IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF COPPER
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Walker, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF COPPER."
Scaled the 20th August 1858, and dated the 13th March 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Walker at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 13th
March 1858.
I, SAMUEL WALKER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE MANUFACTURE OF TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF COPPER," to be as
follows:-
My said Invention consists in the improvements herein-after described in
the manufacture of tubes of copper and alloys of copper. My said Invention
is applicable to the manufacture of tubes for general purposes, but is especially
applicable to the manufacture of such tubes as are used for the steam boilers
of marine, locomotive, and stationary steam engines.
In carrying my Invention into effect, I take a skelp or piece of sheet metal,
and having turned up one end thereof place thereon a mandril; I pass the
turned-up end of the skelp, together with the end of the mandril, through a
lapping hole or turning-up hole, such as is commonly employed in making
tubes at a draw bench. The said lapping hole or turning-up hole is fixed in
front of a pair of rolls having grooves of the size of the tube to be made.

page_text: The end of the skelp and mandril being seized by the rolls are drawn through
the lapping hole or turning-up hole, by which the skelp is lapped or bent into
a tubular form upon the mandril, the form of the partially made tube and lap
joint being perfected by the action of the rolls. The soldering of the joint
may be effected in the ordinary way by means of hard solder, but I prefer to
employ a solder composed of about equal parts of copper and zinc, and small
quantities of lead and bismuth. The last described solder is employed in the
same way as the ordinary hard solder. Instead of using a mandril moving
with the skelp, I sometimes employ a plug or stationary mandril.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel Walker in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
8th September 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
WALKER, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Samuel Walker, Her special licence that I, the said
Samuel Walker, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Samuel Walker, 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 MANUFACTURE OF TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF
COPPER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Samuel Walker,
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 Samuel Walker, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
My said Invention consists of the improvements herein-after particularly
described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, in the manufacture of
tubes of copper and alloys of copper.
My said Invention is applicable to the manufacture of tubes for general
purposes, but it is especially applicable to the manufacture of such tubes as
are used for the steam boilers of marine, locomotive, and stationary steam
engines.
In carrying my Invention into effect I take a skelp or piece of sheet copper
or alloy of copper, and having turned up one end thereof place thereon a
mandril; I pass the turned-up end of the skelp, together with the end of the
mandril, through a lapping hole or turning-up hole, such as is commonly
émployed in making tubes at a draw bench.. The said lapping hole or turning-
up hole is fixed in front of a pair of rolls having grooves of the size of the
tube to be made. The end of the skelp and mandril being seized by the rolls
are drawn through the lapping or turning-up hole, by which the skelp is
lapped or bent into a tubular form upon the mandril, the form of the partially
made tube and lap joint being perfected by the action of the rolls, through
which the tube passes after leaving the said lapping hole or turning-up hole.
The pressure of the said rolls bevils the edges of the metal or skelp, and
facilitates the subsequent brazing.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawing represents in plan a lapping hole
or turning-up hole of the kind employed in carrying my Invention into effect;
Figure 2 represents a side elevation of the same; and Figure 8 represents
a longitudinal section of the same, the said section Figure 3 being taken.
through the line a, Figure 1. A front view of the lapping or turning-up
hole, Figures 1, 2, and 3, looking from the position b, is shown in Figure 4.
Figure 5 represents in transverse vertical section a pair of rolis, the said rolls.
having a lapping or turning-up. hole according to my Invention; Figure 6.
represents in section the lapping or turning-up hole, the said section Figure 6
being taken in a line at right angles to that in which the turning-up hole..
represented in Figure 5 is taken. In the said Figures 5 and 6 a. tube is.
shown in the act of being formed by passing the skelp through the lapping or.
turning-up hole c, the partially formed tube afterwards passing through the.
grooves in the rolls d, e.
The skelp from which the tube is.made is marked f,
and the mandril upon which the skelp is bent is marked g. The said lapping.
or turning-up hole, Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4, is placed in front of the rolls in the.
position represented in Figure 5, the concave parts 1, occupying the position.

page_text: between the rolls d, e, represented in the said Figure 5. The said lapping or
turning-up hole c is supported in its place by a plate m, engaging with the
flange n of the said lapping or turning-up hole, the said plate m being secured
to the framing of the rolls in any suitable manner. The contracted part h of
the turning-up hole c, and in passing through which said contracted part the
skelp is bent into a tubular form, is not quite cylindrical, but has the form
represented in Figure 4, that is to say, the said contracted part h is of greater
radius at and near the part i than the other portion of the said opening h,
the object of the said greater radius being to allow the edges of the tube
made by the said contracted part to lap over one another, as represented in
the section Figure 6. The partially formed tube having the form represented
in Figure 6 in passing through the grooves in the rolls d, e, is made into a
cylindrical tube, the overlapping edges of the tube formed at the part of the
turning-up hole c forming the lap joint of the said tube. A tube made
according to my Invention is represented in section in Figure 7, the lap joint
of the said tube having the form shewn in the said Figure 7.
Instead of using a mandril moving with the skelp, I sometimes employ a
plug or stationary mandril.
The soldering of the joint of tubes made according to my Invention may be
effected in the ordinary way by means of hard solder, but I prefer to employ a
solder composed of sixteen parts by weight of copper, sixteen parts of zinc, one
and a half parts of bismuth, and two parts of lead. The last described solder
is used in the same way as the ordinary hard solder. Although I prefer to
compose my new or improved solder of the parts described, yet I do not limit
myself thereto, as the proportions of the bismuth and lead employed may be
slightly varied with the same or nearly the same effect.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described, and illustrated in the accom-
panying Drawing, as the same may be varied without departing from the
nature of my Invention; but I claim as my Invention the improvements in
the manufacture of tubes of copper and alloys of copper herein-before described,
and illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, that is to say, t manufacturing
the said tubes by passing a skelp or piece of sheet metal through a lapping
hole or turning-up hole, the said lapping or turning-up hole being placed in
front of a pair of rolls, through the grooves of which rolls the partially made
tube is passed after leaving the said lapping or turning-up hole, whether the
mandril upon which the skelp is bent into a tube be stationary, or be drawn
with the skelp upon. it through the said lapping or turning-up hole and rolls,

page_text: as herein described; also, soldering brass and copper tubes by means of a solder
having the composition herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Walker, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventh day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
GEORGE BINKS,
of Gt. Colmore St.
SAMUEL WALKER. (L.S.)