Apparatus applicable for Making Fire-lighters, Compressed Fuel, and Blocks from Quick-setting, Cohering, or Plastic Materials.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 1st May, 1899
Complete Specification Left, 1st Feb., 1900-Accepted, 24th Mar., 1900
Apparatus applicable for Making Fire-lighters, Compressed Fuel, and
Blocks from Quick-setting, Cohering, or Plastic Materials.
We, JOHN HARGREAVES CROSBY and MICHAEL MCINERNEY, trading as Fulmens,
of SA, Rumford Place, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Manufacturers
and Merchants, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows;-
-
This invention has for its object an apparatus for making fire-lighters, com-
pressed fuel and other articles, and is designed to effect a great saving in hand
labour over the usual method of manufacturing by hand.
over it.
In carrying our invention into effect, as applied to making firelighters the
apparatus comprises an endless chain of moulds or boxes of the required size,
passing round rollers at end of machine, these moulds being coupled together
and having wheels or rollers travelling upon rails so as to guide and control
their movement. At one point between these rollers is a table over which the
chain of moulds move. This table forms a bottom for the moulds as they pass
In proximity and opposite to the moulds is an endless chain of presser
blocks coupled together and passing round guide rollers at each end of the
machine. The presser blocks also have wheels or rollers travelling on rails which
guide and direct their direction of movement and they have ribs on their
pressing surface to form corresponding depressions in the firelighters. The
presser blocks are adapted in the course of their travel to enter the moulds or
boxes in which they closely fit, and act to compress the material in the moulds.
Immediately above the table is arranged a vertically reciprocating plunger, while
the chain of moulds and the chain of presser blocks, have an intermittent or
step by step movement so arranged that each mould as it arrives at the table
with its presser block inserted therein, shall remain stationary for sufficient time,
to allow the plunger to descend, press the block into the mould and then move
forward to present the next mould and presser head to the plunger and so on.
In action the materials of which the firelighters are composed, are ladled into
each mould consecutively in a heated state. In the course of their travel, the
presser heads by the action of their guiding rails converge towards the moulds
and enter the same, compressing the material filled thereinto. As soon as the
chain of moulds arrives at the table the plunger descends, pressing the presser
head forcibly into the moulds and further compressing the material therein at
the same time forming nicks or depressions on the face thereof. The plunger
then rises, the next filled mould with its presser block is presented to the next
plunger which descends and the operation is repeated and so on. At the delivery
end, the moulds and presser blocks separate from each other, and there is also a
second plunger which descends into the moulds. The latter having no bottom
after they leave the table, the descent of this plunger into the moulds after the
pressure blocks are removed. forces the completed firelighter or other articles
out through the bottom of the moulds, the firelighter falling down into a hopper
and so on to a delivery band or elsewhere. We may also provide an apparatus
for heating the ingredients of which the firelighter is made. This may consist of a

page_text: boiler for the rosin, and also another receptacle having a worm or agitator in
which the chips, cork or other ingredients are mixed. The melted tosin from
the boiler together with the other ingredients from the other receptacle are fed
by a feeding spout having a feeding worm into a hopper which delivers the
ingredients into an auxiliary boiler located in close proximity to the travelling
chain of moulds and which keeps the compounds in a liquid or semi-liquid
state. From this auxiliary boiler the material can be ladled by hand into the
moulds consecutively. The invention is applicable to making blocks from quick
setting cohering or plastic materials such as clay cement composition fluid metal
& the like.
Apparatus applicable for Making Fire-lighters, Compressed Fuel, and
Blocks from Quick-setting, Cohering, or Plastic Materials.
We, Jons HARGREAVES CROSBY and MICHAEL MelsERNEY, trading as Fulmens,
of SA. Rumford Place, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, Manufacturers
and Merchants, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement:-
This invention has for its object an apparatus for making fire-lighters, com-
pressed fuel and other articles, and is designed to effect a great saving in hand
labour over the usual method of manufacturing by hand.
The invention will be understood from the following description, reference
being had to the accompanying drawings, in which,
Figure is a front elevation of the apparatus:
Figure 2, a plan thereof with parts broken away;
Figure 3, a plan view on an enlarged scale of the face of the presser blocks;
Figure 4, end view of the machine;
Figure 5. an enlarged or detail view of a portion of Figure 1.
As applied to making firelighters, the apparatus comprises an endless chain
of moulds or boxes A of the required size, passing round rollers or sprocket
wheels B B at the ends of the machine, these moulds A being coupled together
at, and having wheels or rollers travelling upon rails D, so as to guide and
control their movement. For the greater part of the distance between these
rollers or sprocket wheels B B is a table E over which the chain of moulds A
moves. This table E which extends from e to el (Figure 1) forms a bottom for
the moulds, as they pass over it. In proximity and opposite to the moulds A is
an endless chain of presser blocks cumpled together and passing either round
guide rollers at each end of the machine, or (and this is the arrangement we
now prefer) through rails or guides G G at each end. The presser blocks also
have wheels or rollers H travelling on the rails or guides G and G which
guide and direct their direction of movement, and they have ribs on their
pressing surface to form corresponding depressions in the fire-lighters. The
presser blocks Fare adapted in the course of their travel to enter the moulds or
boxes A in which their heads closely fit and act to compress the material in the
moulds. To enable us to effect this, the presser blocks at the point where they
are coupled together are allowed considerable play, this being effected by the

page_text: pivots sliding in slots W. These permit a certain play of the presser blocks.
The guide G is so arranged as to cause the presser blocks to gradually in turn
converge towards the moulds, and then as each presser block is brought over the
moulds, the slots W allow them to drop one by one into the moulds. Imme-
diately above the table is arranged a vertically reciprocating plunger K, while
the chain of moulds A and the chain of presser blocks F have an intermittent
or step by step movement so arranged that each mould as it arrives under the
plunger with its presser block inserted therein shall remain stationary for a
sufficient time to allow the plunger K to descend and press the block Finto the
mould A. and then move forward to present the next mould and presser block to
the plunger and so on. As the presser blocks F, together with their moulds,
approach the guide G, they are raised out of the moulds A by means of the
inclined planes X which leads them into the guide G and so enables them
after passing through the said guide to set forth on their return movement. The
presser blocks F travel in the direction of the arrows in Figure 1, and in part
of Figure 2. they are shown (by a breaking away and removal of part of the
upper rail or guide I) inserted in the moulds A while in another part, the rail 1
is not shown broken away, but their under sides are shown uppermost while on
their return movement. The arrangement for operating the plunger K will be
understood by reference to Figures I and 4, in which Lis a slido to which the
rods M of the plunger K are attached. In this slide is mounted a transverse
shaft N. is the driving shaft of the machine having specially shaped cams P
thereon. is a pivoted counterweighted lever, the action of which is to always
keep the slide L in its highest position. In action therefore, as the driving
shaft and its cams P' rotate, these cams will at eacli revolution of the shaft
depress the shaft M of the slide L. and so bring the plunger K down and apply
pressure on the presser blocks in the moulds at the proper moment.
spring which provides against an over charge of material in the box.
Ris a
The arrangement for intermittently driving the moulds is shown in Figures 1,
2 and 5, in which S are abutments on each of the moulds, T a slide which
slides in the guides in the table, a pivoted pawl or catch in this slide, Va
lever which is coupled to the slide T by a connecting rod r. Vis a crank lever
fixed to the same shaft as the lever V, and V2 a cam fixed on the driving shaft 0.
The connecting rode is preferably provided with a screw adjustment to vary its
length. In rotation therefore the cam on the driving shaft 0 operates through
crank arm and arm V, the slide T. and so reciprocates it from right to left,
the return movement being effected by means of a counterweight, not shown.
In the forward movement therefore the pawl engaging against the successive
abutments S advances the moulds step by step, while on the return movement
of the slide T the pawl being spring pivoted, passes each abutment without
operating the chain of moulds at all. The chain of presser blocks are driven by
the moulds.
In action. the materials of which the firelighters are composed are ladled into
each mould consecutively in a heated state at the feeding end of the machine.
In the course of their travel the presser blocks F by the action of their guides G
converge towards the moulds A and drop into the same, pressing the material
filled thereinto. The plunger K descends, pressing the blocks forcibly into the
moulds and further compressing the material therein, at the same time forming
nicks or depressions on the face thereof. The plunger K then rises, the next
filled mould with its presser block is presented to the next stroke of the plunger,
which descends, and the operation is repeated, and so on. At the delivery end
of the machine the moulds and presser blocks separate from each other, the latter
being raised by means of the inclined plane. X. clear of the moulds A. Y are
plungers which descend into the moulds. The latter having no bottom after they
leave the table, the descent of the plungers into the moulds after the presser
blocks are removed forces the completed firelighter out through the bottom of
the moulds, the firelighter falling down on to an endless delivery band Z or else-

page_text: where. The apparatus as applied to making compressed fuel and other blocks
from quick setting, cohering or plastic materials, will be obvious without further
description.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that
what we claim is:-
1. The improved method of making firelighters, compressed fuel and blocks or
other articles from quick setting, cobering or plastic materials by machinery,
which consists in filling the materials of which the firelighter or other article is
composed, when in a heated state, into an endless chain of moulds having a step
by step travelling movement, applying pressure on top of the material in each
mould consecutively to compress it, then releasing the pressure and presenting
the next filled mould or set of moulds to the pressure device and so on, and finally
forcing the compressed article set out of the mould by means of plungers, sub-
stantially as described.
2. An apparatus for making firelighters, compressed fuel, and blocks, from
quick setting, colering or plastic materials, comprising an endless chain of moulds
adapted to travel over a table with an intermittent movement which forms the
mould bottom, an endless band of presser blocks having a corresponding inter-
mittent movement, arranged clear of the moulds at the feeding end of the
machine so as to permit of their being filled, but adapted to converge towards
and enter the moulds as filled so as to compress the material therein, and a
reciprocating plunger so arranged that as each mould with its presser block
inserted therein arrives underneath, this plunger, will descend and further com-
press the material in each mould conscentively substantially as described.
3. In apparatus for making finelighters and other articles set forth the com-
bination with the endless chain of moulds, of presser blocks coupled together in
an endless chain, and means for guiding or directing said blocks and causing
them to converge towards, and to enter the moulds consecutively at the feeding
end of the machine, so as to compress the material in the moulds substantially
as described.
4. In apparatus of the kind set forth in Claim 2, stopping off the table at the
delivery end which forms the mould bottom, and providing means for lifting the
presser blocks clear of the moulds after pressure has been applied so as to sepa-
rate them from the latter in combination with plungers so arranged beyond the
end of the table that their descent into the moulds after the presser blocks are
removed forces the completed firelighters or other articles out through the bottom
of the moulds, substantially as set forth.
5. The apparatus for making firelighters, compressed fuel, and blocks, from
quick setting, eohering or plastic materials, constructed, arranged, and operating
substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to and shown in the draw-
ings annexed.
Dated this 31st day of January 1900.
W. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Patent Agents of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, & London.
W. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Patent Agents of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, & London.