Year: 1888

page_text: ate of Application, 21st Sept., 1888
Specification Accepted, 2nd Mar., 1889
We, JOHN DEAN, machinist, and GEORGE H. KINGSLEY, manufacturer, both of
Cleveland, Ohio, United States of America, do hereby declare the nature of this inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement:
-1
The invention has reference to a new combination of materials to be employed in
rumblers or tumblers for cleaning and polishing metal.
Heretofore, various methods and combinations of materials have been employed in
this art for cleaning and polishing castings and other metals, and with varying results,
according to the methods adopted and the character and form of the metal treated.
In some instances only the metals themselves were placed in the tumbling box or
cylinder without the addition of other material, and mutual attrition was relied on to
cleanse and smooth the metal surface. Or to these were added, sand, slag, cinders,
graphite saw-dust, scraps of leather, charcoal, or the like, usually one or the other
alone, according to the article under treatment or the character of the work to be
done. It was also common to employ with these materials, small sharp pointed
objects known as "tumbling stars" which were made of hard metal, and served with
their pointed ends to penetrate crevices and openings which were inaccessible to
ordinary surface action and to cleanse parts that could not otherwise be reached. In
lieu of these, nails, and like small metallic articles of irregular shape and sharp
corners and points, were used in connection with one or more of the polishing
materials above named. With the exception of some slight variations, this may be
said to have been the state of the art and represents the best known methods therein
prior to our invention.
"
But the tumbling star" or its ordinary hard metal substitute, when used with
any of the known scouring substances is liable. to at least two material objections
which it is the purpose of our invention to remedy; First, owing to the fact that it
is both hard and sharp, it is impossible to obtain a finished surface that is not more
or less punctured scratched, or otherwise defaced, especially if the softer metals are
being handled.

page_text: Secondly, it is impossible by this method, to carry the cleansing and polishing
process effectually into the interstices, recesses or openings that usually appear in
metals brought to the tumbling box for treatment. The sharp pronged star or spider
was designed to remedy this defect in the polishing process, and to enter the recesses
and openings for the purpose of cleaning and finishing the same, but experience has
demonstrated that this is not effectual for this purpose. It will remove the adhering
particles and give a certain measure of finish in the unexposed parts, but still those
parts will be rough and unsatisfactory when its work is done, compared with
the exposed surfaces which have been subjected to the direct action of the polishing
materials.
By our means these defects are positively obviated, and every part of a piece of
metal is equally cleaned and polished whether the surface is plain or exposed or within
or about an opening, or of irregular outline, the form, shape, or construction of the
metal being immaterial providing the parts thereof are accessible to our polishing
material. To this end our invention consists in the use of small pieces of some soft
yielding metal like lead, with a polishing material like emery, crocus, corundum, char-
coal or other similar substance, which while it cleanses will also abrade and polish the
metal and give it the desired finish.
In carrying out the invention, the leaden pieces may be given any desired shape
from angular to round, but we usually make them round to start with as they will
soon wear to practically this form by use, and they may he of any size from say the
size of a marble or larger down to the finest, bird shot.
The form and peculiarities of construction of the metal to be cleansed and polished
will generally determine the size of the lead to be used. Thus, if the metal is made
with open work, webbing, or the like, the surfaces of which are to be polished, we
employ leaden balls according to the size of such openings, the balls being designed
to pass through the openings and enter into all parts thereof. The size of the
openings will therefore determine the size of the balls, and if the metal is plain or
has very large openings, the largest size would be used. Of course, the larger and
heavier the leaden pieces, the more rapid the work, weight having very much
to do with the speed and efficiency of their action. We therefore use the
heavier leads or their equivalent in soft metal, when the character of the work
will permit.
The grade of the abrading material to be used will depend largely on the quality
of the work to be done. When quick results are desired and finish is not so material,
the heavier grades may be profitably employed. If a smooth polished surface is
desired, the finer grades of material should be used.
When emery, charcoal, or the like is used, a small quantity of oil added thereto
will lend materially to its action and contribute to the finish of the work. The
superiority of lead or kindred soft metal, in lieu of the emery, tumbling star or the
like, we desire especially to emphasize for the reason that the use of such material
for this purpose lies at the basis of our invention. It will be seen that by the charge
of metal, we retain sufficient weight and solidity to do efficient and speedy work,
while the quality of the work is greatly enhanced by reason of the charge. Thus,
while with lead we avoid the injury to the polished surface which the harder metals
will inflict, we are enabled by its use, and by reason of its soft and yielding quality,
to charge and embed its surface so completely with the polishing material that we
practically convert it into a new and different article. Thus, for example, if we
employ emery as the polishing material, a ball of lead, by the violent action to which
it is subjected in the tumbler, will become so filled with the material that in compara-
tively short time it will be perceptably larger than originally, and its surface will be
saturated with the polisher. This practically converts the leaden mass into an emery
ball with the advantages however, of having greater weight and consequently more
efficiency than a ball of solid emery would have, while also the combined lead and
emery does not smooth and gloss as in the case of solid emery.
An emery ball would
wear down and polish and loose its scouring properties, but the leaden ball will
continue to take up emery particles and thus maintain an effective grinding surface.

page_text: The leaden ball also retains its yielding quality which better adapts it to this work.
There of course is no wearing out of the lead when these accretions upon its surface
occur.
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 :-
In the art of abrading and polishing, the combination of an abradent, as powdered
emery or the like, with small soft metal bodies, as leaden balls, or their equivalent,
the abradent and metal bodies being separate and distinct elements, whereby when
employed in a rumbler said elements co-operate in polishing exposed surfaces,
substantially as set forth.