IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS FOR THE ENDS OF THE METALLIC HOOPS OR BANDS USED IN BALING COTTON AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1870

page_text: "
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Francis Watkins at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 30th
September 1870.
I, FRANCIS WATKINS, of Smethwick, in the County of Stafford,
Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IMPROVEMENTS IN FASTENINGS FOR THE ENDS OF THE METALLIC HOOPS OR
BANDS USED IN BALING COTTON AND OTHER SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
"
My Invention consists in forming on the ends of the said hoops or
bands a series of openings with tongue-like projections. The said
openings and tongue-like projections are formed by the metal of the
hoop being pierced with a series of piercings, the figure of each of
the said piercings being nearly that of three sides of a rectangle. The
metal thus partially detached is raised out of the plane of the end of
the hoop, so as make a considerable angle with the said plane of the
hoop. The piercing of the hoop and the raising of the tongue-like
projections may be effected by a punch or series of punches worked in
a press, the said punches and press differing in no essential respect
from punches and presses used for piercing and raising metal for other

page_text: purposes. The piercing and shaping of the two ends of the hoop may
be effected simultaneously, that is, I place the overlapping ends of
the hoop upon the bed of the press, and cause the punch or punches
to cut out and shape the series of tongue-like projections at one operation.
The two ends of the hoop may however be shaped separately. In
the latter case I prefer to use two sets of punches, and to make one
series of openings slightly larger than the other, so as to allow the
tongues on one end of the hoop to enter freely the openings in the other
end. I prefer to use cutting out and raising punches of such a figure
as will give the tongue-like projections a slight taper form from base to
end, and also to give a slight curvature to the projections, and thereby
make them stronger than they would be if made quite flat.
In using a hoop or band provided with a fastening of the construction
described the said hoop is put around the compressed bale, its ends
overlapping each other in the same relative positions as those they
occupied in the press by which the tongue-like projections were cut out
and shaped. The tongue-like projections of one end of the hoop enter
the holes in the other end of the hoop, and when the pressure on the
bale is relaxed the expansion of the bale tightens the ends of the hoop
and causes the projections on one end to engage firmly with the holes in
the other end. By compressing the bale the ends of the hoop or band
may be disengaged from one another, and the hoop removed from the
bale. Each end of the hoop may be provided with a double series of
projections instead of the single series herein-before described, that is to
say, two projections may be made from each piercing, one projection
being situated on one side of the hoop, and the other projection on the
opposite side of the hoop. When the ends of the hoop are overlapped,
the projecting parts of one end fit into the depressed or hollow parts of
the other end, and when the said ends of the hoop are tightened by the
relaxing of the bale, the projections on the upper face of one end of the
hoop engage with the projections on the lower face of the other end of
the hoop, and the two ends are thereby effectually locked or engaged
together.