US727766A - Process of constructing and assembling guns. - Google Patents

Description

No. 727,766. PATENTED MAY 12, 190s. A. H. BMERY. PROCESS 0F GONSTRU'CTING AND A SSEMBLING GUNS.

PPPP IGATION FILED NOV. 2, 1897.

PATENTED MAY 12, 1903.

A. H. EMERY.

PROGBSS 0F GONSTRUGTING AND ASSEMBLING GUNS.

APPLIOATION FILED Nov. 2. 1897.

No MODEL.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

intentes ini-.ty 12, lef.`

` ATENT FFICE.

lALBERT n. EMER'Y, C F STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT.

PROCESS oF CoNsTRuCTlNc AND AssEMeLlNc GUNS.

SPECIFICATION forming' part of' LettersPatent No. 727,766, dated May 12, 1903.

i Applibation iiled November-2, 1897. Serial No. 657.268. (No model.) V

To all whom t may concern:

Beit known that I ,ALBERT H. EMERY, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of Stamford, in the county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, haveinvented a new and Improved Process of Constructing and Assembling Guns, ot'- which the followingis a speci- 'lcation.

My invention consists ina mode whereby linings and other parts of guns are assembled and condensed, either or both, by means of pressure of liquid either alone or in conjunction with moving rollers or mandrels, or both,

L for the purpose of increasing the strength and ticulars hereinafterexplained.

The bores of bronze guns have heretofore been condensed by myself and others by forcing a mandrel through them.- This process has not so far. enabled the constructor to condense ,the metal to any considerable depth from the bore, but often injures the surface from the great vibrations and distortion of the metal produced as the dies or mandrels are forced backward and forward over the surface, the action being so great as to partially break up and disintegrate the metal at and near the surface, while not extending the condensation to any considerable depth. To avoid these evils, 1 have devised the process hereinafter described, and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, by which I not only condense the interior surfaces of bores and linings of guns without injury, but I condense these parts clear through and greatly increase the limit of elasticity and ultimate strength of the whole piece, whether such piece constitutes the lining or other part ofthegun or is in itself a complete gun. At the same time the piece being treated by this process will, if taken from the gun, be found tol have strainsof compression ou the interior and tenf IV are detail longitudinal sections,0n a larger scale, illustrating dilerent forms of packing used in carrying out my invention. Fig. V is a longitudinal section of a gun with apparatus for applyingfand locating liquidpres sure therein. Fig. VI is a longitudinal secpressnre by rollers and liquid combined.

46 showsa large cylinder, of gun iron or steel, bored out and fitted to receive the strengthening-rings 47, ot' tempered steel, which are made of any number of series requiredfor the necessary strength. As here shown there arefonr.

48 and 49 show tubes, of tempered steel, suitably prepared and insertedy in the apparatus used in the construction of the gun.

28 shows a bore-lining undergoing condensation. bronze or other suitable material. Itis first dressed to the size of the interior tube 49 and then carefully bored and inserted ready for condensation. Beforebeing inserted it may be provided with a .packing-groove and packing, (shown at 60,) as is also the liningtube 49, so that these parts may be inserted and taken out by the aid of liquid-pressure, as I have described inappiications,designated Serial No. 505,155, led March 26, 1894, and Serial No. 11,904, filed April 6, 1900. In

This maybe of softsteel or chilled .tion Vof a gun with apparatus for applying.

condensing the tubes 28 the heavy pressure required to suiciently condense them causes the metal to ilow longitudinally, for which reason the piece must be firmlyv secured against this flowing by collars or other suitable means applied at its ends. 46B shows a collar=which secures this piece at yone end. A similar one may be used at the' other end. When the piece 28 has been inserted and these collars securedagainst. the ends thereof, the condensing-bar 50 is inserted. rl `.his bar has around it an annular space or spaces 53 53, into which liquid is forced by the pumpthe piece thoroughly is too great to be applied to the whole length at once with safety to the gun. The apparatus for condensing, however, may be made so strong as to resistV the pressure, when condensing is best performed by allowing the pressure to act on the whole interior surface at once. It will often be desirable to use a greater pressure on these linings in condensing than could be'properly applied to the apparatus on the whole length of the bore-lining at once. To avoid applying this pressure to the Whole lengt-h of the bore-lining at once and yet make use of the heavy pressure desired, the annular spaces 53 or 53 may be short, as here shown, or very much shorter. Condensation then takes place by condensing with small pressure the piece 28 throughout its whole length by apparatus which willdo so at once, as described,or bycondensinga short length atatime by the apparatus as shown and moving this along from time to time as the part around it becomes condensed until the whole has been condensed. After 'the condensation has been performed with moderate pressure greater pressure may be used in one of these annular spaces than could at first be applied without causing the metal to flow away, and when the piece is condensed in the gun I prefer usually togo over it several times, condensing it in sections with one pressure and afterward repeating with larger pressure, increasing the pressure each time the surface is gone over and allowing the surface operated on at any time to overlap that already condensed. When the condensing is done in the gun, this plan may be used successfully, especially if the final condensing be done with apparatus which acts on a short space only at any one time, so as to loadonlyasmall portion of the guns walls at once, when the adjoining parts of the gun will aid those parts in resisting the heavy pressure put upon the lining opposite them. It will sometimes happen that the part being pressed will flow away under these pressures. 'lo prevent this flowing, three annular spaces may be used in conjunction, the

middle one'having a very heavy pressure,.

and the two outer spaces, which are close ad joining the other, having lighter pressures upon them and no more than the metal will hold withoutowing sensibly. This will prevent the heavy pressure on the interior space from causing the metal to dow away, and will apply the packing 54 and then replaced.

thus permit the heavy condensation. When more than one annular space is used around the bar 50, the walls between these spaces should be as narrow as they can be made and have them stand the severe strains imposed. Packings are shown at 54 in Fig. I. Fig. III shows an enlarged View of one of these packings. It may be made of three or more pieces, as here shown, the parts 57 57 being of soft steel or copper, 58 a thin sheet of brass or copper, and 59 leather. A packing of this nature may be used in the grooves at 60 around the bore-lining 28 and the lining of the tube 49 for the purpose` of inserting or removing them, as desired, and when thus used it may take the form shown in Fig. IV, the parts of steel or copper 57 being` retained and the leather 59 introduced with or without the intermediate sheet of metal 58. The leather may be replaced by any other suitable elastic material. The liquid to be used had generally best not be very fluid, in consequence of the difficulties in retaining it. The packing 54 may be of such kind as to require the enlargement 55, forming the end of a chamber,t.o be removable, for which purpose it may be in the form of a collar and threaded, as

shown at 62, whereby it may be taken oit' to After the lining 28 has been suitably condensed it is removed from the condensing apparatus by forcing liquid between it and the tube 49 with the necessary pressure to release it suficiently so that it'may be slipped out by hydraulic pressure or by other means. The process of doing this and inserting it in the gun has been fully described by me in my applications above mentioned.

The plunger 5l may be forced down the bar 50 to force the liquid or paste into the annular space 53 by a screw or any other suitable means. Hydraulicpressureoperatingapiston in the bar 50 may accom plish this very wel l and' is perhaps the mostdesirable way,the baritself forming a cylinder in that part which is not here shown, with a piston placed on the rod 51 of sufficient area to force it down. This same apparatus may be made for condensing larger linings by taking out the tube 49, which itself maybeagun-lining. As many of these removable lining-tubes may be used as the nature'and variety ot' the guns being constructed shall render desirable. After the lining has been inserted in the gun and before final boring and riliing the gun should be thoroughly tested and strained by hydraulic pressure suitably applied, as I will now describe. The bar 50 for this purpose may have an. enlarged surrounding sleeve 35", which is screwed into the gun in place of the breech-block or into a collar screwed therein, the bar itself extending nearly or quite to the muzzle of the gun; but I prefer the construction shown'in Fig. V, which admits of longitudinal motion'of the bar. Around it are provided several annular spaces inthat part which nearly fits the bore. -Four or five of y The packings 54, &c., will prevent the liquid from running from one space into another when pressure is applied. For the initial pressure the liquid may be allowed to act on the whole bore from the packing at the rear of the chamber around thefbar 50 clear to the packing at the muzzle of the gun around the same bar, and thus the whole interior of the gun be loaded by such pressure as the bore of the chase should endure. This pressure should be suiiicient to cause a permanent set throughout the whole length of the chase or muzzled part of the gunto the Yextent desired,- which will increase the limit of elasticity and ultimate strenth and put the proper strains of compression on the interior and tension on its exterior. After this pressure has been put on the interior of the gun a higher pressure is used on the part ot the bore toward the chamber and still higher pressures on the chamber itself and the portion of the bore immediately adjoining, constituting that'part of the bore and chamber which are'loaded with heavy powder-pressure at the time of firing. It will generally be found. sncient toinsert at once' the single bar 50 with five or six annular spaces, one of' which covers the whole'of thechamber, the rest covering all of the bore except so much as will bev required for the small rings which separate the dierent annular spaces around the bar 50. The pressure from .the liquid may then be applied in all these spaces at once, increasing i n each from the muzzle to the chamber, having such pressure in each as that part of the gun'should be tested with. These pressures may all be put on at once, if desired, each part being fully strained with the maximum pressure it is to be strained with, and when thus strained with this pressure allowed to remain so for a suitable time. Similar powder-pressures, acting, as they do, only for a small portion of a second, `are Vnot likely to again disturbthe form of the gun. The gun having been thus fully strained, the bar 50 should be removed, the chamber and bore carefully reamed to the exact size required, and. the rifling performed, when the breech apparatus is assembled therewith and th gun is ready for use. i

It will be seen that the process described for condensing the bore-lining is directly applicable to condensing the interior of the gunbarrel 23 or other part of the gun throughout its whole or any part of its length and straining it to position as desired. This may often be advantageously done even when the piece is made of soft tempered steel, as the parts when so strained resist further expansion with very great force, more force being required even to again move them permanently than the original force used in condensingand expanding, the limit of-elasticity and u1- timate strength having both been greatly increased by this process of condensing and outward expansion.

TheAchamber-lining 27 and bore-lining 28 lmay either or both becondensed by being inserted into a suitable receptacle and there subjected to a veryheavy liquid-pressure acting upon the wholeof the interior surface and from the interior outward, vwhen the extorior would be firmly pressed against suitablek retaining-walls to endure this pressure.

'This pressure should be so great as to make the metal sensibly dense, and acting from the interior outward will causestrains of tension on the exterior and compression on the interior when the piece isremoved from the 'receptacle in which it is condensed. These walls will require to beof very great strength, as the pressure 4necessary to properly condense these linings shonldbe from sixty thou,- sand to one hundred and twenty thousand pounds to the square inch. By expanding these linings thus against the walls ot the retaining apparatns and with these great pressures the lining is made true and smooth with the retaining-walls and is free from all unsymmetrical strains and when removed will have tension on its exterior'both longitudinal and tangential and compression on its interior both longitudinal and tangential.

Should the chamber-lining 27 or bore-lining,

` or both, be made of metal which would be improved by cold condensing, they may be condensed before insertion or after, as desired, and `in cases where they are very thin and the chamber and bore are of large diameters they may be condensed by the process of rolling, either in the supplementary apparatus or after they are placed in the gun. The rollers in such case had best be in pairs, with an adjustment for throwing their centers apart during the process of rolling, so that as the arbor rotates which carries themaround over the surfaces of the bore or chamber linin g and the material becomes condensed the distance between the rollers maybe gradually increased to increase the pressure ofthe surface being condensed. When this process of condensing by the usev of the rollers is used asy IOO rcs

IIO

thus described, the condensing of the metal 1 may be aided byapplying liquid-pressure on the interior .of the gun bore or chamber lining at the same time that the rollers. are'acting, the combined pressure. of the liquid acting on the surface around the roller with the pressure bf the roller, giving much more effective condensation than will the'liqnid-l pressu re or rollerpressure when applied alone, When this process is adopted, the arbor which carries the roll or rollers should have packings made to stand heavy pressures `through which it slides backward and vforward as it rotates and moves longitudinally to bring the'roll or rollers over all parts of the bore or lchamber lining, the liquid-pressure acting onthe whole interior surface of the parts while the rolling proceeds. Fig. VI showsa longitudinal section of the gun with an apparatus of this kind in operation.

Apparatus can be provided to put liqidi pressure on a portion only ofthe bore or chamber lining at a time and rolling at this part be proceeded with and afterward the apparatus so moved along to condense the other portions of -the bore or chamber lining; but I think it will in general be found better to pnt the liquid-pressure on the whole interior of the piece being condensed at the same time and then allow the roll 5()b or rollers while this pressure is continued to pass over the whole interior surface of the piece being condensed.

When lused without radial adjustment of the rollers, the lining 27 is bored slightly larger at the rear end, where the rollers are introduced. The chamber is then tightly closed by means of the packing described, the duid-pressure applied, and the arbor simultaneously rotated and advanced by suitable mechanism, the lining (or other part of the gun, as the case may be) being thus expanded to position and condensed sufficiently by advancing the rollers-from one end to the other and back again,'or a second arbor with rollers having slig-htly more projection may be applied and the operation repeated as often as necessary.

While referring in this specification to liquid as the medium of applying the required heavy pressure, I desire to be understood as including any suitable Aliquid orgas or other material having sufficient fluidity for the purpose. Under the very heavy pressure employed this condition will include some materials usually termed solids If a gas be used, the pressure may be produced either by mechanical means or wholly or in part byv the generation of the gas in a reservoir of suicient strength.

I am aware that liquid-pressure has been used for shaping thin metal shells and for fitting thin sheet-metal linings of lead, copper, or brass to press cylinders to prevent their leaking; but the pressures required for this do not condense the metal, being very small compared with the pressure previously used to draw the shells or to roll the plates of. which such linings are made.

Having thus described my invention, the following is what I claim as new therein and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

4 1. In the manufacture of guns, the process of treating the walls of the bore or chamber of the gun or the bore-linings or chamberlinings of the gun, which consists in applying heavy liquid-pressure thereto, sucient to condense such part, and greatly increase its limit of elasticity and ultimate strength.

2. In the manufacture of guns, the process of treating a chamber or bore lining, which consists in 'intrdncing the part to be treated into a suitable condensing apparatus, introducing into the interior of the part to be treated, heavy liquid-pressure suicient to force the walls oftthe part firmly against the surrounding apparatus, to condense the metal of said part being treated, and greatly' increase its limit of elasticity and ultimate strength.

3. The process of expanding the inner parts of a gun against the outer parts thereof, which consists in introducing into the inner parts liquid under different pressures, lin dif ferent portions of the inner parts, suicient to force the inner parts out against the outer parts and give permanent extension to the inner parts, and strain them to their proper position, increasing their limit of elasticity and ultimate strength and firmly securing the lparts together.

,ton being greater than that used in the front portion, the pressures being sufficient to permanently enlarge the parts into which they are introduced.

5. The process of expanding the bore or chamber lining or other part of a gun outwardly by means of heavy hydraulic pressure acting on the interior thereof, which consists in introducing into the interior thereof a straining-bar, introducing around the bar three or more packings forming two or more chambers between said packings, introducing different degrees of heavy hydraulic pressure into the respective chambers so formed and expanding themetal around said chambers to the extent desired. 6. The process of condensing the bore or chamber lining or other part of the gun, which consists in introducing into vthe interior thereof heavy liquid-pressure and at the same timerolling it on the interior with a roller or rollers to condense it.

ALBERT H. EMERY.

Witnesses:

AMELIA P. EMERY, ARTHUR C. TA'rE.

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