AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANU- FACTURE OF TUBES FOR GAS AND OTHER PURPOSES
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
RUSSELL, of Wednesbury, in the County of Stafford, Gas Tube Manufacturer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, called England, bearing date at Westminster,
the Nineteenth day of January, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four,
in the fourth year of His reign, gave and grant unto me, the said James
Russell, my exors, adññors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said James Russell, my exors, adñors,
and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN THE MANU-
FACTURE OF TUBES FOR GAS AND OTHER PURPOSES;" in which said Letters
Patent there is contained a proviso that if I, the said James Russell, shall
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly
cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, 1, the said
James Russell, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in the following description thereof, reference being had to the
Drawing hereunto annexed (that is to say):-
My Improvement in the Manufacture of Tubes for Gas and other Purposes
consists in a new mode of constructing such tubes of wrought or malleable
iron. To effect this I provide plate iron previously rolled to a suitable thick-
ness, and cut into strips of such length as may be found desirable to consti-
tute one piece or tube, these strips in breadth corresponding to the circum-
ference of the tube intended to be formed. I now bend up the sides of these
strips of plate iron by swages in the usual way, so as to bring the two edges of
the plate as close together as possible. The bent iron is then brought into a
state of fusion by introducing it either into an air furnace or a blast furnace,
and when properly heated is to be placed under a tilt hammer in an apparatus
of the kind shewn in the Drawing at Fig. I., in which a is an anvil having a
block or bolster 6 fixed upon it with a simi-cylindrical recess. c is the tilt
hammer, on the under side of which is also a block d corresponding to b.
e is a wheel with many teeth, which, being made to revolve upon its axis,
causes the teeth to strike against the end of the hammer c and raise it, as
shewn by dots in the Figure. The end of the imperfect tube in a state of
fusion, as above said, is to be placed between the recess of the blocks b and d,
when the hammer, by a succession of blows beats the edges of the plate iron
together and causes it to weld, the tube being progressively advanced as the
operation goes on. The operation of welding may be done with a maundrell or
without, as the manufacturer may think proper. When the edges of the iron
have been thus completely welded from end to end the tube is to be again
heated in a furnace as before, and then passed through a pair of grooved
rollers, as shewn at Fig. 2, the front view, and Fig. 3 the cross section.
There are several circular grooves, represented at Fig. 2, for the purpose of
suiting tubes of different diameters. Supposing a tube to be passing through
the middle groove, seen at a, Figs. 2 and 3, upon its delivery from between the
rollers, the end of the tube meets the cone or egg-shaped piece b, Fig. 3,
when, as the tube advances sliding over this conical piece its inside is rendered
smooth, while its external form is perfected by the rollers. The advantages
which are obtained by this mode of manufacturing gas pipes and other wrought-
iron tubes over those at present in use, are that the internal and external sur-
face will be perfectly cylindrical and parallel to each other, and that the