Improvements in or relating to the Beating of Furs and Fur Hides.
Year: 1889

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Oct., 1889-Accepted, 1st Mar., 1890'
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to the Beating of Furs and Fur Hides.
A communication from HERMANN STEINBECK, successor to Louis Walther, of
Markranstädt, in the Empire of Germany, Tanner and Dyer:
I, ALFRED JULIUS BOULT of 323 High Holborn in the County of Middlesex,
M.I.M.E., do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
The beating of furs and fur hides for the purpose of freeing them from dust, saw-
dust, and moths as well as to loosen the hair has been one of the most troublesome,
time taking and expensive operations in the fur trade and also connected with the
preservation of furs, and has also hitherto required the beating of the furs with
sticks.
To accelerate this process of beating and to render it less expensive, is the object
of this invention.
The invention consists in a contrivance or machine with an arrangement to imitate
precisely the beating as done by hand.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings is a sectional elevation of such a machine
which serves principally to beat small kind of furs and skins. It consists of a rotating
drum A of wire netting preferably having about a two inch mesh and which turns
on the shaft B. On this shaft and within the drum are in a proper way rows e of
elastic, round laths straps or the like made of cords strings india-rubber or some
other elastic material arranged cross-wise to the axis of the drum and which swing
round with the shaft.
These rows of straps rotate four to eight times quicker than the drum A. The
skins are fed through the funnel D to the drum A and the laths X which are placed
lengthways inside the drum raise them, and the straps which revolve in the reverso
direction to and faster than the drum, strike or beat them.
On account of the oblique position of the drum and the beaters the skins are drawn
slowly through the length of the drum and while moving are continually beaten by
the straps therefore when the skins fall from the lower end of the drum all dust or
moths are taken out of them and the hairs are perfectly loose.
The drum is revolved from its upper end by a toothed ring and pinion and is
turned about twenty times in a minute. The straps or beaters B and the drum are
turned by gearing and step pulleys in order to allow of different degrees of velocity
of the strap shaft (which with the drum making 20 revolutions per minute would
generally run at about 160-180) to obtain the option of beating more or less severely
as the nature of the respective fur may require.
Fig. 2 shows a modification of the machine, the beaters e being no longer in the
drum but rotating freely and beating on the surface of the table E which is covered
with some smooth surfaced elastic material. The table can be moved to or from the
beater axis by any suitable handles, & the surface of the skin presented to the beaters
adjusted at will.
The skin is put on the table and is kept moving by a travelling band while the
beaters strike it. This kind of machine should be preferably used for large skins such
as bear skins or ready made fur clothing, but this machine can also be made to he
worked by hand and will clean ready made fur clothes and therefore be also of use to
furrier in a smaller way.
The trials which have been made to test the machines have given such results as to
show that the work done by them is much superior to the manual onerations.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed, 'as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent I declare that what I claim is
-
:
The mechanical beating of furs by a machine having beaters such as e rotating in
the opposite direction to and faster than the drum A and striking upon the laths ✗ in
the interior of the drum Å or upon the elastically covered table E substantially as
described.
Dated this 2nd day of October 1880
W. P. THOMPSON & BOULT,
Agents for the Applicant.