A NEW KIND OF METAL SHEETS AND FASTNINGS FOR SHEETS INTENDED FOR THE SHEATHING SHIPS, AS ALSO THE RUDDER FURNITURE, COMMONLY CALLED SHIPS' RUDDER BRACES AND PINTLES
Year: 1792

page_text: COLLINS SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
COLLINS, of Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twentieth day of December, in the thirty-third year of His
reign, give and grant unto me, the said William Collins, His especial licence
that I, the said William Collins, during the term of years therein mentioned,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A NEW KIND
OF METAL SHEETS AND FASTNINGS FOR SHEETS INTENDED FOR THE SHEATHING SHIPS,
AS ALSO THE RUDDER FURNITURE, COMMONLY CALLED SHIPS' RUDDER BRACES AND
PINTLES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso obliging
me, the said William Collins, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month after the date of the
said recited Letters Patent, as in and, by the same (relation being thereunto
had) will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Collins, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in the

page_text: Fian and description thereof nereunto annexed, and in manner following, that
is to say :-
In order to be assured of having copper of a proper quality for manu-
facturing the new-invented or improved sheathing sheets, particular care is
necessary both in selecting and reducing the ores, which is a precaution not
attended to by smelters in general. Copper ores, in most countries, often par-
take of a mixture of tin or arsenic, and frequently of both; and such ores are
not by force of fire, or any art hitherto discovered, to be so totally divested of
theso mixtures as to yield that pure, fine, malleable, and compact metal which
alone can bear the mechanical process required and resist the marine acid to a
sufficient degree. When clean ores are procured, the smelter must take espe-
cial care that the furnaces in which they are worked be cleansed of all the
bad qualities of other ores used there before. These clean ores are then to
undergo the operations of calcining, smelting, and roasting, to a far greater
degree than commonly practised. The black copper should be carefully sepe-
rated from the regule adhering upon the top, and this copper only when
brought forward to its metallic state, and carefully refined, so as to stand the
proof of the test hammer, both hot and cold, can produce the proper metal
for the above purposes, and when so produced it is not to be depended upon
unless great care is used in the manufacturing, as herein-after described.
When the metal is brought to the above test in the refiuing furnace it is to
be laded into dales (carefully warmed, so as to form compact cakes or plates
of the proper weights and dimensions for the sheets required. The cakes of
copper thus obtained are then to be manufactured as follows, viz' :-They are
prepared for the pressure of the rolls (such as are commonly used) by being
very slowly heated in an annealing furnace. In this first state of the manu-
facture, care should be taken that the cake be not reduced above one half from
their original thickness. They are then to be carefully pickled and cleansed,
again annealed, put under the rolls, and brought to one fourth part of the first
thickness. The cakes thus drawn out are cut into pieces, each of a suflicient
weight to make two sheets of sheathing. The edges, where they are cut, aro
then closely examined with a glass, in order to ascertain whether the texture
of the metal be of that compactness and malleability which is indispensibly
necessary for the manufacture of the improved sheathing. If the metal does
not prove in every way of that superior quality it is best to reject it imme-
diately, and convert it to some other purpose which it may suit; but in case it
turns ont perfectly tough and fine it must be rolled in the usual way, only
observing after each annealing never to draw the sheets to more than one half
the extent they are commonly drawn to. This precaution must be attended

page_text: to, although it renders the manufacture of these sheets doubly tedious and
expensive. When the above-mentioned pieces, cut from the cakes after the
second rolling, are by dint of repeated annealings and gradual pressure of the
rolls brought to within six or seven inches of the length of the proposed sheets,
they are then well pickled and cleansed from all scale and dirt visible thereon:
But as they frequently have numberless small surface specks and other defects.
which the eye, even with the use of. glasses, cannot perceive, and which, if
rolled in, would admit the penetrating operation of the marine acid, it is
necessary they should be cleansed from such defects by the following means,
before they undergo any further rolling operations, viz, they must be plunged
into a pickle made of clear water and oil of vitriol, in about the proportion of
two pound of the latter to twenty gallons of the former, there to remain as
long as from their appearance may be deemed necessary; about six hours has
been generally found sufficient. They are then to be taken out, drawn through
clear water, and immersed into a second pickle (to correct the first) composed
of pearl ashes dissolved in water, in the proportion of one pound of the former
to eight gallons of the latter. After remaining about five minutes in this last
pickle, the sheets are again drawn thro' clean 'water, and the remaining scale
(if any) perfectly detached, by rubbing cach sheet with a very hard brush,
and afterwards with a dry woollen cloth. They are then carefully washed in
running, dried as quick as possible in a stove, and afterwards rubbed over with
dry bran. The sheets being now perfectly clean, and free from every im-
purity that can injure or blemish them, and each containing the breadth of two
finished sheets, are doubled lengthways, passed cold between iron, steel, or hard
brass rolls highly polished, till they are pressed out to the full length required.
By this operation they acquire a superior degree of firmness, a bright and even
polish, as well as an exactly equal substance throughout. Each sheet is after-
wards carefully examined, and those in which any imperfection appears are
thrown aside. But before they are placed on the ships it is adviseable to pay
the inside of each sheet with a wat of whito lead and oil, or black wad and oil;
as is done in the King's yards.
My new-invented or improved sheathing nails are made as follows, viz*:-
Take square wire made from sheets or plates of pure copper, prepared in the
same manner as described in the first process for making the improved sheets.
Let this wire be drawn to the size of the nail required, and left hard. Cut it
into lengths of about twenty inches, the end of which for the nail is pointed cold
with a hammer and anvil, and is then cut by a guage into the length proper
for each nail, making an allowance for the head, to be formed from the extra
length of the shank, which is put into a pair of clams prepared to fit and

page_text: receive it dingonally, save so much as was lett to form the head of the nau;
which is finished by beating it down with a hammer into a countersunk form
made to receive it at the top of the clams.
as
Another method of preparing the nails for the last operation of heading is
follows:-From copper sheets or plates (prepared as above) about one fourth
part thicker than the nail required, cut strips of a breadth nearly equal to
double the length of the nail which the prepared thickness is suitable to. Let
these strips be passed cold betwixt such rollers as are described in the annexed
Drawing. This operation will form the metal to the shape of the nail required
in one direction, and by means of a pair of cutting tools, as described in the
Drawing, and fixed in a press; the shank and point of the nail will bo
formed ready for heading, which is performed by means of the clams and
hammer before described.
The new-invented or improved rother furniture, commonly called braces
and pintles, are made as follows, viz:-For the pintle, cast pure copper in a
loam dale, of the shape of the annexed Drawing, and of a size and weight
proper for the pintle required. Heat it in an annealing furnaco, and draw it
out by a forge hammer, as, near as may be to the length, breadth, and sub-
stance required. The arms are from this operation still left in the same place
with the part intended to form the pintle. It must then be taken to a smith's
fire, and by hand lammering, chipping, it is brought to the form required,
both in substance and bend, &c. The pintle part is to be particularly attended
to, and brought as near its length and diameter as may be by chipping and
hammering. It is then cut or drill'd down, by means of a tool which has a
hole in it equal to the diameter required, and with teeth on the end or face,
which cuts off the irregularities of the metal, and prepares it to receive a case
or tube of hard metal of suflicient substance, at the root of which is a base
projecting horizontally from the tube, about one and an half or one and three
quarters inches. A groove is cut in it, which is let into the copper at the foot
of the pintle (dovetailed ways), where it is beded to about half an inch above
the copper, which is forced into the above groove by proper punches, and to
make the case prove secure the upper part or end of the copper pintle is
rivetted down over the edges of the brass tube. The ingot for the brace is
likewise cast of the purest copper in a loam dale, of an oblong form, with a
rising in the centre in form or a segment of a circle, and of the same sub-
stance with the ingots. It is then hammered, by means of the forge, to the
required form and substance, and it is then carried to the smith's fire, and a
hole to receive the hard metal bush or socket is punched, and the brace is
turned to its proper form and cut to its proper size. The brass socket with its

page_text: base is now fixed and fastened in like manner with the pintle before described,
and likewise rises with a shoulder about half an inch above the copper, by
which means the brass tube of the pintle and the socket of the brace keep the
copper of the pintle and brace apart, and prevent the friction.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Collins, have hereunto set my
hand and seal this Fifteenth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and ninety-three.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of January, in
the year above written, the aforesaid William Collins came before our Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid, and
all and every thing therein contained, in form above written. And also the
Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute in
that case made and provided.
Inrolled the Seventeenth day of January, in the year above mentioned.

page_text: Strips prepared by the Rolls and makes them ready for the claims as described in the Specification
to which this is annexid A. A. are Rollers Turned full in the middle intended to compress the
Copper Strips to the form of the nail in one direction and prepare it for the press Cutters B
which are made either to cut one as expressed in the Drawing or several together either by
arrangeing them paralel to each other on the Bed or two in length, the Rotters
formed to make the points of the Nails at the outer extremity of the Rollers but in this case the
same holls will not answer for so many sizes The Cutting Tools may also be varied to
this Drawing expresses a pair of holls of a
answer the Strips from Rolls of this description
that will make small nails
may
be also
seje
But they may
be varied as required and several homed
be
upon the same Roller where the power is sufficient to work them - The Mettle
may
either Hot or Cold as the hardness of the Nail requires or done at several operations -
C. the form of
Ingot of Copper cast in Loom from which the Pintle is to be forged
N.B. this is on a small Scale but when Ingots are cast of the full size they
may vary in weight agreeable to the size of the Pintle required.
an