AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR BEATING AND SCOURING HIDES OR SKINS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lako at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd December 1878. A communication
from abroad by Eugène Blaquière, of Paris, France.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR BEATING AND
SCOURING HIDES OR SKINS." [A communication from abroad by Eugène
Blaquière, of Paris, France.]
This Invention relates to an improved machine for beating and scouring hides or.
skins, and provides means whereby one man may readily beat and scour a
considerable number of hides or skins each day.
In a machine constructed according to this Invention the attendant places the
hide upon a table, the position of which is adjusted according to the thickness of
the hide, which is taken between two grooved or fluted cylinders whose movement
brings it in front of a beating drum provided with very open V-shaped metal
blades, which are designed to effect the beating and scouring, a continuous
injection of water facilitating the work.
In constructing a machine according to this Invention I provide a cylindrical
boating drum which is placed horizontally, and has fixed upon it metal pieces bent
at their centre so as to form an angle of about 170° in order to better spread
or open out the hides to be operated upon. I also provide two superposed
grooved cylinders or toothed rolls which gear together. The hides pass between
these cylinders or rolls which hold them firmly and carry them forward. The
upper roll works in bearings mounted upon two levers oscillating around a point,
and carrying at their end counterweights by means of which the pressure exerted
by the rolls upon the hides may be varied by moving the said counterweight
further from or nearer to the centre of oscillation of the levers. The rolls are
arranged to revolve in either direction so as to carry the hides down to the
aforesaid drum, or to raise them up again, according to the requirements of the
operations. The cylinders or rolls are actuated by an endless screw fixed at one
end of the shaft of the drum. This screw gears with a wheel keyed upon a
Price 271

page_text: horizontal spindle. Upon this spindle and near an apron there is a toothed coupling|
box which the attendant can operate by means of a lever provided for the purpose,
to cause the said coupling box to engage alternately with two pinions. The latter
are loose upon a shaft and give motion in either direction to a gear-wheel keyed
upon the lower of the two aforesaid cylinders or rolls, and consequently motion is
communicated to the said roll itself. By these means the hide may be readily
brought to the apron to be carried to the blades or pieces upon the beating cylinder
or drum, or to be removed therefrom.
I also provide a horizontal table to support the hides, and which is placed in front
of the machine, and is designed to receive the hides and to facilitate their entry
within the grooved cylinders or rolls; this table oscillates upon socket pieces which
support the lower roll, and it may be bent round and extended in front of the
beating drum so as to support the hides being operated upon. That end of the said
table nearest to the said beating drum at the point where the hide is submitted to
the action of the teeth is furnished with a band of india-rubber designed to break
or lessen the shock, and to increase the natural elasticity arising from the fact that
the table being arranged to oscillate can always recede sufficiently from the beating
drum if at any time there is an increase of thickness in the hide. The said table
has always a tendency to return to its original position under the action of the
weight of its forward part, which weight is greater than that of the bent part in
front of the beating drum. Thus, all the inconveniences are avoided which might
result-from-those inequalities of thickness which are always found in the hides.
In cases where the variations of thickness are very great, it is necessary that the
lower part of the table should be placed at a distance from the drum, which
distance will depend upon the thickness of the hides. For this purpose all that is
required is to turn by hand by means of handles provided for the purpose
regulating screws, which prevent the table from touching the beating drum, and
regulate the space necessary for the passage of the hide. These screws turn in two
parts which form nuts firmly fixed to the table by sheet iron stay pieces. The
upper part of these supports forms a socket in order to hold the aforesaid table as
herein before mentioned. The latter may if desirable be replaced by an endless
apron made to operate automatically to carry to or away from the grooved cylinders
he hides to be treated.
The beating drum is mounted upon a central shaft revolving in two bearings
arranged upon the brackets or frames which support the machine, and carrying fast
and loose pulleys.