IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR MANUFACTUR- ING CONFECTIONERY
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 13th September 1883. communicated to
him from abroad by James Lutted of Buffalo, New York, United States of
America, Confectioner
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the firm of Haseltine, Lake and Co, Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR MANUFACTUR-
ING CONFECTIONERY [A communication to him from abroad by James Lutted of
Buffalo, New York, United States of America, Confectioner]
"
This invention relates to machines for making confectionery such as gum, cream,
or similar candies and comprises the novel arrangement of parts as hereinafter
set forth.
.
According to the said invention the frame of the machine is constructed of cast
iron or other suitable material and is secured together by binding rods in the usual
manner. It is provided with uprights or vertical side pieces having openings to
receive the projecting ends of the moulding plate, cross head or bed. The said
cross head receives a vertical movement by means of two angle arms formed in one
piece which is secured to a shaft and to each side of the machine by boxes. I also
provide connecting rods, one on each side of the machine, jointed to the arms by
pins; their opposite ends are connected by crank pins, to a wheel. To the angle
arms, are jointed by pins other connecting rods or arms the upper ends of which
are jointed by a pin to the moulding plate cross head. A revolution of the wheels
will cause the cross-head to move vertically up and down.
The moulds are either connected in any suitable manner to the mould plate, or
they may be made to form a part of it. The mould-plate is hinged to the cross-
head and is held at the opposite side by bolts; the said bolts pass easily through
holes in the cross head the movement of which is limited by the heads of the said
bolts. This arrangement gives the mould-plate and mould-patterns a slight move-
ment on the hinges, or as much as the length of a bolt will allow, so that when the
cross-head is brought down the moulding patterns will pass into the material of
which the moulds are made (powdered starch for instance which is generally used)
and make the moulds. This operation brings the mould plate close up to the face
of the cross-head, and as the cross-head moves upward one side of the moulding

page_text: plate moves up a short distance while the opposite side remains stationary for a
short time thereby drawing the mould patterns partly out of that side of the starch
box first. The object of doing this is to allow the air to enter gradually and
prevent the moulds from being destroyed, which it will be seen would be the case
if all were quickly drawn out at once and a partial vacuum formed, as the starch
of which the moulds are formed is a very light material and consequently they are
easily spoiled. The starch or other suitable moulding material is put into shallow
boxes which are all made of the same dimensions, the size being suited to the size
of the machine. The mould-patterns may be cone-shaped or of any other form or
shape that may be desired to mould candies or any other articles the machine may
be adapted to make. The boxes for holding the moulding material receive their
movements from a short arm rigidly secured to a pin. The object of the said short
arm is to locate one set of pins so that their movement shall be behind that of
another set of pins and thereby prevent the movement of the mould-boxes forward
until the mould-patterns are up far enough to be out of the way.
A connecting rod is jointed to a pin and at the opposite end, to a shaft. The
said shaft works in boxes in slide ways on each side of the machine and is provided
with pushing hooks, and near the centre is an arm; the boxes are provided with
outwardly-projecting pins to limit the backward turning movement of the hooks.
Another shaft is also rigidly fastened to the frame.
Between the boxes is an india-rubber or other spring which presses against the
shaft on one side and against the boxes on the other side. Its object is to create
sufficient friction to hold the shaft from. turning too easily. As the wheels turn
they will give the shaft a reciprocating movement, and when near the end of its
backward movement an arm will strike against the stationary shaft and cause the
first mentioned shaft to turn so as to bring the front faces of the pushing hooks
vertical or nearly so.
The stock box is made of iron or other suitable material. It is connected to the
machine by a frame and is capable of being adjusted up or down by means of two
hand-wheels and screw-rods which screw into projecting pieces on the stock box.
The screw rods are secured to the frame of the machine by shoulders, so as to allow.
them to turn therein and move the stock box up or down, but to prevent it from
moving longitudinally,
I sometimes provide V-shaped slide-ways and corresponding grooves to keep the
stock box in line vertically.
Within the stock-box is a series of valves; they may be made either of india-
rubber, metal, or other suitable material, and are adapted to fit and close the
openings in the nozzles. The said valves are fastened to vertical rods or bars and
are kept in a vertical line by being passed up through perforated plates.
One plate is secured to the upper part of the stock box by arms or other
equivalent connections. Each of the vertical rods is provided with a spiral spring,
the upper part of which presses against the underside of the front plate, and the
lower portions against a pin passing through the rods. The tendency of the
springs is to keep the valves all down and close the openings in the nozzles.
The second plate is provided with pins to which connecting rods are jointed, one
on each side of the stock-box. The lower ends of the rods or arms are jointed to
levers or arms which are secured to the frame by a pin. The opposite end of the
said levers rests on, or near, the periphery of the wheel. On the said -wheels are
cams, which cams may be made adjustable if desired by being screwed on to the
said wheel. The upper ends of the vertical rods are provided with pins to prevent
the second plate from being drawn from them during the operation of the machine.
A coil of steam pipe is secured in any well known manner to the machine so that
the stock-box may be adjusted freely up and down within it or it may be secured
in the usual way to the frame and is provided with the usual stop cock, for
admitting steam, its object being to keep the stock warm during the operation of
the machine. Any other well known means may be used for that purpose,

page_text: If desired, some of the connecting rods may be removed and also the wheels and
cams, in which case the movements of the boxes, the printing of the moulds, and
dropping of the stock into them may be all done by hand.
In this latter case the boxes could be fed in by hand and pushed forward one
after the other to the proper point, after which the printing of the moulds could be
done by the foot on a footstep and the dropping could be done by lifting the ends
of the arms or levers.
The object of adjusting the stock-box vertically is that different kinds of stock
require to be dropped from different heights, or the same kind of stock under
different conditions may require a different adjustment of the stock-box.