IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING CORKS AND BUNGS
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Michael Henry at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd January
1859. A communication from Messieurs Dalverny and Thouzellier, both
residing at Sommières, in France.
I, MICHAEL HENRY, of 84, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent Agent,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING CORKS AND BUNGS," commu-
nicated to me from Messieurs Dalverny and Thouzellier, both residing at
Sommières, in France, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to improvements in machinery or apparatus for
manufacturing corks and bungs.
In these arrangements the machinery is supported on a table, stand, plat-
form, or framework, which may be cut away in front for a handle or driving
instrument to pass through, and supports a plate on which work two other
plates, one sliding in guide grooves thereon, and the other moving in a con
trary direction and fitted with two bars, whereof one is attached to the under
plate, and the other works or. turns on itself by pins connected to the plate,
and may be fastened when required (as by forcing a stop-piece under a plate
fitted to it). Between the bars and covering the plate is a leather bed which
supports the cork. to be cut, and protects the cutting edges of the tubes after
they have passed through, being formed of several thicknesses, and with as
many openings as there are corks to. be produced; the "blank" or cork to be
cut may consist of a number of oblongs held together tightly in a frame (by
a screw connecting its ends at one side), of a size precisely to fit the spacé

page_text: between the bars. Along supports fixed to the lower plate clamped to the
walls, and connected at top by ties, or otherwise suitably supported and held,
an upper plate connected to a beam or lever is free to move, being supported
by stays, preferably so connected at the centre as to leave room for the
passage of a moveable rod connected thereat, and thereby to the plate, and
also to the ties, and having the beam or lever at its upper part. Underneath
this plate a number of screw rods are fitted, each carrying a wheel toothed on
its periphery, and threaded on the inside, and underneath each wheel is fitted
a cutting tube, and the thread of every other wheel being in a different direc-
tion, that is to say, one to the right and the next to the left, and so on, and
all the wheels being in gear with each other, all the wheels may be set in
motion, and all the cutting tubes raised or lowered as desired by driving any
one wheel of the train from a toothed wheel and handle shaft, or suitable
appliance worked by hand, steam engine, or other motor, a self-acting stop
wheel or check worked by the machinery being provided and so regulated as
to stop the wheels immediately on the completion of a stroke of the cutters.
The cutting tubes (preferably of thin tempered steel) are set at 'such distances
apart as to cut out at one stroke as many corks as there are tubes from
blanks," in which, for example, there may be sufficient material for four
times the number, so that by raising and. depressing the cutters four times,
and moving the cork to be cut in a suitable direction and to a sufficient extent
to present a fresh surface to the cutters at each descent thereof, it will be cut
up into the full quantity of corks. To guide the cutters in their up and down
stroke keep them steady and balanced, and hold the gearing together, a guide
plate is employed having an orifice for each cutter, at the end of every screw
rod is a block or plug for keeping the cutting tubes straight and preventing
them from working sidewise or out of register, and also for holding the corks
down after they have been cut out, and preventing them from following the
cutting tubes in the up stroke..
To work the apparatus, the top plate (and with it the wheels and tubes)
is raised by the lever, and the moveable bar of the lower plate is turned round
(its stop being withdrawn), and the frame holding the "blanks" pushed
between the bars, the moveable bar is then returned and tightened on the
frame by its stop, and the lever worked so as to depress the cutter carrying
plate, and bring the tubes and plugs down on the blanks so as to press
thereon. The handle or other actuating contrivance is next set in motion to
drive the cutter wheels, depress the cutters, and cut out the corks, the stop-
wheel arresting the motion when the stroke is completed. The handle or
actuating agent is then reversed to draw the tubes up again.

page_text: Now, supposing for example, there are 100 cutters acting on "blank" or
material of sufficient bulk for 400 corks, the first 100 having been cut out
as described, the cutter plate is again raised, and the screw of the lower
moveable plate turned forward, so that the plate may work, and being stopped
by its pins, so move the blanks as to bring the interstitial parts left or fresh
surface to be acted on just under the tubes, which are actuated through their
wheels as before, and a second batch or hundred cut out. For the third
hundred the other plate is moved from right to left by the other screw until
stopped by the pins and the tubes worked as before, and for the last hundred
the lowermost plate has just to be pushed back, and the cutters again
depressed. A tell-tale apparatus removes the four lots of corks at one opera-
tion. A number of similar cutting machines each for different dimensions or
gauges, may be worked together by one motor, and be stopped independently
of or so as not to interfere with one another by a self-acting wheel-work or
arrangement (fitted to each) at the end of each stroke, or at any desired part
of the work.
For small sizes, the cutter tube, screw rods, and their wheels should be smooth
instead of threaded, the latter being formed in two parts, the lower toothed
and the upper smooth of small diameter, where connected, so that they may
be detached and jammed in an orifice in a plate, and when put together again
hold firmly therein, being fastened at the upper part by screws, but being free
to revolve on their axes so as to work in gear as before described, the lowering
and raising of the tubes being effected by lowering and raising the plate (which
is formed with an orifice for each wheel) by means of arms worked by screws
driven by the main or driving wheel.
This improved machinery is also applicable to the manufacture of bungs.