IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WELDED IRON TUBES
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
HENBY RUSSELL, of Wednesbury, in the County of Stafford, Tube Manu-
facturer, send greeting.
'WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Fourteenth day of August, in the Ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Henry Russell, my exors, admňors, and assigns, Her especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Henry Russell,
my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Henry
Russell, my exors, admors, or assign, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF WELDED IRON TUBES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Thomas Henry Russell,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Henry Russell, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Inven-

page_text: tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described
and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had
to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon (that is to say) :-
Figure 1 shews a side view of machinery arranged to work according to my
Invention; Figure 2 is a plan of the same; Figure 3 a longitudinal section
thereof. In these Figures the full length of the draw bench employed is not
shewn, but only the two ends thereof. Figure 4 is a transverse section of the
machinery.
And in order that the peculiar character of this Invention may be fully
understood, it will be desirable at once to state that a stationary bar, or what I
call a beak iron, is used to give the requisite internal support to a tube at the
seam, when the tube at the seam or joint is being acted on externally by
mechanical pressure or force, so as to weld the edges or parts together, the
beak iron offering the requisite support by its resisting the external pressure or
force used to produce the weld by the stem of the beak iron being of such
strength as to prevent its bending to any prejudicial extent, it being the power
of the stem to resist bending, which offers the requisite support to the interior
of the seam when welding by external mechanical pressure or force. Here-
tofore, when welding iron tubes, where external support has been used or said
to be used, the enlarged head or bulb containing the mandril or instrument
employed has either filled the whole interior circumference of the tube, and
then has been the means of keeping the tube open, or else the mandril has
only nearly filled the circumference, and in cases where it has not quite filled
the circumference of the bore it has been so placed that the bulb or enlarged
head has simply been permitted to lie within the tube, and the instrument has
not been so fixed and used as to obtain the requisite internal support by
producing the weld by the internal instrument resisting to bend or be
deflected out of its straight line, which is the case according to my present
Invention, and which according to my mode of working is necessary to effect
the object desired. It should be stated that I am aware that in making
welded iron tubes by a workman holding a hammer, and beating the edges of
the iron with such hammer so as to weld them, a fixed tool (of a like character
to the beak iron used by me) capable of entering into the tube has been before
used, so as to resist the blows of the hammer so held in his hand; and I
mention this circumstance in order to state more clearly the novelty and extent
of my Invention, which does not consist in the simple circumstance of having
a stationary bar or tool such as herein mentioned, but the Invention consists
in combining therewith the use of suitable mechanical apparatus. for producing

page_text: the requisite external pressure or force for welding, in place of the weld being
produced by a workman striking the iron with a hammer held in his hand.
In the various Figures of the Drawings the same letters of reference are
used to indicate similar parts. a, a, being the framing of the draw bench
which is of an ordinary construction, and I believe is the best means of moving.
an iron tube through the process; 6 are the tongs or forceps för holding tho
tube; and c is the hook, which connects the tongs 6 to the chain & of the
draw bench; e is a bar, which I call a beak iron, because it performs a similar
office to the beak iron of an anvil when welding a tube thereon by hand.
This bar e is steeled on its working surface at e¹, and is keyed into the fixed
head, and it is by its strength to resist flexure, so that sufficient internal
support is offered to a tube placed thereon, so as to have the seam of the tube
welded by mechanical pressure or force brought to act externally on the tube.
9 is a hollow shelf or surface fixed to the draw bench, on which the tube to be
welded is supported at its under part in such manner that the joint or seam
does not rest on the stem of the beak iron; h is an iron tube at a welding
heat, the edges of which overlap so as to produce what is called a lap joint.
And in order to keep the length of the beak iron as short as possible, I prefer.
to weld the tube first about one-half thereof, and then to weld the other part,
but it will be evident that the larger the diameter of the tube, the longer may
the beak iron be (in consequence of its increased section), and not be liable to
bend by the pressure or force used without offering sufficient resistance, so as
to produce the weld to the seam of the tube. i is a grooved roller, which with
the apparatus connected therewith I consider the best means of obtaining the
requisite mechanical pressure externally for accomplishing the weld. This
roller is mounted in a forked sliding bar j, and at its upper end the bar is
connected to the lever k, as is shewn, so that the lever, being pressed on by the
workman, produces sufficient pressure on the surface of the tube to weld
the seam thereof as the tube is drawn along the beak iron under the roller i.
In welding iron tubes by means of the machinery and apparatus herein
described, the workman having heated one end (to somewhat more than
half its length), of a properly prepared tube to a welding heat, he draws
the same from the furnace along the hollow surface or shelf 7, and then, by the
aid of a boy or boys, places the heated tube on to the beak iron, as is shewn
in the Drawing, and then causes the roller to descend and to press on the
parts or edges which overlap, so that they are pressed between the roller and
the beak iron as the tube is drawn along by the chain of the draw bench. And
I would remark, that other arrangements of mechanical apparatus for obtain-
ing the requisite pressure or force for producing the weld may be resorted to,

page_text: and variations may be made in other parts of the machinery and apparatus
without departing from my Invention, so long as the peculiar character of the
Invention, as herein shewn and described, be retained. The machinery above
described is suitable for making the larger diameters of tubes according to my
Invention, in which cases, the length of the bar or beak iron e may be con-
siderable, and yet offer sufficient stiffness or resistance to flexure; but as it is
desirable to weld iron tubes of smaller diameter where the stem of the beak
iron would not be of sufficient diameter to offer stiffness against bending, if
only supported at the end, I, in such cases, give the beak iron support near to
the point where the pressure is brought upon it, by which means the length of
the stem of the beak iron may be much greater than when fixed only at
one end.
Figure 5 shews & plan, and Figure 6 a side view, of part of a draw bench
and apparatus for welding iron tubes according to my Invention. In this
instance, the tubes in being welded are drawn on to the beak iron directly
'from the furnace, and I prefer (as in the former case) that the weld should be
first performed on the one half of the tube, and then on the other half. In
using this apparatus, the tongs 6 embrace the outer end of the tube, there
being a hollow cone x introduced into the tube to prevent its being crushed, as
has heretofore been practised. e is the beak iron with its stem; this bar e
should be of as large diameter as the diameter of the tube will admit, and yet
allow of the tube moving freely on all parts; w is a grooved roller, which sup-
ports the under surface of the tube. The apparatus for producing the external
pressure for welding is similar to that before described. And as the beak iron,
from its great length, compared with its diameter, would be liable to bend if
only supported at f, I apply a grooved roller y to support the under surface of
the tube, in such manner that the bar e, resting on the lower part of the
interior of the tube, the beak iron e will be upheld by the roller y, and be the
better able to resist the pressure at y'; in fact, it will be the length of the bar
e between the points y¹ and y³ which will be the beak iron, which resists by
its stiffness the pressure or force applied externally. It will be seen that the
roller wis mounted in a frame, which frame with its roller is pressed upwards
by the weights w¹, the object being to allow the roller to descend rather than
that the pressure on the beak iron at y¹ should cause the beak iron to descend
and press on the lower part of the interior of the tube.
I would here state, that in the above description I have described the use of
a draw bench as the means of moving the tubes through the process, because
I believe such to be the best mode of carrying out my Invention, at the same
time it will be evident that the movement of the tube might be by rollers or

page_text: other machinery. The tubes having been welded as above explained, I cause
them to be drawn when in a heated state through a pair of tongs or dies, such
as have been heretofore used, in order to finish the external shape of the
tubes.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the same may be performed, I make no claim to any of the parts of the
machinery or apparatus shewn and described; but what I claim is the
manufacture of welded iron tubes, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Henry Russell, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-six.
THOMAS HENRY (L.s.) RUSSELL.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirteenth day of February, in
the year of our Lord 1846, the aforesaid Thomas Henry Russell came before
our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Fourteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-six.