures 2 and 3 being used in conjunction with the die c.
practice that a series of three dies, made to operate in succession upon the
vessel, is sufficient for the production of most of the globular-shaped vessels
required in commerce, but some forms may be accomplished with less, and
When the vessel under treatment has been
some forms may require more.
sufficiently operated upon in the machine, Figure 1, the hydraulic or other
power is shut off from the upper ram f, and the said ram f is raised. When
hydraulic power is used, I raise the ram or piston f by causing the hydraulic
power to act upon the under side of a piston working in a cylinder placed
above the upper ram at i, Figure 1, the said piston being connected with the
ram by a connecting rod. When instead of hydraulic power another power
is employed, the said power may be made to raise the ram or piston f by any
convenient means. The upper die e being raised from the cylinder a, and the
lower die c having been caused to rise, the vessel g is delivered at the upper
end of the cylinder a. The lead, or pitch, or other substance with which the

page_text: partially formed vessel g is filled, may be removed by fusion. Instead of
operating upon one end only of the vessel g, both of the dies c and e may be
made to effect a change in the figure of the vessel, that is to say, the die c,
instead of serving as a bed or support for the bottom of the vessel g, the said
die c may be made to give a nearly hemispherical or other desired form to the
lower part or bottom of a vessel previously of a different shape. After having
formed necked vessels, as above described, it is generally, though not at all
times necessary, to open or expand the top of the neck, so as to form a mouth
to the said neck. I effect this by means of a plug of the requisite shape,
which I force into the top of the neck, the outside of the neck being supported
by a collar of lead or pitch. I prefer to actuate the dies c and e by means of
bydraulic power, the said power being employed to operate upon the rams or
pistons d and f, to which the dies cand e are respectively affixed.
In Figure 1, I have represented my Invention carried into effect by means
of hydraulic power, but as the hydraulic machinery which I employ differs in
no essential respect from the hydraulic machinery used for like purposes, and
as the said hydraulic machinery constitutes no part of my Invention, I do not
think a description of the same necessary.
A screw or other press may be
and f, carrying the dies c and c.
the bed of the machine, and
used to give motion to the pistons or rams d
The cylinder a is capable of removal from
different cylinder a and apparatus will be
required to be used in shaping articles of different sizes and forms.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not claim
any of the mechanical parts separately, nor do I confine myself to the details,
nor do I claim the filling of hollow tubular metal with soft metal or other
material in order to facilitate the bending or shaping the same, such practice
having been heretofore resorted to for making various articles; but I claim as
my Invention the combined means herein described for shaping metals.
In witness whereof, I, the said Daniel Joseph Fleetwood, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of December, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
DANIEL JOSEPH FLEETWOOD. (L.S.)