Improvements in the Manufacture of Rubber Tubing for Cycle Tyres and the like.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 15th Feb., 1898-Accepted, 9th Apr., 1897**
[Communicated from abroad by JAMES BENNETT FORSYTH, of No. 256; Devonshire
Street, Boston, in the County of Suffolk, and State of Massachusetts, United
States of America.]
Improvements in the Manufacture of Rubber Tubing for Cycle
Tyres and the like.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the
nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement: -
Figures 1 and 2 are an elevation and a plan of the best form of my new machine';
Figure 3 is a detail on a large scale, partly in section;
Figure 4 is a section on line 44 of Fig. 1, on a larger scale than Figure 1,
but on a smaller scale than Figure 3;
Figures 5 and 6 are an end view and elevation of the simplest form of my
machine;
Figures 7, 8 and 9 show a modification in the construction of the drum and
exterior cylindrical rolling device, Fig. 8 being a section on line 8-8 of Fig. 7:
My apparatus for making endless tubing consists in its simplest form of a drum D
and support for that drum such that the cylinder B can be put in place on that
drum and the cylinder folded over and then pushed and rolled over upon itself
along that drum to form an endless tube, see Figures 5 and 6, in which the drum 1)
is fast to the shaft d and the shaft rests in open boxes upon the stands d². In
this form of my apparatus the work is done by hand (as indicated in Fig. 6) and
the drum is gradually turned as the process proceeds in order that the operator
may conveniently reach the entire circumference of the cylinder B. The opera-
tion is facilitated by steadying the drum D by means of the friction brake shown
as consisting of a strap d³ passing over pulley d with weight do at the free end of
strap and the other end fast to the frame of the machine or to the floor. This,
according to the weight attached to the brake strap d opposes motion of drum D
in one direction while ratchet and pawl de prevent motion in the opposite
direction.
As a practical matter, I find that it is better in every way, both as regards
cheapness of production and quality of product, to use an endless lining tube A
inflated, sufficiently to give it shape, and after the cylinder B is in place upon the
drum D the tube A is placed over one end of the cylinder B, the outer surface of
which is cemented, and the tube A is rolled along the cylinder B which is thus
wrapped about tube A. The surface of cylinder B is cemented so as to hold the
completed tube in its rolled shape as above described; and the tube thus formed
is then vulcanized, the lining tube A being of rubber compound, and the cover
cylinder being partly of rubber compound and cloth, and partly of rubber com-
pound, as will be plain to all skilled in the making of endless tubing for bicycle
tires and other purposes.
When the tube A is to be rolled along over the cylinder B by hand I prefer to

page_text: mount the drum D on a horizontal axis, as in Figs. 5 and 6; but where a mechanical
device is to be used for rolling tube A upon cylinder B, I prefer that the axis of
the drum should be vertical. A
-
In Figures 1, 2, 3 and 4, a mechanical device for rolling the tube A along the
cover cylinder B is shown, consisting of a cylinder F composed of staves f in sets
of three, the middle one of them being connected to rod fi and the outer ones by
means of a pin and slot to a cross piece fast to that rod f¹, so that each stave f can
move slightly with relation to the other.. All the staves are forced together by
means of the contractile hoops or bands f2 of rubber or other suitable material.
The mouth of the cylinder F is enlarged, as shown in Figs. 1 and 3, so that
when cylinder F is lowered, its mouth will encompass tube A, and
as cylinder F is lowered still more, the interior of cylinder F will press upon
tube A and thus roll tube A, upon the cover cylinder B, on drum D, thereby
wranning cover cylinder B about tube A; the staves f of exterior cylinder F
yielding as the endless tube formed from tube A and cover cylinder B increases
in cross section. When exterior cylinder F is lowered far enough, the endless
tube, composed of cover cylinder B wrapped about tube A, will have rolled off of
the lower end of drum D, and as soon as it rolls off it will fall upon the platform G.
The attendant then lifts sleeve 9 out of its socket g¹, and removes the tire from
the platform G.
Drum D is supported by the three rods d³, and is steadied by the rod do, which
is connected at its lower end by sleeve'g with socket g¹.
Exterior cylinder F is raised by the windlass F¹, as will be clear from Figs.1
and 2.
In Figs. 7, 8 and 9, the exterior cylinder F is composed of staves and hoops,
and the drum D is made yielding by means of staves f in sets of three, the middle
'one fast to cross piece f³, on the end of spoke f*, which is pressed away from its
hub f by the spring f; and the two outer staves of each set of three are con-
'nected to cross piece by a slot and pin. The drum D in this case becomes
smaller as the tire increases in cross section. The staves f are preferably dowelled
at their edge as indicated in Figure 9.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me
by my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
First The method of forming an endless and seamless tube by rolling an inflated
endless tube on a cover cylinder whereby the cover cylinder is rolled into an outer
endless and seamless tube on the inflated endless tube as a core substantially as
described.
Second: The apparatus above described comprising a drum and an exterior
cylinder, with means to move the drum and cylinder endwise in relation one to
the other, to wrap cover cylinder about lining tube A, substantially as described.
Third: The article above described made up of the inner endless tube A and
the cover cylinder B wrapped about it to form an outer endless and seamless tube
both tubes being of vulcanizable compound in whole or in part and vulcanized to
form a single endless and seamless tube substantially such as is above described.
Dated this 9th day of February 1898.
HASELTINE, LAKE, & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.