IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE
Year: 1885

page_text: I ARTHUR WILLIAM LOVELL REDDIE of the Office for Patents, 6 Bream's
Buildings Chancery Lane in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent do hereby
declare the nature of the invention for, IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement:-
This invention consists in a cannon having the rear portions, commonly known
as the chamber and reinforces, constructed or composed of a series of cylinders
made of rolled steel plates and arranged concentrically one within another and
united by having either, steel, iron or other metal cast between within and around
them, such cylinders being preferably perforated with numerous. holes through
which portions of the cast metal enter to make connections between the portions
between within and around the said cylinders, the object of such construction being
to utilize in ordnance in the most advantageous manner, the very great strength of
rolled steel plate, and thus to obtain guns of very large calibre, which, though not
of great weight, comparatively, will not be liable to burst, and which may be
manufactured at comparatively small cost.
The invention further consists in the combination in a cannon, of a section
having a series of tubes provided within and through its walls parallel with the
bore, a water supply pipe connected with the tubes for introducing water into them
for cooling the gun between its successive discharges; and a second section connected
with the first mentioned section, and also provided with tubes for water, the two
sections having in their abutting ends annular grooves through which the tubes, in
the two sections communicate. This feature of the invention provides for securing
together two sections each having longitudinal cooling tubes in it, but without any
particular care as to whether the sections are turned to such position that their
tubes will be in line, for even if their tubes are not in line, water may flow from
the tubes of one section through the annular grooves and thence to the tubes of the
other sections.
t
s
قومة
.
Figure 1 is a central longitudinal section of a very large cannon constructed
according to my invention, Figure 2 is a transverse section of the rear part thereof.

page_text: +
Figure 3 is an external longitudinal view of one of the cylinders of rolled steel
plate, of which the rear part of the gun is partly composed. Figure 4 is a transverse
sectional view on a larger scale illustrating the construction and combination of the
said cylinders.
Similar letters and numbers of reference indicate corresponding parts in the
several figures.
The cannon represented is a breech loader made of three sections A B and C
screwed together; but no particular pains have been taken to represent the breech,
as that may be constructed, fitted and operated in any suitable manner. The
sections B and C are represented as each composed of a single casting, but the
construction of these sections is immaterial to my invention. The rearmost section A
which includes the breech part, the chamber and the reinforces, and on which are
the trunnions a a is composed of the series of concentric cylinders bb made up of
rolled steel plates and arranged one within another and the cast iron steel or other
metal cc which is interposed between and surrounds them, and also forms a lining
which contains the bore d.
+
The construction of the cylinders b b is illustrated in Figs 3 and 4. They are
represented as of the full length of the section A and each is made up of as many
plates, 5, 5, of rolled steel as may be required, the said plates being of as large size
as they can conveniently be made, for instance, about the size of ordinary boiler
plates, the said plates being properly bent to form sections of the cylinder, and
having their edges abutted together, and united by rivetting to them, both inside
and outside, bands, 6, 6, and longitudinal strips 7, 7, of lighter steel plate. The
cylinders thus constructed are made of such relative diameter that when placed one
within another within a mould there will be between them annular spaces for the
reception of a filling of cast iron or steel, bronze, or other metal, of a width about
twice their own thickness. °
I propose for the largest guns to make the cylinders of steel plates of one,inch in
thickness, and to make the bands 6, 6, and strips 7, 7, which form their seams, of
steel plate half-an-inch thick, and to make the several cylinders of such relative
size that the cast metal between their plates will be two inches thick, its thickness
where the bands 6, 6, and strips 7, 7, intervene being correspondingly reduced.
The perforations 8, 8, in the said cylinders may be two inches in diameter and six
inches apart. The section B thus composed is constructed by placing the several
cylinders of steel plate one within another concentrically in a mould of suitable
form and running into the said mould cast iron or cast steel or other metal which
fills the spaces between the cylinders and the holes therein and also surrounds the
outermost cylinder and lines the innermost one.
In Figs:
and 2 owing to the necessarily small scale the thickness of the
cylinders is only shown by single heavy lines, the interruptions in which indicate
the perforations, but in Fig: 4 the cylinders and the bands are distinctly
represented, and also the kind of joint formed by the bands and the longitudinal
strips, the rivets being designated by the numerals 9, 9.
In Figs, 1 and 2 the longitudinal water tubes e e passing through the walls of
the gun parrallel with the bore, for cooling the bore, are fully shown. These tubes
are arranged in a circle around the bore as shown in Fig 2 and are connected with
an annular pipe fin rear of the breech through which water is supplied to them by
a pump or other means, the said water flowing through them and being discharged
at the muzzle. These tubes may be of ordinary wrought iron gas or steam pipe,
and placed in the moulds before the casting of the gun and will be embedded in the
walls of the gun by the casting of the metal around them. In a gun made of
sections as represented, communication will be formed between the tubes in each
section by turning annular grooves in the abutting ends of the sections opposite
the ends of the tubes as indicated at g in Figure 1.
By means of the grooves g free communication of the tubes e in one section, with
the tubes in another section, is secured without the necessity of the tubes e of the
two sections being in line, and hence in securing the two sections together it is not

page_text: necessary to take any care that they shall be brought to such position that their
tubes will be in line.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to
me by my Foreign Correspondent, I declare that what I claim is
1 The combination in the rear part' of à cannon, of a series of concentric
cylinders made of rolled steel plates and arranged one within another, and cast
iron, steel or other metal cast between, within and around the said cylinders,
substantially as herein described. -
i
2nd The combination in the rear part of a cannon, of a series of concentric
cylinders made of rolled steel plates perforated and arranged one within another,
and cast iron, or other metal cast between, within and around the said cylinders.
and entering their perforations, substantially as herein described.
3rd The combination in a cannon, of a section having a series of tubes provided
within and through its walls parallel with the bore, a water supply pipe connected
with said tubes for introducing water through them for cooling the gun between its
successive discharges, and a second section connected with the first mentioned
section, and also provided with tubes for water, the two sections having within
their abutting ends an annular groove through which the tubes in the two sections
communicate, substantially as herein described. .