Improvements in Barrel-making Apparatus.
Year: 1895

page_text: Improvements in Barrel-making Apparatus.
A communication from FRANKLIN JOY MORTON, of 2724 North Charles Street,
Baltimore, State of Maryland, United States of America, Merchant.
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to that class of barrel-making apparatus in which the
heads of the barrel, keg, or other article composed of staves, properly held with
relation to each other, are rotated while the staves are applied successively thereto,
the staves being subsequently windlassed and secured in place in any suitable
manner to form a complete barrel or other receptacle.
It is the object of the invention to simplify the machine and render it more
certain and efficient in operation, providing means by which barrels, etc., may be
manufactured with great economy by either hand or other power.
With such object in view this invention consists in the parts and combinations
thereof hereinafter more particularly set forth.
In order to make the invention more clearly understood I have shown in the
accompanying drawings means for carrying it into practical effect, without limiting
the improvements, in their useful applications, to the particular construction which,
for the sake of illustration, I have delineated. In said drawings:-
Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of a barrel making machine embodying
the invention.
Figure 2 is a transverse sectional view on line II-II, Fig. 1.
Figure 3 is a transverse sectional view on line III-III, Fig. 1.
Referring to the drawings, 1 indicates a stand or table supported in any suitable
manner, as by legs, portions of which are indicated at 2. 3 and 4 indicate frames
or bearing brackets rigidly mounted upon the table and provided at 5 with
bearings in which are mounted in line with each other longitudinal shafts 6 and 7.
The outer end of the shaft 6 is preferably furnished with an additional support
such as a bearing bracket 8, and may be provided with means by which it may be
conveniently turned by hand or by power. In the construction shown such means
consist of a hand wheel 9. The shafts 6 and 7 are free to turn in their bearings 5
and are provided at their inner ends with disks 10, or with equivalent plates or
radial arms. Each shaft is further provided with a central projecting point 11
which is preferably screw threaded so that it may readily engage and hold the
barrel head. When the latter is so held it will rest against and be kept in a
vertical position, or in a position transverse to the axis of the machine, by the-
disks or arms 10.
12 and 13 are transverse supporting disks or frames secured respectively to the
shafts 6 and 7 and movable therewith. These disks are provided at intervals on
their periphery with blocks or other supports 14, which may be cast integral with
the disks, and upon which are mounted and secured in place by bolts 15, supporting
and ratchet rings 16, 17. The ratchet of said rings are indicated at 18 and are
adapted to be engaged by one or more pawls 19 pivotally mounted upon one or
both of the frames 3 and 4 so as to hold the shafts carrying the barrel heads from
backward rotation. A forward rotation of said rings and their attached shafts,
disks and barrel heads, is effected by hooks or pawls 20 adapted to engage said
LD.

page_text: .
ratchets and provided with shanks 21 extending down to and operated by a treadle
or other mechanism not illustrated. It will be observed that each downward
movement of the hooks 20 will turn the ratchets one or more teeth according to
the length of movement of the hooks, and that during the upward or return
movement of the hooks the parts will be held from rotation by the pawl or
pawls 19. At or near the inner faces of the rings 16 and 17, said rings are formed
with shoulders 22 which are adapted to temporarily support the extreme end or
ends of the barrel staves as the latter are fed into the machine by hand or other-
wise. In the inner faces of said rings are also formed annular grooves or
recesses 23 adapted to receive catch-hoops 24, ready to be moved longitudinally of
the machine over the ends of the staves after the latter are in place around the
edges of the barrel heads. Such longitudinal movement is imparted at the proper
time to the catch-hoops by lugs 25, which are mounted and adapted to reciprocate
in bearings or openings. 26 in the frames 3 and 4, the inner ends of said rods
passing at such times through segmental spaces 27 within the rings 16 and 17 and
between the blocks 14. The rods 25 may be thus actuated by any suitable
mechanism. In the construction illustrated they are attached at their outer ends
to arms 28 fixed on hubs 29, the latter fitting and sliding upon the shafts 6 and 7,
the latter movement being effected by actuating levers 30.
31 and 32 are posts fixed on the base 1 and carrying at their upper ends, opposite
and near the ends of the barrel, pulleys. 33 over which pass windlass ropes 34
and 35. The lower ends of the latter are preferably provided with weights 36 or
other means for causing the desired degree of tension in the ropes, and their upper
ends are attached to hooks or arms 37 carried by the rings 16 and 17.
The disks 12 and 13 are longitudinally movable upon their shafts so as either to
support the ends of the staves or release them and allow their engagement with
the barrel heads. 38 indicates hand levers connected with the disks for this
purpose.
upon
its
The machine being constructed and arranged in the manner above described, or
in any equivalent manner, its mode of operation is as follows: Catch-hoops 24 are
first placed in the recesses 23 of the supporting disks, the rods 25 being in their
outermost or retracted position; barrel heads are then centered and screwed upon
the points 11 at each end of the machine; the stave supporting ring at one
end of the machine is moved slightly inward relative to the barrel head so
that the staves when placed in the machine will rest at that end
shoulder 22, in Fig. 1 the ring 16 being shown in this position; the staves S are
then placed in position one after the other, their right hand ends resting directly
upon the barrel head H, at that end of the machine, with the croze of the staves
properly engaging the beveled edge of the head, and their left hand ends resting
upon the shoulder 22 of the ring 16; as fast as the staves are thus put in place the
shaft and barrel heads are rotated in such direction as to take up and wind upon
the exteriors of the staves the windlassing ropes 34 and 35, such rotation being
affected by the hooks 20 as already described; all of the staves being thus applied
and the barrel having made a complete rotation, the catch-hoop at the right hand
end of the machine is thrust inward over the ends of the staves so as to secure
them tightly upon the head H; the windlassing rope 34 is then drawn right so as
to bend inward the left hand ends of the staves and cause them to engage the
head H', the supporting ring 16 having been preliminarily moved outward from
within the stave-ends; the catch-hoop at this end of the barrel is then thrust
inward over the ends of the staves; and the barrel is then released from the
machine by disengaging the ends of the ropes from the arms 37, unwrapping them
from the barrel and replacing them in position upon said arms for the next operation,
and further by the outward movement of the shafts 6 and 7 and their disks 10
away from the barrel heads.
The tension upon the windlassing ropes for the above described operation may
be effected by the rotation of the barrel or by other equivalent or preferred
means.

page_text: The barrel when released from the machine may have applied to it such
additional hoops as are desired.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, as communicated to me by my foreign correspondent, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. In a barrel machine, the combination of means for holding and rotating the
barrel heads, and a longitudinally movable supporting ring or bracket for
temporarily supporting the ends of the staves at one end of the machine,
substantially as set forth.
2. In a barrel machine, the combination of means for supporting and rotating the
barrel heads, and windlassing ropes for holding the staves as they are applied to
the heads, substantially as set forth.
3. In a barrel machine, the combination of means for supporting and rotating the
barrel heads, means for holding a hoop in proper relation to the end of the barrel,
rods for moving said hoop inwards, and a windlassing rope for holding the staves
as they are applied to the heads, substantially as set forth.
4. In a barrel machine, the combination of means for supporting and rotating the
barrel heads, supports for the staves, rotating means, a holder for a hoop at the
end of the barrel, devices for forcing the same over the ends of the staves, and a
windlassing rope for holding the staves as they are applied to the heads,
substantially as set forth.
5. In a barrel machine, the combination of means for holding the barrel heads,
shafts supporting said holding means, disks on said shafts provided with ratchets
and hooks or pawls for simultaneously operating the latter, and a windlassing rope
for holding the staves as they are applied to the heads, substantially as set forth.
6. In a barrel making machine, the combination of rotary shafts provided with
means for holding the barrel heads, disks mounted on said shafts provided with a
recess for a hoop and having means for supporting the ends of the staves, rods for
forcing the hoops over the ends of the staves, windlassing ropes for holding the
latter as they are applied to the barrel head and to said supporting means, and
mechanism for rotating said shafts, substantially as set forth.
7. In a barrel machine, the combination of frames provided with bearings in line
with each other, shafts mounted in said bearings and adapted to carry the barrel
heads, a disk mounted on one of the shafts, longitudinally movable and adapted to
temporarily support the ends of the staves away from the head and having a recess
for a hoop, and rods or pushers mounted in one of said frames and adapted to
engage the hoop to force the latter over the staves after the latter have been
applied to the barrel heads, substantially as set forth.
8. The machine for combining the head or heads and the staves of barrels, kegs
or similar receptacles, when said machine is constructed, as described and illustrated
in the accompanying drawing.
Dated the 22nd day of January 1895.
BOULT & WADE,
Agents for the Applicant.