IMPROVE- MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TUNNELS AND TUBES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Barnabas Daft, of No. 10, Lawrence
Pountney Lane, and Charles Edward Crawley, of No. 160, Fleet
Street, both in the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TUNNELS AND TUBES."
Sealed the 22nd December 1871, and dated the 22nd September 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Barnabas Daft
and Charles Edward Crawley at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 22nd September 1870.
We, THOMAS BARNABAS DAFT, of No. 10, Lawrence Pountney Lane,
and CHARLES EDWARD CRAWLEY, of No. 160, Fleet Street, both in the
City of London, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TUNNELS AND TUBES," to be as
follows:-
In constructing tunnels according to our Invention we form them of
a continuous length of iron or suitable metal wound into a helical coil so

page_text: as to form a continuous tube, the several coils being made to butt one
against the other to form a close joint; and where it is required to form
an air or water-tight tunnel, the coils where they butt one against
another may be caulked with any suitable packing placed into a groove or
channel formed between the coils. We prefer to employ iron of a trough
section, and to coil it in such manner that the side flanges of the trough
iron in the successive coils come one against the other.
Tunnels made as above described may be made sufficiently large for
the transit of goods and passengers by railway trucks and carriages.
The flanges of the successive coils may, if desired, be rivetted or other-
wise connected to one another.
Tubes made as above described of bars of metal coiled into a helical
coil and with caulking laid between the several coils may also be
employed for other purposes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Barnabas Daft and Charles Edward
Crawley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 22nd March 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
BARNABAS DAFT, of No. 10, Lawrence Pountney Lane, and CHARLES
EDWARD CRAWLEY, of No. 160, Fleet Street, both in the City of London,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Thomas Barnabas Daft and Charles Edward
Crawley, Her special license that we, the said Thomas Barnabas Daft
and Charles Edward Crawley, our executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said Thomas Barnabas Daft and Charles
Edward Crawley, our 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

page_text: for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF TUNNELS AND TUBES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas Barnabas Daft and
Charles Edward Crawley, our executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hands
and seals of one of us or them, 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 Thomas Barnabas Daft and
Charles Edward Crawley, 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 :-
-
In constructing tunnels according to our Invention we form them of a
continuous length of iron or suitable metal wound into a helical coil so
as to form a continuous tube, the several coils being made to butt one
against the other to form a close joint; and where it is required to form
an air or water-tight tunnel, the coils where they butt one against
another may be caulked with any suitable packing placed into a groove
or channel formed between the coils. We prefer to employ iron of a
trough section, and to coil it in such manner that the side flanges of the
trough iron in the successive coils come one against the other.
Tunnels made as above described may be made sufficiently large for
the transit of goods and passengers by railway trucks and carriages. The
flanges of the successive coils may, if desired, be rivetted or otherwise
connected to one another.
Tubes made as above described of bars of metal coiled into a helical
coil, and with caulking laid between the several coils may also be
employed for other purposes.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention we will proceed to
describe more fully the manner of performing the same.
We take iron or steel bars of a channel or any other convenient
section and weld them together endwise, so as to obtain a continuous
length of bar, and having a drum of the diameter required we conduct
the bar up to the underside of the drum, and bring up against the bar a
:

page_text: roller set so as to pinch it between the drum and the roller, and draw in
the bar when the drum is made to revolve. Another roller is fixed so as
to act upon the end of the bar after it has been made to turn about one-
fourth part of a circle, in order to give it a proper direction on the
drum.
The process may be better understood by reference to the Drawings
hereunto annexed.
In these Drawings A is a cylinder of any required dimensions
arranged to revolve; B is a shoulder upon it, and C is a bar of iron or
steel of a channel section and bevilled, as shown%3B D is a roller for
conducting the bar into the space between it and the cylinder, and up a
groove to a second roller E. These rollers may be adjusted by screws to
pinch the bar against the cylinder much or little according to circum-
stances. The coils as they are made are forced off the cylinder by the
paying-in of the bar between the last coil formed and the shoulder of the
cylinder, this causes the coils to press closely together, and the bevilled
groove may be caulked by yarn paid into it in tension, and at the same.
time a stream of hot pitch may fall upon and under the yarn as it enters.
the groove.
Successive coils of yarn applied with hot pitch may be.
made to fill up or nearly so the grooves, and in this way a perfectly air
and water-tight joint will be produced, and which will allow of a
considerable curve in the tube when under water without opening the
seams or endangering their safety. Other suitable materials may be
used for the caulking besides yarn and tar.
Tubes and tunnels of dimensions sufficient to admit of the transit of
railway carriages may be constructed on the banks of rivers or on the
sea-shore, and paid out as finished and caulked into the water, and be
allowed to take the natural inclinations of the bottom, and then if
desirable the coils may be bolted together by using the inside flanges of
the coils.
Any other convenient section of bar may be used for forming the coil
or tube, and if the tube is required to be packed to resist internal
pressure, V or other formed grooves may be formed between the coils on
the interior to receive a suitable packing.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
performing the same we would have it understood that what we claim is,
the construction of tunnels and tubes substantially as herein described

page_text: of a continuous length of iron or suitable metal wound into a helical
coil.
In witness whereof, we, the said Thomas Barnabas Daft and Charles
Edward Crawley, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this
Twenty-second day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.
THOMAS B. DAFT. (L.s.)
C. E. CRAWLEY.
(L.S.)