IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GUNS AND MORTARS
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Morgan, of 48, Gloucester Terrace, Hyde
Park, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF GUNS
AND MORTARS."
Sealed the 30th October 1856, and dated the 14th August 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Morgan at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on tho
14th August 1856.
I, WILLIAM MORGAN, of 48, Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park, do hereby
declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF
GUNS AND MORTARS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of guns
and mortars; for which purposes rings or tubes of the desired diameter and
substance are formed with their ends turned, cut, or faced, so that tho clean
metallic surfaces may come in contact and fit together correctly. The ends
of the rings or tubes, which are to be welded, are formed with male and female
V (or corresponding convex and concave) surfaces. The several tubes or
rings and parts to form a gun or mortar are to be held together by a bolt
passing through them, or otherwise. The rings and parts thus held together
are then heated to a welding heat in a suitable furnace, and are welded by
means of pressure (by screw or otherwise) whilst in the furnace. By these
means the parts or surfaces in contact are welded together more perfectly
than they would be if the surfaces had not been previously cut or faced so as
to produce metallic contact. In addition to the use of rings or tubes, other
parts of a gun or mortar are in like manner to be cut and fitted and held in
contact, then heated to a welding heat and welded in the furnace.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Morgan in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
13th February 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MORGAN, of 48, Gloucester Terrace, Hyde Park, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Morgan, Her special licence that I, the said William Morgan,
"my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Morgan, 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 máké, 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
THE MANUFACTURE OF GUNS AND MORTARS," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said William Morgan, 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 William Morgan, do hereby declare the
nat ire of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
The Invention has for its object the dispensing with the necessity of welding
large masses for the purpose of making cannon or mortars of wrought iron
or steel, and at the same time of ascertaining previously to finish the internal
soundness of the parts, a flaw in the bore of a gun being fatal to its use.
The Invention in question proceeds, therefore, in first making the several
or distinct pieces of which the gun or hollow cylinder is to be composed, and
then of uniting these parts in the manner as herein-after explained. Supposing
the article to be manufactured to be a gun, its length would be divided into
separate parts of such lengths as would be convenient to the manufacturer.
Each one of these pieces may either be in the first instance forged in the
solid under the hammer, and then rough bored and faced for union, or where

page_text: the bore would be sufficiently large to permit the formation of anuli, this
may be done by turning the slab in its length and welding the butts, or it
may be overlapped. The separate parts being so forged or formed into rings,
and their soundness being ascertained by rough boring, the ends are to be
turned into male and female V, made accurately to fit cach other to guage,
and be brought to perfect surfaces, or to within a reasonable approach thereto.
The hollow cylinders thus formed and made to fit into each other are to be
placed and held together with their joints in perfect contact, and laid within
a convenient furnace, or such other application of heat as will raise the parts
to bo joined to a welding heat; and in order to ensure the perfect union of
the metal contact of the several surfaces, under heat must be assured by means
of great pressure in the direction of the axis of the cylinder, and bearing
equally round the surfaces or Vs which are to be joined, as thoroughly to
unite them when they they shall have reached a welding heat. It is thus
sought not only to be able to make a gun in parts, but to effect the welds
thoroughly, that by the perfect contact of the surfaces, and the impossibility
of scale being formed, or of dirt being introduced during the process, that
perfect soundness shall be obtained, V joints are preferred, as being apparently
the best calculated to accomplish the objects in view, and because when made
in circles they will be as cheaply and as readily made as any other forms.
But the Invention is not limited to that particular species of joint, the
Invention obviously extending to other obvious forms in which perfect contact
of surfaces can be assured, and the union of the parts be thoroughly effected,
by means of the necessary end pressure in the direction of the axis being
made to operate on the joints when in a welding state.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Morgan, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Ninth day of February, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
E. BARKER.
WILLIAM MORGAN. (L.S.)