More very interesting Greener stuff. The latest Julia's auction included a Greener SxS Item # 3274 with the top rib stamped "Inventor of Laminated Steel" !? Unfortunately, date of manufacture was not included. I've found no patents for barrel steel for Greener BUT this from
The Science of Gunnery, as Applied to the Use and Construction of Fire-Arms by W.W. Greener, 1841 may be Greener’s description of his claim for inventing Laminated Steel:
“I have had as high as three-fourths of steel to one of iron, and where proper attention is paid to clipping of the steel to pieces, corresponding with the (horse-nail) stubs, and properly mixing the whole, welding (in an air furnace) and forging by the heavy hammer, reducing by a tilt ditto, and rolling down to the…rod, a most excellent, tenacious, and dense body of iron is obtained; while, by cutting into lengths of 6 inches, bundling a number together, and re-welding them into a bar, you gain an increased density and tenacity…rendering it…considerably more powerfully strong than any explosive fluid ever yet compounded could burst…”
I also found
The Mechanics Magazine, Museum, Register, Journal and GazetteJuly, 1849 Ed. J.C. Robertson
"Paper read on the Manufacture of the Finer Irons and Steel, as Applied to Gun-Barrels..."
Greener described a new method of barrel production using scrap steel from old coach springs.
And more great reading available on-line
The Science of Gunnery, as Applied to the Use and Construction of Fire-Arms 1841 Oxford
http://books.google.com/books?id=ThYkeKlemD8C&dq=w+greener+barrel+patents“The Syrians were formerly celebrated for their skills in working of iron. Damascus barrels were not to be obtained, at certain periods, at a price less than their weight in silver. The elaborate mixtures of their barrels, swords, &c., entitle them truly to the honour of being the best iron workers…”
“Mr Hallam refers to the authority of an Arabic author…that there is no question that the knowledge of gunpowder was introduced into Europe through the means of Saracens (used to refer to Arabs living in Northern Sinai and a generic term for Moslems) before the middle of the 13th century…”
Greener dates the first use of cannon by the English to the battle of Werewater in 1327 and the invention of portable fire-arms by Italians in 1430.
A reference to the Epistle of the Secret Arts of Friar Bacon is found on p.18
“Our manufacture of inferior gunnery has certainly reached a depth of infamy which never any manufacture in the world reached…”
“Mr Whitehouse, of Wednesbury…has succeeded in obtaining a figure, or as late writers have termed it, “Watering or Jowher”, attests the attention and assiduity he must have devoted to the subject, for the variety is great and handsome…
A many conjectures have been advanced, and an endless discussion created, to account for the Watering or Jowher in oriental sword blades, and genuine Damascus barrels. Anything approaching the truth is seldom met with…”
“The most endless variety possible may be attained; a figure with the carbonized material, showing only the ends or edges of various lamina, or portions of the face of that lamina, may with equal facility be obtained…
It would be a never-ending task…to endeavour to describe a tithe of the varieties that might be made, and have been. The French and Belgians are very expert at this sort of ornamental work.
I have clearly shown, that whatever other qualities Damascus possesses, strength is not one of its properties.”
