Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 8th Mar., 1887.
Specification Accepted, 7th Apr., 1887.
I HENRY HARRIS LAKE of the firm of Haseltine Lake & Co., Patent Agents
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 machine relates to the treating of fibrous plants to remove the fibre, and in the
accompanying drawings
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the improved decorticating machine.
Figure 2 is a vertical cross section of the upper part of the same.
Figure 3 is a vertical longitudinal section thereof.
This invention has for its object to produce a machine for decorticating fibre in such
manner that the fibre shall not only be crushed, but also seraped and dragged, for the
purpose of obtaining the most satisfactory effect.
The invention consists principally in combining a bladed drum with an opposite
recessed drum and with a revolving skeleton frame around the recessed drum, and
mechanism for revolving the said skeleton frame faster than the bladed and the recessed
drums, all as hereinafter more fully described.
In the frame D of the machine are the bearings of two drums or rollers A and B,
which are mounted respectively upon shafts a and b. These shafts have their bearings
in the frame D. The upper roller or drum A has series of projecting blades d.
Eight such blades are shown in figure 2, but a greater or less number may be used
instead.
The lower roller or drum B has no projecting blades, but has as many depressions e
on its periphery as the roller A has blades. Around this roller B is drawn an india
rubber tube E which serves as a cushion for the opposite blades d of the upper
drum A when the same press the fibres against a depression e of the roller B.
C is what I term a "skeleton frame" which has half the number of longitudinal
bars that the drum A has blades. The said longitudinal bars, being marked in

page_text: figure 2 of the drawing, are secured at their ends to plates g that turn loosely on
the shaft b, one of said plates being at its hub connected with a pinion which gears
into a toothed wheel that is mounted upon the shaft a as shown in figure 3. The
number of teeth of the wheel is double that of those on the wheel so that the
skeleton frame C which consists of the parts F. G. will be revolved twice as fast as
the shaft a.
The shafts a and b are geared together by toothed wheels j and & which are of equal
diameters so that the drums A. B. will be revolved with equal speed, the skeleton
frame C. being revolved twice as fast as said drums.
Hence, whenever rotary motion is imparted to the shaft by belt or pulley or by
other means, that motion will be transmitted to the roller A, and from the shaft a to
the skeleton frame C. The eight more or less blades d of the upper roller A will
always press into the depressions e of the roller B, but the skeleton drum or frame C.
which moves twice around the roller B while the same turns once around its axis,
brings its blades so that they alternately overlap one after another of the eight blades
of the drum A.
The effect of this combination is that when the blades d of the roller A strike in
a depression of the roller B the blade of the rapidly revolving skeleton drum C will
scrape the fibre in running along with it, and by raising the fibre will also tend to
slightly draw it back from between the grasp of the rollers A. B.
m m in figure 2 are the feed rollers, which supply the fibre to the machine, and
nn are the discharge rollers. The feed rollers are revolved by gear connection o
with the shaft a or by other suitable means.
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 :-
1. The combination of the bladed drum A with the recessed drum Band mechanism
for revolving them with equal speed, with the skeleton frame, which embraces the
drum B and with mechanism for revolving said skeleton frame twice as fast as said
drums are revolved, substantially as herein shown and described.
2. The combination of the bladed drum A recessed drum B elastic tube E skeleton
frame C, and mechanism for revolving the drums A B and skeleton frame Û in the
ratio specified.
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1
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45, Southampton Buildings, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicant.