CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN GUN BARRELS, ORDNANCE, WHOLE OR IN PARTS, TUBES, SHAFTS, AND OTHER CYLINDRICAL BODIES." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Deakin, of Great Barr, in the County of
Stafford, Ironmaster, and John Bagnall Johnson, of Tettenhall, also in
the said County, for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN GUN
BARRELS, ORDNANCE, WHOLE OR IN PARTS, TUBES, SHAFTS, AND OTHER
CYLINDRICAL BODIES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Deakin and John
Bagnall Johnson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 27th March 1866.
We, WILLIAM DEAKIN, of Great Barr, in the County of Stafford, Iron-
master, and JOHN BAGNALL JOHNSON, of Tettenhall, also in the said County,
Roll Turner, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention for " CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN GUN BARRELS, ORDNANCE, WHOLE OR IN PARTS, TUBES, SHAFTS,
AND OTHER CYLINDRICAL BODIES," to be as follows (that is to say) :-
.Our Invention has for its principal object economizing the cost of
production in the first stage or process of the manufacture of seamless gun
barrels, ordnance, or parts of ordnance, or other tubes, and it relates entirely
to the use of cast or hollow cylinders for the improved production of gun
barrels, ordnance or parts of ordnance, or other tubes of Bessemer and

page_text: other steel of any convenient length and proportion as required, and dividing
the said cylinders into the desired lengths, for gun barrels, ordnance, or parts
of ordnance, and tubes for particular purposes, such, for instance, as for gun
barrels as exhibited at Fig. 2 of the Drawings, accompanying the Specification
of James Thompson's Patent, No. 189, 1864, of which we are by purchase the
sole registered proprietors, or we may tilt, swage, roll, or otherwise partially
work and elongate the said cylinder before dividing it. Such lengths or
divisional parts we purpose elongating or further elongating (and if necessary
further dividing) and reducing to the desired size by larger or smaller
appliances, according to the magnitude of the cylinder under operation,
such as by tilting, swaging, hammering; or rolling, until they are reduced
to the required size and proportions, taking care that such tilting, swaging,
hammering, or rolling is performed in connection with an internal mandril
or support while the metal is in a heated condition, which will have the effect
of solidifying and improving the granular construction of the metal.
"We are aware that. moulds for gun barrels and ordnance and other tubes
have been cast in a cylindrical form but singly, which we find objectionable,
as each end of such casting is defective and generally very open or honey
combed in its structure, and this great objection we avoid by our improved
mode of manufacture as it enables us to divide and select the sound parts from
the defective ones.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Deakin and John Bagnall Johnson in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 26th September 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL. COME, we, WILLIAM
DEAKIN, of Great Barr, in the County of Stafford, Ironmaster, and JOHN
BAGNALL JOHNSON, of Tettenhall, also in the said County,. Roll Turner, send
greeting,
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said William Deakin and John Bagnall Johnson, Her special
licence that we, the said William Deakin and John Bagnall Johnson,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said
William Deakin and John Bagnall Johnson, our executors, administrators,

page_text: 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN GUN BARRELS, ORDNANCE, WHOLE OB
IN PARTS, TUBES, SHAFTS, AND OTHER CYLINDRICAL BODIES," upon the condition,
amongst others, that we, the said William Deakin and John Bagnall
Johnson, by an instrument in writing under our hands and seals, or under the
hand and seal of either one of us, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the 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 William Deakin, do hereby declare
the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement (that is to say:) :-
"
:
Our Invention has for its principal object economy in the cost of production
in the first stage or process of the manufacture of seamless gun barrels,
ordnance, or parts of ordnance, or other tubes, and relates entirely to the
use of cast hollow cylinders for the economic production of gun barrels,
ördnance, or parts of ordnance, or other tubes formed of Bessemer's or other
homogeneous metal or steel of any convenient length and proportion as
required, which said process of casting is well understood among men
accustomed to such or the like productions, and therefore needs no further
description from us.
The said cylinder, when so produced of the desired length and size,
we divide up into 'the desired lengths, say for gun barrels as represented in
the Drawing hereunto annexed, which is the same as exhibited at Fig. 2 of
the Drawings accompanying the Specification of James Thompson's Patent;
No. 189, 1864, (of which.Patent with others. we are by purchase and legal
assignment the sole registered proprietors), or we may more or less tilt; swage,
roll, or otherwise partially work and elongate the said cast cylinders before
dividing them, the divided parts being longer or shorter in proportion to the
amount of swaging, tilting, rolling or other equivalent manipulation to which
the original cylinder has been subjected, and according to the purpose for
which such such divided parts may be required when fully elongated. Such
lengths or divisional portions we purpose lengthening or further elongating,

page_text: and if necessary again subdividing and reducing the said partially worked
tubes or cylanders to the desired size and shape by suitable larger or smaller
appliances according to the magnitude of the divisional part or cylinder under
opeartion, such as by tilting, swaging, hammering, rolling, or other equivalent
means until it is reduced to the required size and proportions, taking care
that such tilting, swaging, hammering, or rolling is performed in connection
with an internal mandril or support, and while the metal is in a sufficiently or
properly heated condition for working or manipulating, and which said operations
will have the effect of solidifying and imparting to and (according to the extent of
manipulation) improving the granular construction of the metal of the tube
thus treated, and may be extended or regulated according to the purpose for
which such reduced tubes may be required. We may find it necessary.
some or any stage of production to force through the orifice a plunger or punch
actuated by any convenient power, which has for its sole object the discovering
of any defects in the metal under operation...
.in
We are aware that the process of casting hollow cylinders as before stated
is old, and that moulds, or, in other words, short cylinders technically called
"moulds" for the manufacture of one gun barrel or one ordnance have
heretofore been produced by casting, forming the subject of various Patents
described and specified, among others by W. L. Sargant as far back as 1844,
No. 10,030, but the process of casting is known to be very uncertain, and
cylinders thus produced are frequently found unsound at the ends, and with
more or less small holes technically known as "blow holes" in them, which
defects or their consequences we greatly diminish or altogether get rid of by
our process of shearing off the defective ends, or by dividing up the cylinder
into a suitable number of parts, with the forcing through of a plunger or
punch, when necessary actuated by any convenient power, whereby we are
enabled to ascertain whether the said divided part is suitable or not for
'the
purpose intended before any labour is bestowed on its further elongation,
an advantage which not only affords proof of soundness, but conduces
greatly to the economy of production when quality and quantities are
considered.
:
Having thus described the nature and object of our Invention, and as far
as necessary the means for giving effect to the same, I wish it understood we
do not claim the manufacture of gun barrels, ordnance, or other tubes from
cylanders cast for their individual purpose; but what we claim is, the manu-
facture of gun barrels, ordnance, or parts of ordnance, and other tubes frorm
short or long divisional part or parts of cast hollow cylinders, the said combined

page_text: cylinder being cast by preference from Bessemer's or other homogeneous metal
or steel.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Deakin, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
WILLIAM LOACH,
Clerk to James S. Cockings,
Patent Agent,
Birmingham.
WILLIAM DEAKIN. (L.B.)