IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU- FACTURE AND CONSTRUCTION OF ORDNANCE
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Wilson, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANU-
FACTURE AND CONSTRUCTION OF ORDNANCE."
Sealed the 12th August 1859, and dated the 21st February 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Wilson 'at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21st
February 1859.
I, THOMAS WILSON, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer;
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE AND CONSTRUCTION OF ORDNANCE," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, firstly, of the following method of making the barrels
of ordnance or cannon. I take a series of hollow cylinders or tubes, the said
tubes being of a length equal to that of the cannon to be manufactured. Each
of the said tubes is of different diameter from the others, the diameters being
so arranged that the said tubes will very nearly fit in one another. I finish
the interior of each of the said tubes by the process of boring, and I finish
the exterior of each of the said tubes by the process of turning; and I after-
wards fit each tube upon that next below it in size by the process called
shrinking, that is to say, the larger tube is heated, and thereby expanded, in
which condition it is placed upon the cold smaller tube, and allowed to cool
and contract thereon. Any number of tubes may thus be shrunk upon-one
another, in order to obtain the desired strength. I make the tubes which I

page_text: employ in carrying this part of my Ïnvention into effect either of ordinary
wrought or cast iron, or of brass, or of the annealed cast iron commonly
called malleable iron; I prefer the last-named material. I sometimes make
a series of longitudinal grooves or flutes on the outside of some or all of the
tubes. When these tubes are shrunk upon one another, a series of longi-
tudinal channels are formed in the substance of the cannon, by the circulation
of air or water through which, the cannon may be kept cool during fire.
My Invention consists, secondly, of the following improvement in the con-
struction of ordnance to be loaded at the breech. I close the breech end of
the ordnance by the conical end of a screw or a cap on the said screw, which
embeds itself when the said screw is driven home on the conical bed of the
breech end of the bore, and closes the breech of the ordnance. The said
screw passes through and works in a strong bow strap or frame made of
wrought iron, and attached to the rear of the ordnance. The said strap or
frame is connected to the gun by means of joints or centres on which it turns,
the said centres being situated by preference in a horizontal. plane, and the
strap or frame moving in a vertical plane. After the breech end of the
ordnance has been opened, the screw and its frame may be turned up or
down, and the open breech left clear for the introduction of the charge. After
charging, the screw may be brought into a line with the axis of the ordnance,
and the breech end closed. The strap or frame may be moved by any con-
venient mechanism, and the screw turned by a winch or other handle.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Wilson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
19th August 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
WILSON, of Birmingham; in the County of Warwick, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year
of Her reign,. did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Thomas Wilson, Her special licence that I; the said Thomas
Wilson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Thomas Wilson, 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,

page_text: 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 AND CONSTRUCTION OF ORDNANCE," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Thomas Wilson, 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 J, the said Thomas Wilson, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to e particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
My Invention consists, firstly, of the method of manufacturing the barrels
of ordnance or cannon herein-after described, and illustrated in Figures 1, 2,
8, and 4 of the accompanying Drawing.
Figures 1 and 2 represent transverse sections of ordnance or cannon con-
structed according to this part of my Invention; and Figures 3 and 4
represent longitudinal sections of ordnance or cannon constructed according to
my Invention. The same letters are employed to indicate the same parts
in Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4.
I take a series of hollow cylinders or tubes of metal a, b, c, the said tubes
being of a length equal to that of the ordnance or cannon to be manufactured.
Each of the said tubes is of a different diameter from the other, the re-
spective diameters of the said tubes being so arranged that the said tubes very
nearly fit one other, that is to say, the tube 6 will very nearly enter the tube c,
and the tube a will very nearly enter the tube b. I finish the interior of each
of the tubes a, b, c, by the process of boring, and I finish the exterior of ench
of the said tubes by the process of turning; the said tubes being of such sizes
respectively, when finished, that they will not pass into one another in the
manner represented in the Drawing. After the finishing of the tubes by
boring and turning, I fit each tube upon that next below it in-size by the
process called "shrinking," that is to say, the larger tube is heated, and thereby
expanded, and in its heated and expanded state is placed upon the cold smaller
tube, and allowed to cool and contract thereon. In conducting this process
I first shrink the tube 6 upon the tube a, and when the compound tube a, b,
has cooled, I shrink the tube.c thereon; and when the compound tube a, b, c,
is cold, another tube may be shrunk thereon, and so on until the required
number of tubes have been shrunk upon one another.
:

page_text: Although I have only represented in the Drawing a cannon or ordnance
made of three tubes, yet I do not limit myself to any particular number, as the
number of tubes to be employed will depend on the strength of the individual
tubes and the strength which the cannon or ordnance to be manufactured is
required to possess.
I sometimes make a series of longitudinal grooves on the outside of some
or all of the tubes, excepting the external one; these grooves are marked d
in Figure 2. When tubes having longitudinal grooves d are shrunk upon one
another, a series of longitudinal channels are formed in the substance of the
cannon or ordnance, by the circulation of air or water through which, the cannon
or ordnance may be kept cool during use. I prefer to make the outer tube c
thicker at the breech end than at the muzzle end, and I prefer to attach the
trunnions by means of a belt or ring, which said belt or ring carries the
trunnions, and is fixed upon the ordnance by the process of shrinking. I make
the tubes a, b, c, either of ordinary wrought or cast iron, or of brass, or of the
annealed cast iron commonly called malleable iron, or of other suitable metal
or alloy. I prefer, however, to make the said tubes a, b, c, of the annealed or
decarbonized cast iron, sometimes called malleable iron. The tubes of annealed
cast iron are made by the process of casting, and are annealed by being heated
in contact with hæmatite or other oxide of iron; they are afterwards turned
and bored. As the processes of casting, annealing, turning, and boring, by
which the said tubes are made and finished, as well as the process of shrinking,
by which the said tubes are fitted upon one another, are well known and com-
monly practised, and constitute no part of my Invention, I do not think a
further description of the same necessary.
When the cannon or ordnance manufactured according to this part of my
Invention is to be loaded at the muzzle, I prefer to close the breech end by
one of the methods illustrated in Figures 3 and 4 of the Drawing. The method
of closing the breech end illustrated in Figure 3 consists of a plug e, which is
screwed into the end a¹ of the tube a, the said plug e being screwed in at the
breech end. The method of closing the breech end illustrated in Figure 4
consists of a plug f, of the form represented, which said plug f is introduced
through the muzzle end of the ordnance, the shoulder f¹ of the plug fem-
bedding itself against the shoulder a³, formed at the breech end of the tube a;
the plug is held in its place by the screw nut g, the end f* of the said plug f
being rivetted upon the said screw nut g.
. When the cannon or ordnance manufactured according to my Invention is
to be loaded at the breech; I prefer to close and open the breech end by the
method illustrated in Figures 5 and 6, which said method constitutes the

page_text: second part of my Invention, and is applicable to ordnance the barrels of which
are made by methods other than that constituting the first part of my Inven-
tion. Figure 5 represents in plan, and Figure 6 in side elevation, the breech
end of a cannon or ordnance constructed according to this part of my
Invention. The same letters are employed to indicate the same parts in
Figures 5 and 6. I close the opening at h, at which the charge is introduced
by means of a screw i, the conical or convex end of which said screw embeds
itself, when the said screw i is driven home against the conical or concave bed
formed at the breech end of the bore, and thus closes the opening hat, the
said breech end. Instead of the end of the screw i embedding against the
breech end of the ordnance, a cap renewable at pleasure may be attached to
the end of the screw i, which said cap is carried and held by the said screw i
to its bed or seat at the breech end h during discharge. The screw i passes
through and works in a concave screw made at k in the strong bow strap or
frame. The said bow strap or frame is made, by preference, of wrought
iron, and is attached to the rear of the cannon or ordnance in the following
manner-At the end of each of the arms m is a circular boss n, each of the
said bosses n entering a recess of corresponding figure at o in the ordnance;
the bosses n engaging in the recesses o constitute the joint or centres upon
which the bow strap or frame 1 turns. Screws p, passing through the said
bosses n and taking into the body of the ordnance, preserve the bosses n in the
recesses o. I make the centres on which the strap or framing / turns, by
preference, in a horizontal plane, so that the said strap or frame may.be moved
in a vertical plane. After the breech end of the orduance has been opened by
unscrewing the screw i, the said screw i, with the bow strap or frame 1, may
be turned either up or down, and the open breech h left clear for the intro-
duction of the charge. After charging the ordnance the screw i may be
brought into a line with the axis of the ordnance, and the breech end h closed
by driving home the screw i. The strap or frame 7 may be raised or lowered
by hand, or by any convenient mechanism, and the screw i may be turned by
a winch or other handle.
Having now described the nature of my 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 and represented, as the same may
be varied without departing from the nature of my Invention; but I claim as
my Invention,―
Firstly, the method herein-before described, and illustrated in the accom-
panying Drawing, of manufacturing ordnance, that is to say, making the
barrels of ordnance of hollow cylinders or tubes of annealed cast iron or other

page_text: suitable metal or alloy, the said tubes being of progressively increasing
diameter, and fitted upon and connected with one another by the process of
shrinking, that is, by heating and expanding the larger tube, and placing it
while in its expanded state on the smaller one, and allowing it to contract
thereon.
Secondly, the improvement herein-before described, and illustrated in the
accompanying Drawing, of constructing breech-loading ordnance, that is to
say, closing the breech end of ordnance by means of a screw carried by a bow
strap or frame jointed to the ordnance, so as to permit the said screw being
turned aside or out of the line of the bore when loading the ordnance.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Wilson, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
THOMAS WILSON. (L.S.)