IMPROVEMENTS IN COMPRESSING AND SERVING OR BINDING TOBACCO OR ROPES, CABLES, OR SIMILAR ARTICLES, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Archibald Kennedy Irvine at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 14th April 1875.
I, ARCHIBALD KENNEDY IRVINE, of Glasgow, in the County of
Lanark, North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN COMPRESSING AND SERVING OR BINDING
TOBACCO OR ROPES, CABLES, OR SIMILAR ARTICLES, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR,”
to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to improvements and apparatus, originally
designed for compressing tobacco by mechanical means, into the form of
a more or less hardened stick, a form valued by consumers of tobacco,
and hitherto produced by winding cord by hand as tightly as possible
upon an elongated bundle of tobacco leaves wrapped in cloth. The
improvements and apparatus turn out however to be also advantageously
susceptible of other applications, and amongst these the more important
ones of serving or binding ropes and cables.
The improved apparatus as made according to one modification for
dealing with tahanan comersione ben exincinal nants one for simply com

page_text: more or less compressed state.
The simple compressing apparatus consists according to one modifica
tion of two pairs of rollers, the peripheries of which are grooved or
shaped to correspond to the desired form to be given by the compression.
The tobacco having been rolled or wrapped in a cloth in the usual way
is forced through between the compressing rollers, being drawn through
if necessary by means of an endless cord or chain to any part of which
the wrapper or bag can be attached by means of a metal link. The
second pair of rollers is set at right angles to the first pair, so that if the
first-pair compress the sides of the tobacco the second act on the top and
bottom. The rollers, or at least the second pair, are driven by worm-and
worm wheel gearing, and the endless cord or chain when used is also
driven at a rate agreeing with the motion of the rollers. After being
passed through the compressing rollers the tobacco is transferred to the
winding apparatus, and is there inserted through a tubular stud which is
fitted with ribs or wheels to prevent the tobacco from turning round.
On the tubular stud there is mounted the tubular boss of a toothed
wheel and also a bobbin containing the cord to be used in the winding
operation, the bobbin being prevented from turning too casily by a
frictional washer against which it is pressed by the winding action
as herein-after explained. The cord is led from the bobbin to a small
guide carried by the wheel and thence through a hole in the disc of the
wheel to its outer side. Round the eye of the wheel there is formed or
fixed a circular wedge or portion of a helix, and as the wheel is turned
by a pinion or worm acting on the teeth on its periphery this wedge
acts like a screw nut on cach successive convolution of the cord as it is
wound by the rotating action on the stick of tobacco and gradually
works the stick along through the tubular stud. A small pulley on a
pinion the face of the wheel guides the cord into the space which is
being continually made for it by the wedge, the stick of tobacco as it
issues from the tubular stud enters through and between a pair of jaws
which are tightly compressed by a spring, and on starting the winding
of the cord a thimble or ferrule is applied to the front end of the stick
to hold the end of the cord and to prevent the first two or three
convolutions of the cord from slipping The jaws are fitted with rollers
or ribs to assist in preventing the stick of tobacco from turning. On
the winding being completed, the end of the cord is fastened, and the

page_text: The tightness with which the cord is wound may be altered by changing
the resistance to the rotation of the bobbin. The same machine may
also be furnished with simple details for winding the cord upon the
bobbins from a reel.
The opening through which the tobacco is entered into the tubular
stud of the winding apparatus is made with a curved enlargement to
facilitate the entrance, and this entrance to the tubular stud may be
more or less clongated and tapered in some cases so as to give the
desired amount of proliminary compression to the tobacco without
passing it previously through compressing rollers.
The tobacco may be wrapped in paper or in cloth, or in both, or it
may in some cases be comprossed and bound or served with the cord
without any wrapper.
Instead of effecting the helical laying of the cord on the tobacco by
mcans of a circular wedge fixed to the wheel as hercin-before described,
it may be done by the ends of a series of rollers carried by the wheel or
by a frame attached to the wheel. These rollers are placed round the
central space with their axes not quito parallel to the axis of that space
and with their front ends combining to form part of a helical surface
acting in place of the circular wedge. The rollers are also placed or
shaped so as to touch a conical or conoidal central space which is wider
towards its back or entering end, and as they will have a rolling motion
relatively to the tobacco passing along the central space they will
gradually compress it as it proceeds towards the narrow front end of the
space.
Instead of preventing the tobacco from turning whilst the other parts
rotate, the latter may be kept stationary and the tobacco be turned; or
the tobacco may be held, so as neither to turn nor to move longitudinally,
and the other parts bo made to move longitudinally as well as rotate.
In applying the improved apparatus for serving ropes or cables, or in
other words, for winding spun yarn, or twine, or bands, or cords on ropes
or cables, the modification last herein-before indicated will probably be
the most convenient, a length of the rope or cable being stretched
between two points and the serving apparatus being moved along by the
endways thrust due to its action.

page_text: The bobbin or bobbins carrying the serving or binding material, may
be carried before or behind the point of application, and may be placed
concentrically or eccentrically, any convenient tension regulator being
used for adjusting the resistance to unwinding.
Where the circular wedge is used it may be made in two halves
connected by toothed arcs or otherwise, so as to open equally and
pressed together by a spring, or by the strain of the serving cord passed
for the purpose round pulleys on cach half; the object of such con-
struction being to enable the wedge to accommodate itself to uneven
parts, or to different sizes of the article operated upon.