IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR RULING PAPER
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Mackay, of the City of Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, Bookbinder, for the Invention of
WAR
DAHA D"
Sealed the 8th April 1873, and dated the 16th October 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Mackay at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th October 1872.
I, JAMES MACKAY, of the City of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Bookbinder, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR RULING
PAPER," to be as follows, that is to say :-
.
The object of this Invention is the making of ordinary paper ruling
machines self-acting in so far as to lift and let down the set of ruling
pens at the proper parts required to be ruled of each sheet of paper as it
passes below the pens, by an automatic motion connected with and taken
from the machine, all without stopping it or lifting and lowering the pen
frame by hand, as has been the case heretofore; which improvements

page_text: W dispense with the use of
time.
TDOUT
Skinca
TICL unc 1055 UI
And the nature of the Invention cousists in actuating a loose narrow
tappet, disc, or pulley by a positive motion from a pinion fixed or keyed
on the spindle of the ordinary front driving drum of the feeding web,
and at such speeds, with change wheels, as will enable the acting surface
or tappet perimeter of the said disc and the pens to rule the largest and
smallest sizes of sheets to be fed in by the web, and then keep up the
peus for the greatest distance that will be necessary between the ruled
parts and these slicets, fed in as usual at a little distance between them,
which distance is also regulated by a new rising and falling oscillating
bar, with light feeding fingers or gripers, and a set of one, two, three, or
more short lateral tappets on the side of the said disc; the letting down
and lifting of the ordinary oscillating holder of the pen frame being
regulated by one or two sets of other segmental tappets fixed in the
periphery of the disc; the construction and arrangement of the oscilla-
ting pen holder and frame, as well as the general construction and mode
of driving the machine, and of carrying the paper into it, are or may be
all as heretofore in use. The tappet dise may either revolve loose on the
axle of the drum or on a fixed stud in the side frame near it and one
end of the oscillating holder of the pen frame, so that a knee or arm
fixed on it would work and rest over and in the plane of the two sets of
tappets in the disc for lifting it and the pens, and also keeping. them up
until the proper distance and time to let them down to rule the part or
parts of the sheet while it is passing below them, this exact distance
and time for keeping up the pens being regulated by overlapping the
segmental tappets in the different grooves for them, no tappets being
interposed at the part of the disc where and while the pens are ruling,
so that the arm would when down just clear the periphery of the disc. .
The tappets by preference are segmental and of different lengths,
inserted into two grooves, and fixed by lateral pinching screws or other
equivalent means to the perimeter of the disc.
The before-named oscillating finger feeding bar is placed in
journal bearings as close behind the usual light upper feeding roller, near
the pens as possible, so that a knee or arm on it works in a like manner
over the other lateral set of tappets, held and fixed at regular intervals
in the side of the disc, by preference to suit the size of sheets; these seg-

page_text: mental tappets, however, require only to be very short, as they have merely
to lift the fingers off the feeding and carrying web to let the paper
go in at the proper distance and time in relation to the other tappets
that the pens will fall on it at the proper place to begin the ruling on
the front end of each new sheet fed in, and fall down again as soon as
the sheet enters below the said light feeding roller.
The usual large and heavy feeding roller by preference is dispensed
with to allow room for the said regulating feeding finger bar, behind
which and the pins, however, a very light finger bar may rest on the
paper between the pens and the feeding fingers by smooth, curved wires,
to press the paper equally against the carrying web, and insure its being
conducted through with it without bagging up; but when the heavy
feeding roller is used it could be placed a little behind the feeding finger
bar.
It will be evident that the tappets might be fixed on the face of
the disc instead of the edge, and that in either case they could act
laterally against the power of a spring or weight to raise and lower
the oscillating bars of the pens and feeding fingers, and that a pitch
chain of tappets might be used, passed over the disc or pulley instead of
making a large pulley to fix and hold them in.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Mackay in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 15th April 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
MACKAY, of the City of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North
Britain, Bookbinder, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said James Mackay, Her special licence that I,
the said James Mackay, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said James Mackay, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time

page_text: to time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the
United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and
Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS
FOR RULING PAPER," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
James Mackay, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to
be filed in the Great Scal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Mackay, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement in writing, reference being had to the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon, that is to say :-
The object of my said Invention is the making of ordinary paper-
ruling machines self-acting in so far as to lift and let down the set
of ruling pens at the proper parts required to be ruled of each sheet
of paper as it passes below the pens, by an automatic motion connected
with and taken from the machine, all without stopping it or lifting and
lowering the pen frame by hand, as has been the case heretofore; which
improvements will dispense with the use of skilled labour and the loss
of much time.
And in order that the nature, novelty, and mode of performing my
sai Invention may be properly understood, I shall now proccod to
describe the several illustrative Figures on the Sheet of Drawings,
which I have hereunto appended for the purpose of showing the best
modes and means I am at present aware of for putting the Invention
into effect or practice, the same reference letters and numerals
indicating the same or like parts in all the Figures where they
occur.
Figures 1, 2, and 3 are a longitudinal and an end clevation and a
corresponding plan respectively to a small scale of a paper ruling
machine, such as used in Scotland, with plain parts in the centre
shown as broken away to shorten the machine, and show its essential

page_text: mechanism or moving parts and their action, all fitted with and illus-
trative of the application of my improvements as applied thereto; and
Figure 4 is a section corresponding to Figure 1, through the feeding
in and ruling mechanism to a large scale to show the construction
and action thereof, and of the improvements more clearly than can
be seen in the general views, while Figures 5 and 6 are a side elevation
and a plan of the pattern segmental tappet wheel A, the latter partly
in section and both to a large scale, to show the construction and
action of this most simple means of setting a pattern surface to
make the machine automatically rule any required length of lincs
on the several sized sheets of paper fed into the machine, which forms
the most essential part of my said Invention and improvements. In
these two views the pattern wheel A is shown as actuated by changing
wheels C¹, C, to suit the different lengths of paper or speed of the
pattern surface in relation to that of the feeding-in web 2 and its
actuating roller 3, although in the general arrangement, shown in
Figures 1 to 4, I have done this by the use of an intermediate
spindle K and reverse cone pulleys K, K', and shifting speed belt K"
to loose as little space between the sheets being ruled as possible, and
give more exact and steady action than the toothed wheels give.
"
Referring to Figures 1 to 4, the general construction is all much
as usual.
1 is the frame of the feeding-in table, web, and revolving
mechanism; 2 is the endless feeding-in web passed over the driving
drum 3, revolving in bearings in the frame 1 below the penholder 5
in front, and over and round the rear reversing and tightening drum
or roller 4; and the upper feeding-in surface 2 is supported by a table 21
fixed below and between the side frames 1, 1, and the rollers 3, 4, and
passes forward with the sheets of paper laid loosely over each other
near their back ends, instead of at some distance behind each other,
as usual, at 2". The penholder 5 oscillates as usual by its spindles
in its sliding and steadying frame 6, 6', fixed to the main frame 1,
and below it a small light upper feeding-in roller 7 in addition
to the usual first feeding-in roller 8 rolls by its own weight on the
top of the sheet of paper being ruled, to hold it tightly and feed it
forward with a gentle firmness to the pens 5', small endless cords 7'
by preference being passed round these feeding rollers 7 and 8 with
a narrow space at 82 between them and the feeding web 2 for taking
in the paper. In front of each roller 7 and 8 which revolve in slotted

page_text: journal bearings at 7" and 8", two light bars g, g', oscillate on pivot
bearings in the frame at g" with light brass wires in them for resting
on the paper to hold it close to the taking-in web 2, the former between
the pens 5', and the latter, which is new, extends close to the taking-in
roller 7, and between or through openings formed in the holding points
of the fingers set and fixed by screws on the new oscillating and
tilting har i working in small journal blocks on the side frames 1, 1,
which fingers h, when lowered and resting on the first forward sheet
fed in hold back the following sheet carried in above the former
sheet at 8, but when lifted by a lever l' on the bar i working on the
tappet I for the purpose on the back of the pattern disc A lets go
the said latter sheet in proper time in relation to the falling of the
pens 5' regulated by their pattern tappets a, a', on the outer edge or
periphery of the pattern wheel A, so that the ruling will begin at the
proper point or line desired on cach new sheet. The sheets of paper
are lifted from a pile on the board Z, and fed in as stated over and
behind each other on the carrying web 2 at 2", by the boy or girl
feeding them in at the seat provided for them at Z', and as the sheets
pass over the roller 3 and below the row of pens 5' ruled, they aro
carried forward on the long endless tapes or bands 10 passed over the
driving roller 11 (actuated by a strap 11' from the roller 3), and the
roller 12 at the front end supported at intervals by carrying rollers 13,
all carried in the frame 1' covered in to protect the paper from dust
at 1", and so that the ink is dried before the sheets reach the roller 12,
where the endless reversing cords 14 pass round the conducting and
carrying rollers 15 and 16 and turn the sheets and carry them back, so
as to deliver them on to the slanting delivery board 17, all substantially
much in a usual manner otherwise thau as distinguished and indicated
by the arrows.

page_text: positive motion taken from the bevel pinion B, keyed on the spindle
31 gearing into a corresponding bevel wheel B₁ keyed on the small
vertical spindle C carried in a step c and pivot c¹ bearing for convenience
of removal on the bracket D, and by the change pinion C¹ keyed on the
spindle C geared into the wheel C" on the side of the pattern disc A
so actuated; these change wheels C¹, C", of different sizes (or
equivalents for these, which will be herein-after described) enable the
acting perimeter or surface of the segmental tappet disc A where there
are no pattern segments a, a¹, and the pens let down to rule the largest
or smallest sizes of sheets to be fed in by the web, and the short
distance that it will be necessary to have between them while the part
filled with pattern segments will keep up the pens for the greatest
intermediate distance that it is necessary to have between the ruled
parts and these sheets fed in as before stated at a little distance between
them, which distance is regulated by a new rising and falling
oscillating bar i and holding fingers h, and a short lateral segmental
tappet I on the back or side of the disc A which lifts the point of the
lever I' on the bar i at the proper time for the fingers h to let in the
sheet after the former one has passed on; and for ruling very short
sheets when the circumference of the pattern surface of the disc was
long enough for two or more sheets of paper, two or more tappets I
could be fixed on the disc A for so lifting the finger bar i.
The oscillating penholder 5 is as usual regulated and held in its lowest
the
ruling position when let down by the lever and pinching screw 5",
point of which latter then rests on the side frame 1 (as seen in
Figure 4); but at that time the new knee arm or lever J, fixed on
the near side of the penholder 5, lies over the pattern edge of the disc A
just clear of its plain periphery, and so that when the pens have ruled
their lines (on the sheet of paper passing below them and previously let
in at the exact time by the finger bar and its lever and tappet i, I, I',)
to the exact point desired and arranged by the absence of pattern seg-
ments a, a'; then the advanced corner of these segments a, a, set and
fixed for the purpose will lift the point of the lever J, and keep up the
pens for the exact time and distance desired, so long as the pattern seg.
ments continue; then let the lever J and pens down again exactly as
they pass the point of the lever arm J, all as indicated by the arrows
and the points of these levers I, J, shown in red in Figures 4, 5, 6,
and 7

page_text: The exact length of the pattern acting surface desired for lifting and
holding up the lever J is obtained by taking as many of one set of the
pattern segments as a, and fixing them in their groove a" in front as
will nearly make up the distance it is required to keep up the levers J
and pens, and then take one, say of the deep segments a', and fix it in
the back groove a³ to overlap or pass the other at the front or rear cud
to make up the exact length of pattern surface to raise and let down the
lever J at the exact point and time to suit the pens as set, and the
ruling and paper required; and the pattern segments a, a, are made
of various lengths to assist in making up a circumferential length of
pattern.
Figure 3 shows a plan of a ruled sheet in which it will be under-
stood from the description that to rule the red lines the pens would have
to be lowered at band raised at 'twice in the length of the sheet, and by
two sets of segmental pattern tappets a, a', in the circumference of the
disc A; and for ruling the blue lines the pens would require to be let
down at the beginning of each sheet and lifted at the end of each
slicet, so that as no pattern segments a, a', are required where the pens
are revolving, in this case a short one only would be inserted suitable or
equivalent to the little distance between the sheets, or as short as it
would be convenient to give time for lifting and letting down the pens
again; or it might be in that case where the sheets are ruled from end
to end (without pattern segments a, a', at all) by making the tappet I
lay the sheets so close to each other that the pens would not require to
be lifted so long as the paper was being laid in by the person. When
this was not done the pen frame 5 would require to be lifted and held up
as usual by the handle and its rest at 5' to prevent the pens from inking
the carrying-in band 2.
Instead of using the changing toothed wheels C¹, C", for giving a
greater or less velocity to the pattern disc A in relation to its primary
drum and spindle 3, 31, this might be done by an equivalent arrange-
ment of making the pinion C' slightly broader, with a conical plain
surface, and shift it out on its spindle C to work on the plain side of the
pattern disc A at different radii, and so drive it at proportionally different
speeds by stiff frictional contact, in the manner that centrifugal drying
and other machines are; or otherwise, as I prefer and have shown in
Figures 1, 2, and 3, by an equivalent means the pattern disc A may have
the small conc pulley K attached to it, both driven loosely on the

page_text: spindle 31, or it might be a stud on the side of the frame 1 by the band
K" from the reverse cone pulley K' on the overhanging end of the
spindle K, actuated by the plain pulley k, and the band k¹ passed over
it and the first motion drum 3, which may either be actuated by the
crank handle O as usual, or by motive power, and any quick stopping
and starting mechanism in use for driving other light machines. This
latter arrangement would be most suitable for the English construction
of ruling machine, which is actuated on the opposite side by the left
hand of the operator by a handle O, a top driving roller L geared into
the lower roller 3 driving the carrying web, as indicated at the diagram,
side view, Figure 7, where the pattern disc A and its cone K are shown
revolving on a stud K³ below the penholder 5 in front, and actuated by
its driving belt, K" from the cone K' on the roller spindle 3¹, in this case
directly without the intermediate shaft K³ and pulley and belts k, k¹.
In this case the small and large feeding rollers 7 and 8 may be dispensed
with to allow room for the regulating feeding-in finger bar h, i, the light
wire finger bars g, g', placed behind the former, and the pens to rest on
the
paper and keep it flat between the pens and the feeding fingers.
It will be evident that the tappets might be fixed on the face of the
disc instead of the edge, and that in either case they could act laterally
against the power of a spring or weight to raise and lower the oscillating
bars of the pens and feeding fingers; and that an endless pitch chain F
of tappets a, a, might be used passed over a pitch chain, disc, or
pulley A' (instead of making a large pulley to fix and hold theso
tappets), as shown in side and edge view at Figure 8 & 9, to answer for
large sheets or revolving web paper, where in either case the pens might
require to lift and fall frequently, or have long black spaces without
requiring to be lifted, and which would be easily managed by making
the chain F longer or shorter by taking out or adding links, without
changing speeds, or keep certain chains for certain work, taking them
off and putting others on as required. The segmental tappets a, a', and
their grooves a", a³, might be of the same depth and have their holding
pins on different sides of the links, and a broad joint pin or a broader
link could be inserted for the tappet I, where the finger bar h, i, required
to be lifted to let in the fresh sheet.
Having thus described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention and the manner in which the same is or may be used
or carried into effect, I would observe that what I consider novel and

page_text: original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
hercin-before in part recited Letters Patent is,-
First. The construction and arrangement of the old and the new
parts combined of ruling machines for making them automatic in their
ruling action, all substantially in the new or improved manner herein
described and shown in the accompanying Drawings.
Second. The construction and use of a pattern disc wheel or chain,
with segmental pattern tappets for regulating the inlet of the sheets of
paper and the raising and lowering of the pens in ruling machines, all
substantially in the new or improved manner herein described and
shown in the accompanying Drawings.
Third. The construction and use of a finger bar for holding and letting
in the sheets of paper, regulated by the same motion and pattern
mechanism as that which is to regulate the raising and lowering of the
pen, all substantially in the new or improved manner herein described
and shown in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Mackay, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
Witness,
JOHN THOMSON,
Patent Agent,
62, Buchanan Street,
Glasgow.
JAMES MAOKAY. (L.S.)