IMPROVEMENTS IN GRAIN BINDING MACHINES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Otis Skinner Gage, of No. 228, Upper Thames Street, in
the City of London, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN GRAIN BINDING
MACHINES." A communication from abroad by Cyrus Hall McCormick, of
Chicago, Illinois, in the United States of America.
Sealed the 29th November 1878, and dated the 14th June 1878.
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COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Otis Skinner Gage at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th June 1878.
OTIS SKINNER GAGE, of No. 228, Upper Thames Street, in the City of London.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN GRAIN BINDING MACHINES." A communication from abroad
by Cyrus Hall McCormick, of Chicago, Illinois, in the United States of America.
This Invention relates to that class of automatic binders in which the gavel is
encircled with wire by a binding arm, and the ends of the wire united by twisting
them between the teeth on the periphery of a rotating twister, in contradistinction
to the class in which two wires are twisted in the same slot near the axis of the
twister.
In twisters of the class to which this Invention more especially relates, it is
necessary that one end of the wire should be carried around to the back of the
twister, so as to be opposite the other end when the twisting begins.
The object of the Invention is to insure the positive entrance of the wire into the
slot of the twister, irrespective of the size of the gavel or the condition of the grain,
which end is attained by forcing the wire into the slot of the twister or binding
head by a spring push rod or wire inserting mechanism. This end may be attained
either by moving the twister and binding head up to the wire inserting mechanism
or by moving the wire inserting mechanism up to the twisting head.
The accompanying Drawings represent these improvements as applied to a binder
in which the twister and binding arm reciprocate horizontally in a straight line,

page_text: but obviously they may be adapted to machines of a different construction, such
for instance as those moving in a vertical or horizontal circular path.
Figure 1 represents a front elevation of so much of the improved apparatus as is
necessary to illustrate the subject matter herein claimed, with the framing partially
broken away, and the binder head partly in section on the line 2, 2, of Figure 2; to
show its details of construction more clearly Figure 2 represents a plan or top
view of the binding head and wire inserting device in the relative attitudes they
assume when forcing the wire into the twister; and Figure 3, a similar view of the
same after the wire has been inserted, with the wire inserter moved to one side out
of the way of the incoming wire.
Figure 4 represents a side elevation of the wire inserting apparatus in section on
the line 1, 1, of Figure 2.
The description of the machine will be confined to the parts more immediately
relating to the subject matter herein claimed.
The mechanism is mounted upon a binding frame A. A binding head B
reciprocates upon ways on said frame, being driven by a chain and sprocket wheels
from a driving shaft C. In this instance the wire inserting apparatus is shown as
composed of a bar or plate D connected at its rear end by a pivot d with a spring
rod or piston E, moveable endwise in bearings e upon the binding frame, and
encircled by a spiral spring e¹ which tends to keep the device always thrust
forward in the position shown in Figures 1, 2, and 4.
In addition to the endwise movement of which the wire inserting plate D is
thus rendered capable, it has a lateral swinging motion around pivot d, the extent
of which motion is regulated by a diagonal slot in the plate in which the
pin'd' fixed on the frame works.
The operation of the apparatus is as follows:-After binding a gavel the wire
Carrying arm F rises and moves backward, leaving one end of the wire in the twister
slot in front of the twisting pinion; the gavel to be bound then passes in upon the
binding platform. As the binding mechanism moves forward to compress the gavel,
the wire in the twister pinion abuts against the square end of the wire inserting
plate D, and is consequently positively pressed into the twister just at the moment
it makes its half turn which carries the wire to the back of the twister. By the time
this has been done, the parts assume the relation shown in Figure 3.
The continued forward movement of the binding mechanism forces the wire
inserting plate D backward and to one side into the position shown in Figure 3,
where it is held during the descent of the wire carrying arm which brings the other
end of the wire into the slot of the binding head or twister, in doing which it slides
along the sloping or wedge-shaped inner edge of the wire inserting plate D.
As the binding mechanism is retracted the two ends of the wire are twisted
together and cut, and the bundle is discharged in the usual way. The moment
the binding head retracts the wire inserting plate is thrown forward into its
normal position by its actuating spring, and the operation above described is
repeated.
The Invention is adapted for use with either one or two binding wires.
What I claim as the Invention communicated to me by my foreign correspondent,
and desire to secure by Letters Patent is,--
First. A wire inserting device actuated by a spring, which forces the wire into
the twister as the latter makes its half turn to bring the wire to the back of the
binding head, substantially as herein-before set forth.
Secondly. The combination, substantially as herein-before set forth, of an
intermittently rotating twister pinion, a wire carrying arm, and a wire inserting
device actuated by a spring, whereby the wire is forced into the twister by the
wire inserting device, which then makes way for the passage of the wire carrying
arm.
Thirdly. The combination, substantially as herein-before set forth, of a recipro-
cating binding arm and twister with an endwise moving laterally swinging wire

page_text: inserting device, mounted upon a fixed portion of the binding frame, whereby the
wire inserting device is actuated by the movement of the binding head.
Fourthly. A wire inserting device consisting of the combination, substantially as
herein-before set forth, of the endwise moving spring rod, the wire inserting plate
or bar pivoted thereon, and the pin working in a diagonal slot in the bar.
In witness whereof, I, the said Otis Skinner Gage, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of June, One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-eight.
OTIS SKINNER GAGE. (LS.)