IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR MAKING ENVELOPES AND SIMILAR RECEPTACLES AND GUMMING AND DELIVERING THE SAME
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION loft by John Clayton Mowburn at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 1st August 1883. communicated to
him from abroad by Abel Trumbull Howard of Brooklyn, United States of
America, Manufacturer
JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN of 169 Fleet Street in the City of London; Patent
Agent and Consulting Engineer "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR MAKING
ENVELOPES AND SIMILAR RECEPTACLES AND GUMMING AND DELIVERING THE SAME
"
communicated to him from abroad by Abel Trumbull Howard of Brooklyn, United
States of America, Manufacturer
This invention relates to a machine adapted for taking the blanks from which
the envelopes are to be made, folding down the end flaps, applying gum or pasto
for sealing down the bottom flap on to the end-flaps, folding down and sealing the
bottom flap, applying gum or paste to the sealing flap, delivering the envelope thus
completed into the carrier, and after the gum is dried, delivering the envelope into
a box or receptacle.
The blank is taken from the top of the pile by a pneumatic suction device, or
other suitable means, individualized by suitable mechanism and delivered to a
broad endless carrying belt which carries it through the folders for the end-flaps.
These folders consist of two stationary folding blades over which the flaps are
folded by narrow belts which move with the saine speed as the endless_carrying
belt, and which have a twist at the point where the folding takes place. Thus the
blank is folded while in motion and without friction, between belts moving at the
same speed. The gum or paste for sealing down the bottom flap is applied by a
gumming roll, fed from a gum fountain. The printing face of this roll moves with
the same speed as the envelope or blank, and is so constructed as to be raised
above the carrying-belt except when an envelope is passing whereby, should there
be a break in the natural succession of the blanks or envelopes, no gum will be
applied to the carrying-belt. This prevents the said belt being soiled The passing
envelope or blank controls this operation of the gumming roll.
The bottom flap is folded by a tumbler mounted on axial pivots. This tumbler
has two parallel folding-blades between which the bottom-flap passes until it
strikes an adjustable stop, when the movement of the blank causes the tumbler to
turn on its axis and vault over so as not to touch the freshly gummed surface, and

page_text: to take position to receive the next succeeding blank. The envelope now passes
under a bearing-roll which seals down the bottom flap, and the body of the
envelope then passes up under a folding-plate until it strikes an adjustable stop,
when this folder swings forward and folds the scaling-flap at the same time forcing
the envelope down between the last bearing roll and the end of the carrying-belt,
where it passes over the drum at the rear of the machine.
The envelope is now completed except as to the gumming of the sealing flap
which is to be left unsealed. The last described mechanism discharges the envelope
downward before a vertical grid mounted on the same platform with the flap rest,
on which the sealing flap is laid to receive its gum. A mechanism arranged under
the machine holds the body of the envelope against the grid, while another
mechanism lays out the flap on the rest. Another mechanism, acting in conjunction
with the latter, and comprising a gum-fountain and roll and a flap gummer, with
four motions, applies the gum to the flap with a wiping motion. The envelope is
now released and the same mechanism which spread or laid the flap draws the
envelope down into a chain carrier constructed similar to that employed in ordinary
envelope machines.
This carrier is endless, and of the proper length to allow the gum or paste on the
scaling flap to dry before the discharging point is reached. It is or may be,
actuated intermittently by a ratchet device.
When the envelopes have made the circuit of the carrier and while on the
underside of the same, they are pushed down or out of the carrier by a suitable
mechanical device into a horizontal pusher which pushes them into a box or other
receptacle.
The mechanism for applying the gum to the sealing flap, as well as that for
applying the gum to the body of the envelope, is arranged to be controlled by the
passing envelope in such a way that it is impossible to apply gum to the flap-rest.
The gum or paste fountain is peculiarly constructed so as to produco a circulatory
current of the viscid gum and prevent it from accumulating in such a manner as to
overflow through the joints or over the top of the fountain.
In order that the pile of blanks froin which the topmost has been taken, may bo
properly adjusted after a blank is removed, means are provided for giving it an
intermittent vertical movement. This draws down the pile between its guides and
rectifies the register. This mechanism is arranged to operato no matter how many
or how few blauks be in the pile.