AN IMPROVED PACKING FOR MAKING STEAM OR WATER JOINTS
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Russel Williams and Hamilton Dansey, 14,
Gracechurch Street, London, in the County of Middlesex, for an Invention
of "AN IMPROVED PACKING FOR MAKING STEAM OR WATER JOINTS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Russei Williams
and Hamilton Dansey at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the
7th November 1881.
JOSEPH RUSSEL WILLIAMS and HAMILTON DANSEY, 14, Gracechurch Street,
London, in the County of Middlesex. "AN IMPROVED PACKING FOR MAKING
STEAM OR WATER JOINTS."
от
A
This packing consists of thin strips of lead rolled or drawn out so as to produce
rounded or angular ribs on both sides, thus
& of
suitable sizes to the flanged joints to be made, & for circular joints, rings will be
made in the same sections. The ribs being the feature of the Invention, as by
their use a considerable & necessary thickness of lead is obtained in a form that
may be easily compressed into any inequalities of the surfaces of the flanges to
which it may be applied, & these ribs also assist to retain a coating of putty, white
lead, asbestos, or other composition that inay be spread over the packing before
being screwed up with bolts & nuts in the usual way.
This packing is applicable to make all steam & water joints where .flanges are
employed in marine & other engines & boilers, & also for bydraulic machinery, as
a substitute for the cotton, india rubber, & other packings now in use in making
joints between the flanges of man-hole doors, covers, &c.
The use of this ribbed lead packing is especially for all flanged joints put
together with bolts & nuts.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Joseph Russel Williams and Hamilton Dansey in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 6th May 1882.
"
JOSEPH RUSSEL WILLIAMS and HAMILTON DANSEY, of 14, Gracechurch Street,
London, in the County of Middlesex. AN IMPROVED PACKING FOR MAKING
STEAM OR WATER JOINTS."
Our Invention relates to packing used for making joints between the flanges of
steam pipes, cylinder covers, or other parts of steam or other engines where it is
required to make a tight joint between two surfaces. It is also applicable to the
purpose of making like joints where the pressure against which they have to be
made tight is that of water, compressed air, or other elastic or non-elastic fluid or
gas. It has for its object novel forms and methods of constructing the material
by which such joints are made, so that the joints can be made more readily and
certainly, and with less trouble, and can be more easily applied to cases where the
Burfaces between which the joint is to be made are not perfectly parallel, than has
ordinarily heretofore been the case.
In the method of making such joints as ordinarily heretofore practised, it has
been usual to place between the flanges or surfaces to be jointed together a suitable
piece of sheet lead, pasteboard, or other sufficiently soft and pliable material,
coated with plastic white or red lead, or a piece of vulcanised india rubber, or
other analogous sufficiently soft and elastic material, but in such cases it is found
difficult to make a sufficiently tight and durable joint unless the flanges or other
surfaces are parallel and are very forcibly pressed together against the packing.
By our Invention we form the packing of strips of soft lead, or alloy of lead or
other sufficiently soft and pliable metal or inaterial, each such strip being formed of
a shape in transverse section consisting of two or more wires or bars of square,
circular, or other convenient shape, connected together at or about the centre of
their diameter by a continuous thin web. If therefore continuous strips of material
of the section described be placed between the surfaces where the joint is to be
formed, and the surfaces are then screwed or otherwise forcibly drawn together,
the lead or other material is flattened or compressed, first at the upper and lower
edges only of the component wires or bars with comparatively little pressure,
whilst where any irregularities exist, or where very great pressure has to be
resisted, the wires or bars are still further compressed and flattened upon their
edges, making a tight joint with much less pressure than where a flat strip
or surface only is used instead of the compound or corrugated surface described.
In cases where it is found advisable to use white or red lead or other plastic
cement upon the joint it is retained when spread upon the corrugated strips
described in the spaces between the wires or bars, and is thus prevented from
squeezing out and becoming useless when pressure is applied to tighten the joint.
The compound or corrugated strips described may be drawn, rolled, or cast and
cut up into suitable lengths as required, and such lengths may be bent into
circular or rectangular rings or other shapes to suit the surfaces to which they
are to be applied, or they may be cast, moulded, or otherwise formed into
such rings.
The accompanying Drawing is in illustration of our Invention,-
Figure 1 represents in side view and section a strip of our packing consisting
of five longitudinal bars or wires a, a, a, a, a, united together by a thin strip or
web between them. Figure 2 represents a similar strip having the bars circular
in section.

page_text: Figure 3 shews part of a circular ring, and Figure 4 a rectangular ring of
material formed in a similar way. Figure 5 is a section of two flanges between
which the packing is compressed to forin a joint. b and c are the flanges, and a is
a ring of our improved packing compressed between them, the bars or wires
forming the ring being shewn flattened at their upper and lower edges by the
pressure so as to form a tight joint. Red or white lead or other plastic or other
cement may be spread upon the packing so as to fill the spaces between the
wires or bars. Figure 6 shows packing made according to our Invention
applied to make a joint between two pipes, one of which is provided with an
external cone 6 fitting into an internal cone c upon the other, the packing a
being compressed between them.
It will be seen, therefore, that our Invention consists essentially in the ribs
formed upon the packing as described and shewn, so that by their use the
considerable thickness necessary of lead or other material is obtained in a form
which can easily be compressed into any irregularities of the flanges or other
surfaces to which it is applied, whilst the said ribs also assist to retain a coating
of white or red lead, asbestos, or other composition which may be spread over the
packing before the latter is compressed by means of bolts and nuts or other means
in the usual way. Our improved packing, as described and shewn in the Drawing,
may be applied to all steam and water joints in marine and other engines or boilers,
or in hydraulic machinery, or where the pressure of compressed air or other elastic
or non-elastic fluid or gas is to be resisted.
Metallic strips constructed according to our Invention may also be used for the
purpose of strengthening flexible hose pipes used for the conveyance of water or
other fluids, the strips being wound helically round either inside or outside, or in
the substance of such flexible pipes.
We do not confine ourselves to the precise form of the section of packing
constructed according to our Invention, which may be varied according to the
varying circumstances in which it may be used, but having described the Invention
and the manner in which it is to be performed, we clain,-The construction of
packing for the purpose of making joints in the manner hereinbefore described, in
the form of strips of suitable shape consisting of a sufficient number of parallel
bars or wires of circular, rectangular, or other suitable section connected con-
tinuously together, substantially as and for the purpose described and shewn in
the Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Russel Williams, on behalf of myself
and the said Hamilton Dansey, have hereunto set my hand and seal, this
18th day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
JOSEPH RUSSELL WILLIAMS. (L.S.)