Hydraulic Tube Drawing and Steel Ordnance Co
1864 Prospectus for shares in The Hydraulic Tube Drawing and Steel Ordnance Co. Ltd. The company was to be set up for the purpose of purchasing and developing certain new and valuable Patents for Improvements in the Drawing and Shaping of Metals, and for the machinery employed therein. These patents presumably, or included, those of Christoph, Hawksworth and Harding. 'The Patent has been experimentally worked in Paris for nearly two years, where large orders are now in hand for gun and rifle barrels. The Ordnance Department of France having caused this process to be examined and reported upon with satisfactory results, negotiations are at present on foot for the supply of the Imperial Government.
It is intended to supply machinery and to grant licenses to manufacturers, terms which shall conciliate existing interests, and to establish factory for the manufacture of tubes. It may be stated as an example of the prospects of the undertaking, that steel rifle barrels can be produced independently of skilled labour, sold the present price of iron ones, leaving large profit to the Company.
The patentees, in order to afford those interested a means of testing the commercial value of their mode of manufacture, have erected a powerful hydraulic draw bench, of 600 tons pressure, at temporary works in London, 67, Willow Walk, Bermondsey, where it has been seen in operation, in consequence of which applications have been received for licenses and machinery, and from these sources alone a large annual income cannot fail to be derived......[1]
Note: The temporary works in Bermondsey were those of G. and W. Almond.
1867 Court of Chancery. 'HYDRAULIC TUBE-DRAWING AND STEEL ORDNANCE COMPANY. An order was made on 22 Novemberto subject the voluntary winding-up of this company to the supervision of the Court.'[2]
1868 'IN CHANCERY. RE THE HYDRAULIC TUBE DRAWING AND STEEL ORDNANCE COMPANY (LIMITED) IN LIQUIDATION.
THE VALUABLE LEASE, PLANT, MACHINERY, PATENTS, PATTERNS, STOCK-IN-TRADE, AND EFFECTS.
Messrs. EDWIN FOX and BOUSFIELD are instructed by the Liquidators to SELL by TENDER, at their OFFICE, 24. GRESHAM STREET, City of LONDON, on Thursday, April 23rd, at twelve precisely, in one or more lots, the valuable PROPERTIES of the above Company, comprising the lease of the capital waterside Premises,. No. 14 Wharf, City Road Basin, held for several years unexpired at a low rental; the superior and nearly new Machinery and Plant, including steam engine of 60-horse power and boiler, by Galloway ; five Hydraulic Presses for drawing all descriptions of tubes up to 18 inches in diameter, gun barrels, &c.; three sets of hydraulic pumps, lathes, drilling machines, shaping, cuttering, screwing, straightening, and other machines, shafting, sets of Whitworth's stocks and dies, standard gauges, pulley blocks, tools, &c. The Stock-In-Trade consists of tool steel, solid or hollow ingot steel, tubes and gun barrels, several tons of iron, &c. The Patents are highly esteemed, aud comprise inventions for drawing tubes of all descriptions and gun barrels from cold metal by means of hydraulic power. —Descriptive particulars are preparing, and may be obtained of Messrs......'[3]
1866 Account
In 1866 The Engineer published an article on the background and development of the process.[4] [5]. It credits M. L. Christophe (Louis Christoph) and G. P. Harding, in Paris in 1851, with the first idea, having had 'constant opportunities for observing the remarkable softness, toughness and ductility of a peculiar steel produced by Mr. Hawksworth of Linlithgow, N.B. This gentleman has for many years devoted his attention to the production of a very peculiar soft steel intended for the rolls of calico printing machines. ..... After years of experiment Mr. Hawksworth succeeded in making steel of a uniform quality which left nothing to be desired, and it is to this steel that the process under consideration is indebted for its development.'
The company formed by the patentees established its works in the former premises of the London Zinc Co in Macclesfield Street, City Road, London. G P Harding superintended the erection and arrangement of the plant. Here, steel billets of the required size were drilled from both ends at the same time, ten billets at a time. A special hydraulic press was then used to force the billet through a die, with a hard steel 'spear' within the tube to control the diameter and produce a polished finish. The hydraulic pressure was 3 tons per sq. in., giving a force of 800 tons, and a speed of 15" per minute.m The press weighed 90 tons. There were two presses, the larger being made by Peel, Williams and Peel of Manchester. The smaller hydraulic machine was designed by Mr. T. Ricketts of the company.
Mention was made of initial difficulties with the tubes coming out curved, but it was said that the problems had been resolved.