IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Theophilus Alexander Blakely, of Montpelier Square,
in the County of Middlesex, late Captain Royal Artillery, for the Inven-
tion of "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Theophilus Alexander
Blakely at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 22nd May 1863.
I, THEOPHILUS ALEXANDER BLAKELY, of Montpelier Square, in the County
of Middlesex, late Captain Royal Artillery, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ORDNANCE," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists in constructing cannon and other ordnance of an
inner tube or barrel of brass, bronze, or other suitable alloy of copper, with a
jacket of steel. This jacket may be in one or more pieces, or may be com-
posed of a series of separate hoops.
My Invention further consists in forming the barrels of two or more tubes,.
an inner tube of mild steel, with the outer tube or tubes of harder steel, the
steel being increased in hardness the farther it is removed from the centre.
In some cases the outer tubes are in the form of rings.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 21st November 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THEOPHILUS
ALEXANDER BLAKELY, of Montpelier Square, in the County of Middlesex, late
Captain Royal Artillery, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely Her special licence that I, the said
Theophilus Alexander Blakely, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely, 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 might 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 con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely, my
executors, or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, 'the said Théophilus Alexander Blakely, do
hereby declare the nature of my 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:
My Invention consists in constructing "cannon and other ordnance of an
inner tube or barrel of brass, bronze, or other suitable alloy of copper, with a
jacket of steel. This jacket may be in one or more pieces, or may be com-
posed of a series of separate hoops.
My Invention further consists in forming the barrels of two or more tubes,
an inner tube of mild steel, with the outer tube or tubes of harder steel, the
steel being increased in hardness the farther it is removed from the centre.
In some cases the outer tubes are in the form of rings. I am aware that it
has been proposed to line cast-iron guns with tubes of brass and wrought iron

page_text: inserted loosely, but that method has failed from various reasons. Now, I carry
my Invention into effect as follows, that is to say :-I form the inside of each
successive jacket smaller than the outside of the tube or jacket over which it
is to be immediately applied. I prefer to put the gun together by heating
each successive jacket until sufficiently expanded to allow of the next interior
tube or jacket being inserted within it. Care must be taken that the
differences between the outer diameters of the tubes or jackets and the inner
diameters of those placed immediately over them shall be such that the strain
on firing the gun shall be distributed throughout the whole thickness
of the gun. The rule I adopt for carrying this into effect is to calculate that
the extension of the outside of any tube is less than the extension of its
inside when strained from within in the proportion of the square of the outer
diameter to nine-tenths of the square of the inner diameter. Having, there-
fore, ascertained the extensibility of the different metals, or varieties of the
same metal employed, my method of construction may be readily followed.
The chief advantage of my present Invention over that patented by me on
February 27th, 1855, No. 431, consists in the fact that by the employment of
a more stretching metal for the inside tube than for those surrounding it, and
so on in succession, I am not obliged to make the differences between the
insides of one series of tubes and the outsides of those inside them so great as
when I employ metals of equal extensibility for the whole gun.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim constructing
ordnance of two or more tubes having successively decreasing degrees or
amounts of extensibility within the extensible limit (the inner tube possessing
the least amount) where the tubes are put together with initial tension, sub-
stantially in the manner and for the purpose described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of November,
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
T. A. BLAKELY. (L.S.)