IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND APPARATUS FOR COUNTING NEEDLES, GILL AND HECKLE PINS, AND ARTICLES OF A LIKE DESCRIPTION, WHICH ARE LIKEWISE APPLICABLE TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Harrison Aydon at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 4th December 1876.
HARRISON AYDON, of Kneller Cottage, Whitton, in the Parish of Twickenham, in
the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY AND
APPARATUS FOR COUNTING NEEDLES, GILL AND HECKLE PINS, AND ARTICLES
OF A LIKE DESCRIPTION, WHICH ARE LIKEWISE APPLICABLE TO OTHER SIMILAR
PURPOSES."
This Invention consists mainly in the construction and arrangement of machinery
and apparatus, whereby needles and other similar articles can be counted and
the number registered without being touched by the hand. For these purposes a
frame carrying one or more hoppers, in which hopper or hoppers the needles or
other articles to be counted and registered are placed, is made to have an alternate
or reciprocating motion, and to travel on slides, rollers, or other suitable well known
mechanical devices, at the same time passing or moving over a metal plate or table
on or by which the needles or other articles are to be counted and registered. This
table consists of an upper and lower metallic plate or plates, the upper plate of this
table is divided into a certain or convenient number of spaces of a size proportional to
the size of the needles or other articles required to be counted and registered; each
such space is perforated by twenty-five longitudinal grooves or slits, or by any
other suitable number as may be required to suit the number of needles or other
articles required to be wrapped or packed up in each paper or receptacle. These
perforations, grooves, or slits are to be made of such a width and dimensions as
only to be sufficient to receive one needle or other article each time they are counted
and registered.
The under plate or plates of this table is or are to be held in its or their position
by springs or other suitable mechanical means in close contact with the under side
of the upper plate, except at such time or times as are herein-after mentioned.
This under plate or plates has or have on its or their upper surface a number of
tongues or projections corresponding to the number of perforations or slits in the
upper plate of the table, into which they are made to fit and slide, so that when the
plates are in close contact the tongues or projections on the lower plate or plates
close or fill up the perforations or slits in the upper plate, the table having then a
Hush or level surface. This bottom plate may be made in either one or more

page_text: pieces, so as to suit the number of spaces that may be employed in each table for
counting and registering; a convenient size for these tables would be, for example
say, one divided into twenty spaces and capable of counting and registering
500 needles or other articles at each backward movement of the hopper frame
carrying the hopper or hoppers containing the needles or other articles to be
counted and registered, but I do not bind myself to this or any other number.
The process of working the machine or apparatus is as follows, viz.:-The frame
carrying the hopper or hoppers containing any suitable number of needles or other
articles required to be counted and registered is brought to the front of the metal
table. It is now in position and ready to commence counting and registering the
needles or other articles that have been placed in the hopper or hoppers; for this
purpose the hopper frame with the hopper or hoppers is forced, pushed, or drawn
backwards or from the operator either by hand, weight, foot treadle, or other
mechanical means which are well known for producing such motion.
The hopper
or hoppers fit with their lower edges close against the surface of the upper plate of
the table, so as not to allow of any needle or other article that has to be counted
and registered passing between the lower portion or edges of the said hopper or
hoppers and the surface of the table itself; on the frame with the hopper or hoppers
being moved backwards or from the operator, the delivery openings of the hopper
or hoppers slide or move over the spaces containing the perforations, grooves, or
slits, into which the needles or other articles are to be deposited, counted, and
registered, and in doing so the hopper frame, which has a moveable camb or
projection fitted at each end, brings such cambs or projections into contact with one
or more studs, pins, or projections fixed to the under plate or plates of the said table,
thereby depressing the under plate or plates, and with them the tongues or
projections which are fixed to the surface thereof, by these means allowing only one
needle or other article to drop or be deposited from the hopper or hoppers in the
slit or recess so prepared to receive it. When the cambs or projections on the
hopper frame pass out of contact with the studs, pins, or projections attached to the
under plate or plates; the springs above mentioned act on the under or lower plate
or plates, and push or force the tongues or projections on such plate or plates which
slide in the porforations or slits in the upper plate into their normal position or flush
and level with the upper surface of the table, any needles or other article being
thereby and at the same time pushed or thrown out of the slits or recesses
in which they had been received on to a level surface, and are then easily drawn
towards the operator and placed in a paper, papers, or other receptacles prepared
to receive them without coming in contact with or being touched by the bands of
the operator.
Before the hopper frame with its hopper or hoppers can be again brought into
position at the front of the table to recommence the process of depositing the needles
or other articles, the operator has to move or depress a handle or other suitable
mechanism, thereby removing a catch which has held the hopper frame firmly in
its back position, and at the same time raising the cambs or projections on the
hopper frame, thus preventing them from coming into contact with the studs, pins,
or projections attached or fixed to the lower plate or plates, thereby also preventing
the lower plate or plates from being depressed and forming the slits or recesses
in the upper plate of the table in which the needles or other articles are counted
and registered.
Instead of the hopper frame being made moveable as above described, it may be
firmly fixed and the table made to move and have an alternate or reciprocating
motion, the above description being applicable and describing in every way a
machine or apparatus with a moving table and fixed hopper frame except in so far
that the needles or other articles are deposited, counted, and registered on the
forward motion of the table in contradistinction to the backward motion of the
moveable hopper frame.
One modification of this machine or apparatus is to make the hopper frame a
fixture to the foundation plate of the machine and the table moveable, the table to

page_text: have a continuous forward or traversing motion; for this purpose the table is formed
of a number of metal plates, and attached either to metallic chains (similar to pitch
chains) to leather, hemp, webbing, or belts of other suitable material, so as to form a
continuous traversing table, which table is made to revolve round hexagon, or
octagon, or other shaped drums, which drums are placed at a suitable and convenient
distance from each other in a horizontal position. The upper plates of this traversing
table are accurately formed and fitted together, so that when they are attached to
the travelling chains or belts and laid on a flat and level surface they shall not have
any space or interstice between them, so that when passing under the hopper or
hoppers they present a perfectly flat and level surface, and which is kept in the
same state untill passing round the forward drum by means of the carrying chains
or belts or the plates themselves sliding on the foundation plate of the machine or
apparatus; the upper plates of this traversing table have the same kind of perforated
grooves or slits formed in them with lower plates attached, furnished with tongues
or projections which fit and slide in the grooves or slits in the upper plate exactly as
described in the first part of this Specification, these plates also fit or lie on the sides
or faces of the hexagon or octagon drums, and engage therein to be carried round
and forward by the said drum or drums, the action of the machine being as
follows:-The traversing table having been set, in motion traverses towards the
operative, and in doing so passes under the hopper or hoppers containing the
needles or other articles to be counted and registered when so passing; the lower
plate is either depressed by cambs or other suitable means, or falls the required
distance by its own gravity so forming the required recesses for the reception of the
needles or other articles delivered from the hopper or hoppers. The continuous
motion of the table brings the plate that has just received its quantum of needles
or other articles forward and from under the hopper or hoppers, at the same time
another plate taking the place of the one leaving on the first plate containing the
needles or other articles which are now counted and registered arriving at the
front drum, it is engaged by and lays on one of the faces thereof, and at the same
time the lower or under plate is forced or pushed upwards, by which means the
face or surface of the upper plate or table is made level, when the needles or other
articles already counted and registered are seen laying thereon ready for the
operator to take or slide off into the paper or other receptacle prepared to receive
them, or they may be received from the table as it travels into or by a short trough
or spout to be delivered on to a table at a somewhat lower level.
A further modification is the arrangement of the table in a circular or disc form,
revolving in either direction horizontally; the table may be made as a circular flat
plate or disc having the requisite number of spaces with perforated grooves or slits,
together with the lower plates having also their tongues or projections virtually as
described in the first part of this Specification, or it may be made of an annular
form of sufficient size and breadth requisite for the perforated grooves or slits to be
made therein. When working this machine the operator sits in front, the hopper
frame with its hopper being at the back; on the table being set in motion it passes
under the hopper containing the needles or other articles to be counted and
registered, receiving the requisite number to fill the recesses in that portion of
the table, and then revolves towards the operator who sits prepared to slide or
draw them off and place them in the papers or other receptacles prepared to receive
them.
Another modification is the arrangement of the counting table in the form of a
cylinder or drum laid horizontally and revolving on a centre spindle or shaft, the
circumferential surface of such cylinder or drum being divided into the requisite
number of spaces, such spaces being perforated by the proper number of grooves or
slits, as may be required, and having internal plates with their tongues or
projections, which plates revolve with the cylinder or drum and take the place of
the under or lower plates herein-before mentioned. On the cylinder or drum being
set in motion towards the operator it receives the proper number of needles or other
articles to be counted and registered from the hopper or hoppers at the top, where

page_text: they drop into the slits or recesses in the surface of the cylinder or drum prepared
to receive them. When revolving under the said hopper or hoppers, on revolving
further the internal plates carrying their tongues or projections, which fit and slide
in perforations or slits in the outer cylinder, or drum, come in contact with two or
more studs, pins, or projections, and being forced forward or outward they force or 5
push out the needles or other articles that were contained in the recesses of the
outer cylinder, which then fall into short troughs or spouts, and by them are
conveyed to the table to be placed by the operator in their proper papers or
receptacles.
For the purpose of registering the number of needles or other articles counted '1
there may be attached in any convenient place or manner one of the ordinary
well-known counting machines, which at every alternate or reciprocating move-
ment or revolution of the table, cylinder, or drum registers the number of needles
or other articles counted and passed by the machine or apparatus.