IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLEXIBLE HOSE AND TUBES
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of Sussex Place, Lough-
borough Road, Brixton, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLEXIBLE HOSE AND TUBES."
A communication.
Sealed the 30th September 1856, and dated the 24th July 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Tomlinson Bous-
field at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 24th July 1856.
I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Sussex Place, Loughborough Road,
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLEXIBLE HOSE AND
TUBES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in the manufacture of
flexible hose and tubes. For these purposes compounds of india-rubber com-
bined with fibrous matters are used, whether the same be prepared by
masticating scraps or cuttings of india-rubber cloth, or made direct by mixing
and masticating the fibres with the india-rubber, and the plastic compounds
are formed into hose or tubes on mandrils, or by pressing the plastic com-
pounds through orifices or dies; and in order to make such hose and tubes
more certainly fluid-tight, they are lined or coated with india-rubber unmixed

page_text: with fibres, and the hose or tubes thus formed are vulcanized, as is well
understood. And in making such hose or tubing, the expressing machinery
is arranged to express the compound of fibres of india-rubber and the uncom-
bined india-rubber at the same time, in such manner that the india-rubber
without fibres is interior of the hose or tubing.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 23rd January 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Sussex. Place, Loughborough Road, Brixton, in the
County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent, Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Tomlinson Bousfield, Her special licence that I, the said George
Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF FLEXIBLE HOSE
AND TUBES;" a communication, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said George Tomlinson Bousfield, 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 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 George Tomlinson Bousfield, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner-the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:-
The improvement consists in a new mode of manufacturing india-rubber

page_text: hose or pipes. The only mode heretofore practised of manufacturing india-
rubber hose has been by rolling sheets of rubber, or cloth covered with rubber,
around a wooden or metal rod. This mode is expensive and laborious, and
the product is always imperfect, because the pipe, when made of rubber alone,
lacks strength to withstand the outward pressure of the water, and when
formed with folds of cloth, the water forces itself between the folds and soon
destroys the pipe. The hose formed of folds of cloth is the only kind in
general use, and the principal objection to it is its perishable nature. The
action of the water is peculiar; by the constant pressure; it is forced between
the folds of the cloth and is absorbed into the threads and soon destroys the
hose. This difficulty is so serious, that it is only for want of a substitute that
india-rubber hose is used at all.
The new and improved hose is made by machinery in a much cheaper and
more expeditious manner, and is produced without any seam or joint, and
without any folds of cloth to expose it to decay. The material of which the
hose is composed is india-rubber mixed with fibres of cotton or flax. This
compound, prepared as herein-after described, is placed in a strong iron box or
case having a cylindrical receiver, which is made of a size suitable to receive
a sufficient quantity of fibrous rubber, and has. at the bottom a small hole,
which is to regulate the outside diameter of the hose. In this aperture is
suspended an iron rod, which is of the size of the inside of the hose, and
projects about an inch below the aperture. Upon this rod a plunger or piston
plays up and down, and by its action the rubber is slowly and gradually forced
through the small hole at the bottom of the receiver, and passing round the
rod, above described, the hose is perfectly formed.
To illustrate the process of the manufacture and the operation of the making,
I refer to the annexed Drawing, which is a central vertical section of the
machine employed. a, a, represents a metallic cylinder, which is to be filled
with the rubber compound, prepared as herein-after described. This is
surrounded with a steam jacket b, b. c, c, is a piston or plunger, which fits the
cylinder a, a, and has extending through it a fixed mandril d, d, which also
extends through the cylinder a, a, as shown in the Drawing. The rubber,
compounded as herein-after described, is placed in the cylinder surrounding
the mandril d, d. It will be seen, that on the descent of the piston c, c, the
rubber compound will be forced downwards through the tapering aperture of
the cylinder, and by this means will be formed into the required shape, the
manidril serving to impart the necessary diameter or bore to the hose. It is
obvious that the form of the machine can be varied at pleasure by any com-

page_text: petent mechanic, for the only object is by pressure to form a tube or hose
without seams or joints, and this having been discovered by the Inventor, the
machinery for the same object can be infinitely varied. The form of the
receiver that is preferred is about eight inches inside diameter, and about
thirty inches in length; about eight inches at the lower part should taper
gradually and regularly to the small orifice for the proper formation of the
hose. The receiver should be formed of iron of sufficient strength to resist the
pressure of machinery, and should be surrounded with an outer casing of iron,
commonly called a "steam jacket," into which steam should be conducted to
keep the receiver at a regular heat of about 200°; this is necessary to facilitate
the working of the rubber, and to produce hose or pipe of equal consistency
throughout. The formation of the compound of which the hose is made is a
very important part of the Invention, and the object is, by combining fibres of
cotton or flax with the rubber to give it strength and flexibility, and at the
same time partially to destroy its elasticity, as the natural elasticity of pure
rubber would allow the hose to swell too much upon the pressure of the water.
To accomplish this, I take the rubber, when compounded with sulphur in any
of the ordinary compounds used in vulcanized rubber goods, and when it is in
the state ready to be submitted to the vulcanizing heat, that is, a substance like
stiff dough or paste, mix it with the fibres of cotton or flax, by grinding the
materials between heated rollers, in the mode usually practised by rubber
manufacturers, until the fibre is thoroughly incorporated with the rubber.
The proportions I prefer is three pounds of rubber compound to one pound of
flax or cotton, although these proportions may be varied according to the
quality of the fabric desired. Instead of mixing pure cotton or flax with the
rubber, an economical and simple method of obtaining a like result is that of
grinding between heated rollers the rags or scraps of cloth covered with rubber
compound, which are made to waste by manufacturers of shoes and other
rubber goods. To these rags may be added in grinding more or less rubber
compound, according to the nature of the rags and the quality of the fabric
desired. The fibrous compound obtained in either of the above-described
modes is passed through heated callender rolls and formed into a sheet. In
this process of passing the fabric through the heated callender rolls, the fibres
of the cotton or flax are laid in a direction parallel to the length of the sheet;
then I take a similar sheet, prepared in the same way, and cut it into pieces
as long as the width of the first sheet; these pieces are cut with bevilled edges
and laid crosswise on the first sheet, with the edges overlapping each other;
the third sheet, similar to the first described, is then laid on top; the whole is

page_text: then again passed through the heated callender rolls for the purpose of con-
solidating and uniting the fabric. The sheets of fibrous compound, having a
portion of the fibres running lengthwise and a portion crosswise, are then cut
of proper length and width and rolled tightly around the iron rod above referred
to, which regulates the size of the inside of the hose, and thus forms a solid
cylinder of fibrous rubber, which is to be placed in the receiver ready to be
forced through the aperture by the action of the plunger or piston. By this
careful arrangement of the fibres in the cylinder, the fibres in the hose take a
similar arrangement, and being irregularly disposed through the substance of
the pipe, and partially destroy the natural elasticity of the rubber and enable
it to resist pressure. A very good result can be produced without crossing the
fibres, but I consider the process described to produce the best and most
perfect article. Nor is the careful preparation of the cylinder of rubber to be
placed in the receiver indispensable, as the fibrous rubber forms a substance
like stiff dough, which can be placed in a mass in the receiver and forced
through it, in the manner above described, although I prefer the former
method. After the hose is formed, it is cut into the required length and placed
upon a metal rod or tube, and submitted in a proper "heater" to the usual
process of vulcanizing, a process well known to all rubber manufacturers.
Having thus described the process, I desire to state that the leading feature
of the Invention is the forming of a solid pipe or hose of fibrous rubber with-
out seams or joints, and thus obviating the danger of decay, to which the hose
now in use is subject to.
Another important feature of the Invention is the method of forming the
tube or hose by powerful pressure applied to the compound when it is in a
plastic state, thus forcing by proper machinery into the required form.
The fibrous hose or pipe may also be made with a coating or lining of pure
rubber on the inside, which may be done either by hand or by a machine. If
made by hand, a sheet of pure rubber must first be wound around the mandril
of one or more thicknesses and the fibrous sheet be afterwards wound around
it. This hose is made by running the fibrous material into sheets of the
proposed length of the hose by means of callenders, in the usual mode known
to manufacturers of india-rubber, and winding the sheet around a hollow
mandril of metal, or wooden rod; but the former I prefer, because if the wooden
rod is adopted the hose must afterwards be transferred to the metal tube to be
vulcanized.
Having thus described the improvements, I shall state the claims, as
.

page_text: I do not claim the vulcanizing process, or any compounds of rubber herein-
above referred to, because with the exception of the cross-fibre compound they
are old; nor heating the hose or pipes on rods or tubes of iron, nor any
peculiarity in the construction of the machine employed; neither do I intend
in this application to claim forming a cross-fibred fabric. But what I do
claim, and desire to have secured to me by Letters Patent, is, "the improved
process" of manufacturing hose or pipe of fibrous rubber by powerful pressure
and without seams or joints, substantially as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
Witness,
T. L. CUSTHWAITE.
GEO. T. BOUSFIELD. (L.s.)