IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES USED FOR PRESSING COTTON, WOOL, HAY, AND FIBROUS MATERIALS
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Ashcroft, of King William Street, in the City
of London, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PRESSES
USED FOR PRESSING COTTON, WOOL, HAY, AND FIBROUS MATERIALS."
Sealed the 14th November 1865, and dated the 24th May 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Ashcroft at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
May 1865.
I, GEORGE ASHCROFT, of King William Street, in the City of London,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PRESSES USED FOR PRESSING COTTON, WOOL, HAY, AND FIBROUS MATERIALS,"
to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to give greater facilities for moving the boxes
used in connection with hydraulic and other presses into the positions proper
for filling the said boxes with the material to be pressed, and afterwards into
the position for the material to receive the pressure. It is applicable either
to my Patent combined steam and hydraulic press (2nd day of November 1864,
No. 2707), or to other hydraulic and steam presses.
The Invention may be readily understood from the following description:-
When it is intended to apply my Invention to presses, constructed as they
usually are with columns, one at each corner of a square top and bottom, I
cause two of these columns to be placed on one side of the square, and
sufficiently near the one to the other to enable a casing to be fitted around the
two columus thus placed. This casing may either extend the whole distance

page_text: between the top and bottom of the press, or it may be made only to extend
over sufficient space for the hinges to work. The hinges or bearings are
collars made to work upon the casings described above, in such a way as to
allow them to work freely round upon the casing. The hinges or collars are
provided with projections upon which are bolted the packing boxes; as many
projections must be provided on the hinges as there are boxes to be bolted on,
whether two, three, four, or a larger number.
It is obvious, that when two or more boxes are bolted on to these hinges,
that the boxes may be made to revolve round the casing, so that one can be
placed under the press. A second box or other boxes may meanwhile be
filled and prepared for pressing. The boxes can be then again caused to
revolve, and so on in succession.
Instead of two columns and the casing above described, a single column
may be used when it is thought to be desirable. The hinges may then be
inade to revolve upon this single column.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Ashcroft in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th November 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
ASHCROFT, of King William Street, in the City of London, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said George Ashcroft, Her special licence that I, the said George
Ashcroft, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said George Ashcroft, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PRESSES USED FOR PRESSING COTTON, WOOL, HAY, AND FIBROUS
MATERIALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George
Ashcroft, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly

page_text: describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great
Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Ashcroft, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:―
The object of this Invention is to give greater facilities for moving the boxes
used in connection with hydraulic and other presses into the positions proper
for filling the said boxes with the material to be pressed, and afterwards into
the position for the material to receive the pressure. For this purpose the
box or boxes is or are arranged to be capable of revolving around a column
or columns of the press, so that after a box has been filled the box may bo
moved round so as to bring it under the press.
When it is intended to apply my Invention to presses constructed as they
usually are with columns, one at each corner of a square top and bottom, I
cause two of these columns to be placed on one side of the square, and suffi-
ciently near the one to the other to enable a casing to be fitted around the
two columns thus placed. This casing may either extend the whole distance
between the top and bottom of the press, or it may be made only to extend
over sufficient space for the hinges to work. The hinges or bearings are
collars made to work upon the casings described above in such a way as to
allow them to work freely round upon the casing. The hinges or collars are
provided with projections, upon which are bolted the packing boxes. As many
projections must be provided on the hinges as there are boxes to be bolted
on, whether two, three, four, or a larger number.
It is obvious that when two or more boxes are bolted on to these hinges,
that the boxes may be made to revolve round the casing, so that one can be
placed under the press, a second box or other boxes may meanwhile be filled
and prepared for pressing. The boxes can be then again caused to revolve,
and so on in succession.
Instead of two columns and the casing above described, a single column,
may be used when it is thought to be desirable. The hinges may then be
made to revolve upon this single column.
The Invention is applicable either to combined steam and hydraulic presses,
constructed as described in the Specification of a Patent granted to me on the
2nd November 1864 (No. 2707), or to other hydraulic, or screw, or other
presses.

page_text: And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily carried
into effect, I have in the Drawing hereunto annexed shown an example of a
press having my Invention applied thereto.
The press to which I have shown my Invention applied is in most respects
constructed as described in the Specification of the Patent above-mentioned;
but as before stated, the Invention is equally applicable to hydraulic and other
kinds of presses employed for pressing fibrous material.
In the press shown in the Drawing, two boxes are employed, so that one
box may be filled with the material to be pressed whilst the material in the
other box is being compressed by the press. Three or more boxes may,
however; be employed in like manner, or one box only may be used, if
desired.
The press shown in the Drawing is supported on two columns a, a, around
one of which the two boxes or trunks of the press b and c are capable of
revolving; these boxes are carried on arms which project from rings d; d, that
embrace the column. The under side of the lower ring rests on friction balls
placed in a groove formed around the upper surface of a projection or collar.
on the column as is shown, so that the weight of the boxes is carried by these.
balls. The box 6 is in the position for being filled from the platform e with
the fibrous material to be pressed, and the box c is in the position for the
fibrous material contained in it to be compressed by the press, and is held in
that position by a stop, not shown on the Drawings. Each of the boxes is
similar to the boxes ordinarily employed in presses for pressing cotton and
other fibrous material into bales, and consequently no description of them is
here necessary; each box is closed at its lower end by a loose bottom, which
when the box is brought into the position of the box c, and the press put in
action is pressed upwards by the follower of the press, the top of the box being
at this time closed by the grooved plate f carried at the top of the pillars a, a.
In the press shown in the Drawings, the follower, as is described in the
Specification of the Patent above-mentioned, is first drawn upwards by the
upward stroke of the piston of the steam cylinder g. A cross head at the top
of this rod being connected by rods h to a cross head i, which embraces the
plunger k, projecting downwards from the follower of the press. The rods h
pass down through the columns, which are hollow, and at their lower ends are
connected to the cross head i, the ends of which cross head pass through slots
in the columns. On the down stroke of the piston the follower is further
forced upwards by the plungers m of the force pumps m³, forcing water or
other fluid into the bydraulic cylinder », in which the lower end of the plunger k
works; the valve for admitting steam to the steam cylinder is actuated by a

page_text: lever o worked by hand by an attendant on the platform p. When the
follower has arrived at the top of its stroke, the doors at the top of the box
are thrown open, and the compressed bale of fibrous material is hooped in the
ordinary manner; the bale is then removed from pressure by allowing the
water or fluid to escape from the hydraulic cylinder, and the box is turned
round from under the press so as to bring it to the position previously occupied
by the box b, whilst the box 6 which has now been filled with fibrous material
to be compressed is brought under the press, when the same operation is
repeated.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Ashcroft, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
GEORGE ASHCROFT. (L.s.)