NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF DIRECTION LABELS
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION. left by Alfred Gorse at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 19th November 1880.
ALFRED GORSE, of Aston, near Birminghain, in the County of Warwick,
Machinist. "NEW OR
IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF
DIRECTION LABELS."
My Invention consists of new or improved machinery for the manufacture of
direction labels, the parts of which machinery are constructed, arranged, and
worked in the manner hereinafter described.
The direction labels, to the making of which my Invention refers, consist of
rectangular or nearly rectangular pieces or tabs of paper, paper cloth, commonly
called "ticketing cloth," linen, or other like material, to one end of which pieces
or tabs a metallic eyelet with or without a washer is fixed, the direction label
being attached to the packet or article by means of string passed through the said
eyelet.
The corners of the direction labels are generally cut off at the eyeletted end.
The parts of the machinery for making the said direction labels constituting my
Invention are constructed and arranged as follows:-
The long strip of paper, paper cloth, or other material from which the direction
labels are to be made is coiled upon a reel at one end of the machine, and the said
strip is uncoiled from the reel and the required lengths fed at the proper times
into the machine by means of a feeder consisting of a reciprocating slide working
on the bed of the machine, the feeding forward of the strip being effected by a
pressing plate on the said slide when the latter makes its advance stroke, the grip
of the pressing plate on the strip being relaxed when the feeding slide makes its
back stroke.
In advance of the feeder is another pressing plate which holds the strip firmly on
the bed of the machine during the back stroke of the feeder and while the operations
herein after described are being performed upon it.
The strip fed forward by the feeding slide is carried to the lower tool of a pair
of piercing or perforating tools by the action of which tools a hole is pierced or cut
out of the strip and also out of a washer which has been previously placed and
fixed upon the strip at the proper place.

page_text: The arrangement for carrying and depositing the washers on the strip consists
essentially of a tube in which a series of the washers are placed and a transverse
slide. By the advance of the slide one of the washers from the holding tube is
carried under the upper or moveable punch or piercing tool, by the descent of which
the washer is carried down on to the strip and a hole pierced or cut out of the
washer and strip, the washer being secured in its place on the strip by a drop
of gum or other adhesive matter which has been deposited on the strip. The
gum is supplied to the strip at the proper places by means of a brush carried by a
lever, to which a rocking motion is given by the motion of the feeder slide. The
brush takes up gum from a receptacle at the proper times.
After the strip has been pierced and the pierced washer fixed to it, the said strip
is carried by the motion of the feeding slide to mechanism for eyeletting the strip
at the pieced part for cutting off the corners of the label at the eyeletted end and
for separating the label from the strip behind it.
The metallic eyelets to be supplied to the strip are strung upon a vertical rod or
wire, and by means of longitudinal slides or a slide and clip the eyelets are removed
one at a time from the carrying rod or wire and delivered onto the bed of the
machine. Another slide carries forward the eyelet and brings it under the
perforated part of the strip. A closing tool now descends and expands the narrow
end of the eyelet upon the washer and thereby connects the said eyelet to the
washer and strip. By means of pairs of oblique cutters at opposite sides of the
machine the corners of the eyeletted end of the strip are cut off simultaneously
with the descent of the eyeletting tool. At the same time, or nearly at the same
time, as the last described processes are being performed upon the strip, a transverse
cutter descends and separates or cuts off from the strip a piece of the length proper
to form a direction label. The cutters open and the finished direction label falls
from the machine, the operations described being repeated after each advance stroke
of the feeding slide.
Although for convenience of description I have described the piercing and
washering operations and the eyeletting, trimming, and cutting off operations as
being performed in succession upon the strip, yet it must be understood that the
several operations described are being performed simultaneously or nearly so upon
different parts of the strip, the piercing and washering operations being performed
upon one part of the strip, while the eyeletting, trimming, and cutting off operations
are being performed upon another part of the strip.
The arrangements for supplying washers to and gumming the strip may be
omitted from the machine, but I prefer to use them in conjunction with the other
parts of my Invention.
The motions of the moving parts of the machine are taken from shafts by means
of cams, eccentrics, connecting rods, and levers and other mechanical appliances
which I do not think it necessary here to describe.