A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF MANUFACTURING TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF COPPER
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Wilkes, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Manufacturer, for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED
METHOD OF MANUFACTURING TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF COPPER."
Sealed the 20th June 1856, and dated the 19th April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Wilkes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
April 1856.
I, THOMAS WILKES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manu-
facturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR
IMPROVED METHOD OF MANUFACTURING TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF COPPER," to
be as follows:-
My Invention consists in drawing or elongating short thick hollow cylinders
of copper or alloys of copper by means of the process of rolling, conducted as
herein-after described. In effecting the said rolling, I use rolls furnished with
grooves, which said grooves have a semicircular or nearly semicircular section,
that is to say the section of the said grooves is a semicircle or some less
portion of a circle. Tubes of copper and alloys of copper have been drawn
or rolled by the use of rolls having an elliptical section. The essence of my
Invention consists in the use of rolls furnished with grooves, the section of
which is circular. The tube has an internal support or mandril, and is rolled
in a series of progressively diminishing grooves. The said tube may either be
hot or cold during the rolling process.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Wilkes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WILKES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
"
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Thomas Wilkes, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Wilkes, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Wilkes, 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 Kingdon, of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED METHOD OF
MANUFACTURING TUBES OF COPPER AND ALLOYS OF COPPER," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Wilkes, my executors or admi-
nistrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their
hands and scals, 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 immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Wilkes, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
My said Invention consists of the method or methods, herein-after described,
of manufacturing hollow cylinders, or tubes of copper, brass, or such other
alloys of copper as are or may be employed for the manufacture of cylinders
or tubes.
In carrying my said Invention into effect, I take thick hollow cylinders of
copper or alloy of copper, the said thick hollow cylinders being made by
casting or otherwise. I subject the said thick hollow cylinders to the operation
of rolls, so as to elongate and diminish the diameter of the said bollow cylinders,
In
and thereby convert them into such tubes as are required in commerce.
effecting the said rolling, I employ rolls provided with grooves, the said grooves

page_text: being of a semicircular section, or having a section the curve of which is a
portion of a circle less than a semicircle. The said grooved rolls are made in
the manner in which grooved rolls are made for other purposes, and I therefore
do not think it necessary more fully to describe or to represent the said rolls.
The tube has an internal support or mandril while being subjected to the
action of the rolls, and it is rolled in a series of progressively diminishing
grooves of the kind described until it has been sufficiently elongated and
reduced in diameter. The hollow cylinder may be rolled either hot or cold,
according to the nature of the metal or alloy of which the said hollow cylinder
is composed.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described, as the same may be varied.
without departing from the nature of my said Invention; but I claim as my
Invention the new or improved method of manufacturing tubes of copper or
alloys of copper, herein-before described, that is to say, manufacturing tubes of
copper or alloys of copper by rolling thick hollow cylinders between grooved
rolls, the grooves in which the said rolling is effected being semicircular in
cross section, or of a curve consisting of a less portion of a circle than a semi-
circle.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Wilkes, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord Oue thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
5 Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
THOMAS WILKES. (L.S.)