IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR COUNTING AND ARRANGING NEEDLES FOR PAPERING
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Victor Milward at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 29th September 1881.
VICTOR MILWARD, of the Firm of Henry Milward and Sons, of Redditch, in
" NEW OR
the County of Worcester, Needlo and Fish Hook Manufacturers.
IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR COUNTING AND ARRANGING NEEDLES FOR PAPERING."
My Invention has for its object to count and arrange symmetrically needles of
different sizes for the purpose of making up papers or packages containing any
required number of needles of different sizes, the needles thus made up for sale being
commonly called assorted needles.
The ordinary method of hand counting and arranging of assorted needles is
troublesome and uncertain. By my Invention the counting and arranging of
assorted needles is effected with facility and rapidity.
My new or improved machinery for counting and arranging needles for papering
is constructed essentially as follows :—
Fixed on the base plate of the machine is a pair of guide rails upon which a
needle receiving plato having raised sides works. Upon the said guide rails is
supported a rectangular compound hopper, the said hopper consisting of a box open
at top and bottom and divided by a series of vertical parallel plates into the
required number of divisions. Into these divisions the needles of different sizes to
be counted and arranged are put. The open bottom of each compartment of the
compound hopper is occupied by a roller or cylinder having in its cylindrical
surface one, two, or more longitudinal grooves or depressions. One end of each
roller is provided with a pinion, and the teeth of a horizontal rack engage with the
said pinions so as to couple or gear the whole of the rollers together. By passing
the said rack backwards and forwards, rotory motion is simultaneously given to
the whole of the rollers, the motion of the rack being limited to the range necessary
to produce a complete rotation in each roller.
The machine is used as follows:-
The hoppers being respectively filled with the different sized needles, the
receiving plate is passed on the guide rails underneath the series of rollers. The
rack is moved so as to give one rotation to each of the said rollers. As the rollers

page_text: rotate, each longitudinal groove or depression in them receives a needle from the
hoppers and carries it to and delivers it upon the receiving plate. There are thus
deposited on the said plate twenty-five (or other number of) needles of the required
sizes and arranged symmetrically, spaces being left between the several groups of
needles deposited on the plate. Another receiving plate being placed upon the 5
guide rails of the machine and pushed underneath the rollers displaces the plate
already charged with needles, which charged plate the attendant removes from the
machine and papers the needles in the ordinary way which the machine has
counted and arranged.
As the required number of assorted needles is delivered by the machine onto the 1
receiving plates, each time a plate is pushed into the machine and the rack drawn
in one or other direction, the counting and arranging of assorted needles is effected
with great rapidity.