IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DRIVING BELTS OR BANDS OF MACHINERY AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE."
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Arthur Charles Henderson, of 6, Southampton Buildings,
Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS
IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DRIVING BELTS OR BANDS OF MACHINERY AND IN
THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN SUCH MANUFACTURE." A communication from
abroad by Ernest Poullain and Charles Poullain, Tanners and Curriers, trading
under the Title or Firm of Poullain Frères, of the City of Paris, in the Republic
of France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION loft by the said Arthur Charles Henderson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 30th April 1879.
ARTHUR CHARLES HENDERSON, of 6, Southampton Buildings, Holborn, in the
County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DRIVING
BELTS OR BANDS OF MACHINERY AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN SUCH
MANUFACTURE." A communication from abroad by Ernest Poullain and Charles
Poullain, Tanners and Curriers, trading under the Titlo or Firm of Poullain Frères,
of the City of Paris, in the Republic of Franco.
The feature of novelty in this Invention is the manufacturo of driving belts or
bands with longitudinal grooves, either on the external surface not in contact with
the pulley or on the inner surface in contact with the pulley, or grooved both
internally and externaly or on the juxtaposited surfaces of double or triple
bands.
The bands or belts are of leather, gutta porcha, india rubber tissue, or of tissues
either of the vegetable or animal kingdom. And according as the belts or bands
are applied to the pulleys on their snooth side or face, or on their grooved or
channeled face, so in like manner these pulleys have their surfaces either smooth
or grooved. In this latter case the grooves are cast on tho pulley or turned
thereon. The apparatus for forming the grooves or ribs on the belts or bands
consist of presses having a futed or grooved plate and movable plate with n
smooth surface; and the leather or other belt being pressed between these plates
receives an impression on one side only. Or the bolts may be passed between two
rollers, one of which grooved and the other smooth. Or a smooth roller in con-
junction with a grooved plate may be used with the same result, the pressure being

page_text: effected by a screw.
Or when it is desired to have belts with both the inner and
outer surfaces grooved then the same apparatus inay be employed, but having
grooves on both the surfaces between which the belts are passed.
In all cases both plates and rollers are hollow to admit of heating when desired
with steain or gas, so that the operation of grooving the bands may be conducted,
either wet or dry, hot or cold.
The edges of the bolts may also be undulated or denticulated and the grooves
disposed so as to gear or take one into the other, and by coating the parts where a
union is to be effected with glue, gutta percha, or some equivalent adhesive sub-
stance, they are effectually connected, aided by pressure. They inay also be united
by sewing, rivets, screws, eyelets, and so forth. The double and triple bands inay
also be grooved top and bottom. The advantages resulting from this system of
grooved bands or belts effected by the conjoint action of the smooth and grooved
surfaces of the plate and roller is, that the belts having during the process become
stretched to their utmost extent, are consequently free from any further elongation,
and therefore when in uso for driving machinery forced stoppages are obviated.
The effect of the penetration of the ribs of the belt into the grooves of the pulley
is to double the surfaces of contact and considerably increase the adhesion, the
drawing power, and force of the belt; and on account of this great adhesive power
there is no slipping, and the transmission of power to the machinery is effected
without appreciable loss.
Besides making longitudinal grooves on the belts such grooves may be made
more or less oblique or at right angles in a transverse manner in the direction of
the width, as well as helicoidal, sinuous, or of regular or irregular form, or form a
check.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed hy
the said Arthur Charles Henderson in the Great Seal Patent Office on tho
24th October 1879.
$4
ARTHUR CHARLES HENDERSON, of 6, Southampton Buildings, Holborn, in the
County of Middlesex. IMPROVEMENTS IN THE CONSTRUCTION OF DRIVING
BELTS OR BANDS OF MACHINERY AND IN THE APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN SUCH
MANUFACTURE." A communication from abroad by Ernest Poullain and Charles
Poullain, Tanners and Curriers, trading under the Title or Firm of Poullain Frères,
of the City of Paris, in the Republic of France.
The feature of novelty in this Invention is tho manufacture of driving belts and
bands, and their equivalents, with longitudinal grooves, either on the exterior
surface not in contact with the pulleys, or on the inner surface in contact with
them, or on the two inner or outer surfaces, or on the juxtaposed surfaces of the
bands which form double or triple bands. The grooved belts or bands aro of
leather, indiarubber, gutta percha, indin rubber tissues, or tissues either of the
vegetable or animal kingdom. And according as these belts, bands, or straps are
applied to the pulleys on their smooth side or face, or their grooved or channeled
surface, these pulleys will have their circumference either smooth or groovod. In
this latter case the grooves are cast on the pulley, or turned on it, or in applying
to the felly of the pulleys a band of leather, india rubber, gutta percha, india rubber
tissue, and divers tissues on which the channels or grooves are made either before
or after its application to the pulley.
In tho accompanying Drawings, Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4 represent sections of grooved
straps or belts. The section Fig. 1 has one face smooth and the other with
grooves very rounded at the top. The section Fig. 2 sunooth on one sido and
the other with angular grooves or channels; Fig. 3 has double grooves pro-
ducing an undulated section; and Fig. 4 is a section of a double strap or belt
having its outer or inner surfaces smooth; Figs. 5 and are an elevation and plan
of a smooth faced pulley with a strap or belt with external grooving; Figs. 7 and 8
represent in elevation and horizontal section the application of an internally
grooved belt to a pulley with cast grooves. As will be seen by Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4
what is meant by grooved bands are leather bands, india rubber, gutta percha,
india rubber tissues, and their equivalents of the vegetable or animal kingdoms, on
which are formed (as will hereafter be explained) ribs extending from end to end
of the belt or band in a parallel sense, or projections or progressive projections as
the case requires, and separated by hollows more or less deep, or more or less wide,
according to the thickness of the leather and the width of the belts. To produce
these longitudinal ribs or grooves, appropriate machines are used, and which may
be classified under three principle types. The first machine consists as is shown by
the Fig. 9 of a press, the plate of which p is grooved. The leather is placed on
this plate on the side where the grooves are required and pressure exercised thereon
with the sinooth inoveable plato p', leaving the leather there till the grooves are
well formed. The second apparatus, Fig. 10, is a kind of laminating machine
with two rollers ", r, one of which is grooved. The leather is passed between
these two rollers, the surface of the leather to bo grooved, turned towards the
grooved roller r', pressure is then exercised on the axis of one of the rollers by
means of a screw or otherwise, and by putting the laminator in notion either
mechanically or by band. The leather is gently passed and repassed between
these rollers if so required, and is withdrawn with the grooves impressed thereon.
The third machine, Fig. 12, comprises as the essential organs a grooved plate p,
and above it the smooth roller r, producing by any suitable means a more
or less active pressure. The Figs. 12 and 13 are a vertical section following
the line 1-2, and a plan of a machine constructed on the principle of this

page_text: Invention. In the centre of the cast iron bench g, supported by the feet y'
a frame his fixed to guide the cushions of the shaft of the smooth roller r to
receive the threaded blocks of two screws c, e', on the ends of. which are fixed two
cog wheels e, e, of equal thread and diameter. These cog wheels are simultaneously
governed by the pinion i which is fixed on the axis of a bevil pinion which gears
with the pinion of the shaft k with fly k'. The whole of this mechanism is
intended to raise or lower the cushions of the shaft by means of the fly k', that
is to say, to press on or release pressure on the table p. This table, ribbed and
hollowed, is supported by the bench g which guides it in its rectilineal displacements.
Between its lateral edges it is furnished with grooves representing in hollows the
channels with which the bands are to be supplied. The table p is provided with
two guide bars m, m³, as long as itself for keeping the leather band to be grooved
laterally throughout its length. They are rendered simultaneously movable by means
of one or other of the small flys n, n, fixed at the end of the transverse screws o, o',
and connected together by the bevil pinions l, l', shown in the plan, Fig. 13. The screws
o, o', which are threaded partly with a right and partly with a left thread govern
the guides m, m2, by cushions which they traverse, so that these guides by the same
movement of the screws o, o', are drawn together or separated parallelly. The
roller and the table p are animated with correlative movements by means of the
cog wheels q, q', one fixed on the end of the shaft r, and the other on the shaft 8¹
which bears the pinion sin the middle; this latter gears with the rack p fixed to and
under the table P. As the wheels q, q', are equal, the table is displaced at a speed
equal to that of the rotation of the roller 2, nevertheless these speeds may be varied
according as it is desired to produce more or less lengthy extensions on the band.
On the shaft s¹ is also keyed the detent t which receives the motion of a pinion t'
of an intermediate shaft t, which by the conical toothed wheel to receives the move-
inent in one or other direction by means of the bevil pinions u, ¹, of a shaft u²;
this latter parallel with the table p turns when the band is on the pulley v, and
consequently governs by its pinion the wheel t. If the band is on the pulley v¹
it is the pini 2, which is solid with it, which governs the wheel ; and if the
band is on the loose pulley the machine is at rest. The deflection of the
shaft of the roller is stopped by the transom y with the roller y'. This
transom, which receives the action of the screws e, e, transmits it to the cushions
of the shaft r². is the lever, by the raising or lowering of which the clutch
bar x is actunted and the strap led to one or the other of the pulleys. Buttresses
conveniently placed, in automatically acting on the lever or its equivalent, produce
parallelly the changes of direction of movement of the table p. The action
the apparatus is easily comprehended, at the same time observing that
to produce faultless grooves it is best to pass the material several times through
the machine and to gradually increase the pressure of the roller ?.
This apparatus
may be modified as shown at Fig. 14. The table is smooth, simply dressed, it is
supplied with guide bars m, m, and is hollow in the centre under the smooth
roller to allow a second roller p' to project, which is grooved and mounted in the
place of the pinion 8 of the machine, Figs. 12 and 13. The band of leather to be
grooved taken between the smooth and the grooved roller passes gently between
these rollers and embraces the grooves of the roller p. This is a variation of the
principle, Fig. 10. In the arrangement, Figs. 12 and 13, the smooth roller is as
broad as the leather to be grooved, and to avoid too largo a series of rollers in
order to make the belts in widths from 5 to 5 millimètres the rollers are made of
one single or several rings. If it should be desired with these different dispositions,
Figs. 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, and 14 to produce double grooves, one above and the other
beneath, the two surfaces between which the leather passes will be grooved. The
tables and rollers in these types of machines are hollow to admit of the intro-
duction of heat produced from steam, the combustion of gas, and so forth, and
allows of grooving the leather, either wet or dry, hot or cold, as may be desired.
It has been remarked that the speed of the rollers, Figs. 10 and 14 of the roller
and table, Figs. 11, 12, and 13, may be similar or inore or less different, as it inay
of

page_text: be deemed advisable either not to stretch or to stretch the leather within determined
bounds. In manufacturing the double or triple bands, the surfaces are grooved
which are to be applied one on the other, and the leathers a and b are united at
the grooved surfaces, Fig. 4. The grooves are made so as to fit one into the other,
the grooves having first been coated with glue or gutta percha, or some equivalent
adhesive substance when it is wished to closely unite them with glue assisted by a
determined pressure, or the union may be effected by thread, screws, rivets, eyes,
and so on. These double and triple bands may ad arbitrium be grooved both above
and beneath. ADVANTAGES.-The benefits resulting from the principle of con-
struction herein set forth concurrently with the employment of either grooved or
smooth pulleys may be thus enumerated; 1st.. the belts having stretched to their
utmost during the grooving process are rendered perfectly free from any further
lengthening to the detriment of their breadth, and consequently can not stretch
when worked as inachine bands, and so preventing forced stoppages of the machine;
2nd., the leather by the grooving process has its pores closed, and is thickened and
strengthened at the ribs, and consequently acquires more strength, greater resisting
power, and is more durable; 3rd., the grooved belts do not twist on the pulleys as
is the case with the usual belts, on account of the grooves being longitudinal; 4th.,
in the belts or bands shown, Figs. 5 and 6, the belt C pressing its smooth surface
on the smooth felly of the pulleys d, d, acquires a greater adhesion on the pulleys
because the smooth surface is polished by the pressure required for the grooving
and does not present the little inequalities of the ordinary belts; 5th, in the
other descriptions, Figs. 7 and 8, the grooved surface of the belt c is applied to the
grooved felly of the pulleys f, hence the surface of contact resulting from the pene-
tration of the grooves one in the other is at least doubled, which contributes greatly
to adhesion, tractive power, and the strength of the strap; 6th, on account of the
great adherent power of the improved belts or bands there is no slipping, and the
transinission of power to machinery is effected without appreciable loss. In con-
clusion will be enumerated the modifications of which the Invention is susceptible
in the various constituent parts thereof, whether for making the grooves on the
straps or belts, or in the apparatus capable of producing such grooves, or in the
employment of the apparatus for polishing and compressing the leather of the belts
and in rendering them serviceable in a multitude of usages, and at the same
time successfully specifying each of the points on which the claims are based,
1st. Besides making longitudinal grooves above and below the belts separately or
in unison, as above explained, more or less oblique grooves may be made inside and
outside the belts, or at right angles or transversely in the direction of the width
of the belts, as well as helicoidal or sinuous grooves of a regular or irregular form.
2nd. The grooves may be made inside and outside the belts together or separately
in a longitudinal sense, or oblique and across, so as to form a check. 3rd. The
grooves may be inade on the belts inside and outside, together or separately, to form
all kinds of designs sunk or formed by pressure. 4th. The checked groovings and
designs are produced by the use of one of the three machines described, viz., the
press, the laiminator with two rollers, and the laminator with one roller and a plate.
The press will make the grooves, the checks, or design on one side or on both simul-
taneously by grooving, checking, or engraving the lower plate only, or the other plate
only, or both. The laminating apparatus with two rollers will make the grooves,
checks, or design on one of the sides, or both at the same time, by grooving, checking,
or engraving one or other of the rollers or both. The roller, laminator, and plate in
grooving, checking, or engraving either the plate only, or only the roller, or both in
unison will produce grooves, checks, or engravings inside or outside the belts or on
both sides at the same time. 5th. By the aid of these machines belts strengthened at
the edges, of a slightly concave form, are made so as to exactly and perfectly fit on
the slightly convex shape of the pulleys. This result will be obtained by indifferently
giving a slight convexity to the plate or roller, the leather being subject to a greater
pressure in the centre is forced to spread towards the sides or edges, and conse-
quently makes them thicker, and thus the belt leather acquires a slightly concave.

page_text: form. 6th. In using the plates and rollers, composing each of the three systems,
sinooth and plain, the leather is glazed and compressed and so renders it useful for
many purposes. 7th. By the method described, and with an apparatus such as
represented, Figs. 12 and 13, rubbers or cleaners used in spinning may be mado,
and of which Figs. 16 and 17 is a specimen. The grooves are longitudinal and
made after connecting the two ends of the band of leather, india-rubber, or so forth
by means of a machine with lower plate grooved p and with upper roller smooth
and presser r, Figs. 11, 12, and 13. 8th. By the application of the Invention in
its entirety and in detail threads on leather, whether doubled or single, are pro-
duced, and in general all articles of leather for saddlery and other usages are
threaded, grooved, checked, or engraved.
What is claimed is,-1st. Grooving, engraving, checking, and sinking driving belts
or bands, preferably with longitudinal grooves or channels, or ribs, either inside or
outside the said belts or bands, or on both sides simultaneously, in the manner and by
the means herein specified. 2nd. The application of the said bands or belts either to
smooth or grooved pulleys. 3rd. The three examples of apparatus, described and
illustrated, for making the grooved belts economically, Figs. 9, 10, 11, and 14, and
in detail, Figs. 12 and 13. 4th. Grooving the bands or belts for forming double
or triple bands. 5th. Grooving belts, bands, and so forth, whatever may be their
destination, whether for driving or transmitting bands, cleaners used in spinning,
or for traces and articles of saddlery.
In witness whereof, I, the said Arthur Charles Henderson, have hereunto
set iny hand and seal, this Twenty third day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.