IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR MAKING BRUSHES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Henry Gosling at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th September 1878.
WILLIAM HENRY GOSLING, of the City of Manchester, in the County of Lan-
caster, Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR MAKING BRUSHES."
My Invention relates to that class of machines for making brushes, which act by
separating the required quantity of bristles or "stock" to form a tuft from a
stock holder, and wind wire round it in the screw form, and screw it into the
hole in the wood block, which has been previously drilled with holes to receive
tufts, this block being moved by hand after the insertion of each tuft to bring
another hole in the block in position to receive the next tuft; and the object of
my Invention is to simplify and reduce the cost of the mechanism for performing
these operations and make its action more certain, and my Invention consists in an
improved combination and arrangement of mechanism.
The main driving and cam shaft is placed in suitable framing above the work
table so that the movements are conveyed from the cams more directly than in
machines hitherto used. The plunger which forces down the tuft and wire, and
winds it round the tuft and screws it into the wood is placed in suitable bearings,
in which it can both slide up and down and rotate.
Its lower end, which acts upon the tuft, is forked to span on each side of the
tuft, and it is grooved on each side to leave space for the two sides of the tuft when
forced into the tube herein-after described.
The lower end of the plunger has also a slit for the wire to pass through which
binds the tuft and secures it into the block.
The plunger at its upper end has a key groove in its lengthway for a key in a
spur wheel having its boss in bearings in the framing so that the plunger can slide
up and down in the. hole in the boss of the wheel, which can thus give a to-and-fro
rotary motion to the plunger. The plunger receives up-and-down motion from a
crank or cam on the cam shaft which acts upon the lever, to the free end of which
a rod is jointed which is jointed with a shaft, one end of which has an eye in it,
through which the plunger passes, there being a collar secured on the plunger above
ID 127

page_text: and below this eye so that the eye will lift the plunger up and down and allow it
be rotated. The shaft with the eye for the plunger has another eye, which is
secured to a rod capable of sliding vertically in bearings in the frame, and to this
rod the same up-and-down movements are thus given as are imparted to the plunger;
the use of this rod will be herein-after described.
The wheel for giving rotary motion to the plunger is in gear with other
multiplying wheels, which gear with a toothed rack that slides in suitable bearings
on the framing, and this rack is moved to and fro by a lever connected to it, which
lever is actuated by a cam on the cam shaft. .
This cam thus gives the movement for winding the wire round the tuft and
screwing it into the block and part of the path if this cam is made with a moveable
piece, so that the extent of the unscrewing movement given to the "plunger" may
be varied.
When the tuft of bristles is brought under the plunger it descends; its fork
takes on each side of the bristles, and its slit on each side of the binding wire which
is cut off to the right length, and the wire and tuft is forced down to the lower end
of a tube fixed to the framing directly under the plunger.
In the inside of this fixed tube there are two grooves for the wire, which grooves
are parallel to the axis of the tube at the upper part of it, but at the lower part
take the form of a screw, so that when the tuft and wire are driven to the lower
end of the tube and the plunger begins to rotate the grooves cause the wire to wind
round the tuft in the form of the screw and then cause the tuft to screw out of the
tube into the hole in the block, which is close under the lower end of the fixed tube ;
then the plunger partly unscrews and ascends ready to take the next tuft.
The table upon which the block is placed to receive the tufts is arranged in slides
to move up and down vertically, being forced down by a cam and then lifted by a
spring until it comes against a stop, the spring having force enough to hold it against
the screwing action of the plunger upon the screw tuft.
The table is inoved down to withdraw the bristles remaining in the tube after
the tuft is screwed into the block. The block may be drilled with holes to a tem-
plate secured temporarily to it, and by means of this template and a pin on the
table the hole to be filled with a tuft is brought correctly under the plunger and
tube.
The bristles or "stock" to form the tufts are filled into a comb, and this comb is
placed to slide vertically in guides in the framing, and the bristles from the lowest
space are first fed forward, and then when this is empty the comb is dropped, being
held by a pawl which acts upon teeth in the side of the comb to allow it to descend
when acted upon by an extra length of movement in the mechanism feeding the
bristles when a slit in the comb has been emptied of stock.
The comb is a thin plate, and passes through a slotted bar having pins or teeth
on each of its two upper edges. This bar has a slot at one end that fits on a stud
fixed in the framing, so that the bar can move endways and also oscillate up and
down. It receives this movement from cams acting on a bell-crank lever shaft in
suitable bearings on the framing, one cam giving end movement to the shaft, and
the other cam actuates the arms of the bell-crank shaft to give the required up-and-
down motion.
It is this movement of the feed bar that causes the teeth upon it to enter the
bristles carried in the holding comb and push them forward, then descend and
withdraw the teeth from the bristles, then move back, and then ascend, and so on.
The forward movement of the feed is by a spring, and the back movement is
positive by the cam, so that the bristles are pressed forward against a moveable
forked stop arranged to come into action when the wedge for separating the required
amount of bristles to form a tuft which draws, and to move out of the way when
the separating wedge comes into action, this wedge actuating the forked stop.
This separating wedge is attached to the end of the vertical rod herein-before
mentioned as being actuated at the same time as the plunger.
It separates the tuft of bristles or "stock" from those held in the comb and

page_text: slides them along grooves in thin plates which act as guides to a position in which
a fork that takes on each side of the wedge can take them and slide them at the
.right time directly under the plunger.
This forked pusher is mounted on a slide which is actuated by a lever acted upon
by a cam on the cam shaft.
The wire is fed through a hole in a plate secured to the framing, which plate
forms the stationary side of the shears for cutting the wire, the other side being a
lever actuated by a cam, and the hole for the wire is opposite the upper part of the
tube into which the plunger forces the tuft and wire. The wire is drawn from a reel
and passes between the roughened peripheries of two pulleys, the bearings of one of
which is acted upon by a spring to press the wire against the other, and one of the
pulleys is moved by a pawl at each movement of the plunger, and at the right time
to feed forward the proper length of wire for each tuft, the pawl lever being actuated
by a cam slot connected with the slide that actuates the fork for pushing the tuft
under the plunger.