IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING SUGAR INTO CASKS, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Andrew Stewart and John Houston
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 25th June 1879.
ANDREW STEWART, Sugar Refiner, and JOHN HOUSTON, Engineer, both of
Greenock, in the County of Renfrew, North Britain. "IMPROVEMENTS IN PACKING
SUGAR INTO CASKS, AND IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS CONNECTED THEREWITH."
This said Invention has reference to a new or improved mode of and means for
or combination of mechanism for the close or compact packing of all ordinary loose,
granular, raw, or crushed sugars (that is, not solid or loaf sugar) within their
hogsheads, tierces, or casks while being fed or filled as usual or otherwise into them,
all so that they will contain a greater weight or quantity of sugar in the same or
smaller sized casks than has been usual heretofore, which is most advantageous for
preventing the shaking and injury in transit and the saving of freight; and,
further, this Invention has reference to a new or improved construction of machine
or combination of mechanism for the said purpose. And the nature and novelty of
this Invention consists in securing the hogshead, tierce, or cask vertically with its
close bottom on a rocking beam or frame of a machine, and its open mouth upward,
so as to have the sugar fed or filled in as usual, but to have a rocking and knocking
motion imparted to the cask while being filled, by causing it or its rocking frame
to be suddenly stopped in its extreme downward oscillating motion on the opposite
sides, which has the effect of causing the weight of the super imposed sugar as fed
in to press down the sugar below it into a compact mass. And the construction
and action of the new machine for griping the cask and effecting this consists of a
broad oscillating beam, swivelling in trunnion bearings in opposite sides in a strong
ring or other foundation sole plate or frame secured to a suitable foundation. One
trunnion of this beam projecting out beyond the frame has a differential acting
lever keyed on it, with various connecting rod pin holes in it, worked by a con-
necting rod from a crank on any adjacent prime moving revolving shaft, so as
to oscillate this beam or lever and the cask on it to any desired extent, regulated
by a particular pin hole in its acting lever, to which the end of the connecting rod
is attached. The cask is set on and fixed by segmental slides fitted on the top
surface and opposite ends of the oscillating beam, worked by a single or it might
be two separate screws fitted in journal bearings in the centre of the frame, with
their square heads passed out through the trunnions, with band wheels or levers
on them for slackening or screwing up the segmental griping slides from each end

page_text: or side by a screw working through deep nuts or snugs on the lower side within
a central slot in the rocking frame, all so as to cause the vertical segmental slides
to grip the outer circumference or lower end of the cask near the chimb or edgo
hoops.
These segments may be formed with teeth or roughened edge to grip on the cask
or its edge hoops, so that it will rock along with the beam or frame, and be suddenly
stopped by the edge of the cask, or a part of the frame striking an adjustablo or
other projection to give the said sudden jerk, and which may have a slight springing
or yielding effect, such as a piece of india-rubber below it, to prevent breakage of
the levers or other working parts of the machine, and yet give the desired force or
effect of the sudden knock at each oscillation. The cask may also be further secured
on its slides and rocking beam by a broad or V shaped griper taking over the
upper edge or chimb of the cask staves, on opposite sides, each connected by an eye
and chain to a duplex armed kneed lever, fulcrumed on a joint pin in the slides or
outer end of the rocking beam below; or it might be by a shackle and short chain
below and an intermediate straight armed or hook lever, which in either case could
be tightened up after the clip gripers were put over the chimb, and the lever held
tight in this position by an ordinary spring or catch bolt and quadrant while the
cask was being filled, and so oscillated and jerked to pack the sugar, all as stated
by this duplex or double motion. As each cask is so filled and packed in a few
minutes in this new or improved machine, the machine would be stopped and the
upper chimb gripers removed, when the cask would then be headed up on the
machine, and the lower slide grippers and screws slacked back for the reinoval of
the packed cask, and replacement and securing of another or fresh cask to be
filled and packed, all as hereinbefere described. When desired the upper part of tho
gripping slides might be carried high up to near the bilge of the casks, and have
grasping, hinged, or jointed segmental hoops or chains extending from these at the
opposite sides, so as to be easily tightened up to suit different sized casks at the
bilge by simple levers or screw couplings easily and quickly thrown loose for
the said removal and replacement of the full and empty casks sideways between
their segmental gripers, all otherwise as described in reference to the gripers over
the chimb.