MACHINE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF RUBBER BELTING
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Tomlinson Bousfield at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 9th July 1875.-A communication from abroad by Francis -
Scholes, and Peter Cowper, both of the Oity of Montreal, Canada.
I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Sutton, in the County of
Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
**MACHINE FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF RUBBER BELTING," to be as follows:-
The Invention has reference to the manufacture of rubber belting for
transmitting power to machinery, &c., which is at present made by
hand, by folding a cover piece of cotton cloth coated with rubber over
one or more centre pieces of the same material (according to the number
of plies required in the belt), and pressing them together by means of a
roller. This method is both a long and tedious one, and as it is
impossible by this process to expel the air from between the pieces
making up the belt blisters arise during its vulcanization, a result which
is very imperfectly obviated by pricking the cover.
The apparatus which is the subject matter of this Invention not only
obviates this necessity of pricking, but produces a better belt than those

page_text: made at present, and also economises labour to a very large extent, four
men being able with the machine to manufacture in less than half an
hour as great a length of belting as could be made by the same number
of men in a day of ten hours by the present method.
The machine may be thus described :-At one end of a long table is 1
mounted a frame holding two or more horizontal bars, upon each of
which is placed a pair of discs adjustable as to distance from each other.
A smaller frame, similarly arranged, but with one bar less in it, is placed
immediately in front of the frame just mentioned and in rear of a pair of
rolls, the lower of which is carried in proper bearings from the table, 1
and is driven by any suitable means from the driving shaft. The upper
roll is placed between uprights, grooved so as to allow of its being raised
or lowered, suitable devices being arranged for that purpose. Beyond
these rolls are placed long guides adjustable as to the distance between
them, which serve to fold the cover piece over those in the centre. ]
Next to these come one or more pairs of rolls of similar construction to
those already described, and having small guides provided to each;
another pair of rolls, also provided with guides, is placed near the end of
the table.
The several pieces which are to make up the belt pass over the
horizontal bars in the end frame and between the discs, which are
arranged so as to bring them exactly one over the other and centrally
with the cover piece, which passes over the bottom bar and straight to
the first pair of rolls, the filling pieces being taken through the second
frame so as to keep them separate from each other till they reach the :
rolls, which press them with the centre part of the cover piece firmly
together. The belt thus half formed passes on to the folders, which by
their peculiarly curved inner surfaces turn over and inwards the extra
width of the cover piece, till on issuing from the folders the belt is
formed, and is thoroughly pressed together between the pair or pairs of
rolls beyond the folders.
Between the centre and last pairs of rolls is arranged a reel carrying
the rubber strip which is to be placed upon the joined edges of the
cover niece. this is conducted from the wool to on adiustable mid

page_text: for damping the strip with benzine. These rolls press together the
cover strip with the other parts and complete the formation of the belt,
which then passes over a roller into a receptacle filled with-French
chalk or like substance, so as to enable it to be wound on a roller; the
belt is then vulcanized in the usual way.