An Improved Method of Making Barrels and Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1886

page_text: An Improved Method of Making Barrels and Apparatus therefor.
I MARIA ELIZABETH BEASLEY of No. 150 North Fifteenth Street, Philadelphia,
State of Pennsylvania, United States of America, Manufacturer of Barrels, 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 :—
The object of my Invention is to manufacture barrels, casks, kegs and like vessels
more expeditiously and at less expense than by the methods now in use.
In the accompanying drawing Figure 1 is a plan view of a barrel-making plant
adapted for carrying out my improved process of manufacture, and Figures 2, 3
and 4 are detached views of parts of the apparatus as hereinafter explained.
The timber is first cut into proper size for staves and the stave blanks are subjected
to the action of the machine A which may be any stave-cutting machine by which
the staves are formed while bent to the shape which they are to assume in the finished
barrel. Such a machine for instance as is described in the Specification of the Patent
for the United States No. 300,194 June 10th 1884 may be employed.
The staves are delivered by the cutting machine onto an apron a and are thereby
conveyed to a steaming box B which is so constructed that the staves will be trans-
ferred slowly through the box and be thereby thoroughly heated before being delivered
onto an apron at right angles to the box, the stave in its passage through the box
being preferably subjected to the direct action of steam at high temperature.
b
The box shewn in longitudinal section in Figure 2 has a ribbed belt 1 onto which
the staves are dropped through the inlet opening 2 by means of a feed slide 3, the
steamed staves being delivered into a slide 4 by which they are discharged from the
machine. In the steam box is a heating coil 5, preferably perforated so as to permit
steam to enter the box.
The apron b conveys the hot staves to the bending and forming rolls C, (curved-to
correspond to the curve of the article to he made) whereby they are caused to assume
the proper form, and are delivered onto the apron e, which deposits the staves in the
hopper of a setting-up machine D.

page_text: As an instance of a setting-up machine which may be used in carrying out my
process, I may prefer to use such as is described in the Specification of the United
States Patent issued June 10th 1884 No. 300,193.
The staves are fed continuously and rapidly from the steam box to the bending
rolls, and from the latter to the setting-up machine, so that the staves are set up
while still hot and retaining the shape given them by said bending rolls.
The setting up machine serves to apply the staves to the heads of the barrel, and to
confine them in proper position by a number of hoops, which can be readily driven
onto the barrel owing to the fact that the staves are hot and retain their bent form.
With the setting up machine I preferably combine an auger thrown into and out
of action by a rod g, and serving to hore a hung hole in one of the staves after the
barrel has been set up.
The setting-up machine delivers the barrel onto skids or ways d by which it is
directed to a hooping machine E, whereby the hooping of the barrel is completed.
This hooping machine may be of ordinary and well known construction.
If the barrel is to be painted and sealed it is discharged from the hooping machine
onto ways and conveyed to a machine F for painting the heads of the barrel.
Figure 3 shows a machine available for this purpose.
Adjacent to the machine is a vessel I in which glue, pitch, or any suitable cement
is kept in liquid form, this vessel having a flexible discharge pipe .
The barrel is turned on end in the head painting machine F, (which may be of
ordinary construction) and a small quantity of glue or cement is introduced into the
barrel through the bung hole.
While the brush h of the machine is painting the upper head of the barrel, the glue
or cement is internally scaling the joints of the lower head, and. when the operation
of painting the upper head is completed the barrel is reversed and the opposite heads
are painted and sealed in the same manner, the supply of glue or cement introduced
into the barrel being sufficient. to seal both heads.
From the head-painting machine F, the barrel passes along ways m to a machine J
for painting the sides of the barrel, such a machine being shown in Figure 4. This
machine has a reciprocating brush 6, which may be arranged in the ordinary manner
and applies the paint while the barrel is being rotated the painted barrel being finally
directed by ways n to the drying room.
As in carrying out my improved process of making barrels, the staves are conveyed
and the barrel directed from one machine to another without handling, I am enabled
to dispense with much of the labour now required in making barrels, the manufacture
being thereby both expedited and cheapened.
Although it is preferred that in carrying out my improved process of making
harrels all of the machines shown should be used, it is not absolutely necessary that
they should be, the main feature of the process being that the staves are cut, bent,
set up around the heads and retained in barrel form by operations forming a connected
and continuous series.
The main feature of my Invention therefore may be availed of, even though the
final hooping of the barrels and the painting of the same are performed by hand, or
by machines separate from and independent to those forming the main plant.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention
and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I claim is :-
:-
First The mode or process herein described of making barrels, kegs or like
vessels, said mode or process consisting in first cutting the staves to proper form, then
heating the staves, then while they are hot, bending the same, and then while bent
and still hot setting them up and securing them around the heads to form the barrel
or other vessel substantially as hereinbefore described.
Second-The mode or process herein described of making barrels, kegs, casks or
like vessels, said mode or process consisting in first cutting the staves, then heating
the same, then bending them while they are hot, then while bent and still hot, setting

page_text: then up and securing them around the heads to form the barrel or other vessel, and
finally completing the barrel by coopering and painting or such other treatment as
may be necessary substantially as hereinbefore described.
Third-In a plant for the manufacture of barrels, kegs, casks and like vessels, the
combination of the various machines for cutting, heating and bending the staves and
setting-up the barrel or other vessel, with aprons or like travelling conveyers between
the successive machines whereby the staves are transmitted from one to another
without handling whether machines for hooping and painting or other operations be
used therewith or not substantially as herein before described.
J. HENRY JOHNSON,
47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, London, W.C.,
Agent for the said Maria Elizabeth Beasley.