IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METAL TUBES, AND IN THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Scaton, of Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy
Square, Esquire, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
MANUFACTURE OF METAL TUBES, AND IN THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED
THEREIN."
Sealed the 11th May 1853, and dated the 12th November 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Seaton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 12th November 1852.
I, CHARLES SEATON, of Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square, Esquire,
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF METAL TUBES, AND IN THE MACHINERY
EMPLOYED THEREIN" to be as follows:―
Metal tubes for various purposes are manufactured in many
different ways, but in all the modes now practised a series of
operations are involved before a perfect tube can be made. My
improved process simplifies the operation, and in doing so reduces
the cost of manufacture. I employ, in the first place, a pair or two
or three pairs of rollers in succession. These rollers are somewhat

page_text: similar to those now used for rolling circular iron; they are suit-
ably fixed and worked by spur gearing, or other suitable means.
They are grooved at certain distances, and their peripheries cut
away in a semi-circular shape, so as to form a circular die when
opposite to each other. The diameter of these dies must depend on
that of the tube to be made, and may vary from one inch to six
inches, in a pair of rollers three feet long; six or more of these
dies may be cut so as to admit of the same number of tubes, and
they may be of all of the same size, or of varying sizes, ns thought
proper; thus tubes of different sizes may be made by the dies
in one pair of rollers, or one tube may be passed through two or
more dies in the same roller successively. When I use a second
pair of rollers, one pair is placed behind the other in exact parallel
lines, the dies in the second pair being smaller in diameter than
those in the first; and if a third pair of rollers is used, they are
placed behind the second pair in parallel lines with the first
and second pairs, the dies in the third pair being smaller than in
the second pair. Through these dies is placed a mandril of
smaller dimensions than the dies over which the tube has to pass,
sufficient space between the mandril and the die being allowed
for the tube to be pressed through by the action of the rollers.
These mandrils may be of any length or thickness required, firmly
fixed at both ends, and supported at intervals by small blocks,
which the tube removes when passing, to have free action to move.
The process is this: a cylinder of copper, brass, or other metal, or
alloy of metals, is cast in a sand core (as is well understood), one
end forming a hollow cone ; when cleansed from the sand it is
reheated (if required), it is then placed on the head of the mandril,
and pushed forward to the rollers in motion. It passes through
the die, receiving at the same time an uniform pressure, internally
from the mandril, and externally from the action or "bite" of the
rollers, the impingement of which elongates the tube, reducing it
to a required diameter. The action of the first pair of roller forces
the tube along the continuous mandril, which is of a decreasing
size, and thus conducts the tube to the second pair of rollers, where

page_text: it is again pressed through smaller dies, becoming more elongated
and less in diameter, and, if necessary, it may be forced through a
third pair of rollers in like manner, and for like purposes.
It will be understood that the details of the process may be
varied, but, substantially, the above is a description of the nature
of my Invention, and how it is to be performed.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, filed by the said Charles Seaton in the Great Scal
Patent Office, on the 12th May 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
Charles Seaton, of Fitzroy Street, Fitzroy Square, London, Gentle-
man, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in
the sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Charles Seaton, Her
special licence that I, the said Charles Seaton, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Charles
Seaton, 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 terin 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 METAL TUBES,
AND IN THE MACHINERY EMPLOYED THEREIN," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Charles Seaton, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Senton, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
saine is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement (that is to say):
of my
In the ordinary methods of making metal tubes, several ope-
rations are gone through before the tube is completed. The object
Invention is to simplify this manufacture; and the principle
of my Invention consists in making tubes by passing metal through
a series of grooved rollers on continuous stationary mandrils, such
inandrils being clutched, and secured in front of the rollers.
Figure 1, on the accompanying Drawing, is an elevation of the
machinery employed; Figure 2, a plan of the same with the
upper rollers removed; Figure 3, a front view, (partly in section,)
at the line 1, 1, Figure 2; Figure 4, an end view of one of the
pairs of rollers. Figure 5, a sectional view of a mandril and pair
of rollers; and Figure 6, a modification of the rollers shewn at
Figure 4. AA, are standards supporting the rollers, B, B', B", in
the surface of which are cut semi-circular grooves, a', a¹, a¹, varying
in size according to the required size of the tube. One, two, or
more pairs of rollers are arranged parallel to the first pair, but at
a distance of eight to twelve feet apart; the distance however must
be regulated by the nature of the work. C, C, are continuous
stationary mandrils of decreasing diameters, held and secured
by the cross pieces or double vice, D, D. These mandrils pass
through each pair of rollers, and are supported by the cross pieces,
D, & D', which travel within the standards E, E. Below the
mandrils C, C, is a table or platform F, F, to which a number of
short pieces of iron G, G, are hinged; these are intended to prevent
the mandril from bending downwards. To allow the metal in-
tended for the tubes being passed over the mandrils, the cross
picces D, D, which are somewhat similar to a double vice or pair of
stocks, clutch and retain the mandril in front of the rolls; these
are made to open; this is done by bolting them to metal collars
H, H, having an internal screw cut in them, which works up and
down a right and left-handed fixed screw, I. By turning the

page_text: handle K, on the cap L, the cross or vice pieces D, D¹, rise and
fall, leaving the mandril at liberty, so that the metal cylinder may
be slipped on or over it. To make tubes by this machinery, short
thick hollow pieces of metal with a conical end are cast in
sand; and having been cleaned from scale and dirt, one of them is
put on or over the end of a mandril in Figure 1, either cold or
hot; the rollers B, B, are then put in motion by the engine to
which they are geared, and the tube pushed up to the first pair,
the rotary motion of which draws the tube between the rollers,
forcing back the surplus metal, and rolling out the tube to the
size of the opening or groove in the rollers. Just at the point
where the rollers "bite," the diameter of the mandril at each pair
of rollers is reduced; this reduction may be about one sixteenth to
an eighth of an inch, the object being to gradually reduce the
internal and external diameter of the tube. The grooves in the
second and third pairs of rollers being reduced in like manner to
lessen the outside of the tube, which is lengthened in proportion
to the quantity of metal rolled back. When the tube is taken
off one mandril, if not small enough, it is put on another mandril
smaller in size, and run through the rollers again; and this
operation may be repeated until the tube is of the required
thickness and length. The mandril supports G, G, are hinged to
the tube or platform F, F, for the purpose of allowing the metal
tube a free passage over the mandril, the supports G, G, giving
way as the metal runs through the rollers. To bring these
supports again to the perpendicular, so that the mandril may not
be unsupported after the metal has passed over it, a steel spring,
similar to that in penknives, is fixed to each of them. I do not, how-
ever, confine myself to this particular mode of supporting the mandril,
or that I have described with reference to the opening and closing
of the cross pieces D, D, or vice, as the same object may be accom-
plished in various ways. In the drawing, Figures 1, 2, 3, I have
shewn rollers with a number of grooves in them; but it may be
found in practice more convenient to make them shorter, and
having only one or two grooves as shewn at Figure 6.

page_text: Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be carried into effect, I wish it to be
understood that I do not confine myself to the precise arrange-
ments herein-before described and shewn. But I clain the im-
proved mode of making metal tubes by passing metal through a
series of grooved rollers on or over a continuous stationary
mandril in front of the rollers.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Seaton, have hereunto
set my hand and scal, this Twelfth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
CHARLES SEATON. (L. S.)