IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PIPES FOR THE CONVEYING OF WATER AND OTHER FLUIDS
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREEMAN
ROE, of the Strand, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-second day of April, in the eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Freeman Roe, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Freeman Roe, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Freeman Roe, my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF PIPES FOR THE
CONVEYING OF WATER AND OTHER FLUIDS;" in which said Letters Patent there is
contained a proviso that I, the said Freeman Roe, shall cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Freeman Roe, hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascertained

page_text: in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto annexed, that is to say:-
Whereas pipes for the conveying of water and other fluids are now ordinarily
made of iron, and in lengths of from six to ten feet, more or less, connected
by joints of various forms: And whereas glass, though a very suitable material
for such purposes on account of its imperviousness, smoothness, and incorro-
siveness, has not been hitherto in use for that purpose, partly because of the
existence of a heavy duty on the material, which 'made it too costly, and partly
because of the want of any known means of producing in glass pipes of uniform
bore and substance of the lengths required, and of the difficulty of joining
numerous lengths of such pipes: And whereas the said heavy duty on glass
has been lately abolished, and the cost of the material thereby reduced below
that of iron, which so far removes the objection hitherto existing to the
employment of glass pipes: Now, the nature of my said Invention consists in
the manufacture of pipes for, the purposes aforesaid of or from glass, or of or
from the vitreous materials of which glass is or may be made, of any of the
lengths usually required for such purposes, and of uniform bore and substance,
or nearly so, and with joints adapted thereto, by which they may be as
readily and directly connected as any other pipes. And the manner, in which
the said Invention is performed is, as, follows:-In preparing the glass
of which the pipes are to be made, and bringing it into the state fit for
the purpose, I employ for the heating of the same a blast of hot atmospheric
air such as is commonly known in its application to the smelting of iron
by the name of the hot blast, and produced by passing the air through a
hot chamber or chambers before bringing it to the point, of application; or I
employ an air hydrogen jet or jets, similar to what is or are employed in auto-
genous soldering; or I employ a hydrogen jet in combination with the hot
air blast, and I make use of the said air hydrogen jet or hot air blast, or
combination of the two, either exclusively during the. preparation and,manu-
facture of the glass as aforesaid, or as an auxiliary or auxiliaries only when
very high degrees of heat are required. The manner of heating the air, and
of afterwards conducting and applying it to the smelting furnace, depends in
some measure upon circumstances, that is to say, whether it is applied to an
ordinary glass furnace, or whether a furnace is purposely constructed. When
applied to an ordinary glass furnace, the air, having been collected in a large
gasometer, is then forced out by pressure through a heated flue or chamber, or
in any other convenient manner, and made to circulate through such heated
flue or chamber until its temperature is sufficiently raised, after which it is
applied in a manner similar to that used for the hot blast in the smelting of

page_text: iron. Means, however, should be adopted either for shutting out the access
of the cold air to the furnace altogether, or admitting it at pleasure, which
object is accomplished by the use of a door or doors so placed as effectually,
when shut, to keep out such draft or drafts. When a furnace is purposely
constructed for the application of the hot blast, it may be so formed as to leave
no other draft, except only that from the hot blast, a door being merely left for
supplying fuel to the furnace either at the front or side.
... The apparatus for making the glass into pipes is represented in the Drawings
hereunto annexed. Figure 1 is a side view of an apparatus which I employ
for the purpose of manufacturing pipes of large dimensions, and Figure 2
a front view, A is a pot or cauldron made of fire clay or other suitable heat-
resisting material; b, c, is a tubular metal mandril (shewn in section in Figure
3), carefully coated with baked clay, which is passed through the pot A"from
back to front, the back orifice through which it passes being closed.in around
it, but the front orifice a being left open, and the mandril being so supported
by suitable bearings at the back end, that'it passes through the front orifice
exactly' in the centre, and without touching the sides, leaving room for the glass
to flow all around it. The mandril is made a little smaller in diameter than
the bore or hollow of the tube intended to be made, and the space left between
it and the periphery of the front orifice a should be as nearly equal as may be
to the thickness desired to be given to the tube. The mandril is made hollow
in order that a blast of air may be directed continually (if necessary) through
it by machinery applied to the end marked b, and situated at a convenient
distance from the pot A, or by any other suitable means. d, d, is a tubular
mould.consisting of two pieces connected by hinges, so that it can be readily
opened or closed as required; f; is a tubular rod by means of which the pipe
is 'drawn, which terminates at the inner end in an elongated cup e, and has
a'disc. raised upon or attached to it a little way behind the cup, which disc is of
the diameter of the intended tube of glass. The pot A being supplied with a
quantity of nearly fluid glass, an air hydrogen jet is made to play upon the pot,
or upon its contents, either while in the pot or while issuing from it, so as to
keep the same at any degree of temperature which may be required. The
cup end e of the long tubular rod f is then introduced into the orifice a,
having been previously heated or prepared so that molten glass will readily
adhere to it. The rod is then drawn forward with a rotary motion, which can
be easily given to it by hand, or by the other means hereafter described, which
causes it to draw after it the heated glass into the mould d, d, which, as soon
as it is filled, is instantly closed, when the workman, by shutting by a suitable
valve and outer and open end h of the tubular rod f, causes the blast which

page_text: is going on through the mandril b, c, suddenly to accumulate in the interior of
the glass, thereby to assume the precise shape of the mould. The glass tube is
then detached from the tubular rod f, and the mandril b, c, and taken to be
annealed.
For bent tubes a bent mould is required, and the operation of drawing
is then best performed by hand, and by leaving an indentation or indentations
in the mould requisite places may be obtained for applying the offsets or
branches. For straight tubes, when drawn by machinery, any amount of rotary
motion required can be given to the iron tube f, by simply having a portion of
its exterior ribbed obliquely, as shewn in Figure 4, and by then drawing such
portion through suitable couplets, the rod and couplets forming together a sort
of male and female thread running obliquely.
When the glass tubes require to be of small dimensions, they are made as
follows: Two iron tubes are connected by passing within them a third tube
or rod, as represented in Figure 5. The compound tube thus formed is then
passed through an open ball mould from side to side through orifices which
serve as rests for the rods, and are afterwards closed in, as shewn in the Figure.
The mould is next filled with molten glass in the usual mode followed in
casting glass, and is opened as soon as the glass has somewhat cooled. The
ball of glass is then taken out, and the inner iron rod withdrawn. The ball is
next heated by the air hydrogen jet, and after blowing and drawing it alter-
nately for a number of times with occasional heating (two workmen co-
operating in the process), the work is completed by blowing in a tubular
mould, the blast being given by a similar mechanical contrivance to that used
for making the well known moulded eliptical shades; or a workman merely
gathers a mass of heated glass upon the end of the tube, then rolls it in the
usual way upon an iron plate, and after heating it by means of the air
hydrogen jet, a second workman assists in drawing out the tube by the aid of
an iron rod with a drop of melted glass at the end of it. The tube is then
finished in a mould; the blast being given, as in the last case, when much air
is required.
The modes I adopt for connecting the sundry lengths of glass pipes, so as to
adapt them for the conveyance of water or other fluids, are represented in
Figures 7 to 16 (both inclusive) of the Drawings hereunto annexed. In
Figure 7, a is a joint piece made of iron or brass, or any other suitable
material, for connecting two lengths of glass pipe b and c, which piece is formed.
with a hollow enlargement in the central part of it, for admitting the intro-
duction of any useful cement, such as a mixture of resin, tallow, and silver
The two ends of the pipes b and c are first.
sand, or of shellac and wax.

page_text: warmed and coated with the cement. The joint piece a, being also well coated
with cement in its interior, is put on whilst still warm, and more cement
poured in through the orifice d, when it so surrounds the pipes b and c,
near to and for some distance from the points of junction, as to unite them
on cooling in a firm and substantial manner. Any running of the cement into
the interior of the glass pipe is easily prevented when the ends of the glass.
pipes are not quite true, by using a band of cotton, cloth, or tow. Figure 8 is
a modification. of Figure 7, expressly adapted for connecting lengths of pipe,
when such lengths have to be fixed vertically, for which reason it is convenient
to have the lip or orifice d placed in a position different from that adopted in
the preceding case. Figure 9 is a sectional view of a joint piece, which is so
formed that it may be slipped over the pipes b and c, previously bound with
cotton or cloth dipped into cement, and holds them tightly for some distance
around the point of contact. The socket ends are next packed with tow,
cotton, or other suitable material, dipped into melted cement, and rammed
home. Figure 10 is a joint piece, having within it a stop or check g, placed
about midway, which prevents either of the pipes from being thrust too far
while fixing. In other respects the interior is of the same shape as Figure 9.
Figure 11 differs from Figure 9 in having a thread in its interior, so as to
admit of the use of a screw, instead of packing only, the screw piece being
attached to the end of the glass pipe. The joint is made with a washer, or the
screw piece may be loose, so as to form a kind of stuffing box, as shewn at the
end c.
In Figure 12, the pipes b and c have flanges, which serve as a guide to
a joint piece, quite plain, the ends of which are caulked, as before described.
Figure 13 shews another mode, by the aid of metal bolts, washers, and flanges,
in addition to those left on the glass pipe, the bolt holes being drilled or made
in the metal flanges only. In Figure 14, the male and female screws are
made direct in the glass pipes during the operation of moulding, so that one
pipe may be screwed into another, and the joint made with a link or washer.
In Figure 15 the small screw and flange only are formed in the pipes b and c,
and also by blowing and moulding; the rest is of metal. Figure 16 represents
the mode of forming offsets, when it is found convenient to make them in such
way, instead of leaving them in the operation of blowing and moulding, by
making a suitable hole in the mould.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is, first,
the manufacture of or from glass, or of or from the vitreous materials of
which glass is or may be made, of pipes for the conveying of water and
other fluids by the means and in manner before described; and, second, the
°

page_text: manufacture, of glass pipes, with joints adapted thereto, of any of the different
forms before described:
_
_
In witness whereof I have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-
second day of October, One thousand eight hundred and forty-five.
FREEMAN (LS.) ROE.
AN (LS) R
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-second day of October,
in the year of our Lord 1845, the aforesaid Freeman Roe came: before our
said Lady the Queen in Her 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 stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose:
P
Enrolled the Twenty-second day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-five:
Mr.