Improvements in Stitch Separating and Indenting Machines for use in the Manufacture of Boots and Shoes.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Mar., 1899-Accepted, 8th Apr., 1899
[Communicated from abroad by JOSEPH ELI BERTRAND, of 196, Summer Street,
Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America, Machinist.]
Improvements in Stitch Separating and Indenting Machines for use
in the Manufacture of Boots and Shoes.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45, Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, 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 relates to stitch separating and pricking up machines and it
consists in certain novel features of construction, arrangement, and combination
of parts which will be readily understood by reference to the description of the
accompanying drawings and to the claims hereto appended and in which my
invention is clearly pointed out.
Figure 1 of the drawings is a front elevation of a machine illustrating my
invention.
Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same.
Figure 3 is a front elevation of the stitch separating wheel drawn to an
enlarged scale.
Figure 4 is a rear elevation of the same.
Figure 5 is a section on line x, x, on Figure 3, and
Figure 6 is a section of the feed wheel on line y, y, on Figure 1..
In the drawings 1 is a column provided with a suitable base flange 2, the hub 3
and the upwardly projecting arms 4, 4, the upper ends of which are slotted as
shown in Figure 2.
1-
In a bearing in the hub 3 is mounted the shaft 5 upon the front end of which
is firmly secured so as to be revoluble therewith the feed wheel 6 and upon its
other end the hand wheel 7 provided with the crank handle 8 as shown.
The feed wheel 6 has a frusto-conical periphery composed of a rubber band 9
fitted to a groove in the metal body of said wheel as shown in Figures 2 and 6.
A vertically movable block 10, provided with guide flanges 11, is fitted between
the arms 4, 4, and has mounted in a bearing formed therein the shaft 12 upon the
front end of which is firmly secured the stitch separating and pricking up wheel 13,
and upon its rear end the collar 14 and check nut 15 as shown in Figure 2.
The block or box 10 has set therein the rod 16 which projects therefrom, at
each side, and through the slots formed in the upper ends of the arms 4, upon
the ends of which rod are fitted the upper ends of the links 17, the lower ends
of which are pivoted to the movable ends of the levers 18 and 19 firmly secured
upon a rocker shaft 20, mounted in a bearing in the column 1 as shown.
The lever 18 extends to the rear beyond the rocker shaft 20 to serve as a
means of raising the block 10 and the wheel 13 to enable the work to be placed
in the desired position for being acted upon by the wheel 13 at the proper time,

page_text: said lever 18 being operated by hand, or its rear may be connected by a suitable
link to a treadle upon the floor, not shown, and be operated by the foot.
An arched, stand 21 is bolted to the upper ends of the arms 4, 4, of the column 1
in a threaded bearing in which is fitted the set screw 22; provided with a hand
wheel 23, as a means of regulating the tension of the spring 24 interposed between
the lower end of said screw and the block 10 as shown.
The wheel 13 is composed of a cylindrical hub a and a series of radial blades b, b¹
made from thin spring steel set in said hub, the ends of said blades being oblique
to the axis of revolution of said wheel and curved or rounded in the direction of
their thickness, as shown,
'
The hub a has formed in its periphery a series of shallow longitudinal grooves
corresponding in number to the number of blades b, b₁ to be inserted in said
hub, said grooves having a width corresponding to the thickness of said blades,
and each end of said hub has formed one half as many radial grooves as there are
grooves in its periphery the radial grooves on both ends connecting at their outer
ends with every alternate longitudinal groove, but the radial grooves on one end
connecting with the longitudinal grooves with which the radial grooves on the
other end do not connect.
The blades are made in pairs as shown in Figure 5, each having a shank b
extending from the bottom of the longitudinal groove to the hole in said hub
which receives the shaft 12, said shank on one blade of each pair being opposite
the acute angled corner of said blade and in the other blade opposite the obtuse
angled corner of its blade as shown in Figure 5.
The wheel 13 shown is constructed to operate upon a shoe in which the average
stitch is about 32 of an inch long and is intended to separate the stitches and
indent the welt on work having that grade of stitching only and is intended to
adapt itself to the 'slight variations in the lengths of the stitches of that grade
by the springing of the blades b, b¹.
If however coarser or finer stitching is to be pricked up a wheel having a
coarser or finer pitch of teeth will be used.
The operation of my invention is as follows:
The operator first raises the wheel 13 by pressing down upon the rear end of the
lever 18, places the tread surface of the sole of the boot or shoe upon the upper
surface of the feed wheel, allows the wheel 13 to descend, care being taken to
insure that one of the blades b shall come in contact with the welt between two
stitches.
The operator then revolves the hand wheel 7 and the feed wheel 6, by means of
the crank handle 8, and as the wheel 13 is pressed downward with considerable
force by the tension of the spring 24, which may be increased or diminished
at pleasure, the wheel 13 revolves in unison with the feed wheel, and if the
stitches are all of a uniform and standard length the blades b, bi will successively
enter the spaces between the stitches and properly indent the welt but if the
stitches are irregular or vary in length and the point of a blade, as the wheel 13
revolves, comes in contact with the inclined or rounded end of a stitch short of
or beyond the actual divide between two stitches, the thin steel blade will spring
and slide down said rounded end of the stitch and separate said two-stitches at
the actual division between them, and indent the welt at the proper point, said
spring of the blade being caused by the hard rounded surface of the waxed stitch
with which it comes in contact.
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 :-
1st. In a stitch separating and pricking up machine, the combination of a
revoluble feed wheel, and a stitch separating wheel composed of a central hub
and a series of thin spring steel blades set firmly in said hub at uniform distances
apart and radiating therefrom, each blade being constructed and adapted to spring,

page_text: independently, between its outer end and the hub in which it is set, to accommodate
itself to the varying length of the stitches, as set forth.
2nd. In a stitch separating and pricking up machine, the combination of a
revoluble feed wheel having a frusto-comical peripheral frictional surface to
receive the tread surface of the boot or shoe sole; and a stitch separating and
pricking up wheel arranged to co-operate with said feed wheel and having a
series of thin spring steel radiating blades, each constructed and adapted to
independently spring between its contacting end and the hub in which it is set,
to accommodate itself to the varying length of the stitches, arranged at uniform
distances apart and having their outer end inclined in the direction of their
widths, and rounded in the direction of their thicknesses.
3rd. The stitch separating wheel 13 composed of the cylindrical hub a provided
with longitudinal and radial grooves as set forth, a series of pairs of thin spring
steel radiating blades b, b¹, each provided with a shank 62 and shaped as set forth
and firmly secured in the grooves of said hub substantially as described.
4th. In a stitch separating and pricking up machine, the combination of a feed
shaft mounted in fixed bearings; a feed wheel secured on said shaft; means for
revolving said shaft and feed wheel; a second shaft mounted in a movable bearing
with its axis parallel to the axis of said feed shaft; means for moving said shaft
bodily towards and from said feed shaft; means for maintaining its parallelism
with said feed shaft during said movements; and a stitch separating wheel con-
posed of a single hub and a series of thin steel blades set in fixed positions in
said hub, and projecting radially therefrom, with their outer ends at uniform
distances apart, which distances correspond to the standard length of the stitch
to be operated upon, and each of said blades being constructed and adapted to
spring independently between its operating end and said hub.
Dated this 2nd day of March 1899.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.