Year: 1855

page_text: Third, of the system or mode of setting up the pile of blanks gradually as
they are used by the machine, by the pall working in a ratchett wheel with a
thread formed inside its boss, working on a screw attached to the bottom of
a plate on which the blanks are supported, and thereby raising the remaining
blanks to the required height for the feeder to operate upon them. The box
in which the envelope is formed has a moveable bottom, the mode of actuating
which forms the fourth part of this Invention. This bottom is worked by
means of a lever sliding on an inclined plane on the under side of the bottom
of the box, and so arranged; that after the plunger has descended a second
time, the bottom falls down and allows the finished envelope to slide down a
trough into any convenient receptacle. The gumming and stamping processes
may be effected by means of eccentrics; and the creasing and folding plunger
is worked by an ordinary cam fitted on to a shaft, having a fly wheel keyed on
to one end, and a crank for working the feed motion raising apparatus and
moveable bottom of the folding box at the other end.
In order to ensure the folding of the flaps in their proper order, it is pro-
posed to employ small vertical spindles, weighted at their upper ends and fitted
to work freely through the plunger, their lower ends projecting a short distance
beyond the face of the plunger, so that they may come in contact with those
flaps to be folded first before the other flaps are acted upon by the plunger.
When the plunger has descended to the bottom of the box, these rods or
spindles will be forced up inside the plunger flush with the face thereof, and
will thus enable the envelope to be perfectly flattened in the folding box.
The whole machine may be worked either by hand or by any other prime
mover, in which last case a driving pulley may be fitted on to the main shaft
of the machine...
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Little in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 1st
December 1855.
TO ALL TO. WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
LITTLE, of Derby, in the County of Derby, Engineer, send greeting....
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters:
Patent, bearing date the Second day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said-

page_text: Charles Little, Her special license that I, the said Charles Little, my execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such other's as I, the "said Charles Little,
my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and
no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
5 therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF ENVELOPES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Charles Little, by an instrument in writing under my
>hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause
the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Little, do hereby declare the
nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to an improved arrangement of machinery.or
apparatus for stamping or embossing and inclining the flaps of envelopes, and
also of supplying or feeding the machine with blanks, and to a peculiar mode
of setting up the pile of blanks gradually as the number of blanks decreases,
whereby greater simplicity, cheapness, and non-liability of derangement of the
working parts is attained.
The improvements consist, first, in the use of weighted bell-crank levers
working with one end in the folding box for inclining the flaps of the envelope
previous to the second descent of the plunger.
Second, of a system or mode of feeding from a pile of blanks, by a peculiar
arrangement of lever fitted at the extremity with any suitable soft or elastic
substance.
Third, of a system or mode of setting up the pile of blanks gradually as
they are used by the machine, by means of a pall working in a ratchet wheel
with a thread formed inside its boss, working on a screw attached to the bottom
of a plate on which the blanks are supported, and thereby raising the remaining
blanks to the required height for the feeder to operate upon them. The box
in which the envelope is formed has a moveable bottom, the mode of actuating
which forms the fourth part of this Invention. This bottom is worked by
means of a lever sliding on an inclined plane on the under side of the bottom
of the box, and so arranged, that after the plunger has descended a second

page_text: time, the bottom falls down and allows the finished envelope to slide down a
trough into any convenient receptacle. The gumming and stamping processes
may be effected by means of eccentrics; and the creasing and, folding.plunger
is worked by an ordinary cam or crank fitted, or formed on a shaft, having a fly
wheel-keyed on to one end, and a crank for.working the feed motion raising
apparatus and moveable bottom of the folding box at the other end..
:
In order to ensure the folding of the flaps in their proper order, I employ
small vertical spindles, weighted at their upper ends and fitted to work freely
through the plunger, their lower ends projecting a short distance beyond the
face of the plunger, so that they may come in contact with. those flaps to be
folded first before the other flaps are acted upon by the plunger. When the
plunger has descended to the bottom of the box, these rods or spindles will
be forced up inside the plunger flush with the face thereof, and will thus enable
the envelope to be perfectly flattened in the folding box. The whole machine
may be worked either by hand or by any other, prime mover, in which last case
a driving pulley.may be fitted on to the main shaft of the machine.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall
now proceed particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose I shall
refer to the Figures on the Sheets of Drawings hereunto annexed, the same
letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout both Sheets of
Drawings.
Figure 1.on Sheet 1 of my Drawings. represents a transverse sectional
elevation of my improved envelope-folding machine; Figure 2 is a corre-
sponding sectional plan of the same; and Figure 3 on Sheet 2 is a longitudinal
sectional elevation of the machine.
"
A is the bed plate of the machine, on which is fitted the folding box B.
The internal sides of this box are slotted, and in each slot works the tail of a
weighted bell-crank lever C, such tails being forced, inside the box when the
plunger D is out by the action of the weights E on the-horizontal arms of the
levers. The envelope blanks, shewn in red lines, are fed on to the folding box
from the pile F by means of the vibrating arm G and finger H, the end of
which finger is fitted with a piece of india-rubber or any soft or elastic
substance capable of acting with a slight frictional adhesion on the blanks.
This finger rests upon the top blank of the pile, and when moved forward
by the arm G it slides the blank off the pile along the small table I, and
deposits it.accurately over the mouth of the folding box, which is fitted with
ordinary guides or guages to ensure accuracy of adjustment to the blank..
When the arm G has moved forward sufficiently to deposit the blank, the
upper tail of the finger H strikes a stop pin J, as shewn in the Drawing

page_text: (Figure 1), whereupon the lower end of the finger is raised, from off the blank
and held up by the spring K during the backward traverse of the arm until
the tail of the finger strikes the second stop L(Figure 1), which has the
effect of bringing the finger, down again on to the next top blank of the pile,
the feeding being thus continued in a self-acting manner, until the whole pile
is used up... The movements of the arm Gare obtained, from the main over-
head shaft M by means of a crank A', Figure 3, keyed on to the end of the
main shaft, or on to an intermediate wheel;, the said crank actuating the
connecting rod, S working the bell-crank lever R, the upper end of which is
connected by means of the rod,Q to one end of the lever P, the other end of
the lever being keyed.or otherwise fastened on the lower end of the upright
spindle B', the arm G being secured to the upper end of such spindle,, as
shewn in the Drawing
In order that the top blank of the pile may always be even with the feeding
table I, an upward traversing motion is imparted to the plate on which the
blanks are supported, such motion being so adjusted that the pile shall rise
only in the same, proportion, as the blanks diminish in number. This move-
ment is effected by means of a ratchet wheel N, having an internal screwed
boss, which works.over the screw spindle O attached to the plate which carries
the blanks. The ratchet wheel N is worked by a suitable pall C¹, Figure 2,
carried on the end of the small lever D and actuated by the lever P, berein-
before referred to, with which it is connected. by the short link E, capable of
adjustment in a slot in the lever P.
It will thus be obvious, that at each forward or backward movement of the
pall C', the ratchet wheel N will turn slightly, and raise thereby the blanks,
the lift of the blanks being regulated by the number of teeth in the ratchet
wheel and by the stroke of the pall, which can be adjusted by moving, the
junction stud up or down the slot formed lengthwise in the lever P.
i
Previous to the blank being creased, it is gummed and embossed, the.
gumming being effected by pressing the flap, to be gummed on to a sponge or
other absorbent material. contained in a part of the folding box, the gum
oozing out, by the slots T, T, shewn in dotted lines in Figure 2. The pressure:
of the flap on the gummer may be effected by a plunger or plate U, worked
by a pair of toothed wheels F, F", whose pitch lines are indicated by red lines
in Figure 1 of the Drawings. These wheels. are so arranged that the smaller
wheel on the crank shaft makes 2 revolutions to-1 of the larger wheel,
which actuates the crank G' for raising the plunger U for the gumming appa-
ratus, so that the gumming plunger, does not descend on to the gummer during
the absence of the blank, since it only makes one-stroke, for two of the
J

page_text: folding plunger. The embossing may be effected in the ordinary manner by a
die H, Figure .3 and suitable matrix, the die being worked by a cam or
eccentric I on the main shaft. I may here observe, however, that I lay no
claim to the mode I have herein described of gumming and embossing the flaps
of envelopes, but have merely described them to illustrate the complete manu-
facture of the envelope. The blank is now ready for creasing, and this is
effected by the descent of the plunger D, which is connected to the square
shank W, working in the brass guides X. The movement of the plunger is
obtained from the crank Y and connecting rod Z. The first descent of the
plunger effects the creasing or bending up of the flaps, and when the plunger
rises again, the tails of the weighted levers C, no longer being resisted by the
presence of the plunger in the folding box, move forward by the action of
the weights E, and incline the flaps inward slightly. On the second descent
of the plunger, each flap is folded in the proper order by means of the small
vertical spindles a, a, which are weighted at their upper ends, and protrude
below the face of the plunger, through which they work freely. These spindles
are weighted to give just sufficient resistance to press down the flaps in
proper order, such order being obtained by having the spindles of different
lengths, so that the longer ones will come into action first, and then the shorter
ones. On the plunger reaching the bottom. of the box, these spindles slide
up inside the plunger, and allow the envelope to be well pressed. The next
movement of the machine accomplishes the liberation or discharge of the now
completed envelope from the folding box, and this is effected by means of the
horizontal lever b (Figure 1), which may be worked from the main shaft either
by the same crank as is used for working the feed motion, or by toothed wheels
and a crank, in the same manner as the gumming plunger. The crank A',
Figure 3, through the connecting rod S, actuates the bell-crank lever R, the
connecting rod Q, and lever P, as herein-before described. To the lever P is
connected, by a pin and adjusting slot in the lever at J¹, the connecting rod K',
the other end of which rod is jointed to one end of the horizontal lever b,
which thus receives its motion direct from the lever P. I may here observe,
that although I have shewn the feeding, setting up, and discharging move-
ments as all obtained from one bell crank R, yet in some cases I propose
having a separate bell crank and motion for actuating the feeding mechanism.
A roller or antifriction pulley c on the free end of the lever b runs under-
neath the incline d on the under side of the hinged bottom e, which works on
a centre at f. When the pulley c is run back to the position shewn in the
Drawing, the bottom will open by its own weight, and allow the envelope to
slide out into the discharging spout g, whereupon the pulley c returns again

page_text: along the incline d, and closes the bottom which rests upon it, and is held firm
and steady thereby during the folding process.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to
describe or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of my said Invention; but what
I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim, as the Invention
secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
First, the general construction, arrangement, and combination of machinery
or apparatus for the manufacture of envelopes, as herein-before described.
Second, the application and use of the weighted levers C for inclining.the
flaps of partially folded envelopes, as herein-before described.
Third, the system or mode of inclining the flaps of partially folded envelopes
by the action of gravity.
Fourth, the application and use of the weighted and vertical spindles in the
plunger, for the purpose of facilitating the folding of the flaps of the envelope
in their proper order, as herein-before described.
Fifth, the system or mode of feeding the machine from a pile of blanks by
means of a lever arm and finger fitted at the extremity with any suitable soft
or elastic substance for obtaining the requisite amount of friction or adhesion,
in the manner herein-before described, and illustrated by the Drawings.
Sixth, the system or mode of setting up the pile of blanks gradually as they
are used by the machine, as herein-before described.
Seventh, the system or mode of actuating the moveable or hinged bottom of
the folding box, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Little, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-ninth day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-five.
CHARLES LITTLE. (L.S.)