Patent GB-191026881-A (GB)
Title: Improvements in the Manufacture of Firelighters and Machines or Apparatus therefor.
Inventor: GLOVER ARTHUR WILLIAM
IPC: C10L11/00
Filed: 1910-11-19
Granted: 1911-11-20
Abstract: 26,881. Glover, A. W. Nov. 19. Wood fuel.-Firelighters of the kind consisting of parallel sticks, separated at the ends by shavings, sawdust, or other inflammable materials, are made in machines in which the forming-boxes are sunk with their open tops level with the surface of a work-table, so that the shavings or the like may be swept into the boxes by the hand, the middle space being kept clear by one or more fixed or reciprocated partition bars situated beneath the table. In the treadle-operated machine shown in Fig. 1, the bottom sticks are placed on a divided plunger l and partition bars k are brought up to a corebar n by a rod q and lever o. Shavings are placed in the end spaces and the top sticks are placed on the shavings. A treadle r is then depressed, a cam t and toggle u causing the plunger l to compress the lighter against pressure-receiving bars y which are brought over it by a spring. Further depression of the treadle causes the cam t to raise the lighter, still compressed between the plunger l and bars y, above the table to be tied or wired round the middle. The pressure is then relieved by bending the toggle by a lever wand the bars y are moved leaving the finished firelighter in the position shown in Fig. 9. Several machines as above may be arranged on a revolving circular table, the toggles being actuated by a fixed horizontal cam as they rotate round it. In this apparatus the pressure-receiving bars y are replaced by a fixed divided plate, placed above the table in a suitable position. Fig. 10 shows an automatically-operated apparatus in which a number of castings c, c<1>, shown separately in Fig. 14, each for making two firelighters are hinged together at 6 so as to form an endless chain, rollers 7 on the hinges running on rails 8 and over drums 9, 10 at the ends. The drum 9 is intermittently rotated by a ratchet-wheel 11 and pawl 12, operated by a link from a worm on the driving-shaft 17. Two sticks are placed in each box in the position I on falsebottoms connected to rods 18<a> guided in holes 19 and resting on bars 38. Partition-bars k, shown separately in Fig. 10<a> enter the slots in the forming-boxes, and shavings are fed into the side spaces either by hand from the table or from a hopper 21 by pushers 22 reciprocated by a crank 23 on the driving - shaft 17. The shavings are compressed by plungers 25 actuated through a link 26, lever 27, link 28, and a lever 29 pivoted at 30 by a cam on the worm-wheel shaft 33. The top sticks are placed on the shavings in the position III where the partition-bar k is cut away for this purpose, and in the position IV the bars 38, which are hinged at one end to the shaft of the drum 9 are raised by rocking levers 39 actuated by the link 26, thus raising the false-bottoms and compressing the lighters against plates on a bracket 35, the shavings being compressed sideways by springs k<1> on the partition-bar. The lighters are tied or wired while compressed, and are ejected by rods 40, which enter the space between the two halves of the false - bottom and are then moved forwards by levers 27, 41. In modifications the partition-bar and the path of the boxes are horizontal and circular. In one form the boxes are rigidly connected together so as to form a ring, which is intermittently rotated beneath a stationary table by a pawl engaging with recesses or projections on the ring having the same pitch as the boxes. In another form the boxes are secured to an intermittently rotated table, the shavings being swept into the boxes by a stationary curved or V-shaped scraper placed above the table. The firelighters may be tied or wired automatically by known devices.