IMPROVEMENTS IN STILLAGES EMPLOYED IN PACKING AND BALING PRESSES
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Bradbury, of Prestwich, in the County
of Lancaster, Contractor, and Henry Whittaker, of Manchester,
in the same County, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Bradbury
and Henry Whittaker at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 13th April 1871.
We, WILLIAM BRADBURY, of Prestwich, in the County of Lan-
caster, Contractor, and HENRY WHITTAKER, of Manchester, in the
same County, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STILLAGES EMPLOYED IN PACKING AND BALING
PRESSES," to be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to the stillages which have certain portions
capable of being receded or withdrawn a short distance from the general
surface of the stillage, in order to form grooves through which portions
of the hoops are passed when the bale is being hooped.
The improved stillage is composed of a number of sections, and the
said sections, or as many of the said sections as may be desired, are
cach made capable of being collapsed or reduced in depth in manner

page_text: substantially as follows:-Each of the said sections consists principally
of two metal bars, which we will call an inner and an outer bar. The
outer surface of the outer bar constitutes a portion of the general surface
of the stillage. The inner bar acts as a strut or distance piece to
support the outer bar, one side or edge of the said inner bar bearing
against the press head, or against the "follower," or against a plate or
foundation attached to the said press head or "follower," as the case
may be, the inner side of the said outer bar bearing against the opposite
side or edge of the said inner bar, the said outer bar being by preference
pressed against the said inner bar by means of spiral or other suitable
springs. The said inner bar is made capable of being rotated to some
extent, and two of the opposite sides of the said bar are made narrower
than the remaining two sides, or, supposing the said bar to be in a
vertical position as when acting as a strut or support to the outer bar,
the said inner bar is made deeper than the width thereof, as for example,
the depth of the said bar may be one and three-quarters of an inch, and
the width thereof one inch. Thus, supposing all the said inner bars in
a stillage applied to an ordinary press to be in a vertical position, that
is to say, in such a position as that the depth of each inner bar is inter-
posed between the outer bar and the press head or follower, or the plate
to which the stillage is attached, on rotating the inner bar in one of the
sections through a quarter of a complete revolution or thereabouts the
width of the said inner bar will be interposed between the outer bar,
and the aforesaid press head follower or plate. The action of the afore-
said springs will now draw the said outer bar towards the said press
head follower or plate, and in the case of the said inner bar being free
to move towards the said press head follower or plate until it bears
thereon, the movement of the said outer bar will be equal to the
difference between the width and the depth of the inner bar or there-
abouts, that is to say, in the example herein-before given the said
movement would be three-quarters of an inch or thereabouts. In order
that the said inner bar may be the more readily rotated when the
pressure is on we prefer to chamfer two or more of the corners of
the said bar. The said corners may be chamfered or "rounded off" to
such an extent as that the pressure of the balo will have a tendency to
cause the collapse of the sections, in which case we employ a catch to
engage with a portion of each inner bar so as to prevent its rotation, and
when the bale is to be hooped the catches are thrown out of contact
or gear with those sections which it is desired should collapse or be
"
"

page_text: collapsed by rotating the inner bars as aforesaid. We also prefer
to so construct the sections as that the inner bar of any section may
be slid out or withdrawn when required, the sections from which the
said inner bars have been withdrawn collapsing to a greater extent
than when the bars are simply rotated, the grooves thus produced
admitting of the passage of ropes.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Bradbury and Henry Whittaker in the
Great Scal Patent Office on the 13th October 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
BRADBURY, of Prestwich, in the County of Lancaster, Contractor,
and HENRY WHITTAKER, of Manchester, in the same County, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of April, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-one, in the
thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said William Bradbury and Henry
Whittaker, Her special license that we, the said William Bradbury
and Henry Whittaker, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as we, the said William Bradbury and Henry Whittaker,
our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "Iм-
PROVEMENTS IN STILLAGES EMPLOYED IN PACKING AND BALLING PRESSES," upon
the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William Bradbury
and Henry Whittaker, executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under our hands and scals, should particularly describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Bradbury and Henry
Whittaker, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and

page_text: in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement and accompanying
Drawings, that is to say:-
Our Invention relates to the stillages which have certain portions
capable of being receded or withdrawn a short distance from the general
surface of the stillage in order to form grooves through which portions
of the hoops are passed when the bale is being hooped.
The improved stillage is composed of a number of sections, and. tho
said sections or as many of the said sections as may be desired are cach
made capable of being collapsed or reduced in depth in manner sub-
stantially as follows:-Each of the said "collapsing sections
"consists
principally of two metal bars, which we will call an inner and an outer
bar. The outer surface of the outer bar constitutes a portion of the
general surface of the stillage. The inner bar acts as a strut or distance
piece to support the outer bar, one side or edge of the said inner bar
bearing against the press head, or against the follower, or a plate or
foundation attached to the said press head or follower, as the case may
be, the inner side of the said outer bar bearing against the opposite side
or edge of the said inner bar, the said outer bar being pressed against the
said inner bar by means of spiral or other suitable springs. The said
inner bar is made capable of being rotated to some extent, and two of
the opposite sides of the said bar are made narrower than the remaining
two sides; or, supposing the said bar to be in a vertical position, as when
acting as a strut or support to the outer bar, the said inner bar is made
deeper than the width thereof, as for example, the depth of the said bar
may be one and three-quarters of an inch and the width thereof one
inch. Thus, supposing all the said inner bars in a stillage applied to an
ordinary press to be in a vertical position, that is to say, in such a position
as that the depth of each inner bar is interposed between the outer bar and
the press head or follower, or the plate to which the stillage is attached,
on rotating the inner bar on one of the said sections through a quarter
of a complete revolution or thereabouts, the width of the said inner bar
will be interposed between the outer bar and the aforesaid press head
follower or plate. The action of the aforesaid springs will now draw the
said outer bar towards the said press head follower or plate, and in the
case of the said inner bar being free to move towards the said press
hicad follower or plate until it bears thereon, the movement of the said
outer bar will be equal to the difference between the width and depth of

page_text: the inner bar or thereabouts, that is to say, in the example herein-
before given the said movement would be three-quarters of an inch or
thereabouts.
In order that our Invention may be more readily explained and be
better understood we have supplied to accompany this Specification a
Sheet of Drawings illustrative of our methods of carrying the said
Invention into practical effect, to which Drawings we will in this place
refer.
Fig. 1 represents an end view, and Fig. 2 a front view of a press head
with one of the improved stillages applied thereto. In the said Figures
the stillage is composed of sections arranged side by side and close
together, the collapsing sections a, a, being constructed as herein-after
described, the sections b, b, employed to fill the spaces between the
sections a, a, being of any suitable construction, or the sections b, b,
may be dispensed with, in which case the sections a, a, would be placed
close together.
Fig. 3 represents a cross section of two of the sections a, a; Figs. 4
and 5 are side views of one end of the said section; and Fig. 6 is a
plan of the said section. In the said Figs. c is a plate from which all
the sections are suspended, the said plate being attached to the press
head in the ordinary manner, or as indicated in Figure 1. The outer
bard of each of the collapsing sections is suspended from a plate c
by means of rods e, e, which are pressed upwards by the spiral
springs, which bear against the nuts on the upper ends of the said
rods, the said springs tending to raise the bar d towards the plate c.
The bar d is fitted or formed at each end with upright slotted pro-
jections and g', the projection g¹ being extended to carry the catch h
which is jointed to the upper end of the said projection. An inner
bar occupies the space between the bar d and the plate c, and acts
as a strut or support to the said bar during the pressing of a bale.
The bar is formed with a trunnion at each end, which trunnions
enter slots in the projections g, g', and two opposite corners of the said
bar are chamfered or rounded in order that the said bar may be more
readily rotated when the bar d is subjected to pressure. One end of
the bar i is formed with a rectangular head i¹, and the catch is formed
with a slot to fit the said head so that when the said catch is down, as
represented in Fig. 4, the bar i is prevented from rotating. When a
bale has been pressed and it is required to pass hoops around the said

page_text: bale, the catch of each of those sections which are to collapse to permit
the said hoops to be passed around the bale is turned upwards as
indicated in Figs. 1 and 5, thereby freeing the head . The bar i may
now be rotated slightly by means of a key, or in case the corners of
the said bar have been chamfered or rounded to about the extent
represented in Fig. 3 the use of a key will not be required as the pressure
of the balo upon the bar d will cause the bar i to commence to rotate
and the spiral springs by drawing upwards the bar d will continue the
rotation until the bar i is in the position represented in the right-hand
section in Fig. 3, and also in Fig. 5. A space for the passage of the
end of a hoop will now exist between the bar and the balc. In
Figure 2 four of the sections a, a, are represented as having been caused
to collapse in the manner above described to allow the hoops A, A, to
be passed over the top of the bale. On the completion of the formation
of a bale a key is applied to the head in each section, and the bar i
is turned by means of the said key back to its former position, that is
to say, into the position represented to the left hand in Fig. 3. When
the bar is in the position last mentioned, the said bar can be with-
drawn through the slot in g', and the spiral springs drawing the bar d
close up to the plate c, a deeper groove suitable for the passage of rope
is obtained.
The remaining Figs. illustrate a modification in the construction of
the sections a, a, the said modified sections being adapted to be used
either with or without intermediate or filling up sections.
Fig. 7 represents a cross section of one of the said modified sections;
Fig. 8 being a side view, and Fig. 9 a plan of one end thereof. In
this example the outer bar d is fitted between two checks j, j, which
are connected together at each end by means of a distance piece or
block, the said checks being attached to each block by means of a
rivet and screws marked 2 in Figs. 7 and 8. The upper end of each
block is formed with a projection which passes over the edge of the
plate c the sections being thereby suspended from the said plate and
being capable of being moved to and fro thereon when required. The
ends of the bar d are formed with upright projections g, g², the upper
ends of which projections form abutments for the spiral springs,
which by acting on the said projection tend to force the bar d towards
the plate c. The projection g' is provided with a catch has in the former
example. The action of the section and the manner of working with

page_text: a stillage composed of such sections is as hercin-before described. It
will be seen that the section last described is more complete and self-
contained than the section first described, and that it can be more
readily applied to a press than the said first described section.
Fig. 10 represents a side view of one of the last described sections in
position as when attached to a press, Figs. 11 and 12 showing the two
opposite ends of a number of the said sections with one of the number
represented as when collapsed for the passage of a hoop. Although the
improved stillage is represented in the Drawings as applied to a press
head only, a stillage acting in the same manner may be applied to the
follower of a press, if desired, and the method of application will be
sufficiently clear without the illustration thereof in the Drawings.
Having now described and illustrated the nature of our said Invention
and our methods of carrying the same into practical effect we would
have it to be distinctly understood that we do not confine ourselves to
the precise details as described and illustrated, but that we claim the
making and using of stillages composed or partly composed of sections
constructed and acting substantially as and for the purposes herein-
before set forth, described, and indicated, and as illustrated by the
accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Bradbury and Henry
Whittaker, havo hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twevth
of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy one
Signed and sealed by the said
William Bradbury and Henry
Whittaker in the presence of
EDWARD K. DUTTON,
WILLIAM BRADBURY. (L.S.)
HENRY WHITTAKER.
Agent for the Patentees,
3, Smithy Door,
Manchester.
(L.S.)