IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CANNON AND OTHER
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Theophilus Alexander Blakely, of Montpelier Square,
in the County of Middlesex, late Captain Royal Artillery, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CANNON AND OTHER
"
Sealed the 14th June 1864, and dated the 16th December 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Theophilus Alexander
Blakely at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 16th December 1863.
I, THEOPHILUS ALEXANDER BLAKELY, of Montpelier Square, in the County
of Middlesex, late Captain Royal Artillery, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF CANNON AND
OTHER ORDNANCE," to be as follows:--
My Invention consists in constructing cannon and other ordnance mainly of
two or more tubes of cast iron, and otherwise, as hereafter stated. Each tube
is cast separately, bored and turned, and the tubes are shrunk or otherwise
fitted over one another in such manner that the second shall compress the
first or innermost tube, and so on in succession for as many tubes as are
employed. I prefer that the second tube, or that next the innermost tube,
shall be of harder or less extensible cast iron than that of which the innermost
tube is composed, and so on in succession. Sometimes instead of employing
continuous tubes I divide the tubes lengthwise, and in that case cause the

page_text: succeeding layers to "break joint." Again, sometimes I strengthen guns made
as aforesaid by steel hoops, and sometimes I line the breech with a metal
softer even than the innermost cast-iron tube.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 16th June 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THEOPHILUS
ALEXANDER BLAKELY, of Montpelier Square, in the County of Middlesex, late
Captain Royal Artillery, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh
year of her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely, Her special licence that I,
the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely, 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 THE CON-
STRUCTION OF CANNON AND OTHER ORDNANCE," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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 I; the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely, do
hereby declare the nature of my 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:-
My Invention consists in constructing cannon and other ordnance mainly of
two or more tubes of cast iron, and otherwise, as hereafter stated. Each tube
is cast separately, bored and turned, and the tubes are shrunk or otherwise

page_text: fitted over one another in such manner that the second shall compress the
first or innermost tube, and so on in succession for as many tubes as are
employed. I prefer that the second tube, or that next the innermost tube,
shall be of harder or less extensible cast iron than that of which the innermost
tube is composed, and so on in succession. Sometimes instead of employing
continuous tubes I divide the tubes lengthwise, and in that case cause the
succeeding layers to "break joint." Again, sometimes I strengthen guns
made as aforesaid by steel hoops, and sometimes I line the breech with a
metal softer even than the innermost cast-iron tube.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim,-
Firstly, constructing cannon and other ordnance of two or more tubes of
cast iron, each of which tubes compresses that or those within it, and that
whether the cast iron of which such tubes are composed be of equal hardness
or not.
Secondly, the combined employment in the construction of cannon and other
ordnance of two or more cast-iron tubes as aforesaid, and of strengthening
hoops of steel.
Thirdly, the combined employment in the construction of cannon and other
ordnance of two or more cast-iron tubes as aforesaid, and of a lining at the
breech of metal softer than the innermost cast-iron tube.
In witness whereof, I, the said Theophilus Alexander Blakely, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of June, One
thousand eight hundred and sixty-four.
T. A. DLAKELY.
(LS.)