CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING LEAD AND OTHER METAL INTO PIPE AND SHEETS
Year: 1820

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
BURR, of Shrewsbury, in the County of Salop, Plamber, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, boaring date at Westininster,
the Eleventh day of April, in the first year of His reign, give and grant unto
me, the said Thomas Burr, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power,
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Thomas Burr, my exors,
adfors, and assigns, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR MANUFACTURING LEAD AND OTHER
METAL INTO PIPE AND SHEETS;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained
a proviso that if I, the said Thomas Burr, shall not particularly describe and
ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and
cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of these
our Letters Patent, that then these our Letters Patent, and all liberties and
advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and
become void, as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more
fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Thomas Burr, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof (that is to
say):-
The particulars of my aforesaid Invention, and the manner in which the same
are to be performed, are herein-after set forth and described. The machinery
for making pipe consists in a strong iron hollow cylinder or barrel, true, with
parallel sides for a piston to work in, open at one end and closed at the other
end, except a hole being left in the centre to admit the pipe to pass through,
into which said hole is fixed a washer or thimble, the hole through which is
the exact size of the outside of the pipe intended to be made. This washer
is made to take out occasionally (by a screw or otherwise) to allow another
washer to be placed in its stead, with a larger or smaller hole in proportion to
the size of the pipe intended to be made. A strong piston is made so to fit the
inside of the cylinder as to allow sufficient space for it easily to work up and
down in it from one end to the other. In the centre of the end of the piston
that enters the cylinder is fixed perpendicularly a round core or rod the length
of the cylinder, and the diameter of the inside of the pipe intended to be made.
This core or rod is also made to take off occasionally (by a screw or otherwise)
to admit another core or rod to be introduced in its stead, of the same length,
but of larger or smaller diameter in proportion to the size of the pipe wanted.
The cylinder may be of any size at pleasure; it must be large enough to
contain lead sufficient to make one length of pipe. The larger it is the
longer the pipe will be; if it is six inches diameter, and one foot long, it will
require to be at least four inches thick, and so in proportion. The above
may all be made of iron or other strong metal, but the cores or rods and
washers will be better of steel. The manner of using the apparatus is as
follows: The cylinder is fixed perpendicularly, with the end uppermost to
which the washer is fixed. The piston is drawn down until it is nearly out
of the cylinder. The upper end of the core or rod will then appear through
the centre of the hole in the washer; if it should vary it must be wedged in
the centre. Clean melted lead is then poured into the cylinder, by the space
between the core or rod and the washer, until it is full. After it has stood
until the lead is set, the piston is forced into the cylinder, which presses out
the lead through the aperture between the core or rod and the washer in the
form of pipe. When the piston has pressed out all the lead the pipe is sawed
off above the core or rod; the piston is drawn down again to its former place
(viz. nearly out of the cylinder). A short piece of pipe will then remain, so
as to stop up the passage or space between the core or rod and the washer. To
clear the passage melted lead, heated nearly to a low red heat, is poured on to

page_text: the pipe remaining, which will very soon melt it away, and the lead must be
continued pouring until the cylinder is full, as before. To take the melted
lead into the cylinder that was poured on to open a passage a small hole is
made close by the side of the washer, which hole, when the cylinders is full,
is stopped up by a screw pin. After standing as before, the operations are
repeated. The method I use to force the piston into the cylinder, and draw it
back again, is as follows:-The cylinder is firmly fixed (by a flanch casti
thereon for that purpose)in a perpendicular hole,through the centre of the top
of the frame of a powerful hydraulic press,in suchamanner that the upper end
appears above the frame of the press. For the purpose of access to it to pour in
the lead, &c. the press is made to heave upwards and pull back again. The
piston is fastened to the leaving rod of the press by a screw, so that it can
be easily taken off to clear away the lead that may hang on when the core or
rod is to be changed. I warm the cylinder before I begin to use it, after it
has stood from working, by making a small fire round it to dry it, and also it
makes it work the easier.
The method of making sheets is the same as pipes, except that instead of
the vessel that contains the lead being cylindrical,it must be an oblong square
inside,as wide as the sheet is required,and of length and breadth sufficient to
contain lead enough for one sheet; and the aperture where the lead is to be
pressed out must be as long as the sheet is to be wide, and as wide as the
sheet is to be thick. The plate that forms one side of the aperture must be
made to move by screws nearer or further off the opposite side when a thinner
or thicker sheet is required, and no core or rod is wanted.
I do not claim under the said Letters Patent any particular kind of
machinery or power for forcing the piston into the cylinder and drawing it.
back again, as it may be done by a variety of ways well known to any person
acquainted with machineryand applying power; neither is it essential to have
the vessel that contains the lead for making pipe cylindrical; it would do
square or in other forms. The object, therefore, of this Patent is, to make
pipes and sheets of lead or other suitable metal, by pressing or forcing the
metal, in a solid state, through an aperture of the form required, not by
drawing or rolling it, as is the present practice.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Burr, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Seventh day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and twenty.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Seventh day of October, in the
year of our Lord 1820, the aforesaid Thomas Burr came before our said Lord
the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,"
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of
the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Ninth day of October in the year of our Lord One