IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MAKING UAKUM
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Nedrick Jarvie and William Miller, of Glasgow,
in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Oakum Manufacturers,
for the Invention of
66
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MAKING UAKUM.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Nedrick Jarvie
and William Miller at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 11th December 1875.
We, NEDRICK JARVIE and WILLIAM MILLER, of Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, Oakum Manufacturers, do hereby
declare the nature of our said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR MAKING OAKUM,” to be as follows, that is to say :-
-
This Invention has for its object the making of oakum in an improved
manner by apparatus operating more speedily and with less cost and
labor than heretofore.
In carrying out the Invention the oakum may be made from old
tarred ropes or from new material. When made from ropes these are

page_text: cut into short lengths, which are first steamed and then saturated with
hot water. The material in its wet state is put on an endless feed
apron, which leads it in between a pair of plain, or fluted, or toothed
rollers, and these rollers feed it in and present it to a spiked drum
revolving at a rapid rate. At a short distance above the feed rollers
there is fixed a board or plate, against which the action of the spiked
drum throws the material. The material partly falls back again and
is partly carried under the fixed board or plate. Five or other suitable
number of the fixed boards or plates are arranged over the upper part
of the drum with spaces between them, and the material is thrown
against each board or plate in succession, and is finally thrown on a
receiving board; the finer tow or loosened oakum falling near the
drum, and the material that is not so fully operated on falling a little
further off. Any of the material that is not sufficiently operated on
may be passed through the apparatus a second time. The fixed boards
or plates may be made adjustable towards or from the drum, and they
are by preference provided with knives or scrapers for cleaning them
at intervals. The drum may be fitted with ribs or other projections
instead of spikes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Nedrick Jarvie and William Miller in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 9th June 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, NEDRICK
JARVIE and WILLIAM MILLER, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Oakum Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said Nedrick Jarvie and William Miller,
Her special licence that we, the said Nedrick Jarvie and William
Miller, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said Nedrick Jarvie and William Miller, our executors, admi-

page_text: nistrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term 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 Apparatus
FOR MAKING OAKUм," upon the condition (amongst others) that we,
the said Nedrick Jarvie and William Miller, our executors or admini-
strators, by an instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, 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 we, the said Nedrick Jarvie and William
Miller, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement in writing, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
Our said Invention has for its object the making of oakum in an
improved manner by apparatus operating more speedily and with less
cost and labor than heretofore.
In carrying out our Invention the oakum may be made from old
tarred ropes or from new material. When made from ropes these are
cut into short lengths, which are steamed or saturated with hot water,
or treated with both hot water and steam. The material in its wet
state is submitted to the action of a spiked drum revolving at a rapid
rate; and the principal distinguishing feature of our Invention is a
peculiar arrangement of boards or plates in connection with the spiked
drum, the material being thrown against such boards or plates and
partly falling back from and being partly carried forward under each
in succession. The material may be submitted to the action of two or
more spiked drums in succession if not sufficiently acted on by one.
And in order that our said Invention, and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, we hereunto append a Sheet of
5 explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and representing
our improved apparatus. In these Drawings the same reference

page_text: пишста are used to шагк the same or like parts wherever they are
repeated.
'
Figure 1 of the Drawings is a front or entering end elevation of one
machine; and Figure 2 is a vertical section, as at right angles to
Figure 1.
The framing of the machine comprises a pair of parallel cast-iron
side standards 1, between which the spiked drum 2 fixed on a hori-
zontal shaft 3 is placed. At the entering end of the machine there is
an endless feed apron 4 carried by two rollers 5, 6, and the material
being laid on this apron is led by it between a pair of feed or taking-in
rollers 7, which may be either fluted, as shown, or toothed, or plain.
Immediately above the feed rollers 7 there is adjusted a transverse
vertical board or plate 8, which prevents the material from being thrown
back over the top feed roller 7; and a kind of casing is formed between
which the spiked drum 2 works, by vertical side plates or boards 9
fixed to the frame standards 1, these plates or boards 9 extending to a
little distance above the drum. The material presented to the action
of the spiked drum 2 by the feed roller 7 is thrown up against an
inclined board or plate 10 fixed transversely at a little distance above
the feed rollers 7, and the material partly falls back again and is partly
carried under the board or plate 10%; the spikes of the drum renewing
their action on it as it passes under the board or plate. Other similar
boards or plates 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, are fixed transversely over the upper
part of the spiked drum. 2 with spaces between them, and a similar
action takes place in connection with each, the material being thus
repeatedly acted on as it passes under each board or plate in succession,
instead of being merely caried round on the spikes of the drum. The
material passes round the upper half of the spiked drum and is thrown
off at the back, where it is received on an endless apron 16, which leads
it to a second similar machine to be further operated on. We find it
advantageous to pass the material continuously through two, three, or
sometimes even four similar machines; but where small quantities are
dealt with the material may be passed twice or oftener through the
same machine.

page_text: of a series. The first machine should have only four of the boards or
plates arranged further apart; and the third machine should have eight
of them arranged nearer together. The boards or plates may be made
adjustable towards or from the drum, the best positions for them are
however very soon ascertained in practice, and in those they may be
permanently fixed. We find in ordinary cases that in the first machine
there should be about 3 inches between the inner edges of the boards
or plates and the points of the drum spikes; and that there should be
inch in the second machine and in the third. Knives or scrapers
may be provided in connection with the boards or plates for cleaning
them at intervals, such knives or scrapers being fitted to move in guide
grooves in the casing sides 9, and being provided with handles.
In some cases the feed or taking-in rollers 7 may be dispensed with,
the materials being led in by the feed apron 7 only.
;
The motive force is applied directly to the shaft 3 of the spiked
drum 2, this shaft having on it fast and loose pulleys 17 for a driving
belt and the feed movements are derived from the shaft 3, a small
pulley on the other end of it acting through a belt on a large pulley 18
on a second motion shaft 19. From a small pulley 20 on this second
motion shaft a belt passes to fast and loose pulleys 21 on a third shaft,
on which there is a pinion 22 in gear with a spur wheel 23 fast on the
spindle of the lower feed roller 7. The feed apron 4 is driven by means
of spur gearing 24 between one, 6, of its rollers and the spindle of the
lower feed roller 7. The feed rollers 7 are pressed together by means
of weighted levers 25 acting on the spindles of the upper one. The
drum 2 may be fitted with ribs or other projections instead of spikes.
A sheet iron apron 26 is fixed across beneath the drum to gather dust
and fine loose bits which the drum carries partly round it.
•
The oakum after being operated on by machines of the kind herein.
before described is finished by drying and carding it in the ordinary
way.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, we have to state that we do not restrict
ourselves to the precise details herein described or delineated, but
that what we believe to be novel and original, and claim as the
Invention secured to us by the herein-before in part recited Letters

page_text: Patent is, the constructing or arranging of apparatus for making
oakum, substantially in the improved manner herein-before described,
and more particularly the combining of the boards or plates (10, &c.)
and the spiked drum, as and for the purposes herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said Nedrick Jarvie and William Miller,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Eighth day of June,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
six.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
NEDRICK JARVIE. (L.S.)
WILLIAM MILLER. (L.S.)
1