IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ROLLING GUN BARRELS AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1865

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Claridge at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th December
1865.
I, THOMAS CLARIDGE, of the Firm of Claridge, North, and Company,
of Bilston, in the County of Stafford, Engineers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ROLLING
GUN BARRELS AND OTHER ARTICLES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of the arrangements or combinations of parts herein-
after described for driving rolls or rolling machinery used for rolling gun
barrels and other articles, the principal object of my Invention being to
facilitate the rolling of gun barrels with the breech and nipple piece attached
and other articles having projecting parts, or of irregular figure.
In rolling gun barrels the grooves in the rolls are made of the form for
producing the barrel of the required shape, that is, in a line parallel with the
axis of the roll, a row of grooves or recesses corresponding with each other is
cut in each roll to form the breech of the barrel. These grooves or recesses
taper into the grooves in the roll (in the curvilinear direction) which form the
barrel. In rolling the barrels it is necessary that the billet, or skelp, or piece
of steel, or iron to be rolled into the barrel should always be put into the rolls
so as to roll or shape the breech end first, and it should also always enter the
rolls precisely at the right time, that is, when the rolls are in such a position

page_text: that the parts of the groove or recess in each roll which is to form the breech
have come opposite to each other. To introduce the piece of iron or steel into
the rolls at the proper time as they revolve requires a very dexterous or highly
skilled workman.
In order to facilitate the rolling process and render it easy for 'any
ordinary workman or boy to roll gun barrels with breech and nipple piece
attacked as before described, or other article of irregular figure, I make the
driving machinery arrest the motion of the rolls for a brief period of time at
every revolution, when any given parts of the rolls have come opposite each
other. The rolls having come to rest it is easy to put the breech of the
barrel in its proper place between the rolls. After the introduction of the
billet or skelp between the rolls the said rolls recommence to revolve and
take the barrel through them, and the operation is repeated as many times
as it may be requisite to pass the barrel through the various grooves in the
rolls.
In carrying my Invention into effect I arrange the driving machinery of
the rolls in the following manner :-On the shaft from which the rolls are
driven a crab or toothed clutch slides, the said shaft having feather keys upon
it for driving or rotating the said clutch. The end of the said shaft revolves
within a hollow shaft in a line with it, which hollow shaft receives rotatory
motion from the driving power through toothed or spur wheels. On the face
of the said hollow shaft teeth are made corresponding with the teeth of the
sliding clutch described. By throwing the sliding clutch into or out of gear
with the teeth of the hollow shaft the said shaft carrying the clutch, and from
which the rolls are driven is made to revolve, or is brought to rest. The
-sliding clutch is thrown into and out of gear with the revolving hollow shaft
at the proper times, and an intermittent motion given to the rolls by the
following. arrangement of parts :-On the hollow rotating shaft described a
toothed wheel is keyed, which gears with and communicates motion to another
toothed wheel, and upon the side and near the periphery of the latter toothed
wheel is a projection, the said projection being inclined at each end, the
bottom of the inclines being level with the plane of the wheel. At the side
of the toothed wheel carrying the projection is a roller supported by a lever;
on the rotation of the toothed wheel the projection upon its side presses the
roller outwards, causing the lever carrying the said roller to turn upon its
centre. This motion of the lever is transmitted by a connecting rod and a
-second lever to a shaft, upon which shaft two other levers are keyed, the last-
mentioned levers being situated one on one side and the other on the other
side of the sliding clutch herein before described. The free ends of these

page_text: levers are provided with projections 'which work in a groove in the periphery
of the said sliding clutch, and when the roller and lever carrying it are
moved from the toothed wheel by the action of the projection the levers
engaging with the sliding clutch throw it out of gear with the hollow shaft,
and the rolls come to rest. The motion of the rolls is in this way arrested at
each revolution of the toothed wheel carrying the projection. The sliding
clutch is thrown into gear again when the projection on the toothed wheel
has passed the roller and the rolls re-engaged with the driving mechanism by
means of a compound lever having a weight at its end, the said weight being
sufficiently heavy to carry or push the sliding clutch into gear with the
hollow shaft. The period of time it is wished the rolls to remain stationary
between each revolution may be adjusted by the sizes of the toothed wheel
and the projection upon it and the size of the toothed wheel driving the last-
mentioned wheel as well as the number of the teeth on the sliding clutch and
hollow shaft. Instead of effecting the withdrawal of the clutch from the
hollow shaft by the action of the projection on the toothed wheel, as described,
the withdrawal of the clutch may be effected by means of a steam cylinder in
the following manner :-I employ a steam cylinder, situated horizontally, and
provided with a piston and piston rod, as is usual in ordinary steam engines.
To the outer end of the piston rod I attach the end of the lever herein-before
described, through which motion is given to the clutch, and I attach the slide
valve to the lever carrying the roller. As the projection on the toothed wheel
in its revolution moves the roller and lever carrying it the said lever imparts
motion to the slide valve in such a manner that the valve opens a commu-
nication with the cylinder, and the piston operating upon the lever to which
it is connected causes the clutch to be thrown out of gear. By placing a
projection on the other side of the toothed wheel to operate on a second
roller and lever the slide valve of the cylinder may be made to open a
communication with the other side of the piston, and cause the clutch to be
thrown into gear again; or the clutch may be thrown into gear again by the
compound lever and weight herein-before described. The mechanism last
described may be actuated by water power in place of steam with the same or
nearly the same effect..