14. Blakely’s Patents 1855 - 1866
The following is a list of Captain Alexander Blakely’s British Patents with their claims; the language is that (by and large) of the patents themselves. A further explanation of the claim is made where the language may not be clear or where context is needed.
A] Patent 431 / 1855 – Improvements in Ordnance
27 February 1855
Claim One: Forming guns with an internal tube or cylinder of cast-iron or steel, enclosed in a casing of wrought-iron or steel.
Claim Two: Forming heavy ordnance with an internal tube or cylinder (formed by casting and boring in the usual manner), upon which are cast rings of cast-iron in one or more layers.
Claim Three: Strengthening of old guns, or guns made according to other arrangements, by application of external metal rings or coils of iron.
Claim Four: Employing the friction produced by the passage of oil or other fluids through a small passage in combination with the use of compressed air as applied to gun carriages, for the purpose of moderating the recoil of the gun carried.
Claim Five: Employing Claim Four in moderating the recoil of mortars.
Claim Six: Forming guns of separate layers or thicknesses of metal, of sheets or layers of lead or other soft metal between such separate layers or thicknesses, for the purpose of ensuring close contact.
Comment – This is the master patent for banded ordnance in Britain, valid until 1869.
Disclaimer and Alteration to Patent 431 / 1855
31 March 1859
Alterations: Claim One was amended to include an explanation of internal tension in ordnance and to abandon any general claim to the application of collars or rings. The Claims Four, Five and Six, relating to the hydraulic gun carriage, were withdrawn.
Comment – These belated changes were made in response to Blakely’s dispute with W G Armstrong.
Blakely Hydraulic Gun Carriage 1855
The iron frame recoiled against a pair of cylinders, a valve in the fore part
allowed the liquid into an upper chamber
B] Patent 505 / 1857 – Improvements in Ordnance
21 February 1857
Claim One: Forming the bore of a gun, or that part thereof which principally bears the force of the explosion, that the diameter of the bore may bear to the thickness of the metal that proportion which gives the greatest amount of strength, and best enables it to resist strain.
Claim Two: Fitting into the enlarged part of the bore a tube of iron, brass, copper or other suitable metal, or a tube covered with coils of iron, steel or other wire.
Comment – Only Provisional Protection was granted, the patent application was not completed. C] Patent 3,404 / 1862 – Improvements in Breech-loading Ordnance
20 December 1862
Claim One: Opening of the breech or separation of the breech-piece from the barrel may be effected by the act of firing, so that the firing of one charge will, in addition to throwing the projectile, open the parts and leave them in the position to receive a fresh charge.
Claim Two: Mounting ordnance to be fired through port-holes or embrasures so that the axis of vertical motion is at or near the muzzle thereof, and at the port-holes or embrasures, applying the power necessary to move the gun by means of hydrostatic or hydraulic apparatus.
Comment – Claim One is for a self-acting breech mechanism where the weight alone of the breech block absorbs the force of the propellant. Claim Two was modified in Blakely’s later Patent 2882 / 1864 substituting a counterpoise weight for hydraulic power in working the elevation. The self-acting breech is, of course, a dangerous concept. 
Blakely Self-Acting Breech-loader 1862
Only the weight of the breech block resists the charge (!)
Blakely Muzzle Trunnion Gun 1862
D] Patent 305 / 1863 – Improvements in Projectiles for Ordnance
3 February 1863
Claim: Constructing projectiles for ordnance with grooves in the body and at the rear end thereof for receiving lead or other soft metal.
Comment - This patent was filed jointly with Josiah Vavasseur of Southwark. Only Vavasseur signed the specification. Blakely was presumably on his travels.
Blakely Vavasseur Improved Projectile 1863
E] Patent 1,284 / 1863 – Improvements in Ordnance
22 May 1863
Claim: Constructing ordnance of two or more tubes having successively decreasing degrees or amounts of extensibility within extensible limits (the inner tube possessing the least amount) where the tubes are put together with initial tension.
Comment - No drawings. This is the explanation of initial tension in artillery.
F] Patent 1,286 / 1863 – Rifling Guns and Forming Projectiles
22 May 1863
Claim One: Forming the rifling of such a shape that a line perpendicular to any point of its surface shall also be a tangent to this circle.
Claim Two: Forming the projectiles to correspond with Claim One.
Comment – The patent covers Blakely’s version of the so-called “ratchet rifling”, that is compared with conventional “square rifling”. This rifling was commonly used in Blakely’s later guns; no “ratchet” projectiles were made.
Blakely Patent Rifling 1863
G] Patent 3,087 / 1863 Projectiles for Ordnance and Loading and Firing Ordnance 8 December 1863
Claim One: Fitting a cupped ring of copper or other similar metal round the base of projectiles for ordnance.
Claim Two: Fitting a concave disc of copper or other similar metal to the rear end of projectiles for ordnance.
Claim Three: Loading and firing muzzle-loading ordnance by employing a piston carried at the end of a rod, which passes through an aperture through the end of the piece; the firing vent being made through the travelling piston.
Comment - This covered Blakely’s own design for shot and shell that replaced Britten’s and Scott’s in his guns. The third claim is for a composite “breech-loading muzzle-loading” piece in which a moveable breech-piece or piston travelled the length of the bore on a rod to carry the charge and projectile from muzzle to chamber; a dubious concept.
Blakely copper ring gas check 1863
Blakely breech-loading muzzle-loading gun 1863
The piston travelled the length of the bore to seal the breech
H] Patent 3,088 / 1863 Improvements in Metallic Packings
8 December 1863
Claim: Forming metallic packings of a hollow metallic ring, kept in position by a collar or support, to close the joint to which they are applied by their own elasticity
Comment: As well as for packing steam cylinders, the packing is demonstrated as being used to seal the moveable breech-piece in breech-loading ordnance.
Blakely Metallic Packing applied to breech-loading ordnance 1863
I] Patent 3,179 / 1863 - Ordnance
16 December 1863
Claim One: Constructing cannon and other ordnance of two or more tubes of cast-iron, each of which tubes compresses that or those within it, and that whether the cast-iron of which such tubes are composed be of equal hardness or not.
Claim Two: The combined employment in the construction of cannon and other ordnance of two or more cast-iron tubes as aforesaid, and of strengthening hoops of steel.
Claim Three: The combined employment in the construction of cannon and other ordnance of two or more cast-iron tubes as aforesaid, and of a lining at the breech of metal softer than the innermost cast-iron tube.
Comment - A reiteration of Blakely’s basic concept of managing initial tension through calculated sequential changes in metals.
J] Patent 1,372 / 1864 – Improvements in Ordnance and in Gun Carriages
2 June 1864
Claim One: Fitting rings of iron, frames and armour plates to ordnance
Claim Two: Fitting rings, frames, bars and armour plates to gun carriages
Claim Three: Shrinking in or securing to the muzzle of ordnance an annular shield
Claim Four: Applying armour plates to the fronts of gun carriages
Comment - This patent was filed by Blakely from St Petersburg, Russia. The claims may be summarised as applying armoured shields to the muzzles or carriages of naval and field guns. All of the pieces illustrated in the drawings appear to be Krupp breech-loaders.
Blakely’s Shields for coastal guns and for field guns 1864
K] Patent 2,882 / 1864 – Improvement in Working Guns
18 November 1864
Claim: Adding a counterpoise weight to the muzzle-trunnion gun claimed in Patent 3404 / 1862.
Comment -
L] United States Patent 41,662 – Improvement in Ordnance
February 16, 1864
Claim: The manufacture of cannon composed of two or more tubes having successively decreasing amounts of extensibility within the extensible limit (the inner tube having the greater amount) when these tubes are put together with initial tension.
Comment – A reiteration of the claim in British Patent 1,284 of 22 May 1863. Despite his services to the south Blakely obtained a Washington patent during 1864; this contained a sour reference to the design pirate Robert Parrott. It is likely that Captain Blakely’s close association with the Confederate States and with Commander Brooke in particular was brought on by Parrott’s stealing of the widely advertised Blakely principles in his Washington patent of 1861.
The diagram from Blakely’s American Patent 1864
M] Patent 92 / 1866 Improvements in Projectiles for Breech-loading Rifled Ordnance
January 11, 1866
Claim: Wire made of copper, brass, or other suitable metal or alloy is inserted in grooves formed concentrically or spirally on the periphery of the projectiles. One wire or thickness of wire, composed of one or more strands, is inserted in each groove, so that when the projectile is fired the wire is forced into the grooves or rifling of the gun, and the projectile is thereby caused to rotate.
Comment – Blakely and Vavasseur
Blakely Vavasseur Improved Projectile 1866
N] French Brevet sgdg [Patent] Blakely
June 28, 1855, amended April 4, 1860
Claim – A reiteration of Blakely’s first English patent. Plus in 1860 - To realise the advantages of a plug parallel with the bore, and yet to withdraw the plug without unscrewing its whole length, a taper screw breech loading mechanism (Holley 1866)
Comment – The plug is unscrewed two or three turns and may be withdrawn along a slide.
Blakely’s Breech-loading Cannon 1860
There was also a non-ordnance patent:
O] Patent 2,702 / 1857 Improvements in laying submarine telegraphic cables (Provisional Protection only)
October 23, 1857
Claim – This invention “consists in attaching to submarine telegraphic cables boards or other suitable resisting surfaces, in such manner that they shall be perpendicular or nearly so to the cable as the latter sinks.” The boards attached to the cable by “means of pairs of jointed rods, one extremity of each of which nips the cable between suitable curved plates or otherwise, while the other extremity carries the boards.”
Comment – In August 1857 at a meeting of the British Association in Dublin Blakely applied scientific formula to the laying of the Atlantic telegraph cable; factoring in the depth of water, the rapidity of paying out and the specific gravity of the cable, to avoid waste in paying out slack. This provisional patent was intended to take this approach one step further. It was not worked.
Blakely Patent Copper Gas Checks for projectiles 1863
Variants of rings and discs illustrated in 1875