Improvements in the Method of Manufacturing Glass Bars, Rods, or Sticks.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 20th Jan., 1893-Accepted, 18th Mar., 1893
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Method of Manufacturing Glass Bars, Rods,
or Sticks.
I PAUL SIEVERT of Döhlen near Dresden in the Kingdom of Saxony, German
Empire, Glass Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement :-
The glass rods, bars, or sticks, which are mainly used for glass-blowing purposes,
and for pressing glass buttons, have been produced by stretching a hot mass
of glass.
This work requires skilled operators, as well as great practice, in order to stretch
such sticks, bars, or rods with equal dimensions or diameters.
With this old mode of producing such articles, a limited length only can be
produced in one stretching, while at the same time such mode causes an unprofitable
use of the molten mass, because of a comparatively large quantity of glass solidifies
at the blowing iron, and thus becomes useless for stretching, and has to be
re-melted.
The method hitherto in use also allows of the production of round glass rods or
bars only, whereas, for some purposes (the pressing of glass buttons for instance),
flat section glass sticks, rods, or bars are required.
Now this present invention has for its object a new and improved method
of producing glass sticks, bars, or rods, by mechanical means, in considerable
lengths, at one operation, according to the diameter of such sticks, giving to said
sticks, according to requirement, a circular, semi-circular, oval, flat, or angular
cross section of equal dimensions throughout, in addition to which, the waste of
glass before mentioned will, to a great extent, be obviated.
With this purpose in view, I proceed as follows:-
I make use of a plate or table, such as in Figs. 1, 2, 3, or 62 in Fig. 5, the
surface of which is provided with longitudinal and parallel grooves, which grooves
may form half the moulds, or the entire moulds, for the glass sticks to be produced,
the grooves being round, angular, or flat, as desired. On the surface of said table,
I mount a roller, in the circumference of which, grooves are formed corresponding
to those in the table's surface, as shewn at a in Figs. 1, 2, 3; or the roller may
have an even surface, as shewn at a² in Fig. 5. Or the table's surface may be flat,
and the grooves for forming the glass sticks may be in the circumference of the
roller as shewn at a¹ and 6' in Fig. 4.
The grooves in the roller and the table surface, or in the roller only, or in the
table surface only, are preferably provided with sharp edges, and these edges, if in
the roller and in the table, should coincide and touch, which may be provided for
by properly adjusting and guiding the roller.
If, now, molten glass is poured upon the table's surface, and the roller caused to
rotate over said surface, the glass will be formed according to the grooves in roller
and table surface, or according to the grooves in the roller only, or in the table
surface only; thus, sticks, rods, or bars of glass are produced, which, by means of
the sharp edges in the roller, or in the table's surface, or in both, will be severed
during formation. It will depend upon the weight of the roller, whether the latter
must be caused to run once or several times to and fro over the table's surface, in order
to accomplish complete severing of the adjacent sticks, rods, or bars, from one another
These glass sticks, after having properly solidified or chilled, may be lifted from
the surface singly, and brought into the annealing oven, or may be used without
the process of annealing, or the sticks may remain adherent one to the other, and
may thus undergo the process of annealing.

page_text: In the latter case, the complete severing of the sticks from each other is avoided
by reduced pressure of the roller. For the purpose of producing the sticks
coherent to one another, the edges of the roller, or of the table's surface, may be
cut away or notched at intervals, so that the glass sticks are connected at
intervals by glass cross bars, as illustrated in Fig. 6, in which indicates the
places at which the adjacent glass sticks are connected.
In Fig. 7, a plate of completely coherent glass sticks of square cross section is
shewn.
The severing or separating of these sticks completely, or partly coherent to one
another, is effected either by breaking or by cutting them with a diamond; the
sharp edges produced by breaking or cutting may be smoothed by grinding or by
filing.
It is obvious that circular, semi-circular, oval, semi-oval, square, flat, or angular
glass sticks, may thus be produced in an efficient, cheap, and complete manner.
Instead of producing the glass sticks, bars, or rods, by rolling them down on a
surface, they may also be formed by two rollers, rotating in opposite direction, as
indicated in Figs. 8, 9, 10, and #1 1.
In Fig. 8, both rollers are provided with circumferential grooves, whereas, in
Fig. 9, one roller has a smooth or even surface, and the other roller is provided
with the grooves. In the example shewn in Fig. 10, both rollers are provided
with grooves parallel to the axis of the rollers, whereas, in Fig. 11, one roller
is provided with such grooves parallel to its axis, the other roller having a smooth
or even surface.
If molten glass is poured between the upper bite of the rollers, the glass will be
formed by the rotating rollers into sticks, bars, or rods, according to the grooves,
said sticks being circular, oval, or angular, in the case of Fige. 8 and 10, and
semi-circular, semi-oval, flat, or angular, in the case of Figs. 9 and 11.
The molten glass, if poured into the upper bite of the rollers, will assume the
desired form, while leaving said rollers, and the sticks thus formed will either
come forth singly or coherent. In both cases, they are brought upon an even
surface to be straightened, while still in a plastic state.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim.is:―
1. The process for manufacturing glass sticks, bars, or rods, which consists in
subjecting molten glass, while in a plastic condition, on a grooved or flat table, to
the pressure of a grooved or flat roller, as the case may be, thereby forming
sticks, bars, or rods, the grooves being either in the surface of the table or in the
circumference of 'the roller, or partly in one and partly in the other, and of a cross
section corresponding to the sticks, bars, or rods to be produced, the said glass
sticks, bars, or rods, becoming completely severed from one another by the edges
of the grooves, or being only partially severed by said edges, so that the bars, rods,
or sticks form one practically continuous sheet, which may be readily separated
into bars, rods, or sticks, as required.
2. The variation of the process specified in the fore-going claim, which consists
in subjecting the molten glass to the action of a pair of rollers rotating in opposite
directions, both rollers being provided with grooves, which together form the cross
section of the bars, sticks, or rods, to be produced, or one roller being provided
with such grooves, while the other roller has a smooth surface.
T
1000
NEWTON & SON,
Agents for the Applicant.