Iк- PROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hale, of No. 6, John Street, Adelphi, in
the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "Iк-
PROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE."
Sealed, the 16th August 1864, and dated the 19th February 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hale at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th February 1864.
I, WILLIAM HALE, of No. 6, John Street, Adelphi, in the County of
Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE," to be as follows:-
First, my improvements in ordnance are intended to give an efficient
rotation to projectiles by a more simple and less objectionable mode than has
been effected by any design of rifled guns hitherto known, and consist in
.forming the interior of a gun simply by a round bore, so that in every trans-
verse section the figure shall be a circle of the same diameter, and yet all the
longitudinal lines in the surface of the bore shall be spiral.
Second, another plan by which I effect the same object is by forming the
interior of a gun in like manner, but differing from the former inasmuch as
the shape of the interior is the result of three round bores of the same
diameter instead of one, in which case the three bores equally conjoin with

page_text: each other at given points. The projectiles for each description of ordnance
must correspond in shape with the interior of the gun, and may be of any
desired length.
Third, my improvements also relate to the manufacture of wrought-iron
guns, and consist in forming the body of a gun by flat bars or straps of iron
or steel twisted round a cylinder of iron or steel, so that the length of the
spiral, or one turn of the twist, shall be equal to six or more diameters of the
bore of the gun; and for large orduance I have two layers of twisted bars or
straps, the upper layer twisted in the same manner, but in the contrary
direction to the under layer. By this plan the fibre of the iron will endure
moro strain than when constructed by coils or any other mode hitherto
employed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Hale in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
18th August 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HALE, of No. 6, John Street, Adelphi, in the County of Middlesex, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said William Hale, Her special licence that I, the said William
Hale, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as 1,
the said William Hale, 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 term therein expressed, should and lawfully night
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 ORDNANCE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I,
the said William Hale, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under ny, or their, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that J, the said William Hale, 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:
First, my improvements in ordnance are intended to give an efficient
rotation to projectiles by a more simple and less objectionable mode than has
been effected by any design of rifled guns hitherto known, and consist in
forming the interior of a gun simply by a round bore, so that in every trans-
verse section the figure shall be a circle of the same diameter, and yet all the
longitudinal lines in the surface of the bore shall be spiral.
Second, another plan by which I effect the samic object is by forming the
interior of a gun in like manner, but differing from the former inasmuch as
the shape of the interior is the result of three round bores of the same diameter
instead of one, in which case the three bores equally conjoin with each other
at given points. The projectiles for each description of ordnance must corre-
spond in shape with the interior of the gun, and may be of any desired
length.
Third, my improvements also relate to the manufacture of wrought-iron
guns, and consist in forming the body of a gun by flat bars or straps of iron or
steel twisted round a cylinder of iron or steel, so that the length of the spiral,
or one turn of the twist, shall be equal to six or more diameters of the bore of
the gun, and for large ordnance I have two layers of twisted bars or straps,
the upper layer twisted in the same manner, but in the contrary direction to
the under layer; by this plan the fibre of the iron will endure more strain
than when constructed by coils or any other mode hitherto employed.
My improvements in forming the inside of a gun entirely supersede the
necessity of using any of the rifling machines that are required for the various
known devices of rifled guns. An ordinary self-acting lathe or machine, such
as is used in what is commonly denominated a smooth-bore gun is such as
I employ in forming the interior of a gun of my Invention. The peculiarity
of my system of boring guns is that I place the gun in plummer blocks or
bearings which are securely fixed on the upper surface of the slide bed of the
lathe, the gun being thereby free to turn about its longitudinal axis, and by
means of proper gearing is caused to move with a given speed, for example,
one revolution or turn in the time the gun is moving towards the cutter
throughout the entire length of the bore. The boring bar is fitted in the
mandril of the lathe in an ordinary manner. It is necessary to observe that
in fixing the plummer blocks upon the slide bed of the latho they must be
placed so that the longitudinal axis of the gun shall lie a certain distance

page_text: from the line of the axis of the boring bar, and the axis of the one must be
parallel to the axis of the other, the boring bar being placed in the lathe,
with a suitable cutter for forming a round bore, and the whole adjusted as
before described. The operation of boring will be as follows, that is to say,
while the boring bar is revolving the gun is moving longitudinally towards the
cutter, and is also caused by suitable gear work connected with the gun on the
slide bed to turn about its longitudinal axis, and these two different motions of
the gun are so regulated that in the time the gun is moving uniformly the
entire length of the bore it is caused to make one revolution about its axis.
This operation will be more clearly understood by reference to the diagrams
hereunto annexed.
Figuró 1 represents the muzzle end of a gun of my Invention. a, the axis
of the gun; b, b, thic boring bar; c, its axis; d, the cutter, which, although
for simplicity sake shews but one, there may be three or more; and e, e, shows
the circle described by the cutter in revolving excentric to the axis of
the gun.
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Figures a, b, c, d, e, represent the bore at the muzzle end of the gun in its
various positions as the gun revolves about its axis, 'while at the same time it
is moving longitudinally towards the cutter, wherein it will appear that when
gun has moved one-fourth the entire length of the bore, the upper part
shewn by the line fin Figure a'will have moved one-quarter round about its
axis, as seen by the line f in Figure b, and when the gun has moved longi-
tudinally one-half the length of the bore, it will have made one-half a revolution
about its axis, as seen by fin Figure c, and when the gun has moved three-
fourths the length of the bore it will have made three-fourths of a revolution
about its axis, as shewn byf in Figure d; and when the gun has moved the
entire length of the bore it will also havo nade one entire revolution about its
axis, as seen by fin Figure e;' when the section will correspond in position
with the bore at the muzzle end, as seen by the Figures E and A.
Figures B, C, D, E, represent four transverse sections of the
gun, looking
towards the muzzle, and taken at equal distances from each other, as marked
by the lines across the gun in Figure II. Figure Ashews the position of the
bore at the muzzle end of the gun, B at one-fourth the length of the bore, C
at one-half the length, D at three-fourths the length, and E at the end of the
bore. By this arrangement the entire length of the bore is made up of an
indefinite number of eccentric circles, the centres of which vary from each
other uniformly in an indefinite scries, forming a spiral line about a cylinder
whose length is as the length of the boie of the gun, and whose diameter is
equal to the measure of the eccentricity as represented by the small circle in

page_text: Figure 1, and shewn also in Figures a, b, c, d, e, and hence all the longi-
tudinal lines in the surface of the bore become spiral.
Figure III. represents a series of twelve eccentric circles following each
other in regular succession, which serves to illustrate the manner in which
the indefinite number of eccentric circles combine in my Invention.
A bore of this description comprehends the first part of my Invention, in
which a spherical ball fitting the bore will by its friction against the spiral
surface of the interior of the gun when projected therefrom by the explosive
force of gunpowder acquire a rotatory motion at right angles to the direction
of the projectile force.
'
It is further necessary to remark in this first part of my Invention that the
diameter of the boring bar must not exceed the relative proportion exhibited
in Figure I., and the cutter or cutters must project from the diameter of the
boring bar sufficient to form the required eccentricity, which may be varied as
experience shall dotermine to be best in proportion to the size of the gun and
weight of projectile, and the cutters should be so shaped as to leave the surface
of the bore quite smooth.
"
The second part of my improvements differs from the first 'inasmuch as the
shape of the interior of the gun is the result of three round bores of equal
diameter (instead of one), conjoining with each other at given points, as will
be seen by reference to Figure 1V. The thick lines of the three semi-
circles A, B, C, conjoined represent the shape of the bore of the gun in every
transverse section. a, the axis of the gun; b, b, the boring bar; c, its axis;
d, the cutter, and the fine lines shew the three circles which the cutter
describes in boring out the semicircles; the lines d, e, f, represent the
distances between the axis of the boring bar and the axis of the
gun.
Before commencing to bore or cut away the semicircles I prefer to bore the
gun centrally to the points where the semicircles conjoin, represented by the
dotted circle X, X; I then place the gun in plummer blocks, connected with
an arrangement of gear work for producing a certain revolving motion to the
gun about its longitudinal axis after the manner described in the first part of
my improvements, and so adjusted upon the slide bed of the lathe that the
distance of the axis of the boring bar to the line of the axis of the gun is as
the line represented by d, and after the cutter has bored or cut away the
remaining portion of the semicircle A, the gun is then taken out of gear, and
withdrawn from the boring bar, and moved round in the plummer blocks one-
third of a revolution, which brings the end of the line e to the centre of tlie
boring bar; the gun is then again put into gear, and the same process goes on
of boring or cutting away the semicircle B; when that is completed the gun.is

page_text: again taken out of gear, withdrawn from the cutter as before, and moved
round another third of a revolution, which brings the end of the line f to the
centre of the boring bar; the gun is then put into gear. again ready for the
operation of boring or cutting away the semicircle C, which when bored
completes the form of the interior of the gun. I do not, however, in this
second part of my Invention confine myself to the figure of three semicircles,
as in some, and perhaps in most cases, it may be preferred that the figure of
the bore should be composed of lesser portions of a circle; such, for example,
as is represented in Figure V., in which case the process of boring is the same
as described in Figure IV.; the thick lines show the figure of the bore,
composed of three equal segments of circles of the same diameter. a, the axis
of the gun; b, b, the boring bar; c, its axis; the fine lines shew the circles
which the cutters describe in boring out the segments A, B, C, and the dotted
circle X, X, the central part, which is to be bored out previous to the three
segments. In constructing algun, according to this second part of Inven-
tion, the rotatory motion of the gun during the process of boring the segments
should be slower in relation to the motion of the gun longitudinally than when
I form the interior of a gun simply by one round bore, and instead of making
one complete revolution in the whole length of the bore, as represented in the
first part of my Invention, it may be caused to describe only one half a
rovolution, or even less than that.
my
Figures a, b, c, d, e, Sheet 2, represent the muzzle end of a gun according
to the second part of my Invention in its various positions as it revolves
about its axis, while it is at the same time moving longitudinally towards
the cutter, the relative speeds represented in the Figures a, b, c, d, e, are in
the proportion of one-third of a revolution in the time the gun is moving the
whole length of the bore, so that when it shall have moved longitudinally one
quarter of the length of the bore it will have moved about its axis one-twelfth
of a revolution, as represented in Figure 6, by the line f, which letter is seen
in Figure a, at the top of the bore, and when the gun has moved longi-
tudinally one half the length of the bore, it will also have moved two-twelfths
about its axis as shewn by fin Figure c, and when it has moved longitudinally
three-fourths of the length of the bore it will also have moved about its axis
three-twelfths of a revolution, as shewn by fin Figure d, and when the gun
has moved longitudinally the entire length of the bore it will in the same time
have moved about its axis; four-twelfths of a revolution, as shewn by fin
Figure e; Figures B, C, D, E, represent transverse sections of the gun in
the four equal divisions of the length of the bore as marked in Figure II.,
Chest T

page_text: It will be observed that the boring bar in Figure IV. is small in diameter
compared with the boring bar in Figures I. and V., and in order to
prevent the vibration of the bar while the cutters are in operation, I have two
turned blocks of cast iron fitting the central bore represented by the fine
circles g, g, in Figures a, b, c, d, e, which are bored through at the top as
appears in the Figures, the boring bar and gun must however be perfectly
free to turn in the blocks, in the two blocks used one is placed before the
cutters, and the other behind. The adoption of this means will keep the bar
from vibrating while the cutters are boring or cutting out the segments.
Figures a, b, c, d, e, in Sheet III., represent the form of the bore as appears
in Figure V. In this case the twist in the bore is less than in Figure 1, and
more than in Figure IV., as the gun makes one-half a revolution in the time
it is moving the whole length of the bore, as is shown in the Figurès a, b, c,
d, e, wherein the Figure a represents the muzzle end of the bore with the
line, in a vertical position, and in Figure 6 the gun is represented as having
moved round about its axis one-eighth of a revolution in the time it has
moved longitudinally one-quarter the length of the bore, and one-quarter
round in the time it has moved one-half the length of the bore, and three-
eighths round when it has moved three-quarters the length of the bore, and
one-half round when the gun has reached the whole length of the bore.
Figures B, C, D, E, represent the transverse sections of the bore in the four
lengths marked in Figure II., Sheet I., as the same letters indicate the like
parts in the various Figures.
It may be noted as a peculiarity which distinguishes my Invention from
other plans of rifling guns that the rifling effect is produced entirely by a
process of round boring, which cannot be said of other known plans of rifling
guus.
The third part of my improvements relates to the manufacture or building
up the body of a wrought-iron gun, the particulars of which are as follows:-
I form the body of a wrought-iron gun by flat bars or straps of iron or steel"
twisted in a heated state round a cylinder of iron or steel in such manner
that the length of the spiral, or one turn of the twist, shall be equal to six or
more diameters of the bore of the gun, and for large ordnance I have two
layers of twisted bars or straps, the upper layer twisted in the same manner,
but in the contrary direction to the under layer.
I have not given the particular details in drawing of the gear work for
producing the compound motion of the gun as that may be produced in
any way to suit the convenience of the manufacturer, provided only that the
longitudinal and revolving motions are combined to produce the effect

page_text: specified, nor are the Figures representing my improvements made to any par-
ticular scale, and ordnance may be made according to my Invention of any desired
proportions, these being regulated. to some extent according to the service
for which the piece of ordnance is required, as is well understood by
artillerists.
In the gun described as respects the. first part of my Invention, not only a
spherical but an elongated projectile of any desired length suiting the form
of the interior of the gun may be employed, as, for example, the gun may
make conveniently two and one-half revolutions in the length of the
bore instead of one, and the projectile be equal in length to one turn of
the spiral, in this case the eccentricity would be less than when intended for
a spherical ball, and only sufficient to insure rotation, a projectile of this
description would in its flight revolve about a line corresponding with the axis
of the gun.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Hale, have hereunto set my.)
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.