IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC TURES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT. to John Davie Morries Stirling, of Blackgrange, in the
County of Clackmannan, North Britain, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC TURES"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Davie Morries
Stirling at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 24th November 1854.
I, JOHN DAVIE MORRIES STIRLING, of Blackgrange, in the County of Clack-
mannan, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC TUBES" to be as follows:-
I cast a hollow ingot; according to the size of the tube required, of the
suitable internal and external diameter and length, in the usual way, as is well
understood, and I expose it, by means of a reverberatory or other convenient
furnace or muffle, to such a degree of heat as the nature of the metal-or alloy
requires. Having given such ingots a requisite degree of heat, I proceed to
roll or extend them by means of grooved rolls. I take a mandril of the
dimensions corresponding to the internal diameter of the ingot and pass it
into the tube, so that the end of the mandril shall be at or rather within the
end of the tube, to allow the rolls to seize the tube, drawing it through between
the grooves, and thus over the end of the mandril. The tube may be received.
on another rod or mandril, as the case may be, in coming out-of-the-rolls.-

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Davie Morries Stirling in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th May 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
DAVIE MORRIES STIRLING, of Blackgrange, in the County of Clackmannan,
North Britain, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Davie Morries Stirling, Her special licence that I, the said John Davie
Morries Stirling, my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said John Davie Morrics Stirling, 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 THE MANUFACTURE OF METALLIC TUBES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Davie Morries Stirling, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 John Davie Morries Stirling, do hereby
declare the nature of the 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):
I cast a hollow ingot, according to the size of the tube required, of the
suitable internal and external diameter and length, in the usual way, as is well
understood, and I expose it, by means of a reverberatory or other convenient
furnace or muffle, to such a degree of heat as the nature of the metal or
alloy requires. Having given such ingots a requisite degree of heat, I proceed
to roll or extend them by means of grooved rolls. I take a mandril of the
dimensions corresponding to the internal diameter of the ingot, and pass it
into the tube, so that the end of the mandril shall be at or rather within the
end of the tube, to allow the-rolls to seize the tube, drawing it through between

page_text: the grooves, and thus over the end of the mandril. The tube may be received
on another rod or mandril, as the case may be, in coming out of the rolls.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe the manner of performing the same.
The Invention is applicable to copper and its alloys with other metals
which will admit of being cast and rolled when hot, also to zinc. For this
purpose, I first cast short hollow or tubular ingots of copper, or of the par-
ticular alloy of that metal which is to be used, or of zinc, which is not in
itself new, nor is the extending such tubular ingots when on mandrils into
tubes, such like castings having before been formed into tubes by being drawn
with, mandrils within them through dies or draw plates, and they have also
been converted into tubes by means of grooved rollers, the mandrils in the
tubes in such cases having been passed through between the rollers together
with the tubes, and the mandrils in both modes have had to be extracted from
the tubes so made. Now, my Invention consists of causing such cast tubular
ingots to be-drawn off the mandrils used, the mandrils being held stationary
whilst the tubes are being drawn off therefrom by the revolution of the grooved
rollers. And I would state, that in the manufacture of welded iron tubing
and welded iron gun barrels, similar machinery has been used; I do not,
therefore, claim the grooved rollers, nor the retaining back or holding of the
mandrils; my Invention consisting of applying this process of manufacture
when making tubes of 'copper or alloys thereof, particularly its alloys with
zinc, with or without other metal as will roll hot, and which are well known.
I, however, préfer making tubes to employ an alloy of copper, zinc, and iron
(with or without a very small per-centage of tin), consisting, as nearly as may
be, of fifty-six parts of copper and forty to forty-two of an alloy of zinc and
iron, the iron being at the rate of about five per cent. in the alloy of zinc
and iron, adding, when increased stiffness and closeness of grain is desired,
about one-half per cent. (of the weight of the whole compound) of tin; and
I cast, as before stated, tubular ingots of such alloy, and having heated such
an ingot to its rolling heat, I introduce a mandril into it, and place the tube
up to the grooved rollers, the back end of the mandril (by a suitable shield or
The mandrils used are made
stop thereon) being held back by the framing.
with the outer end or head, which passes between the rollers, somewhat larger
than the stem or other parts of the mandrils, as is well understood when
rolling welded iron tubes; and I prefer to cause the mandril to be so held
back, that-the-largest diameter of the mandril shall not quite come up to the
pinch-of-the-rollers; and I repeatedly roll such tube through between less
and less grooves, and I use-less-and-less diameters of mandrils, till the tube

page_text: becomes of the diameter and length desired, and in doing so I heat the tube
from time to time in order to keep it to the proper rolling temperature.
In witness whereof, I,, the said John Davie Morries Stirling, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five.
Witness,
S. CARPMAEL.
J. D. MORRIES STIRLING. (L.S.)