IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MODE OF MANUFACTURING OASKS, VATS, AND OTHER LIKE VESSELS, AND IN THE MACHINERY OR APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR SUCH PURPOSE
Year: 1853

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Bennett Alfred Burton and Henry
Mortimer Burton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 14th March 1853.
We, BENNETT ALFRED BURTON and HENRY MORTIMER BURTON, of John's
Place, Holland Street, Blackfriars Road, in the County of Surrey, Engineers,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MODE OF MANUFACTURING OASKS, VATS, AND OTHER LIKE VESSELS, AND IN THE
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS TO BE EMPLOYED FOR SUCH PURPOSE," to be as follows,
that is to say:-
In the first process of manufacturing a cask according to my Invention, the
picces of wood for the staves are passed through a planing machine, the
principle of which is similar to those in ordinary use, being provided with two
revolving cutters for planing the inside and outside of the staves. The cutters
for planing up the inside I prefer in some cases to be flat, although they
may be convex, and those for planing up the outside concave or hollow, and
of the same curvature as the onter circumference of the cask to be made. The
principal novelty in this machine consists of combining with the aforesaid
cutters for dressing the sides of staves a vertical cutter, 1or dressing the edges
of pieces of wood intended for the heads of casks; therefore, by suspending the
action of the cutter for planing the outside of staves, the machine can be

page_text: employed for dressing up the parts forming the heads of casks. After the
staves have been planed up in the aforesaid or other suitable machine, they
are arranged in parallel rows upon a bending machine. This machine is
mounted upon wheels, which run upon an ordinary tram or railway communi-
cating with a stove, heated with hot air or steam. The staves, having been
arranged upon the machine in parallel rows, are then bent over a form of the
same curvature, or nearly so, as the cask required to be made. The bending
machine with the staves upon it is then run into the stove in which the staves
are steamed, or subjected to hot air for a sufficient length of time to preserve
the required form or curve, after which they are finished in a machine for
beviling the edges and ends, and also grooving or cutting the chime. The
peculiarity in this machine consists in placing the stave between two curved
surfaces, by which it is securely held during the operation of beviling the ends
and cutting the grooves, technically termed "grooving and chiming," which
is effected by two revolving cutters, carried by two slotter levers, which can be
lengthened or shortened at pleasure, so as to obtain a curve suitable to the
diameter of cask to be made. The grooving and chiming having been per-
formed, the stave and frame by which it is held are then slided between!
revolving cutters or saws, which give the required bevil to the edges of the
stave, when they are complete for building or forming into a cask. In this
state the staves may, if required, be packed up for exportation, aud formed
into casks when they arrive at their destination.
We will now describe that part of our Invention which relates to the
machinery for making the heads of casks. The several parts forming the head
are first of all passed through the machine above described for planing and
dressing up the staves, which machine, it has been stated, is provided with a
vertical cutter for dressing or planing up the edges of the wood for the heading,
which is passed between weighted rollers and acted upon by the flat cutter,
already described, and afterwards or simultaneous with the edge cutter. The
concave cutter referred to for planing up the outside of the staves being
removed, the parts for the head having been planed up on one or both sides
and edges, are then taken to the "dowelling" machine.
The dowelling" machine consists of two or more revolving spindles with
suitable cutters or drills for forming the dowell holes. Upon one of the
spindles we fix a circular saw, with a suitable frame attached, for cutting the
pins or dowells, and upon the same (or adjoining) spindle is fixed a cutter for

page_text: pointing the dowells, and upon the other spindle is fixed a cutter for forming
the bung hole. The principal novelty in this machine, therefore, consists in
combining the several operations herein-before described in one and the same
machine.
.
The parts forming the head of the cask having been put together in the
ordinary manner are then finished in the heading machine. The principal
features in this machine consist in arranging the cutters for beviling the
licad one above the other, so as to cut at the same point in the circumference,
whereby a perfect oval figure will be produced if a suitable motion be given to
the disk shaft, which can be effected by means of a crank or eccentric. We
also combine with the cutters for beviling and cutting the edge, a saw or other
suitable tool for roughing out the work, that the edge cutters may have less to
take off, whereby greater accuracy will be ensured.
Another part of our Invention relates to the formation of the hoops for the
cask, and consists in the application of a pair of conical rollers, between which
the iron for the hoop is passed, thereby rolling one edge thinner than the other,
which has the effect of giving a proper conical form to the hoop, and will,
therefore, dispense with the hammering process, which is now the practice.
This machine has also combined with the rollers aforesaid a pair of shears
for cutting the iron, and an apparatus for punching the holes, and also
rivetting.
The last part of our said Invention consists of improvements in the machinery
for gathering the staves round the heads and depositing the hoops upon each
end of the cask. For this purpose we propose to employ two disks a, a,
supported in such manner as to be capable of adjustment as regards the
distance from each other. Each disk is made with a hollow chamber at the
back, and through each disk there are holes drilled, as shewn at c, Fig. 2.
Each of these holes is surrounded with a ring of vulcanized india-rubber d, d,
thus forming a series of cells, from which the air can be exhausted by means of
an air pump, provided with a reciever, from which there are pipes communi-
cating with the hollow chamber at the back of each disk. By this arrangement
it will be seen that if the heads of the casks marked e, e, are placed against the
disks, and the air exhausted from the cells c, c, by forming a communication
with the receiver, that the heads will be firmly attached to the disks, and the
operation of building the cask may be commenced by arranging the staves, as
shewn at h, h, Figures 1 and 8.

page_text: The operation of building or forming a cask is further facilitated by n
wrought-iron ring f, which ring, being somewhat larger than the external
diameter of the cask, receives the staves as they are inserted, and retains them
in their position whilst moving the intended or partly formed cask round, until
the whole of the staves are inserted, so as to surround the heads. After which
the ring f is drawn together by means of screws or other suitable means, so as
to retain the whole firmly until the hoops are put on each end of the cask, an
operation which is effected by two cones 9, 9, Fig. 1, which are forced on the
ends of the casks by right and left hand screws. We would remark, however,
that in case of large casks or vats, that we propose to employ hydraulic power
for forcing on the hoops, the action of which will be similar to that of an
hydraulic press, as will be well understood.