IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF NOTCHES FOR UMBRELLAS AND SIMILAR ARTICLES
Year: 1884

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
-
"I, CHARLES FREDERICK NOKES of Avenue Road Aston, Birminghain in the
County of Warwick Stamper, Piercer and Button Manufacturer do hereby declare
the nature of my Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF NOTCHES
FOR UMBRELLAS AND SIMILAR ARTICLES to be as follows:-
My improvement or improvements consist in saw-cutting grooving or otherwise
turning or cutting out a narrower groove than heretofore in a thinner solid notch
than hither-to used, and in afterwards by means of rollers, wheels or othor
contrivanco or machinery suitable for the purpose, opening out or pressing apart
the sides of the said groove until the said groove shall be opened to any desired
width, or to a width sufficient to receive the binder wire now in uso, or any other
binder wire that it may be deemed expedient to uso hereafter.
My improvement or improvements consist in taking a thinner pierced blank (or
circle of metal) than the one now used in the manufacture of what are termed solid
notches (the metal for which solid notch is now usually from 1 to 10 of an
inch thick) and by means of a saw or other fine-cutting tool, revolving or
stationary, cutting or turning out a narrower groove than is now cut & in
afterwards by means of wheels, rolls or other tools or machinery properly applied,
opening out the sides of the narrow groove previously cut until such groove
becomes wide enough to receive any binder wire that it may be deemed desirable
to use.

page_text: I, CHARLES FREDERICK NOKES of Avenue Road, Aston, Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Stamper, Piercer, & Button Manufacturer do hereby declare
the nature of my Invention for IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF NOTCHES
FOR UMBRELLAS AND SIMILAR PURPOSES and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement
My improvements consist in operating upon a thinner piorced blank than
heretofore used in the manufacturo of solid notches for umbrollas parasols and
similar purposes, by means of cutting, or grooving, and opening tools as hereinafter
described, or by means of such tools on similar principles as shall be deemed most
suitable to obtain the desired result.
To clearly show my improvements I deem it desirable to specify the means by
which notches for umbrellas and parasols are now made, and also some of the tools
used in the construction of such notches.
The mode of manufacturing what are called solid notches as at present made is
as follows. A round blank is cut of the diameter required and from 1 to 1000
of an inch thick, and after being pierced is placed upon a revolving spindle of a
convenient sizo.
This spindle (hereinafter called the fast spindle) consists of a circular piece of
steel of a suitable thickness, one end of which is screwed or otherwise firmly fixed
into a lathe head or similar-machine. About 5/8 of an inch of the other end,
(hereinafter called the free end) of the fast spindle, is turned down or otherwise
reduced in size until it is small enough to fit tightly in the pierced hole in the
centre of the notch it is desired to groove. This turned down part is also roughened
to ensure the pierced blank-when driven upon such turned down part of the fast
spindle revolving with such fast spindle. The part of the fast spindle against
which the side of the notch is driven is flat, and supports or bears against such
notch as far as the diameter of the spindle extends. This flat part against which
the side of the notch is driven preparatory to grooving is hereinafter called the
spindle shoulder.
The whole or part of an ordinary press-having a straight handle, (hereinafter
called the press-handle) and having affixed to the bolt of the said press a fixed
bearer or spindle in which a hollow or partly hollow spindle hereinafter called the
loose spindle is so arranged as to revolve freely when brought into contact with
any revolving subject is screwed or otherwise firmly fixed in a suitable position
opposite the free end of the fast spindle. A flat piece of iron or steel (hereinafter
called the puller-off) is so arranged that one end, turned up at a right angle, and
having a hole of a convenient size bored therein, passes over or round tho fast
spindle, (thereby allowing the fast spindle to revolve in the hole cut in the
puller-off) while the other end of such puller-off is firmly attached to the bolt of
the press. A pierced blank being now placed upon the turned down part of the
fast spindle, the press-handle is raised, driving forward the bolt of the press and
the loose spindle attached thereto, such loose spindle passing over the turned down
end of the fast spindle until stopped by contact with the side of the pierced blank.
The said pierced blank, supported by the spindle shoulder of the fast spindle on
the one side, and the flat end of the loose spindle on the other side, now revolves
firmly fixed on the turned down part of the fast spindle. A cutting tool of a V
or Ushape screwed or otherwise secured to a flat piece of iron or steel, (which
said piece of iron or steel hereinafter called the slide is confined between suitable
guides or supports which permit a straight backward or forward horizontal
movement only) is then driven forward by the action of a handle (hereinafter

page_text: called the slide handle.) This cutting tool is made of steel (about 1/2 inch square)
the end of which is filed away till a prominence of a V or U shape of the length
and breadth required is left standing out from the rest of the piece of steel, and it
is this prominence, (hereinafter called the cutter) that is brought into contact with
the revolving blank by the rising of the slide handle and consequent driving
forward of the slide. After this cutter has penetrated the desired distance into the
blank, the slide bandle is lowered, and the press-handle being also lowered, the
puller-off passing over the fast spindle is brought forcibly into contact with
the notched blank, driving it off the turned down end of the fast spindle and
leaving the machine ready to groove the next pierced blank.
The other means by which notches are made is by turning over a thin blank of
metal or piece of tube of the required size into the desired shape, but this notch,
though lighter than the solid notch, is universally objected to froin the fact that
it being impossible to cut down below the groove without cutting completely
through the notch, (as such groove being formed by the turned over side of tho
metal or tube has only at the bottom or centre the thickness of the metal or tubo
out of which it was turned up) the wire that secures the ribs in the notch, (herein-
after called the binder wire) forms no free axis on which the ends of the wires or
ribs may work; (as such binder wire must always press such ribs strongly against
the bottom of the niches in which such ribs lie) such wires or ribs are consequently
always bearing strongly against the metal at the bottom of the cross cuts on the
one side, and this, and their pressing on the other side against the binder wire,
causes such binder wire to be broken.
My improvements in the manufacture of notches and the machinery I use for
producing such improved notch are as follows. I take a pierced blank of a
convenient size, but much thinner'in metal than heretofore used, and after placing
it on the turned down part of the fast spindle, (the spindle shoulder before
mentioned having been previously turned off from a little above the turned down
part of the spindle at a convenient angle, making the shoulder from a little
above the turned down part a bevelled instead of a square or flat shoulder as
heretofore) I cut in it a very narrow niche, or groove, by means of an improved
cutter of the following description, and afterwards open such narrow niche or
groove to the desired width by the means hereinafter described, or such other
means on a similar principle that it may be deemed desirable to use. My improved
cutter is made as follows. I take a piece of iron or other suitable material of the
desired length, breadth, and thickness, (which piece of iron is hereinafter called the
bearer) and along one side of such bearer cut a very shallow groove of the width,
length, and breadth required. This groove I call the bearing. In this, bearing
I place a piece of sheet or rolled steel, properly hardened and tempered, of the
desired thickness, slightly thicker than the depth of the cut in the said bearing.
This piece of steel I call the improved cutter. This improved cutter now lies in
the bearing (one end of the said improved cutter standing out a convenient
distance beyond the end of such bearing) but stands slightly above the surface of
the metal in which such bearing was cut, owing to such improved cutter being
slightly thicker than the depth to which the bearing was cut. I now take another
piece of iron or other suitable material similar to the one I have called the bearer,
but without any groove. This is put side by side with the bearer on the side of
the bearing, and the two, after being secured together in a suitable manner, are
placed between two fixed bolsters, and screwed into or upon the slide hereinafter
described. The fixed bolsters having other screws in them, such other screws aro
now driven through the bolsters and against the side of the bearer. Similar screws
working through suitable bands crossing the top of the bolsters are also driven
through such bands in a similar manner, thus immovably fixing my improved
cutter in any position desired. My slide differs from the slide now in uso.
inasmuch as, instead of being only on the same side of the fast spindle and loose
spindle (hereinafter called the near side) as the operator or workman as at present,
it passes under and beyond the said fast and loose spindles to the other side

page_text: (hereinafter called the far side) of such spindles, and has erected upon such far side;
at a suitable height and position, a wheel or other suitable contrivance for opening
the notches when such notches have been cut-to any desired extent. My slide
handle is also fixed and contrived in such a manner as to allow the slide a more
decided or lengthened movement. My loose spindle differs from the loose spindle
now used inasmuch as it is (like the fast spindle) at a little above its centre or
inner edge, bevelled or turned off at the point at which it bears against the notch.
If a pierced blank be now put upon my fast spindle, and the press-handle hereto-
fore described raised, the loose spindle passes over the fast spindle, and the inner or
lower edge only of both the spindle shoulder and loose spindle bear against the
notch, the upper portions of both being bevelled or turned away at a convenient
angle as heretofore described, such bevelling or turning away having its beginning
or origin at an equal height from the centre or inner edge of the loose spindle and
base of the spindle shoulder equal to the depth of metal left between the bottom of
the cut or groove of the notch and the inner pierced edge of such notch, leaving
the bevel on the loose spindle and spindle shoulder equal, or nearly equal, to the
depth it is desired to cut or groove the notch. These bevelled or turned off parts
In the
of the spindle shoulder and loose spindle are hereinafter called the ears.
old way of grooving the outer edges of the blank stands up higher than the fast
spindle on which it revolves, and the fast spindle revolves in the pullor-off.
Moving the press-handle therefore, moves the puller off along the fast spindle, and
releases the blank. But my spindles, both fast and loose, are as large or larger
than the blank, moving the puller-off would not therefore touch the blank, but
would move over it. I therefore cut or drill through my fast spindle a requisite
number of holes. These holes are situated between the turned down part of the
fast spindle on which the notch is fixed for grooving and below the bevelled part of
the fast spindle on to which the sides of the notch are forced by the opener after it
is grooved. These pegs, in sufficient number and length, I carry through the fast
spindle to a back part of such fast spindle less in diameter than that part of it
against which the notch after grooving is opened. On this thinner part of the fast
spindle I fix a loose collar that will move backward and forward. In this collar
I fasten the pegs which work through the fast spindle. These pegs and grooved
collar now revolve with the fast spindle. I now fasten a rod of iron, (hereinafter
called the connecting rod) to the press. This connecting rod, turned up at right
angles, has two forks to it. When these forks are in the groove of the collar to
which the pegs are fastened, moving the press-handle will move the pegs in the
revolving collar, and release notch when desired.
A notch of a suitable size and thickness being now placed (as heretofore
mentioned) on the turned down part of the fast spindle, and the press-handle being
raised, the hollow part of the loose spindle is driven over the turned down part of
the fast spindle, until such loose spindle is brought into contact with the notch.
The notch now revolves on the fast spindle with the inner or lower edges of such
fast spindle and loose spindle, below the ears, in contact with such notch. The
slide handle being now raised, drives the improved cutter into the notch to the
required distance, and the handle being then depressed, releases, or draws out, such
improved cutter, and drives forward the wheel on the far side into the niche or
groove already cut by the said cutter, opening it out till stopped by the ears of the
fast spindle and loose spindle which is the distance desired. The wheel being then
drawn out by an upward movement of the slide-handle, the press-handle is lowered,
drawing forward the connecting rod of the loose collar together with such loose
collar, and driving forward the sliding pegs, releases the grooved and opened notch.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to bo performed I declare what
I claim is In the manufacture of notches for umbrellas and similar articles
:
1 The cutting or grooving of a thinner solid notch than hitherto used by means
of a piece of sheet steel or improved cutter substantially in the manner and for the
purposes herein before described,

page_text: 2nd The opening of such cutting or grooving in such notch to a V or U shape to
the desired width by means of a wheel, roll, or other suitable contrivance
substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein before described.
n
3rd The use of a spindle with pegs working through it by which a notch less in
diameter than the spindle on which it revolves can be readily forced from such
spindle substantially in the manner and for the purposes hereinbefore described.
Dated this 17th day of May 1884,