IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRAWING TUBE SKELPS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Denton Abel, of No. 20, Southampton
Buildings, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent
Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR DRAWING
TUBE SKELPS."—A communication from abroad by Robert Briggs, of
Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, United States of America.
Scaled the 2nd August 1870, and dated the 30th May 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Denton Abel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 30th May 1870.
I, CHARLES DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings,
Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR DRAWING TUBE SKELPS," to be as follows:-
These improvements have reference to an Invention for which former
Letters Patent were granted to me, bearing date 29th December 1868,
No. 3952, wherein skelping dies were employed having a slot or opening
extending longitudinally along their upper part, so that the jaws of the
tongs could pass along in such slot in order to drag the skelp right
through the dies.

page_text: The present improvements consist, firstly, in fixing within such dies a
mandril also having a slot or groove corresponding with that of the dies
along which the nose of the tongs can pass. By this means the skelp is
more effectually acted upon on its passage through the dies.
Furthermore this Invention consists in forming vertical flanges along
the sides of the slot in the dies, and in providing the nose or end of the
tongs with a pin or carrier which rests upon and slides along the said
flanges as the tongs pass through the dies with the skelp, so as to
prevent the mandril from being depressed in the dies by the tongs and to
support the skelp in its proper position in the dies while the tongs are
passing through, after which time, the skelp being lapped smoothly
around the mandril, no further external support is needed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Denton Abel in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 9th November 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
DENTON ABEL, of No. 20, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, in
the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of May, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Charles Denton Abel, Her special licence that
I, the said Charles Denton Abel, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles Denton Abel, 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
APPARATUS FOR DRAWING TUBE SKELPS," a communication to me from abroad
by Robert Briggs, of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, United States
of America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles
Denton Abel, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-

page_text: ticularly 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Denton Abel, 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, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
These improvements have reference to an Invention for which former
Letters Patent were granted to me, bearing date 29th December 1868,
No. 3952, wherein skelping dies were employed having a slot or opening
extending longitudinally along their upper part, so that the jaws of
the tongs could pass along in such slot in order to drag the skelp right
through the dies.
The present improvements consist, firstly, in fixing within such
dies a mandril also having a slot or groove corresponding with that of
the dics along which the nose of the tongs can pass. By this means
the skelp is more effectually acted upon on its passage through the
dies.
Furthermore this Invention consists in forming vertical flanges along
the sides of the slot in the dies, and in providing the nose or end of the
tongs with a pin or carrier which rests upon and slides along the said
flanges as the tongs pass through the dies with the skelp, so as to prevent
the mandril from being depressed in the dies by the tongs and to
support the skelp in its proper position in the dies while the tongs are
passing through, after which time, the skelp being lapped smoothly.
around the mandril, no further external support is needed.
On the accompanying Drawing is shown the construction. of the
above described improved apparatus.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section through the middle of dies and
mandril showing the tongs in clevation; Figure 2 is a section at A;
Figure 3 is a section at B; Figure 4 is a section at C.. Similar. letters.
indicate similar parts upon all the Figures.
The bending dies D, D, are formed of such internal shape as gradually
and easily to roll up the flat strip of metal (or skelp) S, while it is drawn

page_text: by the tongs T through or between the dies, the tongs T being made as
thin or narrow as is consistent with the strain upon them, and passing
into the dies along a slot at P, P, this construction and method being
that described in the Specification to my former Patent aforesaid.
In order to bend skelps of lap welded tubes it is the most common
practice to have a mandril placed in between the dies to sustain the
skelp and keep the edges of the laps together. This has been heretofore
done by placing a mandril upon the skelp, and permitting it to be
dragged into the dies with it, a process which leaves a part of the end
of the tubes where the tongs take hold unsupported and imperfectly
lapped, and also demands a workman to handle and cool the mandril.
By the present improvements the mandril is permanently placed in the
dies, being held from passing through by a shoulder or projection at g,
and along the top of this mandril a groove or slot N is formed in which
the lower bit or nose of the tongs can lic.
Furthermore, in order to prevent the drawing of the tongs from
depressing the mandril upon the dies or cramping the iron of the skelp
by an unfair pull with regard to the dies, it has been found expedient
to support the nose of the tongs by a carrying pin U, which is made to
ride upon flanges E, E, attached to the dies, the upper edges of which
are parallel to the inside of the top of the dies, so that the skelp is
sustained whilst the tongs are passing through or along the die or
mandril, after which time, the skelp being lapped smoothly around the
mandril, no further external support is needed.
66
I am aware that skelps bave been bent by means of solid or fixed dies
which give the outer shape to the bent skelp with and without the combi-
nation of a fixed or moveable mandril to give the inside shape to the bent
skelp, the whole being used in connection with the ordinary draw bench
and lazy-tongs where the end of the skelp is previously bent into shape,
or is trimmed down to a point, or has a helper" (or handle) welded or
brazed upon it, such end point or "helper" being inserted through the
die so as to be grasped by the lazy-tongs. Arrangements and com-
binations of this kind are of well-known, long continued, and even
ancient use, and are constantly practised in the manufacture of stair rods,
brass mouldings, and tubes, tubular sash bars, and other hollow or
trough forms, but I do not claim any improvement except in combination
with such fixed dies as will admit the tongs to be passed along and

page_text: through them so that the tongs can lay hold upon the unbent and
unprepared end of the skelp.
Having thus described the nature of this Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, I desire it to be understood that I do not claim
any such part of the before-described apparatus as may be held to be
included in the Invention for which the aforesaid former Letters
Patent have been granted to me, but what I claim is,―
First. The permanent or fixed mandril in combination with two
permanent and fixed dies whose upper edges are separated longitudinally
so that the tongs can be passed along and between them to lay hold
upon the skelp, substantially as described.
Second. Also the slot or groove along the mandril in which the lower
bit or jaw of the tongs can pass while the end of the skelp to which
the tongs are attached is passing the dies, substantially as described.
Third. Also the pin or carrier for supporting the nose or end of the
tongs while passing along the dies substantially as described.
Fourth. Also the flanges or sliding surfaces E, E, formed upon the
dies or independent of them, upon which the pin or its equivalent
mechanical device can be made to move, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Denton Abel, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of October,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy.