IMPROVEMENTS IN CONNECTING GAS AND OTHER PIPES
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy, of Odin Lodge,
King's Road, Clapham Park, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention
of Tunn
D. "
Sealed the 18th June 1861, and dated the 11th January 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alphonse René Le Mire
Normandy at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 11th January 1861.
I, ALPHONSE RENÉ LE MIRE NORMANDY, of Odin Lodge, King's Road,
Clapham Park, in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONNECTING GAS AND OTHER PIPES," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in connecting gas and
other pipes. For this purpose the pipes to be connected are made plain at
their ends, that is to say, without any sockets, flanges, or projections; a disc or
plate with a hole in the centre of the same external diameter as the pipes is
slipped on to each of them, the pipes passing through the holes in the discs or
plates; a washer or packing ring of vulcanized india-rubber or other suitable
material is then slid over the end of each of the pipes, and afterwards over the
end of one of the pipes a short length of tube made just to fit to the exterior
of the pipes is passed; the ends of the pipes to be connected together are then
butted end to end, and the short exterior tube is slipped along until the ends
of the pipes are brought to the centre of it, and the plates (which have annular
recesses in them to enclose the washers) are drawn towards each other by
screw bolts, the washers being by this means compressed between the plates
and the ends of the short tube, and a secure joint is thus made.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 2nd July 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALPHONSE
RENÉ LE MIRE NORMANDY, of Odin Lodge, King's Road, Clapham Park, in
the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy, Her special licence that I, the said
Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN CONNECTING GAS AND OTHER
PIPES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Alphonse
René Le Mire Normandy, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy,
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 and accompanying Drawings, that is
to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in connecting gas and other
pipes. The pipes to which I apply my improved joint are made plain from
end to end, or at any rate at each of their ends, that is to say, without sockets,
flanges, or projections, and I slip over each of them a disc or plate, provided
either with an annular recess or with a protruding rim, according as I use one
or other of the methods of making a joint herein described. These discs or
plates have in their centre a hole rather larger than the external diameter of
the said pipes, which are thus passed through the holes of the said dises or

page_text: plates. A washer or ring of vulcanized indian-rubber or other suitable packing
material is then slid on or pressed tightly over the end of the pipes a short way
from the point where the said pipes are to meet or to come opposite each other,
and afterwards a short length of tube, collar, muff, or short cylinder, either
plain, as shown in Figure 1, or else provided with a recess, as shown in
Figure 2, but in either case made to fit loosely; the exterior diameter of the
pipes is placed between the two packings or filling pieces, and the ends of the
pipes to be connected together being just opposite to each other, the short
exterior tube or cylinder is slid over so as to cover the ends of the said pipes,
and the plates or discs are then drawn towards each other by screw bolts, so
that the washers or packings may be compressed between the plates and the
ends of the short external tube so as to form a tight joint.
The accompanying Drawing will at once render this mode of joining tubes
perfectly intelligible.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal section of one mode of making the joint;
Figure 2 is an end view of the joint, Figure 1; Figure 3 is a longitudinal
section of another mode of making the joint; Figure 4, an end view of the
joint, Figure 3. In all the Figures the same letters represent equivalent
parts.
A, A, are the extremities of the two pipes to be connected; B, B, con-
necting cylinder, sliding easily over the pipes to be connected; E, E, E, E,
rings or filling pieces, which I prefer to be made of vulcanized indian-rubber,
but which may be made of gasket and red lead or other suitable material, and
grasping firmly the pipes to be connected; F, F, F, F, flanges sliding easily
over the pipes to be connected. These flanges have a recess, into which the
packing is pressed by screwing the bolts G, G, so as to form a tight joint.
I claim as my Invention the methods of connecting pipes by means of a
loose collar or muff, and of flanges, between which a suitable packing or ring
of vulcanized caoutchouc is pressed by means of bolts and nuts round the pipes
to be connected so as to form a tight joint, as herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alphonse René Le Mire Normandy, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Second day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
A. NORMANDY. (L.S.)