A NEW OR IMPROVED SHOE AND. BOOT CLEANING MACHINE
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Peter Barthel at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
November 1874.-A communication from Marcus Simon, residing
at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, Germany.
I, PETER BARTHEL, of the Patent Bureau, Frankfort-on-the-Maine, in
Germany, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "A NEW OR IMPROVED SHOE AND. BOOT CLEANING MACHINE," a com-
munication from Marcus Simon, a person resident at Frankfort-on-the-,
Maine, Germany, to be as follows:-
The object of the Invention is that this machine shall in an efficient
manner clean, black, and polish the boots and shoes.
The machine consists firstly of a rest, upon which the shoe or boot
to be blacked is placed. The machine is built upon a frame supporting!
the whole of the mechanism for the movement of the brushes. The
brushes effecting the blacking operation have partly a rotating, move-

page_text: a rotating movement only.
The base plate of the machine is made from wood or sheet iron.
The frame may be of wood or iron (but I prefer iron), and consists in
two parts connected together in a suitable manner. A foot rest is
provided, on which the boot or shoe is placed. A brush is separately
provided for the further extremity of the boot or the upper leather.
This brush is composed of three separate brushes, one of which is for the
purpose of blacking the middle part of the upper leather. This com-
pound brush is semicircular, and is pressed together by springs of any
construction, so that it may fit any form and size of boot or shoe.
There are rotating brushes for the side parts of the shoe, and spiral
springs press these brushes against it. A brush is also provided for the
back part of the boot. This brush consists of three brushes like the
brush first named herein, and spiral springs or springs of any suitable
construction press the brush against the boot, so that the brush fits any
form or size. These arrangements of brushes are worked by means of a
central shaft with grooved fly wheel and crank handle operating, by
means of pulleys and cords or bands, other shafts, and by them the
brushes. There is in addition another brush at the side of the machine,
and this brush may be used either for cleaning purposes or for dis-
tributing the blacking; and there is provided at one end of the machine
an upper and a lower brush facing each other, so as to clean at the same
time the upper and lower part of the boot before blacking.
The machine works in the following manner :-The boot to be blacked
is placed on the foot rest, and the fly wheel is turned; thus is moved a
crank shaft giving a reciprocating motion to the brushes first named.
By a slight modification of construction this brush may also make a
rotating motion either full-way or half-way.
The rotating brushes doing the sides of boot are driven by cord pulleys
placed on the shaft just named.
The brushes doing the heel are moved by pulleys, the crank shaft, and
levers. These brushes have an up-and-down motion.
.
The machine may be thus modified:-The frame of the machine is
similar to that above. Pulleys with brushes are fastened on their axes

page_text: in such a way that they may slide longitudinally to the axis. These
brushes are pressed by spiral springs or other means against the boot.
A brush of a larger diameter is fast to its axis, and blacks and polishes
the upper and further part of the boot. Other brushes black and polish
the back part of the boot, and a separate brush works the toe of the
boot. All the brushes are driven by a fly wheel. The foot rest witli
the boot is pressed against the brushes by spiral or other springs. All
brushes are so constructed as to fit every form and size of boot.
.