CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING COPPER AND OTHER METAL WARES
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Théodore Gomme, jun', and Charles Eugene Auguste
Beaugrand, of Paris, in the Empire of France, and of 32, Essex Street,
Strand, London, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
Sealed the 11th March 1856, and dated the 14th September 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Théodore Gomme, jun".
and Charles Eugene Auguste Beaugrand at the Office of the Commis-
sioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 14th September 1855.
We, THEODORE GOMME, j, & CHARLES EUGENE AUGUSTE BEAUGRAND, of
Paris, in the Empire of France, and of 32, Essex Street (Strand), London, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING COPPER AND OTHER METAL WARES" to be as
follows; and consists of a frame supporting at its lower end a cylinder, in
which a piston is working that operates a stamping punch. Around this
punch, and resting on the bed plate of the frame, are disposed conical rings
(either grooved or smoothed) and the ring bearer. Above it there is a com-
pressing plate operated by a screw, the hollow part of which is at the upper
part of the frame; or it may be operated by a piston rod. The pressure may be
limited or maintained by means of a stop work disposed in any suitoble way.
The piston is worked either by a screw, steam, or water power. The rod of

page_text: this piston is hollow, and has in its inside another smaller rod, serving to work
the upper plate of the punch, which plate supports the stamped piece when the
punch and piston are down.
To work rather thick pieces, smooth rings are used, and the punch made of
two concentric parts, one of which is massy and the other annular; the latter
cut conically at its upper end, both moving simultaneously or seperately. For
pieces of a peculiar form, and which require some finish, the metal is stamped
with forms, which allow the punch to be withdrawn, that is to say, the curves
of the bottom of the vessel are first formed; and in order to form the top part,
which is narrower, mandrels are used, which are disposed in the inside of the
vessel in such a manner that they receive the counter pressure of the tools used
for modelling the metal, and that the punch may be withdrawn from the vessel
when the raising is effected.
When the metal is stamped (a coffee pot, for instance, being made,) an upper
edge is turned down, so as to be pinched between two annular pieces or rings,
and in the inside of the vessel a mandrel is inserted eccentrically with its axis,
having the same external form as the interior part of the said vessel. This
eccentric mandrel is supported on a fixed shaft, the fusee of which rests upon a
plate in the bottom of the stamped vessel. The greatest width of the said
plate admitting the said fusee, must be less than the smallest dimension of the
opening of the vessel. The metal supported by internal mandrels with peculiar
forms may admit the working of an external grindstone (operated by hand or
by a slide), that models or diversifies the forms. If the opening of the vessel
be too small to allow a mandrel of very eccentric form to be got in, the latter
should be mounted on an additional shaft, fixed to and brought out of the
centre of the former shaft. If it be requisite to turn the vessel so as to polish
the same, motion is given by means of handles connected with the pincers
clasping the opening of the vessel. The above processes will allow the working
up of all vessels both of the plainest and the most complicated forms, as well
as being applicable to metal tubes either perforated or stamped, whether the
metal is worked hot or cold.
SPECI
TIO in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Théodore Gomme, jun", and Charles Eugene Auguste
Beaugrand in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 12th March 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THEODORE 3
GOMME, jun', and CHARLES EUGENE AUGUSTE BEAUGRAND, of Paris, in the
Empire of France, and of 32, Essex Street, Strand, London, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the
year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Théodore Gomme and Charles Eugene Auguste Beaugrand, Her special
licence that we, the said Théodore Gomine and Charles Eugene Auguste
Beaugrand, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we,
the said Theodore Gomme and Charles Eugene Auguste Beaugrand, our
exccutors, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
MANUFACTURING COPPER AND OTHER METAL WARES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Theodore Gomme and Charles Eugene Auguste
Beaugrand, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our, 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 we, the said Theodore Gomme and Charles Eugene
Auguste Beaugrand, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Our Invention consists in working by mechanical means culinary vessels
and others manufactured by coppersmiths and tinkers for domestic purposes,
which have been to this day generally made by manual labour and by means
of the hammer, which mode that mostly increased the net cost consisted in
rolling, modeling, stamping by means of the hammer, certain parts of the
metal or blank, in order to give them various shapes and forms. This mode
of working metals is very long, and requires a great waste of manual labour;
besides, not only finished but even roughed pieces come to a comparatively
elevated price. We thought it would be acceptable to reduce the net cost of
those indispensable things, and we contrived and applied such economical
means as will allow the sale of good, fine, finished products at very moderate
price.
This our new system consists of various modes or means of working the
metal, which will be described. The first of these modes consists in stamping

page_text: the metal blank, the edge of which is caught round between two rings with
either grooved or smooth surfaces. Another means consists in stamping the
metal blank by means of a stamp or puncheon of such a capaciousness as will
nearly allow the finishing of the piece. Besides, this last work may be looked
upon as a mere preparatory work, and vessels with peculiar shapes may be
afterwards finished up by means of rolls acting like burnishers, and which may
be operated either by the hand or by a slide. By these means most diversely
shaped articles may be worked from the plain cylinder; the saucepan, &c. up
to the splendid and richly wrought-up tea-pots, the coffee pots (called eastern
coffee pots), &c.
The annexed Drawing illustrates the mechanical applications that lead to
such results.
Fig. 1 shows, in vertical projection, a new arrangement of a stamping
machine, which consists of a case a, shown externally, having at its lower part
a cylinder b, in which a piston 61 may work, which operates the stamping
puncheon. A ring c, resting on the bed plate of the case a, supports the
rings d & the ring holders c', held fast by the pressure on the plate e, that
transmits the same to the rings d by means of cross pieces e¹; these are pro-
Said
vided with pillows sliding along the uprights of the framing or case a.
pressure may be effected by means of a screw with one or more threads, or
by a piston worked by steam or any other motive power. However, the piece
under pressure may be caught by any stop suitably contrived.
The rings d, shown in vertical section and horizontal projection (Fig. 2),
consist of a cylindric and a conical parts, slightly grooved along the gene-
rating line of the cone, in order to cause the metal blank laid between the two
large rings d to be suitably stamped. The puncheon f, acted upon by the
piston b', which may be operated either by steam or by a forcing pump, such
as used for water presses, will effect the stamping. We must observe that the
rod which connects the piston to the puncheon is perforated through its whole
length, for the purpose of admitting another rod, having at its upper part a
small plate to support the stamped piece when the puncheon f and the piston
bare down.
This Invention is then properly characterized, 1st, by the use of either
grooved or smooth rings, intended to lessen the force that might break the
metal on stamping it, thus allowing a considerable modelling without any injury
to the said metal; 2d, the application of a rod going throngh the stamping
puncheon, and in connexion with a plate resting on the same, for securing the
stamped piece to its position when the puncheon goes down again. The
advantage of such an arrangement is obvious for withdrawing the puncheon

page_text: from the stamped piece, which is greatly adherent to it. For some articles
that are to be made of thick metal, such an arrangement as shown in vertical
section at Fig. 3 may be preferably used. In this case the rings are not
grooved, but smooth; moreover, the same section shows that the stamp or
puncheon is made of two parts g & g', that may be actuated jointly or
separately, according to the requirements of the work, and the center puncheon
may, of course, be provided on its upper part with a plate f', that may be
actuated in like manner as that of the puncheon f, shown at Fig. 1. By
such arrangements metal sheets are easily stamped, and made more or less
hollow, according to the ductility of the metal used. We have already hinted
that one of our working processes consisted in stamping the metal blank by
means of a puncheon of such capaciousness as would nearly allow the finishing
of the article; but this means is altogether confined in its application, as the
vessel will ever require further finishing; in such a case the application of
rolls or burnishers, as before mentioned, will prove productive of good results.
If we wish to manufacture a coffee pot, for instance (the eastern coffee pot),
we first stamp the metal blank, giving it such forms as will allow the with-
drawing of the puncheon, that is, we stamp or incurve the bottom of the vessel;
but for the upper part of the same, which is straitened, we use mandrels, that
are to be arranged in the interior of the vessel, so that, first, they may undergo
the counter-pressure of the modelling tools; and, secondly, that the puncheons
may be easily withdrawn when the modelling is effected.
The arrangements that we use are shown at Figs. 4, 5, & 6, which are
horizontal sections through the axis of a lathe and other instruments or tools
employed for modelling purposes. When the metal blank designed to be con-
verted into a coffee pot is first stamped, we beat down on a fit mandrel its
edge, in order to enable it to be caught between the two pieces i & j, as
shown at Fig. 4; the metal h & h' is afterwards made to asume the form or
shape shown at Fig. 4, by means of the maudrel k (Fig. 7), which is mounted
excentrically, as shown at 1, Figs. 4 & 5. The shaft has a journal, that is
inserted into the piece m, resting on plate n, the breadth of which is to be less
than the smallest opening that the coffee pot, or any other vessel once finished,
is to have, for the tool being the more easily withdrawn from the vessel. At
Fig. 6 the mandrel k is supported by the small additional shaft l, which is
mounted obliquely for admitting a very small mandrel k³, that may be taken
out through a very narrow opening. The metal blank thus being supported
by the mandrels k & ', will be able to stand the friction of the rolls or
burnishers o, Fig. 5; these may, as aforesaid, be operated by the hand or by
a slide; and it is obvious that by means of the said mandrels, modelled metal

page_text: vessels may be had of any form and shape, for they will be more or less fre-
quently re-heated, according to the more or less ductility of the metal used.
From these arrangements, it appears that the mandrels : & are ever to
keep the same position, that they may undergo the counter-pressure which the
metal is submitted to by the friction of the rolls o; accordingly, the shaft 1
remains stationary, and the metal is carried into a circular motion by the two
pieces &j, which may likewise carry into the same motion the small
mandrel p.
The use of rolls or burnishers worked by the hand or by a slide will enable
us to obtain at first mechanically vessels of all description used to be manu-
factured by coppersmiths and tinkers; we are besides enabled to obtain
any sorts of tubes, cylinders, &c., either stamped or perforated, in the hot or
in the cold state, and in this last case one or more rolls may be used. For
certain kitchen utensils, the frying pan, for instance, that is to be thicker
at that part which is nearest to the handle, the sheet iron used should be
of the same thickness as the handle of the pan. It is laid into a rolling mill,
the circumference of which is rather out of center, and flatted all over, except
on that part to which the handle is to be soldered; being then cut out to its
proper size, it is stamped till it has got the shape of a handless pan, with a
thicker part, however, to which a suitable handle is soldered.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner in which
the same is or may be carried into effect, we wish it to be distinctly under-
stood that we do not confine ourselves to the precise details, nor to the strict
figure or form of any apparatus, or portion of apparatus herein described, as
such may be varied or modified without departing from the principle of action
thereof; but what we claim as novel, and as being secured to us by the herein-
before in parts recited Letters Patent, is,―
First, stamping the metal which the article is to be made of, or the metal
blank, still preserving its thickness in all its parts, by catching its beaten-down
edges between two rings with grooved or smooth surfaces, by which means all
force tending to impair or break the metal is diminished, yet allowing a
considerable modelling.
Second, the application of a rod within the stamping puncheon for the pur-
pose of imparting motion to a plate fitted on the upper part of the same, this
plate being intended to secure the stamped piece, and then to relieve it from
the puncheon.
Third, the application on the lathe of friction rolls or burnishers for stretching
the metal, which process will permit to increase the hollowness of the vessels,
the bottom of which is intended to be thicker than the upper parts.
We can

page_text: also, by using the same process, manufacture metal tubes either perforated or
stamped, and worked either in the hot or in the cold state.
Fourth, the application of steam for fitting the metal blank previous to its
being worked, and the use of a stop to secure the same during the stamping
process.
Fifth, the use of a puncheon made of several parts, such as has been
described, for facilitating the stamping.
Sixth, the use of mandrels fitted and supported excentrically for the purpose
of manufacturing narrow necked vessels, and also the use of cylinders with a
circumference out of center for obtaining articles of different thickness.
In witness whereof, we, the said Theodore Gomme and Charles Eugène
Auguste Beaugrand, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Tenth
day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and fifty-six.
(L.S.) T. GOMME, FILS.
BEAUGRAND, AINE. (L.S.)