AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER AND OTHER BAGS
Year: 1860

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Green, of No. 2, Nicholas Lane, London, in
the County of Middlesex, Merchant, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
MACHINE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER AND OTHER BAGS."-A communi-
cation from abroad by Leon de Parienté, of Paris, in the Empire of
France.
Sealed the 10th August 1860, and dated the 16th February 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Green at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
February 1860.
I, THOMAS GREEN, of No. 2, Nicholas Lane, London, in the County of
Middlesex, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER AND OTHER BAGS," (&
that it has been communicated to me from abroad by Leon de Parienté,
of Paris, in the Empire of France, to be as follows:-
The bags manufactured by the machine have the form and appearance of a
regular prism, with square bottom or otherwise; the lower corners are turned
down and gummed and serve as bottom, and by their lightness as well as their
form obtain the so-much-desired result of a vertical equilibrium. The mode
of doubling permits of the bags being laid flat on each other, and have the
the same advantages as those employed at present, or they can retain their

page_text: oblong box form as the machine produces them. The bags may be made of
any material, such as paper, single or double cardboard, linen, in short, any
flexible material that may be judged suitable.
The machine consists of a frame supporting at the upper part the gumming
or pasting apparatus which distributes the gum or paste. At the lower part
is placed the driving shaft of the machine. The sheets of paper or other
material are prepared on a small plank, whence they are successively placed by
a workman between two small cylinders. By pressing the sheet along a move-
able guido placed before a copper conductor, the sheet yields to the drawing
movement (moving by contact according to the thickness of the paper), and
passes between a gumming roller and another for pressing, for the sheet to
receive the gum or paste at the necessary parts for fixing the bottom and sides.
The operation takes place as follows:-The lower part of the roller is dipped
in the paste, so that it becomes entirely saturated, but the whole length of the
upper part is in contact with a roller which removes the superfluous glue, so
that there only remains some in the hollow part, and thus the sheet receives
the glue only in the necessary parts. When the pasting is effected the sheet
is detached by wires, which cause it to engage on an endless band which trans-
mits the sheet between a strap or band, which holds it to prevent movement,
either to the right or left, till it has arrived at an iron support, on which it
rests in a vertical position; it is then subjected to the action of a mandrel. This
mandrel is supported at the extremity of a slide moving horizontally, so as to
press on the sheet & cause it to enter a fixed box, by which means the doubling
is effected on the three sides. The doubling of the corners and the pressing
together of the pasted parts in a longitudinal sense is effected by little doors
which close on the mandrel. The bag has now a square form, having the two
sides open; it is now completed by two small flaps, which close; the bag has
now taken the form of the mandrel, from which it is removed, and passes on an
endless band out of the machine; it is then taken by a woman, who folds it and
causes it to pass under a wooden roller to complete the closing.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Green in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
16th August 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
GREEN, of No. 2, Nicholas Lane, London, in the County of. Middlesex,
Merchant, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of February, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-third year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Green, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Green, my.
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Green, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time 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 "AN IMPROVED MACHINE.
FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PAPER AND OTHER BAGS," a communication to him from
abroad by Leon de Parienté, of Paris, in the Empire of France, upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Green, 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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Green, do hereby declare tho
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to an improved machine for the manufacture of paper
bags, applicable also to the manufacture of bags of leather, felt, calico, linen,.
or any other flexible material. The machine which forms the subject of this-
Invention is intended to obviate the difficulty and inconvenience experienced.
in folding and shaping paper bags by the usual methods, and also to produce a
new and altogether better article, more fit for commercial and general use.
The bags manufactured by this machine are formed rectangular, with
parallel sides and a square base, the lower corners being folded up and pasted
so as to form a firm bottom. This particularity in shape is one of the distinctive
features of the Invention, inasmuch as it admits of such bags being packed
flat, or they may, if wished, retain a box-like shape, in which form the machine
delivers them, and be used for confectioners' boxes, or for other purposes; or,
they may be lined or covered with tinfoil, card-board, leather, paper of different
colors, or any other flexible material, according to the purposes for which they
are designed.
The annexed Drawing will serve more fully to illustrate and explain the

page_text: nature and working of the machine. Figure 1 is a side elevation of the
machine, shewing that side thereof at which motion is communicated;
Figure 2 is an end view, shewing the principal parts of said machine. A is a
cast-iron frame carrying at its upper part a glueing or pasting apparatus, and
at its lower part the main driving shaft. The sheets of paper, previously cut
to the proper size, are placed upon a ledge or shelf B, whence they are con-
veyed singly by the operator to the small cylinders C, each sheet being held
down to the feed board D between copper plates at E. The sheets are drawn
between the paste roller F and press roller G, from which they issue covered
with paste or glue where necessary for uniting the parts together for forming
the bottom and sides of the bag. In order that the paste or glue may be laid
on only in the proper places, certain parts of the roller F are formed sunken
or depressed. H is a paste trough into which the lower surface of the said
roller dips, so that as it rotates the whole of its surface is smeared with paste
or glue. I is a scraper in contact with the upper half of the roller F, for
clearing same of all paste except that which lodges in the grooved or depressed
portions thereof, and which serves to paste the proper parts of each sheet of
paper. During this operation the paper is caught by wires, which carry it to the
endless elastic bands J (the arrangement of which will be more particularly
described hereafter), by which it is brought between the bands L, which
guide it to the iron support K, on which it rests in a vertical position. It is
there ready to be operated on by the moulding piece or expanding mandril M.
This mandril is fitted on the end of a carriage N, which moves in horizontal
grooves, so as to bring it up to the stationary frame or box O, into which it
pushes the paper and folds it on three sides. At this point the shutters or
leaves P, P, close upon the mandril, and not only fold the other sides so as to
shape the bag, but also paste them down longitudinally in the direction of the
principal groove of the roller F. The bag then resembles an oblong square,
with two open sides, which are finally closed by the flaps q, q, which shut-to one
after the other. The bag has then the exact shape of the mandril M, which
it encircles closely. At this point the mandril, having its internal mecanism
acted on by the inclined plane R, collapses, so as to allow the bag to drop off
it on to an endless travelling web S, by which it is carried out of the machine.
The operator then seizes the bag thus formed, and proceeds to fold it; then
passes it under a wooden cylinder T, which finishes it off. A break 8 serves
to stop the machine when necessary.
The paste roller F may be made of copper or cast iron, with grooves
therein so formed or disposed as to distribute the paste properly, and so con-
trived that the wires which carry off the paper shall not be caught by the

page_text: inequalities in its surface nor by the scraper, and that the scraper, which
consists of a blade of copper, shall neither enter the grooves nor carry away
too much paste. The roller F receives motion from a rod connected with the
shaft U, on which are fixed the cams V, V; fixed on the end of this shaft is
the crank X, the pin whereof is attached to the rod Z. Thus it will be
seen that upon the shaft U being set in motion, such motion will be trans-
mitted by the rod to the roller F, on which it is mounted. The said roller
turns round until stopped by a notch corresponding with the grooving. The
mechanism then returns to its original position, one complete turn of the rod
performing both movements. The paper can thus be placed between the
cylinders exactly at the proper moment. The mandril or moulding piece. M
(which with the roller F forms an important part of this Invention) is com-
posed of a cast-iron cross piece or carriage, to which are bolted four square
pieces, each dovetailed into two bearings hanging from a hollow centre piece
or core traversed by an iron rod or axis, by which it is supported; and which
governs the spring that causes the mandril to shrink or collapse. It has a
bolt at each end. The axis and core are only connected by a key piece, which
has a free upward motion imparted to it by the inclined plane R, which causes
the mandril to shrink or collapse, the downward motion produced by the
spring restoring the parts to their original position. The inclined plane R is
formed of two square pieces of steel fitted to an iron cross piece bolted to the
frame A. Its curve is so contrived as either to accelerate or to retard the
motion of the mandril when necessary. The mandril works in two grooves,
and moves once backwards and forwards for each bag made, and the said
mandril receives its motion from two rods a, a, fitted on to the loose shaft b,
which is variously actuated by the studded crank r and excentric t, into which
gears. This excentric is fitted on the shaft U.
it
It is evident that bags of any shape or number of sides may be made in this
machine by using mandrils of the desired form. I would here observe that
the sides and front of the mandril at the parts where pressure is exerted by
the leaves P, P, or flaps g, are furnished with bands of caoutchouc to make
them less rigid, and also to equalize the pressure notwithstanding the irregu-
larities in the surface of the paper. The machine may be worked either by
manual labour or by steam power. The fast and loose pullies 6, or the crank
or winch handle, as the case may be, are fitted on the shaft 2, which by means
of wheel 3 turns the shaft U, carrying the excentric and cams 4. The mandril
is actuated by the excentric t, through the medium of the levers a, a, and con-
necting rod b. The cams and the levers f, f, f, f, open and shut the leaves
P, P, corresponding to the vertical sides of the bags. Similar cams d, d, and

page_text: levers g, g, turning on the points e¹ and e, serve to close in two sides of the
bottom of the bags by means of the flaps q, q. The two other sides are closed in
by the cams e, e, and the roller lever h, which turns on the pivot es, fixed to a
cross piece W, suitably arranged to carry it. Motion is transmitted to the
bands or guides by means of a series of gearing wheels p, p, which actuate the
whole of them with a velocity proportionate to that of the driving shaft. Two
rollers, placed in the continuation of the endless web S, serve to flatten or press
the bags, if necessary, after they leave the machine.
All these secondary contrivances may be so modified as to suit the nature of
the paper and the size of the bags, and I reserve to myself the right of
varying the mechanical arrangements above described, so long as the peculiar
character of this Invention be retained, as well as of making any and every
description of bags.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Green, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.
TH. GREEN. (L.S.)