IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BARRELS FOR SMALL FIRE-ARMS
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Henry Burton, of Eufield Lock, in the County
of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE
OF BARRELS FOR SMALL FIRE-ARMS,"
Scaled the 29th September 1859, and dated the 4th April 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Henry Burton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 4th April 1859.
I, JAMES HENRY BURTON, of Enfield Lock, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENT IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF BARRELS FOR SMALL FIRE-ARMS," to be as follows:-
It consists in the mode of constructing, without welding, a barrel, which
shall have the desired exterior taper and a uniform internal diameter. I take
a round bar of iron or steel of suitable dimensions, and drill a central bole
through its entire length; having heated this to the proper degree, I cause
it to be passed between a pair of rollers having on their peripheries corre-
sponding series of taper grooves successively diminishing in size, in connection
with and by means of a series of fixed mandrils, also successively diminishing
in diameter, and determining the size of the hole as it is reduced by the
elongation, the means being substantially those now well known and employed
in the rolling and welding of iron gun barrels. By this process the desired
elongation and proper exterior tapered form is imparted to the cylinder or

page_text: barrel, while the interior of the tube is of a reduced but uniform diameter or
bore. I then bore, turn, and finish the barrel by the present ordinary modes
employed for the purpose.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Henry Burton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 4th October 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
HENRY BURTON, of Enfield Lock, in the County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the
year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said James Henry Burton, Her special licence that I, the said
James Henry Burton, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as 1, the said James Henry Burton, or 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 "IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BARRELS FOR SMALL FIRE-ARMS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Janies Henry Burton, 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 per-
formed, 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 James Henry Burton, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
The nature of my Invention consists in the process of constructing a barrel
of steel or iron, of a uniform bore and exterior taper, without welding.
The paramount obstacles in the way of making such gun barrels without
welding have been the expense and difficulty attendant upon drilling a hole of
equal diameter, and concentric with the exterior, through their entire length.

page_text: To avoid these, many modes have been suggested, none of which, up to the
present time, have, to my knowledge, been sufficiently economical to enter into
general use. Steel has been cast into the form of tubular cylinders, then
hammered for the purpose of closing the pores, and finally elongated by rolling
or hammering, or partly by both, always with a mandril within them. Another
plan was, as in the previous process, to cast the steel in a tubular form; it is
then elongated by hammering when on a mandril, or by means of grooved
rollers moving or rolling the hot steel tube over a fixed -mandril, as in the
well-known process of welding iron tubes by grooved rollers or on taper
mandrils, such as are used when drawing or rolling brass tubes. A third
was to drill the hole through the whole or part of the length of a short
cylinder or bar, which was then forced through plates with graduated holes,
or passed through rollers, as used in the old process of rolling iron, but without
the use of mandrils, unless the bore was to be polygonal, with longitudinal
flutes or other unusual shape, until the required length was attained. These
and others, I believe, have never proved of practical value.
My Invention claims to remedy the defects of former processes, to overcome
the obstacles above mentioned, to construct the barrel without the risk of
defective welding, and with facility, economy, and accuracy. The operation
is as follows:-Taking a short, solid, cylindrical bar of hammered or rolled
steel (or iron) of the proper dimensions and weight, I slightly anneal it.
Through the centre of its entire length a hole of sufficient size to allow for
the proper contraction when the cylinder is elongated is then drilled, and the
piece is heated to the degree required in rolling steel. As the necessity for a
welding heat is by this mode obviated, the temper and strength of the steel
is more perfectly preserved. In this state it is subjected, as often as required,
to the action of corresponding taper grooves on the peripheries of a pair of
rollers, which contains a graduated series of them, to be used, if required, in
succession. The cylinder is presented to these rolls upon fixed mandrils (so
called), the series of which is likewise graduated, and by them the size of the
hole, reduced in the elongation, is determined. This last part of the process
is the same, or substantially the same plan now known and employed in
rolling and welding iron gun barrels. By these operations the desired length
of barrel is obtained, the proper taper form is imparted to its exterior, and the
interior or borc is of a reduced uniform diameter. The barrel is then bored,
turned, and finished in the usual way.
Having now fully described my Invention, and the manner in which it is
to be operated, what I claim, and desire to secure under the herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent, is, the construction of the barrel by the combined

page_text: modes of drilling and rolling the metal in the order mentioned, and substantially
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Henry Burton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, on this Third day of October, anno Domini
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
JOHN T. PITMAN,
67, Gracechurch St.,
Agent for Patentee.
JAMES HENRY BURTON. (L.S.)