IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF COPPER
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Walker Torr, of the Firm of Robert Walter
Winfield and Company, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Merchants
and Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF COPPER."
Sealed the 20th October 1877, and dated the 29th May 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Walker Torr at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 29th May 1877.
and
CHARLES WALKER TORR, of the Firm of Robert Walter Winfield and Company, of
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Merchants and Manufacturers. " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF COPPER."
The object of my Invention is to obviate the unsoundness of tubes of copper
alloys of copper as ordinarily manufactured, which unsoundness is occasioned by
the spongy or porous character of the cast ingot or block, from which the said tubes
are manufactured. This defect is in part remedied by hammering the partially
made tube on an anvil, the interior of the tube being supported by a mandril, but
the beneficial effect produced only partially remedies the defect referred to, and
from the nature of the process all parts of the tube cannot be equally acted upon.
In manufacturing tubes of copper and alloys of copper, according to my Invention,
I proceed as follows:-I cast an ingot or block of copper or alloy of copper in the
usual way, the said ingot or block being by preference either square or circular in
cross section. The ingot is removed from the mould in which it is cast soon
after the metal has solidified, and while still hot is passed several times between
grooved rolls, the ingot being turned on its axis after each rolling, so as to subject
all parts as nearly as possible to the same action of the rolls. Or the ingot may be
allowed to cool after casting, and be re-heated before being rolled.
By subjecting the ingot to the action of the rolls until it has about doubled in
length, and diminished proportionably in diameter, the maximum beneficial effect
will be found to have been produced. The solid cylinder thus made is next cut into

page_text: pieces of about two feet long, or into other convenient lengths, and is bored either
by means of an ordinary boring tool, or by means of a tubular cutter. In the latter
case annular spaces are cut in the said lengths, the said annular cuttings removing
cylindrical cores from the axes of the pieces. From each length or piece there
is thus produced a short thick tube and a solid cylinder cut from it concentric with
its axis.
The cylinder cut from the ingot, when bored, produces another partially formed
tube. The partially formed tubes thus made are finished by the drawing process in
the usual manner.
My Invention is especially applicable to the manufacture of copper and brass
tubes, but is also applicable to the manufacture of tubes of other alloys of which
copper is a principal constituent.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Charles Walker Torr in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th
November 1877.
CHARLES WALKER TORR, of the Firm of Robert Walter Winfield and Company, of
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Merchants and Manufacturers. "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF COPPER."
The object of my Invention is to obviate the unsoundness of tubes of copper and
alloys of copper as ordinarily manufactured, which unsoundness is occasioned by the
spongy or porous character of the cast ingot or block from which the said tubes are
manufactured. This defect is frequently in great part remedied by hammering
the partially made tube on an anvil, the interior of the tube being supported by
a mandril, but the beneficial effect produced only partially remedies the defect
referred to, and from the nature of the process all parts of the tube cannot be
equally acted upon.
In manufacturing tubes of copper and alloys of copper, according to my Invention,
I proceed as follows:-I cast an ingot or block of copper or alloy of copper in the
usual way, the said ingot or block being by preference octagonal or circular in
cross section; but the said ingot or block may be made of other figures. The ingot
is removed from the mould in which it is cast soon after the metal has solidified,
and while still hot is passed several times between grooved rolls, the ingot being
turned on its axis after each rolling so as to subject all parts as nearly as possible
to the same action of the rolls. Or the ingot may be allowed to cool after casting,
and be re-heated before being rolled.
By subjecting the ingot to the action of the rolls until it has about doubled in
length, and diminished proportionately in diameter, the maximum beneficial effect
will be found to have been produced. The compressed or consolidated cylinder thus
made is cut into pieces of about two feet long, or into other convenient lengths, und
is bored either by means of an ordinary boring tool, or by means of a tubular cutter.
In the latter case, annular spaces are cut in the said lengths, the said annular cuttings
removing cylindrical cores from the axes of the pieces. From each length or piece
there is thus produced a short thick tube and a solid cylinder cut from it concentric
with its axis.

page_text: The cylinder cut from the ingot length, when bored, produces another partially
formed tube. The partially formed tubes thus made are finished by the drawing
process, or by rolling and drawing in the usual manner.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents in elevation a solid cylindrical
length of copper, which has been cut from a rolled and consolidated ingot.
Figure 2 represents in plan, and Figure 3, partly in vertical section, the cylin-
drical length or block Figure 1, after it has been cut concentric with its axis, so as
to produce a short thick tube and a solid cylinder or core.
In the said Figures 2 and 3 a represents the short thick tube cut from the
external part of the solid length or block of copper, and b represents the solid cylinder
or core cut from the interior or axial portion of the said solid length or block, the
said tube a and cylinder b being cut from the length or block concentric with its
axis; c, c, is the annular space formed by the cutter, so as to separate the inner solid
cylinder 6 from the outer tube a.
From the short thick tube a, a tube of the required diameter is formed by the
ordinary, drawing process, and by boring or drilling an axial hole in the solid
cylinder or core b, another thick tube of a different diameter is produced, which is
drawn down and finished in the ordinary manner.
Instead of making one thick tube and a solid cylinder from each of the thick
lengths or blocks of the consolidated copper ingot, as represented in Figures 2 and
3, several concentric annular spaces may be cut in the solid lengths or blocks, so as
to produce several thick tubes and a solid cylinder from each length or block; but
I prefer, in practice, to cut from each consolidated length or block a single thick
tube and a solid cylinder or core as represented.
For producing the annular cutting e, c, (or annular cuttings) in the consolidated
length or block of copper ingot, I employ a tubular cutter, and I have represented
in the accompanying Drawing a machine containing, among other appliances, a
tubular cutter, which may be used in the production of thick tubes and solid
cylinders from the said consolidated ingot lengths or blocks; but I wish it to be
understood that my Invention may be carried into effect by the use of other
analogous appliances.
Figure 4 represents a front elevation, and Figure 5, a side elevation of the said
machine. It consists essentially of a tubular cutter d (shown in section in Figure
44), having a vertically sliding motion in the axis of the machine, and a rotating
holder e, in which the thick length or block of copper f is fixed during the cutting
operation, the said cutter d being raised against the rotating length or block in the
said holder. The holder e is provided with an axis e2, which works in the bearings
g and h, and is supported against the thrust of the tubular cutter at i. The thick
length or block f to be cut is fixed in the holder e by the set screws represented;
and its lower end is supported in the conical seat or bearing in the adjustable
carrier or support k, which carrier or support slides on dovetails on the uprights of
the machine, and is adjusted by the screws l, m, working in screw boxes at k³, k³,
in the said carrier k. The two parallel screws l, m, are geared together by the cross
shaft n, and bevil gearing at n² and n³; p is a hand wheel, the axis of which
carries a bevil pinion which gears with a bevil pinion q on the screw l. The motion
of the screw is transmitted to the other screw m, and in the same direction, by
the bevil gearing n², shaft n, and bevil gearing n³. By turning the hand wheel p
in one or other direction, the carrier or support k may be raised or lowered,
and the block or length f, supported in the seat k², raised to or withdrawn from
the holder e..
The tubular cutter d is fixed to the slide d³, working on dovetails at the sides of
the uprights of the machine. The vertically sliding motion of the tubular cutter d
is effected by a pinion on the shaft gearing with a rack d³ on the slide d³, and
the back motion of the tubular cutter is prevented by the weighted cord S, which
cord as the cutter is raised unwinds itself from the pulley on the end of the axis
The rotatory motion of the holder e, in which the block or length f to be cut is
fixed, and the rising motion of the tubular cutter d against the rotating block are

page_text: effected in the following manner :—t is the driving shaft, having upon it two worms
t2, 3, of different diameters. The larger worm to gears with the worm wheel ton
the axis e of the holder, and thereby communicates a slow rotatory motion to the
said holder and to the block fixed in it, the bottom of the said block taking a bear-
ing in the conical seat of the carrier k. The other worm t³ gears with the worm
wheel to, near the top of the vertical shaft to the bottom of the said shaft carrying
a worm ts, which gears with the worm wheel t7, turning loosely on the screwed axis
of the hand wheel u. On the shaft of the driving pinion is a fixed wheel v
wheel 7 may be forced by screwing home the hand
against which the loose the loose worm wheel' u is thus by frictional contact' com
wheel u. The motion of
municated to the wheel v, shaft r, and pinion, and the required rising motion
given to the tubular cutter d, the said tubular cutter being maintained in contact
with the block during the operation of the machine by the weighted cord s. By
means of the frictional connection described of the shaft to with the pinion shaft
r, the cutter & is brought to rest, should such a resistance be offered to its pro-
gress as would tend to the injury of the machine. By the operation of the
machine the tubular cutter d rapidly cuts in the block f, in the rotating holder
e, an annular space of the kind shown at c, c, Figures 2 and 3, and thereby divides
the block into a thick tube a and a solid cylinder b, as herein-before described.
Instead of using a single cutting machine as described and illustrated, a compound
machine may be employed; that is to say, a series of holders of the kind shown at
e, Figure 4, may be arranged around and driven from. a central toothed wheel, each
holder having beneath it a sliding tubular cutter of the kind shown at d, the said
tubular cutters, being simultaneously or separately raised against the solid blocks
or lengths held in the several rotating holders.
These tubular cutters may be of the same or of different diameters, so as to
cut from the blocks thick tubes of the same or of different diameters. This machine
is only a duplication or combination of a series of the machine; Figures 4 and 5,
driven from a common shaft.
Instead of operating upon the solid cylindrical length or block of copper, Figure
1, cut from the rolled or consolidated ingot, as described by means of the machine,
Figures 4 and 5, or other analogous machine, the said solid cylindrical length' or
block may be operated upon by an ordinary boring tool, so as to remove the axial
portion of the length or block, and thereby produce a thick tube of the consolidated
copper, which tube may be finished by the ordinary process.
The method of manufacturing copper tubes by cutting one or more concentric
tubes and a solid cylinder or core from lengths or blocks of rolled or consolidated
ingots, as described with respect to Figures 1, 2, and 3, may also be applied to the
manufacture of short thick copper tubes from ingots which have not been subjected
to the said rolling or consolidating process.
My Invention is especially applicable to the manufacture of copper and brass.
tubes, but it is also applicable to the manufacture of tubes of other alloys, of which
copper is a principal constituent.
Having now described' the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which the
same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit myself to
the precise details herein-before described and illustrated, as the same may be
varied without departing from the nature of my Invention; but I claim as my
Invention of improvements in the manufacture of tubes of copper and alloys of
copper,
First. Consolidating, or compressing by the rolling process ingots of copper or
alloys of copper to be afterwards formed into tubes, the said consolidating or
compressing process being conducted substantially as and for the purpose herein-before.
described.
Secondly. Manufacturing tubes of copper or alloys of copper by cutting from solid
cylindrical lengths or blocks one or more thick concentric tubes; and a central
cylinder or core, the said thick tubes being finished in the ordinary way, and the
central cylinder or core being converted into a thick tube by an axial boring or

page_text: drilling, and afterwards finished in the ordinary way, substantially as herein-before
described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Walker Torr, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
CHARLES WALKER TORR. (L.S.)