IMPROVEMENTS IN UNITING AND TREATING IRON, STEEL, AND OTHER METALS IN SHEETS, PLATES, RAILS, BABS, RODS, LINKS, BANDS, HOOPS, TUBES, OR OTHER FORMS APPLICABLE TO NAVIGABLE VESSELS, FORTS, GUNS, BRIDGES, ROOFS, FLOORS, BOILERS, HEATERS, TANKS, CHESTS, OR LIKE STRUCTURES
Year: 1867

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Bridges Adams at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th'
August 1867.
I, WILLIAM BRIDGES ADAMS, of Woodstock Lodge, Blackheath, in the
County of Kent, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN UNITING AND TREATING IRON, STEEL, AND OTHER METALS
IN SHEETS, PLATES, RAILS, BABS, RODS, LINKS, BANDS, HOOPS, TUBES, OR OTHER
FORMS APPLICABLE TO NAVIGABLE VESSELS, FORTS, GUNS, BRIDGES, ROOFS, FLOORS,
BOILERS, HEATERS, TANKS, CHESTS, OR LIKE STRUCTURES," to be as follows:-
Firstly. My improvements consist in making smooth and clean by planing
or otherwise the adjoining edges or ends, or other parts of the plates, bars, &c.
to be connected or united, and placing them at such a distance from each
other as to admit a powerful flame of gas or other heat between them for the
purpose of beating their adjoining surfaces, and bringing them to the pasty con-
dition known as welding heat, i.e., a partial melting, at the same time enveloping
the adjoining portions of the metal in loam, or bricks, or moulding sand, or
"ganister" or other material of a similar kind refractory to heat, such material
being rammed tight round the adjoining metals in any convenient mode, either
with or without the aid of what are called "flasks," or moulding boxes com-
monly used for casting iron or other metal, in such mode that the applied

page_text: flame or beat will not burn away the edges of the metal to be united, nor
be wasted, but will simply penetrate rapidly inward from the end or edge
surfaces, thus accumulating the heat till the welding condition of the metal is
attained; and when the heat is sufficient I press the metals into contact by
any convenient method according to their size by hand or by screws, or by
hydraulic or other power, to induce homogeneous union; and in some cases
double sets of flame may be used from opposite sides, so impinging as to act
only on the surfaces to be united without burning away the edges.
Secondly. Instead of leaving an opening between the edges to be united I
bring them into close contact in a cold state, and then apply the flame or other
heat to the joint surface on both sides of the joint so as to penetrate the
metal, limiting the surface acted on by fire-clay or other packing, a continuous
pressure holding the joints together, so that as the heating goes on the mass
is pressed into a solid without any scale or oxydation, and in some cases the
fire-clay or other packing may be omitted.
Thirdly. In applying these improvements to the construction of navigable
vessels I form the separate sheets of iron or steel of which the vessel is made
to their respective proper forms by pressure or otherwise, and I plane their
edges so that they will fit accurately together, and by preference break joint
like the bricks in a wall. If heavy the plates may be attached to frames with
screws or hydraulic rams, and so raised and lowered, and pressed into union
vertically, or horizontally, or diagonally to suit salient or reentrant angles or
curves, the direction being given by guides or by screws or rams, and any
irregularity in the succession of joints may be corrected by planing slotting,
or other machines applied to the structure in situ, and the flame beat used
may be that of common coal gas, or gas made from petroleum, shale, or other
oils, or a mixture of gases may be used, but of course in any case urged by
the mixture of atmospheric or other oxygenated air under pressure, and the
gas may be prepared on the spot, making the arrangement portable, or it may
be brought from a distance in tubes or pipes, and as the flame will cover the
whole exposed surface of the metal no free oxygen will get access to it, and
scale will not be formed to make the weld imperfect; and this shell or outer
surface of a vessel may be formed of armour plates through, bottom, sides,
and ends, and may be partly of armour plates, & partly of ordinary plates, and
when completed it may be launched and floated, and a second vessel may be
constructed inside of it in a similar mode, and connected to it by stays, and
the lower part between the two shells may be filled in solid with asphalte or
bitumen, or shale to the water level, and the upper part with solid sand or
other incombustible-material, cemented together to prevent the entrance of

page_text: any
shot or shell, and the decks may be formed and connected to the hull in the
same mode, and the joints so formed and welded together may be of
required form or length, and the gas flame may be arranged in corresponding
lengths or forms by circular or other pipes pierced with lateral holes or con-
tinuous slits, and with double pipes, one set containing the gas and the other
the air under pressure, and giving out about ten volumes of the latter to one
of the former, or two pipes may be used concentric one inside the other, so
that both air and gas issue together and commingle in the joints, forming
powerful flames; and these pipes may be covered with fire-clay to protect
them from reverberatory heat or flame; and thin plates of wood or other
combustible substance may be placed in the joints as distance pieces for
accurate guage, which will burn out on applying the heat, and this wood may
be saturated with "fluxes," and the gas and air pipes may be in lines, or
squares, or circles, or any other form to suit the forms of the joints, and also
in intersecting directions.
Fourthly. The application of this same system to construct the armoured
faces of forts, or solid iron forts, or steel forts; and when I use steel for
armour I occasionally heat the surfaces as before described, and by means of
jets of water cool & harden them so as to impede the entrance of shot; and
as a variation when the surfaces to be joined are very large I sometimes
channel or groove the edges, and place in them small metal rods, or wire or
hooping, and pour melted iron or steel into the heated joints, uniting the
whole together; and when an iron or steel fort so constructed has been
injured by shot, or if any portion be imperfect in the operation, I bore it out,
and slot it, and insert plates welded in the same manner.
Fifthly. I apply the same system to the construction of boilers, tanks,
heaters, and chests, and to bars, rods, tubes, links, plates, and other parts of
bridges of large span, as well as to, floors and roofs, forming them solid, so as
to dispense in a great measure with bolts and rivets.
Sixthly. I apply the same principle of welding to the links of chains &
cables, and the iron, steel, or other metal may be wrought, or malleable cast
metal formed in moulds, and the edges planed to shape, and clean surface
and chemical fluxes may be used in uniting them in a weld, so also rolled or
cast copper may be united to form the fire surfaces of boilers.
_ And for the construction of guns I roll the metal in longitudinal halves, or
-in-wedge_form, sections thicker & thinner in their lengthi as may be required,
and with a central hollow, and I plane true the surfaces which are to be joined,
and unite them in the modes before described; or I fix them together in close
contact by hoops or otherwise temporarily, and then place them in an ordi-

page_text: nary furnace, or in a chamber with gas flame-passing into the interior and
round the exterior till they are at a welding heat, and then I pass them
thro' rolls to solidify them; the trunnions may then be shrunk on in any
usual manner, and I prefer the metals to be made from solid blooms and not
from welded bars.