IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ORNAMENTING METALLIC TURES AND Rons
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Thomas Grice, of the Firm of Edwin and
James Grice, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Tube
Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR ORNAMENTING METALLIC TURES AND Rons"
Sealed the 28th May 1869, and dated the 15th December 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Thomas Grice at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th December 1868.
I, JAMES THOMAS GRICE, of the Firm of Edwin and James Grice, of
Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Tube Manufacturers, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR ORNAMENTING METALLIC TUBES AND RODS," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to machinery used for ornamenting metallic
tubes and rods, and consisting of a series of three or more ornamental
rolls, the axes of which are arranged as tangents to a circle. The

page_text: peripheries of the rolls meet near the centre of the said circle, and the
tube or rod to be ornamented passes through the space enclosed by
the peripheries of the rolls. The tube or rod is operated upon during
its passage between the rolls, and the pattern or design formed on the
peripheries of the rolls is impressed on the said rod or tube. The sides
of rolls as ordinarily constructed have the figure of a circular plane,
and when they come in contact while operating upon the tube or rod
they form a line on the tube or rod, the said line running through the
whole length of the tube or rod. The pattern on such tubes or rods is
usually so designed as to make the said series of parallel lines thus
formed a part of the pattern.
My Invention has for its object to produce patterns or designs on
tubes or rods without any of the said longitudinal and parallel lines.
My Invention consists in making the sides of the rolls of a zig-zag
or other figure which-will-accord-with the pattern or design to be formed
on the tube or rod. For example, if the pattern or design consists of or
contains a series of lozenge-shaped divisions I make the sides of the
rolls of a zig-zag figure corresponding to one side of the scrios of
the lozenge-shaped divisions, and by the operation of the said rolls the
line produced at the junctions of the rolls follows the lōzenge-shaped
pattern or design instead of forming a straight line. I vary the shapo
of the sides of the rolls to suit the particular pattern to be produced.
The ornamental rolls made according to my Invention gear into one
another at their peripheries, the projecting part of the side of one roll
engaging with the depressed part of the side of the adjacent roll.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Thomas Grice in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 8th June 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
THOMAS GRICE, of the Firm of Edwin and James Grice, of Birmingham, 3
in the County of Warwick, Tube Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-

page_text: second
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said James Thomas Grice, Her special licence
that I, the said James Thomas Grice, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said James Thomas Grice, 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 MACHINERY
FOR ORNAMENTING METALLIC TUBES AND RODS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said James Thomas Grice, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 dato
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Thomas Grice, 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 :-
My Invention relates to machinery used for ornamenting metallic
tubes and rods, and consisting of a series of three or more ornamental
rolls, the axes of which are arranged as tangents to a circle. The
peripheries of the rolls meet near the centre of the said circle, and the
tube or rod to be ornamented passes through the space enclosed by the
peripheries of the rolls. The tube or rod is operated upon during its
passage between the rolls, and the pattern or design formed on the
peripheries of the rolls is impressed on the said rod or tube. The sides
of the rolls as ordinarily constructed have the figure of a circular plane,
and when they come in contact while operating upon the tube or rod
they form a line on the tube or rod, the said line running through the
whole length of the tube or rod. The pattern on such tubes or rods is
usually so designed as to make the said series of parallel lines thus
formed a part of the pattern.
My Invention has for its object to produce patterns or designs on tubes

page_text: My Invention consists in making the sides of the rolls of a zig-zag
or other figure which will accord with the pattern or design to be
formed on the tube or rod. For example, if the pattern or design
consists of or contains a series of lozenge-shaped divisions, I make the
sides of the rolls of a zig-zag figure corresponding to one side of the
series of the lozenge-shaped divisions, and by the operation of the said
rolls the line produced at the junctions of the rolls follows the lozenge-
shaped pattern or design instead of forming a straight line. I vary the
shape of the sides of the rolls to suit the particular pattern to be
produced. The ornamental rolls made according to my Invention gear
into one another at their peripherics, the projecting part of the side of
one roll engaging with the depressed part of the side of the adjacent

page_text: collar or block b the said holders are secured therein by a covering
plate e fixed by the screw pins f, f, the series of rolls a, a, working
through radial openings in the said covering plate e, as represented in
Figure 1. The rolls a, a, are adjusted and maintained in their proper
relative positions by means of the set screws g, g, bearing against the
backs of the holders c, c. The sides of the ornamental rolls a, a, are
made of a zig-zag or lozenge shape instead of the figure of a circular
plane, as usual. The rolls represented are engraved of a figure proper
to produce a pattern or design on the tube or rod, consisting of or
containing a series of lozenge-shaped divisions, the zig-zag figure of the
sides of the rolls corresponding to one of the sides of the series of
lozenge-shaped divisions to be impressed on the tube or rod. By an
examination of Figure 1 and Figure 5 it will be seen that the
ornamental rolls a, a, gear into one another at their peripheries, the
projecting part of the side of one roll engaging with the depressed
part of the side of the adjacent roll. In Figure 3 the depressed or
narrow part of each roll is marked a², and the projecting or wide part is
marked a. When the rolls are geared together, as in Figures 1 and 5^,
and made to rotate, the projecting parts a³ of one roll will engage with
the depressed parts a of the adjacent roll, and a continuous pressing
surface is produced by the peripheries of the rolls, the said peripheries
coming in contact with one another by the proximation and engaging of
the zig-zag edges of the rolls. In using the ornamenting machinery,
Figures 1 and 2, the collar or block b is fixed by lugs in the usual
manner upon a draw bench of the usual kind, and the tube (having a
mandril within it) or rod to be ornamented is drawn through the opening
enclosed by the peripheries of the rolls a, a. A tube in the act of being
drawn through the series of rolls is marked h in Figures 1 and 2. By
the operation of the said rolls a, a, upon the tube (or rod) the pattern
or design on the peripheries of the said rolls is impressed on the surface
of the tube (or rod), the lines produced at the junctions of the rolls
following the lozenge-shaped pattern or design. A tube ornamented
by the use of rolls made according to my Invention is represented in
Figure 6, and a portion of the ornamented tube as it issues from between
the rolls is represented in Figure 2.

page_text: the tube or rod they form a zig-zag line instead of the straight line
which would be produced if the sides of the rolls were made of the
figure of a circular plano as usual. The shape of the sides of the rolls
may be varied to suit the particular pattern or design to be produced.
For example, in order to produce the pattern or design on the tube
represented in Figure 7, the sides of the rolls instead of being composed
of a series of short angular parts are composed of a scries of nearly
semicircular or wave-like figures, the convex parts being separated from
the hollow or concave parts by a straight part. The ornamental rolls
for producing the pattern on the tube, Figure 7, gear with one another
at their peripheries, as described with reference to the rolls a, a, the
convex part of one roll engaging with the concave part of the adjacent
roll; or the sides of the rolls may be made up of a combination of
angular and -curved and straight parts to follow the pattern or design
to be impressed on the tube or rod, the said rolls being so arranged.
that they lock or gear with one another where they meet. By the use
of rolls constructed according to my Invention a greater variety of
patterns or designs can be impressed on tubes and rods than can be
impressed by the use of rolls of the ordinary kind, as when ordinary
rolls are used the longitudinal and parallel lines which are necessarily
produced at the junctions of the peripheries of the rolls must in every
case be arranged to form part of the pattern or design with which the
tube or rod is to be impressed.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, 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, the improve-
ments herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing in machinery for ornamenting metallic tubes and rods, con-
sisting of a series of ornamental rolls arranged as described, that is to
say, making the sides of the rolls of the said machinery of a scries of
angular or zig-zag parts, or curved or undulating parts, or of such other
figures as will accord with the pattern or design to be impressed on the
tube or rod, instead of making the said sides of the rolls of the figure
of a circular plane, the peripheries of the rolls so constructed where they
meet producing one side of the lozenge-shaped or other pattern or

page_text: design on the tube or rod instead of producing a series of longitudinal
and parallel lines, as in rolls as ordinarily constructed.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Thomas Grice, have herc-
unto set my hand and scal, this Seventh day of Junc, in
the year of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and sixty-
nine.
Witness,
RICHARD SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw,
Birmingham.
JAMES THOMAS GRICE. (L.S:)