IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING BALLS OR MASSES OF SODIUM CHLORIDE OR OTHER PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert John Thompson Hawksley, Arthur Frederick
Hawksley, and Herbert Linney Hawksley, all of Oldham, in the County of
Lancaster, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND
APPARATUS FOR FORMING BALLS OR MASSES OF SODIUM CHLORIDE OR OTHER
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert John Thompson
Hawksley, Arthur Frederick Hawksley, and Herbert Linney Hawksley at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on tlie 18th September 1880.
ROBERT JOHN THOMPSON HAWKSLEY, ARTHUR FREDERICK HAWKSLEY, and
HERBERT LINNEY HAWKSLEY, all of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING BALLS OR
MASSES OF SODIUM CHLORIDE OR OTHER SALT, AND FOR CHARGING CHAMBERS
THEREWITH."
Our Invention relates principally to the treatment of sodium chloride or
common salt in the manufacture of alkali. In the modern process it is desirable
to form the sodium chloride into small masses, as for example, into balls, and
our Invention has this object. To this end we employ an upper and lower table
or moulding plate, the lower plate being formed with cups or recesses to receive
the salt, and the upper plate being formed or provided with inverted cups or
with plungers which enter the cups in the lower table. The lower table is fitted
to swivel so that it can be inverted. To permit of this inverson the said table
may be arranged to bo raised, or it may bo provided with trunnions mounted
in fixed bearings: The upper table is arranged to rise and fall, or to slide up and
down in suitable guiding standards, and is by preference balanced or partly balanced
by means of a weight or of weights. The said upper table may be raised and
lowered by the hand, or it may receive motion from a shaft actuated by power,
any suitable arrangement of cranks, levers, connecting rods or parts being employed
to impart the desired movements to the table. Each of the cups or recesses in the
ower table is made of a capacity suitable to receive a quantity of salt sufficient for
he formation of one ball or moulded mass, and a comparatively large number of

page_text: cups are arranged as closely together as is conveniently possible. The salt is
supplied to the apparatus by means of a hopper formed to deliver a measured
charge for each operation, or is raised from a receptacle by means of buckets, each
adapted to hold a charge, or is otherwise supplied as found to be most convenient.
The said hopper or receptacle is or may be provided with revolving arms or mixers,
and with arrangements for supplying water or steam to moisten the salt. The
charge of salt delivered on to the lower table is moved about and "strickled " so as
to fill all the cups or recesses. The upper table is now brought down by the
pressure of the hand, or by the action of a lever or appliance, or by the action of
the driving motion, and the cups or plungers enter the cups or recesses in the lower
table and compress the salt contained therein. The upper table now rises or is
raised, and a tray formed with shallow cups or recesses is inverted' over the lower
table, and is or may be secured by means of catches, hooks, or bolts. The lower
table is now inverted, whereby the moulded balls are delivered into the tray, and
are received by the recesses therein. We may employ a spur pinion and
sector or other self-acting means for inverting the said table, and we may modify
the moulding apparatus by forining moulding bars or parts, which are arranged to
slide or move horizontally, and which act in conjunction with a removable tray and
with or without a rising and falling upper table, the receding of the moulds leaving
the moulded balls or masses on the tray, which is made suitable to the requirements.
The tray carrying the balls is now removed or received on to a carriage, and is trans-
ferred to a stove or heated chamber in which is maintained a temperature which will
harden-the-balls-without.glazing their surfaces, and to aid in the obtainment of a
-regular temperature we prefer to provide the said stove-with-a-pyrometer. The said
stove is by preference heated by means of-gas-aud.air, but we do not confine ourselves
to this. The trays carrying the moulded masses are placed in the stove, or are placed
in tiers in racks, or are arranged in tiers in a frame which is provided with wheels
which may run upon rails, so that cach frame may be filled at the moulding machine
and be run into the stove. Means are provided for carrying away the moisture
liberated during the drying process. When the stove is filled the gas is turned on
and lighted, and the heat is maintained until the balls are sufficiently dried and
hardened. To supply the balls so formed, or masses otherwise formed, to the
cylinders or chambers in which the re-action takes place, we prefer to convey the
balls by means of a fluted incline to hopper pipes which are formed with rising
and falling bottoms or stages, or are of a telescopic formation, or are arranged to
descend as they become filled, the intention being that the balls shall not become
broken by falling. As the hopper pipe fills it descends until the bottom of the
retort is reached, when the bottom of the hopper is opened or released, and the
hopper pipe is gradually raised as the filling proceeds.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said Robert John Thompson Hawksley, Arthur Frederick Hawksley,
and Herbert Linney Hawksley in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 18th
March 1881.
ROBERT JOHN THOMPSON HAWKsley, Arthur FREDERICK HAWKsley, and
HERBERT LINNEY HAWKSLEY, all of Oldham, in the County of Lancaster.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR FORMING BALLS OR
MASSES OF SODIUM CHLORIDE OR OTHER SALT, AND FOR CHARGING CHAMBERS
THEREWITH."
Our Invention relates principally to the treatment of sodium chloride or
common salt in the manufacture of alkali. In the modern process it is desirable to
form the sodium chloride into sinall masses, as for example, into balls, and our
Invention has this object. To this end we employ an upper and lower table or
moulding plate, the lower plate being formed with cups or recesses to receive the
salt, and the upper plate being formed or provided with inverted cups or with
plungers which enter the cups in the lower table. The lower table is fitted to
swivel so that it can be inverted. To permit of this inversion the said table may
bo arranged to be raised, or it may be provided with trunnions mounted in fixed
bearings. The upper table is arranged to slide and fall or slide up and down in
suitable guiding standards. Each of the cups or recesses in the lower table is made
of a capacity suitable to receive a quantity of salt sufficient for the formation of
one ball or moulded mass, and a comparatively large number of cups are arranged
as closely together as is conveniently possible. The salt is supplied to the apparatus
by means of a hopper formed to deliver a measured charge for each operation, or is
raised from a receptacle by means of buckets, each adapted to hold a charge, or is
otherwise supplied as found to be most convenient. The charge of salt delivered
on the lower table is moved about and "strickled" so as to fill all the cups or
recesses. The upper table is now brought down by the pressure of the hand or by
the action of a lever, or appliance, or by the action of the driving motion, and the
cups or plungers enter the cups or recesses in the lower table and compress the salt
contained therein. The upper table now rises or is raised, and a tray formed with
shallow cups or recesses is inverted over the lower table, and is or may be secured
by means of catches, hooks, or bolts. The lower table is now inverted, whereby
the moulded balls are delivered into the tray and are received by the recesses
therein. The tray carrying the balls is now removed or received on to a carriage,
and is transferred to a stove or heated chamber. To supply the balls so formed or
masses otherwise formed to the cylinders or chambers in which the re-action takes
place, we prefer to convey the balls by means of a fluted incline to hopper-pipes
which are formed with rising and falling bottoms or stages, or are of a telescopic
formation, or are arranged to descend as they become filled, the intention being that
the balls shall not become broken by falling. As the hopper-pipe fills it descends
until the bottom of the retort is reached, when the bottom of the hopper is opened
or released, and the hopper pipe is gradually raised as the filling proceeds.
And in order that our Invention may be well understood we have attached
hereunto a Sheet of Drawings, to which we will hereinafter refer. In the said
Drawings Fig. 1, drawn to a scale of about one inch to the foot, represents a side
levation, and Fig. 2 a front elevation of a machine which we have designed for
se in the forming of the said balls. In the said Figures a is the said upper table,
nd b is the lower table. The said upper table is attached to brackets a², which
re fitted to slide in planed slots formed in side standards c, which constitute parts
f the framing of the machine. To the table is secured the lower end of a rod d
which slides in a bearing formed in a cross bar c¹, whereby the table is steadied in

page_text: its movements. The outer ends of the brackets a¹ are connected by means of
links e, e, with the outer ends of two levers f, f, which have their fulcra at f'. In
suitable bearings a driving shaft g is mounted to revolve, and is provided with fast
and loose strap pullies h. Upon the said shaft are fixed two cams i, i, which act
upon the levers so as to raise the upper table and to sustain it in the clevated
position indicated in the Drawings during a considerable portion of the period of
the revolution of the driving shaft. The said shaft is connected by spur genring k
with a second motion shaft which revolves in suitable bearings, the said gearing
being proportioned to cause the shaft l to make two revolutions for each revolution
of the driving shaft. Upon the shaft are fixed two cams m, which effect the raising
of the lower table. The last named table is formed with end trunnions, which are
fitted to swivel in blocks n, n, as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 2. The
said blocks are fitted to slide in the slots in the standards c, c, and are connected by
means of links o, o, with the other ends of levers p, p, which are mounted upon
fulcra at q. The said levers are acted upon by the cams m so as to elevate the
'lower table, and as the shaft & makes two revolutions for one revolution of the
driving shaft, the said table is raised twice for every elevation of the upper table,
the cams being so adjusted as that they shall not be acting upon the levers p
during the times when the upper table is in its lowest position. When the lower
table is in its lower position it rests upon a fixed supporting platform which is
secured to the framing c², and furnishes a firm support for the said table, and
prevents it from-swiveling-at-the-times_when_such_motion is not required. In the
-upper surface of the said table, or in a plate thereon, are formed a number of cup-
shaped recesses, as indicated in Fig. 3, wherein a portion-of-the-said-table-is-reprc--
sented in section. Each recess is partly cylindrical and partly semi-spherical, the
cylindrical portion being slightly larger in diameter than the semi-spherical
portion, in order to allow for the thickness of the metal forming the edges of the
upper cup. One of the upper cups is represented in section by 8. The said cup
is formed with a semi-spherical hollow corresponding to that of the said recess, so
that when the said cup enters the cylindrical part of the recess, as represented in
Fig. 3, a spherical mould is formed by the combination of the two parts. Tho
cup is formed with a screwed shank which is secured by a nut to the upper table.
The lower table is formed with a number of the said recesses arranged in rows
with only sufficient space between any two recesses to give the necessary strength
to the dividing walls, so that the surface of the table is "honey-combed" with the
recesses. Cups corresponding in number are secured to the upper table, in such a
manner as that when it is lowered each cup enters its corresponding recess. To
guide the upper table so as to ensure the entry of the cups into the recesses, pins t
fixed to the upper table enter holes drilled in the lower table. Springs may be
When
mounted upon the said pins or in the holes into which they enter.
operating with the machine salt deposited upon the table is moved about or
strickled over the surface in such a manner as that all the recesses become filled.
Fig 6 indicates such an arrangement as we may adopt for delivering the salt upon
the lower table. The salt is conveyed into a receptacle u, into which, when
desirable, steam or water is discharged, in order to render the salt suitably damp
The said receptacle may be provided with revolving blades or mixers, in order to
reduce the mass to an uniformly moist condition. The salt is raised by an
elevator u¹, consisting of a chain of buckets to the upper end of a shuto v. The
speed of the elevator is such as that a charge of salt is delivered at the proper
time for each moulding operation, and falling upon the table is strickled off by
means of a suitable tool, such, for example, as the rake indicated by w. This i
effected during the period of rest of the upper table. The cams i now permit the
upper table to descend until the cups enter into the recesses, each cup pressing the
contained salt into a globular shape. The continued rotation of the cams then raise
the table, and the lower table is also raised by the action of the cams m, but as th
lift of the upper table is greater than that of the lower one, the said upper tabl
moves more quickly than the lower table. A sheet metal tray is now placed over th

page_text: lower table, and is secured thereto by means of catches, hooks, or bolts, or by other
suitable means. The formation of the said tray is indicated by Figs. 4 and 5, which
represent a portion of a tray. The tray is formed with shallow cups or hollows
corresponding in number and relative positions with the recesses of the lower
table, and being suitable in form to receive the moulded balls. When the lower
table has reached a suitable height it is turned over, as indicated by the dotted
lines in Fig. 1, and is then lowered until the tray rests upon the platform r. It
has been mentioned that the lower table is raised twice during one revolution of
the driving shaft. The said table is now again raised so that the tray which has
been released from the table can be withdrawn, carrying with it the globular
masses of salt which have been deposited upon the tray. The table then descends
and the described operations are repeated. The tray of balls is now conveyed in
any suitable manner to a suitable stove to he hardened. We employ a number of
trays which are successively filled with the balls. As they are removed these trays
may be placed in tiers in a suitable frame or carriage provided with wheels so that
it can be run into the stove. We prefer to heat the stove by means of gas and air,
and to provide it with a pyro-ineter, so that a regular temperature can be
maintained which will harden the balls without glazing their surfaces, but we do
not confine ourselves to these details. The stove is filled with the trays of
balls, or with the frames or carriages carrying the same, and the gas is turned on
and lighted and the heat is maintained until the balls are sufficiently dried and
hardened, suitable arrangements being adopted for permitting the escape from the
stove of the moisture liberated during the drying process. Figs. 7 and 8 illustrate
the apparatus we employ in the filling of the cylinders or chambers in which the
re-action takes place. The balls run down a fluted incline into a hopper pipe y, which
can be raised and lowered by means of racks, chains, or cords. A shuto passes
into an opening in one side of the hopper pipe, and the part of this opening from
the said shute to the bottom of the pipe is closed by means of shutters x', x²,
3,x, which slide upon one another as the hopper pipe is raised or lowered. When
the filling commences the bottom of the hopper pipe is in its highest position, so
that it receives the balls from the incline without their having to drop such a
distance as would cause them to be broken. As the hopper-pipe fills it is lowered
until it nears the bottom of the cylinder, as in the Drawing, when lever catches Z
are acted upon by fixed projections or by other suitable incans, whereby hinged
doors in the bottom of the hopper pipe are released and fall open, as seen in Fig. 8,
so that the balls can run out of the pipe into the cylinder. The hopper pipe is
now slowly raised as the filling of the cylinder is effected so as to permit the balls
to run out of the pipe as fast as others run in. Instead of providing the hopper
pipe with doors it may be provided with a bottom which can be detached and left
at the bottom of the cylinder until the latter is emptied, and, if preferred, the
hopper pipe may consist of tubes sliding telescopically. The apparatus represented
in Figs. 1 and 2 may be greatly modified so long as the tables for moulding a
number of balls at one operation are retained. In some cases we propose to
dispense with the arrangements for actuating the machine by power, in which case
we may balance or partly balance the weight of the tables a and b by means of
weights suspened from chains passing over pullies, or by other suitable arrange-
ments. By the indicated means we may give the upper table a tendency to rise,
so that the operator has to draw it down when he has filled the recesses in the
lower table, or it may have a tendency to fall, so that the operator would draw it
up after the moulding operating. We should prefer in the said cases to raise the
lower table by means of a foot treadle, and to partly balance the weight of the
table so as to render its elevation more easy. In the power machine we may
employ a spur pinion and sector or other self-acting means for inverting or turning
over the lower table to discharge the balls on to the tray, and we may greatly
modify the moulding parts so long as a comparatively large number of balls are
moulded by one operation, and are delivered on to a tray for conveyance to the
drying stove. The balls may be spherical, as herein described, or be of any other

page_text: suitable form, as, for example, the moulding recesses may be of hexagonal formation.
In some cases we may dispense with the upper table.
Having now fully set forth and indicated the nature of our said Invention, and
the manner in which we propose to carry the same into practical effect, we would
have it to be understood in conclusion that we claim,-
First. Forming a number of balls at one operation by compressing moistened
salt by means of upper and lower moulding tables, substantially as set forth and
indicated.
Secondly. The trays formed with hollows to receive the balls, substantially as
and for the purpose set forth and indicated.
Thirdly. The table "honey-combed" with recesses to receive the salt, and the
table provided with moulding cups to enter the said recesses, substantially as set
forth and indicated.
Fourthly. The moulding table arranged to turn over 50 as to deliver the "bails"
on to a tray.
Fifthly. The apparatus, substantially as set forth and indicated with reference to
Figs. 1, 2, and 3 of the accompanying Drawings.
Sixthly. The apparatus for filling the cylinders with balls, substantially as set
forth and indicated.
And; Lastly. The method of and apparatus for moulding, transporting, and
drying or hardening salt balls, substantially as set forth and indicated.
-In-witness-whereof, I, the said Herbert Linney Hawksley, for myself, and
on behalf of the said Robert John Thompson Hawksley and Arthur Frederick-
Hawksley, have hereunto set-my-hand-and-seal,-this.Sixteenth_day_of
March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eighty-
one.