IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF MANUFACTURING AND IN THE MODE OF CONSTRUCTING AND FORMING PISTONS AND PISTON RODS
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Abraham Ripley, of 42, Bridge Street, Blackfriars,
City of London, and William Henry Stevenson, of Duke Street, Adelphi,
London, Engineers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD
OF MANUFACTURING AND IN THE MODE OF CONSTRUCTING AND FORMING PISTONS
AND PISTON RODS."
Sealed the 9th August 1861, and dated the 18th February 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Abraham Ripley and
William Henry Stevenson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 13th February 1861.
We, ABRAHAM RIPLEY, of 42, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, City of London,
and WILLIAM HENRY STEVENSON, of Duke Street, Adelphi, London, Engineers,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE METHOD OF MANUFACTURING, AND IN THE MODE OF CONSTRUCTING AND FORMING
PISTONS AND PISTON RODS," to be as follows:-
We propose that the block or body of the piston shall be composed of
cast steel, that is, in one casting of cast steel, after finishing to be attached
to the piston rod by the usual means. Next, we propose to form the piston
and piston rod in one piece composed of a casting of cast steel, the piston rod
to be either hollow, or solid, or partly so.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Abraham Ripley and William Henry Stevenson in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 13th August 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ABRAHAM
RIPLEY, of 42, Bridge Street, Blackfriars, City of London, and WILLIAM
HENRY STEVENSON, of Duke Street, Adelphi, London, Engineers, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her- heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Abrabam Ripley and William Henry Stevenson, Her special licence
that we, the said Abraham Ripley and William Henry Stevenson, our ex-
ecutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Abraham
Ripley and William Henry Stevenson, 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 for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF MANUFACTURING AND IN THE
MODE OF CONSTRUCTING AND FORMING PISTONS AND PISTON RODS," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Abraham Ripley and William
Henry Stevenson, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 Abraham Ripley and William Henry
Stevenson, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Hitherto the mode of manufacturing pistons has been either to form them
of one or more parts of cast iron, or to forge them in wrought iron, in one
or more pieces; in general the piston rod or rods have been formed separately,
but these have also lately been forged with the piston in one piece. The
objection to pistons made of these materials has been their great weight;
in order to obviate this we propose to make pistons or piston rods in one

page_text: piece from a casting of steel. The metal we propose to use for this purpose
will be such steel as will run or flow into a mould or pattern of the piston,
and will therefore be that known as cast steel, run steel, homogeneous steel,
or converted steel. We do not claim any particular mode of doing this,
but that which we suggest and prefer is to form a mould, and having run
the steel into it we hammer or forge it into shape; while in this hot state
the rod may be drawn out by means of swages, if it is intended to have
the piston and rod in one piece, if otherwise, the piston is finished in the
mould.
Having now described the nature of our Invention, and how the same may
be formed, we wish to state that we claim and desire secured to us, by the
aforesaid in part recited Letters Patent, the manufacture of pistons, either
separately or in one piece, with the piston rod composed of or made from
cast-run homogeneous or converted steel, the said being run into a mould
substantially as herewithin described and set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Abraham Ripley, on behalf of myself
and the said William Henry Stevenson, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Thirteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
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