IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TREATING HIDES AND SKINS
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Edwin Ellis, of No. 63, Cremorne Street,
and Ezra Redgate, of No. 9, Arboretum Terrace, both of Notting-
ham, for the Invention of" IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TREATING
HIDES AND SKINS."
Sealed the 26th June 1874, and dated the 13th January 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Edwin Ellis and
Ezra Redgate at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 13th January 1874.
We, JAMES EDWIN ELLIS, of No. 63, Cremorne Street, and EZRA
REDGATE, of No. 9, Arboretum Terrace, both of Nottingham, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR TREATING HIDES AND SKINS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the construction of machinery for
fleshing, unhairing, scudding, and scouring hides and skins.
The machine is provided with a roller which revolves in suitable
bearings, and is covered with knives or blades set upon it in the form of

page_text: right and left-hand screws from the centre of the roller outwards towards
either end.
Beneath the roller is a slow moving endless apron or creeper, on which
the hides or skins to be operated upon are spread, and there is a treadle, by
means of which the apron or creeper with the hides or skins upon it can be
pressed up towards the roller, causing the knives or blades to act upon
the hides or skins, and loosen and remove the flesh, hair, fat, and other
matters from them. The hides or skins next pass under endless bands
of brushes mounted behind the roller, and working from the middle of
the machine outwards. These brushes sweep off the hair or other matter
removed from the hides or skins, and also clear the surface of the apron
or creeper.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Edwin Ellis and Ezra Redgate in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 13th July 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
EDWIN ELLIS, of No. 63, Cremorne Street, and EZRA REDGATE, of 9,
Arboretum Terrace, both of Nottingham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of January, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four,
in the thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto us, the said James Edwin Ellis and
Ezra Redgate, Her special license, that we, the said James Edwin Ellis
and Ezra Redgate, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said James Edwin Ellis and Ezra Redgate, our
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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR TREATING HIDES AND SKINS," upon the condition (amongst

page_text: WWW.NIUVI
others) that we, the said James Edwin Ellis and Ezra Redgate, our
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or
their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Inven-
tion, 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 James Edwin Ellis, on behalf of
myself and the said Ezra Redgate, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object the construction of machinery for
fleshing, unhairing, scudding, and scouring hides and skins.
The machine is provided with a roller which revolves in suitable
bearings, and is covered with knives or blades set upon it in the form of
right and left hand screws from the centre of the roller outwards towards.
.either end.
Beneath the roller is a slow moving endless apron or creeper, on which.
the hides or skins to be operated upon are spread, and there is a treadle,.
by means of which the apron or creeper, with the hides or skins upon it,
can be pressed up towards the roller, causing the knives or blades to act
upon the hides or skins, and loosen and remove the flesh, hair, fat, and
other matters from them. The hides or skins next pass under endless
bands of brushes mounted behind the roller, and working from the middle
of the machine outwards. These brushes sweep off the hair or other
matter removed from the hides or skins, and also clear the surface of the
apron or creeper.
The refuse is collected by the brushes into suitable receptacles, thereby
preserving the flesh or other matter intact.
For scudding and scouring hides the creeper and endless brushes
also be used without the knives.
may
In the Drawings hereunto annexed we have shewn various views of
machinery constructed as above described.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of the machine, and Figure 2 is an end
elevation of the same.

page_text: Figures 3 and 4 shew respectively an elevation and plan of the endless
brushes.
a is the framing of the machine; b is the roller, with the knives b¹ set
upon it in the form of right and left hand screws from the centre of the
roller outwards; c is the endless apron or creeper carried by rollers d, d¹;
the axes of these rollers are received in bearings upon a frame e, which
can be raised or lowered by the treadle f. A travelling motion is given
. to the apron or creeper from the roller 6 which carries the knives. The
roller has upon it a bevil toothed wheel 9, which gears with a similar
wheel on a shaft h, which by other bevil wheels transmits motion to the
upright shaft k. Upon this shaft is a worm 1, which is free to move
endwise along the shaft, but cannot turn around it. This worm gears
with a toothed wheel m upon the axis of the roller d', over which the
endless apron passes. The other roller 'd, which supports the endless
apron, can be moved away from the roller d' by hand wheels and screws n,
as shewn, so as to put the requisite amount of tension upon the endless
apron or creeper. We prefer that the endless apron or creeper should
be of thick felt or similar elastic material. Where the creeper passes
below the roller b we support it by means of a bolster or pad u of leather"
or such like material stretched between two bars v, v, carried by the
frame e. One of these bars can be drawn away from the other by
screws w, so as to put any desired amount of tension on the pad. By
this arrangement the knife is allowed to bear always upon a large
surface of the skin, whereas when similar knives have been used for
acting upon hides or skins whilst they have been supported upon the
surface of a slowly revolving roller the knives have rested upon a small
surface only of the skin, whereby the fat was cut off in small pieces, and
considerable waste of grease has been thereby caused.
After the hides or skins have been carried by the creeper below the
knives 6¹ they are carried by it below the endless bands of brushes p, p,
which work from the middle of the machine outwards, and which sweep
off the hair or other matter removed from the skins or hides, and also
clear the surface of the apron or creeper.
When the machinery is for fleshing hides or skins the knives are
brought to an edge similar to the edge of hand fleshing knives. The
knives are also made in segments, which are separately secured to raised
lugs or flanges upon the roller 6 by bolts and nuts or otherwise.

page_text: When commencing to act upon a skin or hide by the machine the skin
or hide is placed upon the surface of the creeper or apron, and its edge
brought below the knives in the roller b. The creeper is then raised
by the workman depressing the treadle f, and the skin or hide is
thereby pressed upwards against the knives, and as the creeper
continues to travel onwards it carries the skin or hide past the knives
and the cleaning brushes. One of the endless chains of brushes sweeps
over the surface of the hide or skin from the centre towards its right
hand edge, and the other from the centre to its left hand edge, and there
is also at the centre another shorter endless band of brushes to sweep in
either one or other direction to ensure that the central portion of the
skin shall be acted upon by the brushes.
The arrangement for giving motion to the brushes is shewn at Figures
3 and 4. A band is led from a pulley on the shaft k over a pulley on
the axis r. On this axis is a pinion, which by intermediate wheels 8, 8,
gives motion to pulleys t, t, over which the endless bands of brushes
pass. On the axes of these pulleys are also other pulleys t¹, t, which
carry the endless band of brushes for cleaning the central strip of the
hide or skin. One of the pullies t¹ is fast upon its axes, whilst the other
is loose.
In some cases, where the machinery is only required for scudding and
scouring hides and skins, the endless creeper or apron is employed for
carrying the hides or skins under a similar arrangement of brushes
without carrying them under the knife roller b. In this case however
we prefer to have two sets of brushes, each similar to the set shewn at
Figures 3 and 4.
The creeper where it passes under the brushes may, if desired, be sup-
ported by a wooden or supporting table fixed below it, but in most cases
that is not required.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, we would have it understood that we claim as
our improvements in machinery for treating hides and skins,-
1. The combined arrangement of machinery for treating hides and
skins substantially as herein-before described.
2. The combination of a roller b, carrying knives or blades in the form
of right and left hand screws passing from its centre outwards, together

page_text: with an endless apron or creeper c, and an elastic pad for supporting the
creeper below the knives, substantially as above described.
3. The employment of an endless apron or creeper and supporting pad
for supporting hides or skins whilst they are acted upon by a fleshing
knife or knifes.
4. The combined arrangement of machines for scudding and scouring
hides and skins, substantially as herein-before described, consisting of an
endless apron or creeper to support the hides or skins whilst they are
acted upon by revolving brushes to sweep from the centre outwards.
E
In witness whereof, I, the said James Edwin Ellis, have hereunto 1
set my hand and seal, this Tenth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.
J. E. ELLIS. (L.S.).