IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SPLITTING' LEATHER
Year: 1855

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Tomlinson Bousfield at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his. Petition, on the 20th
December 1855 A communication:
:
I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Sussex Place, Loughborough Road;
Brixton, in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the In-'
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SPLITTING' LEATHER" to be as
follows
7
The machine is of that class in which the leather is fed upon an elastic feed
ápron or surface, and is forced or "propelled "against the edge of a knife by
feed rolls. The elastic feed apron preferred is that for which Letters Patent
were granted to me on the 20th of December 1854. The journals of the
lower roll run in boxes, which slide in housings attached to the sides of the
frame; plates are suspended from the boxes by screws, which pass through
holes in the plates and enter the bottom of the boxes; the plates and boxes
are separated by springs, and thus, while the lower roll is forced up by the
expansion of the springs; it. can 'descend independently of the plates as the
thickness of the leather increases, the distance to which it can ascend being
limited by the position of the plates, which is regulated by levers. There is a
stationary knife which is secured to a cross bar attached to the housing. There
is a guage roll which revolves in boxes upon arms; these arms vibrate around
another shaft, the boxes of which slide in standards and are guaged by screws

page_text: to regulate the distance of the roll from the knife. There are springs to keep
the boxes in contact with the screws.
In order to enter the hide promptly between the feed rolls, the upper roll is
swung out of position, its cog wheel at the same time disengaging itself from
the gear by which it is driven; whenever the guage roll is returned to the
place, its wheel engages with that upon the lower roll, and the two are again
revolved together.
Ordinarily the leather is propelled through the machine and against the
edge of the knife by driving the feed rolls; in such case the wheel is clutched
with the gear, and should the leather "bag" behind the rolls, the operator by
placing his hand upon the "bite roll" can draw that portion of the hide
through and cause it again to run straight. If at any time it becomes neces-
sary to stop the rolls and draw the leather through, this may be done by
unclutching the wheels and carrying the leather through solely by the bite
roll. When the leather is light and soft, it may be drawn through altogether
by the bite roll. Thus, is the same machine enabled to draw and propel at
the same time, or to do either one without the other, according to the nature
of the leather to be operated upon.. It often happens that the leather hangs
in the machine and stops it, it is then difficult to start it either one way or
the other, or to extricate it without injury from the rolls; in this machine it
is simply necessary to depress the lower roll by raising the levers, and the
difficulty may be instantly removed.
It sometimes occurs when the leather is carried through the machine by the
rolls, that the "grain" does not rise regularly and evenly over the knife, and
is in consequence not left of uniform thickness; this may be remedied by
feeding the upper surface of the leather faster than the lower; for this purpose
the upper roll is made of slightly larger diameter than the lower one, and it
will be found that when the upper roll is of about one-fourth of an inch
greater diameter than the lower one with the thickness of the apron added,
that the evil is entirely remedied.