IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO PACKING FOR STEAM, HYDRAULIC, AND OTHER JOINTS."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jesse Kirkman, of Chorley, in the County of Lancaster,
for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO PACKING FOR
STEAM, HYDRAULIC, AND OTHER JOINTS."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jesse Kirkman at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st June 1880.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
JESSE KIRKMAN, of Chorley, in the County of Lancaster.
AND RELATING TO PACKING FOR STEAM, HYDRAULIC, AND OTHER JOINTS."
This Invention has for its object the formation of a packing for joints under
pressure, steam, hydraulic, or otherwise. It consists chiefly in an economical
application of asbestos for this purpose by which waste is reduced to a minimum.
Asbestos joints are usually cut out of asbestos millboard, and being annular the
centres and spaces between the various rings are in great measure cut to waste.
Now by my Invention I build the asbestos millboard or other forms of asbestos
into a tube and cut it into slices or annular discs of the right thickness. As too
the asbestos is very liable to soak up moisture, and in making the joint to spread
inward, I usually prefer to have a lead or other soft metal ring or rings of material
impervious to moisture and not too plastic as an inside, intermediate, or outer
layer of my packing.
My experimental packing is constructed in the following manner, but I wish it
to be understood that I do not bind myself to these precise details, as there are
numerous other modes of building up which may be equally advantageous
I take a piece of sheet lead cut to the right size and bend it round a mandril to
the form of a tube; round this I wrap the asbestos millboard preferably well soaked,
anointed, or washed over with a solution of india-rubber, or compound of india-
rubber, or other glutenous material. When the tube has been wrapped to the
desired thickness I cover it with felt, cloth, or other fibrous material pasted to it
with india-rubber or other solution or glutenous material, and when the solvent

page_text: has sufficiently evaporated for the whole to stand firm in a lathe, I turn it off into
thin annular discs by a sharp knife or other tool in the lathe. The object of the
india-rubber solution is in great measure to hold the various layers together, and
it will be obvious that other waterproof or even soluble but permanent cementing
materials of an elastic nature could be substituted for india-rubber. Sometimes
too I may find it desirable when the rings are liable to be thrown about or
otherwise roughly used to use other more adhesive material, such as marine glue,
or fasten a mousing" or binding of string, tape, or otherwise round one part or
the whole of the ring of each washer, to prevent the various layers from breaking
loose from each other. The outer layer of fibrous material is chiefly useful to hold
the roll together during the turning, the centrifugal force tending to open it..
"

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Jesse Kirkman in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 1st
December 1880.
JESSE KIRKMAN, of Chorley, in the County of Lancaster. “IMPROVEMENTS IN
AND RELATING TO PACKING FOR STEAM, HYDRAULIC, AND OTHER JOINTS."
This Invention has for its object the formation of a packing for joints under
pressure, steam, hydraulic, or otherwise. It consists chiefly in an economical
application of asbestos for this purpose by which waste is reduced to a minimum.
Asbestos joints are usually cut out of asbestos millboard, and being annular the
centres and spaces between the various rings are in great measure cut to waste.
Now by my Invention I build the asbestos millboard or other forms of asbestos
into a tube, and cut it into slices or annular discs of the right thickness. As too
the asbestos is very liable to soak up moisture, and in making the joint to spread
inward I usually prefer to have a lead or other soft metal ring or rings of material
impervious to moisture and not too plastic as an inside, intermediate, or outer
layer of my packing.
There are various ways of making this packing, two forms of which are shown
in the Drawings. That shown in Fig. 1 I will now describe, the construction of,
first however premising that I do not bind myself to these precise details, as there
are numerous other modes of building up which may be equally advantageous.
I take a piece of sheet lead cut to the right size and bind it round a mandril to the
form of a tube and solder it ; round this I wrap the asbestos millboard preferably well
soaked, anointed, or washed over with a solution of india-rubber, or compound of
india-rubber, or other glutenous material such as glue, I however prefer ordinary
india-rubber solution. When the tube has been wrapped to the desired thickness I
bind it with felt, cloth, or other fibrous material pasted round it with india-rubber or
other solution or glutenous material, and when the solvent has sufficiently evaporated
for the whole to stand firm in a lathe, I turn it off into thin annular discs about
three sixteenths of an inch thick by a sharp knife or other tool in the lathe. I
then soak the rings in water two or three seconds, and apply pressure to them in
order to form them into a compact and portable ring. The object of the india-
rubber solution is in great measure to hold the various layers together, and it will
be obvious that other waterproof or even soluble but permanent cementing
materials of an elastic nature could be substituted for india-rubber. The outer
binding of fibrous material is useful to hold the roll together during the turning,
the centrifugal force tending to open it and also to prevent the spread of the
asbestos when the joint is being made. Sometimes too I may find it desirable
when the rings are liable to be thrown about or otherwise roughly used, to use
other more adhesive material, such as marine glue, or fasten a " mousing or
binding of string, tape, or otherwise round one part or the whole of the ring of
each washer to prevent the various layers from breaking loose from each other.
"
To accomplish this more easily my second mode of manufacturing these washers
was designed, illustrated in Fig. 2. I build up the packing ring from millboard
by soaking the millboard in water, and when pliable and somewhat plastic, form
the ring by winding it edgewise round a mandril in a spiral form. For this
purpose I usually mould, cut, and splice or roll the wet millboard into long strips
or thin rolls. On one side, preferably the side fortning the interior edge of the
packing before being formed into rings, I usually place a long strip of lead, or
equivalent soft alloy. The combined strip of lead and millboard I bandage over
when dry with cloth, or I braid it round with yarn (preferably cotton yarn),
several strands being wound on each bobbin in the braiding machine so as to make
quicker and more open work. The braided or unbraided strips are then damped

page_text: and pressed into shape edgewise round a mandril, and the lead if used soldered or
not as desired. The asbestos rings are preferably spliced and secured with a
solution of india-rubber. The whole is then pressed flat while wet, in such manner
as to leave the lead ring inside the asbestos ring, and when dry is ready for
market.
In the Drawings, A. is the lead ring; B, asbestos; C, cloth binding with one end
drawn loose to show the amount of overlap; D, mandril; E, splice.
Having now described my Invention and the best modes known to me of
carrying it into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not claim the principle
of covering asbestos packing with braiding, but that what I do claim and desire
to protect under the herein before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The manufacture of packing for steam, hydraulic, or other joints, formed
of asbestos millboard built up with other material, substantially as described.
Second. The packings for joints herein described formed of lead and asbestos
millboard bent to shape round a mandril and held in form by a binding of fibrous
material.
Third. The combination in packings for joints of asbestos and soft metal or its
mechanical equivalent in concentric rings, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jesse Kirkman, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty fifth day of November, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty.
Witness,
JAMES CORBITT,
Wm. P. Thompson, & Co.,
Patent Agents,
Liverpool & London.
JESSE KIRKMAN. (L.S.)