Certain Improvements in Bead Sorting Machines.
Year: 1895

page_text: Date of Applicati.n. 23rd Nov., 1895
Complete Specification Left, 24th Aug., 1896-Accepted, 26th Sept., 1998
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Certain Improvements in Bead Sorting Machines.
We, LEOPOLD MYERS, of Charlotte Street, Bir ningham, Warwickshire, Pen
Manufacturer, and CHARLES BOSWORTH KETLEY, of 128, Colmore Row,
Birmingham, aforesaid, Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention has reference to bead sorting machines of the kind described in
the Specification of our prior Letters Patent 19,321 of A.D. 1891 in which the
threadable beads are separated from the unthreadable by a special kind of wire
card mounted on or in a revolving drum or arranged as a continuous band which
dips into the mass of unsorted beads and impales the threadable beads on the wires
of the card and carries them up and over and drops them into a separate receptacle,
the unthreadable beads being either blind or too small in their holes to be impaled
by the wires, or so small in their holes as to stick on the wires and not fall off with
the threadable beads. There are some of the unthreadable beads which although
unthreadable are yet large enough in the hole to rest on the tips of the wires and
be carried up and over and dropped into the receptacle with the threadable beads
thus making the sorting imperfect.
One object of this invention is to provide improved means for removing from
the tips of the wires those beads which are not properly impaled thereon and for
returning them into the mass of unsorted beads; and a further object of this
invention is to provide improved means for removing from the wires those
unthreadable beads which fit so tightly thereon as not to fall off of themselves.
We attain the first object of this invention by providing a rapidly revolving
brush arranged to revolve against the tips of the wires, that is the bristles of the
brush meet the wires as they rise out of the mass of unsorted beads and thus brush
off and return to the bulk those beads which are merely resting on the tips of the
wires. As the brush revolves in the direction to meet the wires it has no tendency
to remove from the wires those beads which are properly impaled on the wires as
it brushes them further on to the wires.
We attain the second object of this invention by a revolving comb made with
sets of teeth like the teeth of a curry comb and arranged to revolve on or with a
suitable spindle, the comb teeth revolving in the same direction in which the wires
of the wire card are travelling, but at a higher speed, so that the teeth on the
comb overtake the wires and remove from them into a separate receptacle those
beads which have not fallen off the wires of themselves.
Dated this 22nd day of November 1895.
LEOPOLD MYERS.
CHARLES BOSWORTH KETLEY.

page_text: We, LEOPOLD MYERS, of Charlotte Street, Birmingham, Pen Manufacturer,
and CHARLES BOSWORTH KETLEY, of 128, Colmore Row, Birmingham, aforesaid,
Engineer and Patent Agent, 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:---
This invention has reference to bead sorting machines of the kind described in
the Specification of our prior Letters Patent 19,321 of A.D. 1891 in which the
threadable beads are separated from the unthreadable by a special kind of wire
card mounted on a revolving drum which dips into the mass of unsorted beads and
impales the threadable beads on the wires of the card and carries them up and
over and drops them into a separate receptacle, the unthreadable beads being
either blind or too small in their holes to be impaled by the wires, or so small in
their holes as to stick on the wires and not fall off with the threadable beads.
There are some of the unthreadable beads which although unthreadable are yet
large enough in the hole to rest on the tips of the wires and be carried up and
over and dropped into the receptacle with the threadable beads thus making the
sorting imperfect.
The objects of this invention are to provide improved means for removing from
the tips of the wires those beads which are not properly impaled thereon and for
returning them into the mass of unsorted beads and also to provide means for
removing from the wires those unthreadable beads which fit so tightly thereon as
not to fall off of themselves, thus by our present invention we keep the wires clear
and thoroughly sort out the threadable beads from the unthreadable.
We will describe this invention by referring to the accompanying drawing on
which
Fig. 1 is a front elevation of a bead sorting machine with our invention
applied; Fig. 2 is a sectional side elevation of the same; Fig. 3 is a sectional
plan of a part of the same; Fig. 4 is a side elevation of part of the gearing of the
same;
Fig. 5 is a plan of the revolving comb which forms part of the said machine;
and Fig. 6 is a cross section of the said revolving comb.
The same letters of reference indicate the same or corresponding parts in all the
figures of the drawing.
We will first describe the old parts of the machine. A is the revolving drun
which has the special kind of wire card mounted on its periphery so that the wire
teeth project therefrom to impale the beads. The drum A is mounted on the
spindle a carried by bearings c c fixed to the machine frame C. The drum A
with its spindle a¹ receive rotary motion in the direction indicated by the arrow
in Fig. 2 through the spur wheel a² and pinion d' from the shaft D on which the
pinion d' and the main driving pulleys d' d³ are fixed. E is the hopper containing
the mass of unsorted beads which pass down the trough F to the drum A which
latter revolves between the sides of the trough F so that the wires b will pass
through the mass of unsorted beads in the trough F and some of them will be
impaled on the wires and carried up and over the upper side of the drum and fall
off the front of the drum into the pan G as indicated in Fig. 2 and then through
the opening g' in the pan G into the box H below. Those beads which are not
impaled by the wires gradually work down the trough F and flow out of the lower
end of the same into the pan I and then through the opening ' of the same into
the box J underneath.

page_text: Having described the old parts of the machine we will now proceed to describe
how our invention is applied thereto.
In order to remove from the tips of the wires b on the drum A those beads
which are not properly impaled thereon and return these beads to the mass of
unsorted beads, we provide a rapidly revolving brush K in the trough F arranged
to revolve against the tips of the wires b, that is in the direction indicated by the
arrow in Fig. 2, so that the bristles k of the brush K meet the wires b as they rise
out of the mass of unsorted beads in the trough F and thus brush off and return to
the bulk of unsorted beads in the trough F those beads which are merely resting
on the tips of the wires b. We thus effectually prevent these beads from being
carried up and over the top of the drum A. As the brush K revolves in the
direction to move the beads off the tips of the wires b, the brush has no tendency
to remove from the wires those beads which are properly impaled on the wires as
it brushes these beads farther on to the wires. The brush K is, as shewn in
Fig. 3, made of about the same length as the drum A so as to act on all the wires
thereon. The necessary rapid rotary motion is communicated to the brush K from
any convenient source. For instance the brush K may have a small pulley 1
formed on it and be arranged to revolve on the centre pins m¹m³ which pass
through the sides flf on the trough F, as shewn in Fig. 3, and be driven by a
band n from the pulley o¹ which is mounted on the countershaft O revolving in the
bearings o fixed to the frame of the machine, this countershaft receiving
rotary motion from the first motion shaft D by means of the driving chain p which
drives on to the chain wheel of fixed on the shaft O from a larger chain wheel d
fixed on the countershaft D. This chain p may also drive the revolving comb Q
bereinafter described.
As aforesaid there is a certain percentage of the unthreadable beads which are
so small in their holes that they stick tightly on the wires 6 and do not fall off with
the threadable beads into the pan G. These beads we remove from the wires b,
when they arrive at the lower part of the drum A, by means of the revolving
comb Qmade with teeth q like the teeth of a curry comb and mounted on the
horizontal spindle R which is arranged parallel with the drum A and at the lower
part of the same and revolves in bearings fixed to the machine frame. The
comb spindle R revolves in the same direction in which the wires 6 of the wire
card are travelling, that is in the direction indicated by the arrow which is placed
near the comb spindle R in Fig. 2 but the teeth g revolve at a much higher speed
than the teeth b of the drum A so that the teeth overtake the wires and remove
from them those beads which have not fallen off of themselves, these beads falling
down into the pan I from whence they pass through the opening into the
box J.
The comb Q may receive its rotary motion from any convenient source such as
for instance from the chain wheel d by the chain p passing round the small chain
wheels which is mounted on the spindle R. The revolving comb Q shewn upon
our drawings is provided with four sets of brass or other strips q'qq³ q' on which
the teeth 9 are cut these strips being bolted by screws q' or by other means fixed
to the sides of the spindle R which in this case is made square to receive the said
strips which are bent so as to stand out about radially from the corners of the
spindle. It will, however, be evident we may make the revolving comb with less
than four sets of teeth or with more than four sets of the same without departing
from the nature of our invention.
By our invention as above described we keep the wires 6 clear and effectually
prevent any of the unthreadable beads passing into the box H with those beads
which are threadable. A small quantity of the threadable beads will however be
found to have passed out of the end of the trough F into the pan I and so on
into the box J, so that the beads in the box J should be again placed in the
hopper E and passed through the machine until all the threadable beads have been
sorted out.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. In a bead sorting machine and in combination with the revolving drum which
has wire teeth projecting from its periphery dipping in the mass of unsorted beads
so as to transfix some of the beads and carry them up and drop them on to the
other side of the drum, the employment of a rapidly revolving brush in the trough
containing the unsorted beads said brush revolving so as to meet the tips of the
wires on the drum as they rise out of the mass of unsorted beads and thus brush
off the wires those beads which are not properly transfixed thereon substantially as
herein before set forth.
2. In a bead sorting machine and in combination with the revolving drum which
has wire teeth projecting from its periphery dipping in the mass of unsorted beads
so as to transfix some of the beads and carry them up and drop them on the other
side of the drum, the employment of a revolving comb arranged below said drum
and made with teeth which travel in the same direction as the wires on the drum
but at a higher speed and thus comb off the wires those beads which stick thereon
and will not fall off of themselves substantially as hereinbefore described.
3. In a bead sorting machine the combination of the drum A made with wire
teeth projecting from its periphery and arranged to pass through the mass of
unsorted beads and transfix some of the beads and carry them up and over the top
of the drum so that they will drop from the wires, the revolving brush K arranged
in the trough containing the unsorted beads and revolving so as to meet the tips of
the wires on the drum as they rise out of the mass of unsorted beads and thus
brush off the wires those beads which are not properly impaled thereon, and the
revolving comb Q arranged below the drum A and revolving with the wires but
at a higher speed so as to comb off the wires those beads which stick thereon and
thus keep the wires clear all substantially as herein before described and illustrated
by the accompanying drawing.
Dated this 21st day of August 1896.
LEOPOLD MYERS.
CHARLES BOSWORTH KETLEY.