A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE OR APParatus For COMPRESSING SCRAP METAL, METALLIC FILINGS, AND OTHER METALLIC WASTE PREPARATORY TO REMELTING THE SAME
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Milward Holmes, of Birmingham, in
the County of Warwick, Secretary of the International Agency,
for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE OR APParatus For
COMPRESSING SCRAP METAL, METALLIC FILINGS, AND OTHER METALLIC WASTE
PREPARATORY TO REMELTING THE SAME." -A communication from abroad
by Lewis J. Atwood, of Waterbury, Connecticut, in the United
States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Milward
Holmes at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 14th September 1875.
I, JAMES MILWARD HOLMES, of Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, Secretary of the International Agency, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE OR
APPARATUS FOR COMPRESSING SCRAP METAL, METALLIC FILINGS, AND OTHER
METALLIC WASTE PREPARATORY TO REMELTING THE SAME," to be as follows :-
-
The said Invention consists of a new or improved machine or
apparatus for compressing scrap metal, metallic filings, and other

page_text: metallic waste preparatory to remelting the same, the parts of the
said machine or apparatus being constructed, arranged, and used
substantially as herein-after described.
The said machine or apparatus consists essentially of a bydraulic
cylinder and its ram, a fixed compressing tool or bar, and one or more
boxes or receivers in which the scrap metal or other waste metal is to be
compressed.
The framing of the machine consists of two cross heads connected
together by vertical side rods. The lower cross head is situated on the
top of the hydraulic cylinder, and the hydraulic ram working in the said
cylinder has fixed upon its top a horizontal table or support on which
the scrap hox or receiver rests, and on which it is raised and lowered for
the compressing operation, the said table or support sliding between
the vertical side rods connecting the two cross heads together. The
upper cross head has on its under side a fixed compressing tool or bar.
Jointed or hinged to the side rods between the two cross heads and
capable of sliding upon the said side rods are two boxes or receivers, the
said boxes swinging or turning on the said rods, so that one or other of
them can at pleasure be brought over the horizontal table of the
hydraulic ram or be turned outwards so as to remove it from over the
said table. By the use of two boxes or receivers one may be filled with
the waste or scrap metal, while the machine is operating upon
the waste
or scrap metal in the other box or receiver. It is preferred to make in
each box. or receiver two compressing chambers having in plan some-
what the sectional figure of the crucible in which the compressed metal
is to be melted, the compressing tool or bar having a forked or double
arm to fit the double chamber of the box or receiver.
.
"
The horizontal table and the ends of the compressing tool are made
concave, so that in compressing the metal in the boxes or receivers the
consolidated mass has the general figure of a crucible. The scrap box:
or receiver, is open from end to end, but is provided at bottom with
slides upon which the waste metal rests, while the chambers of the box
are being filled through their open_tops..
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In-using-the-machine the-box or receiver having been filled with the
scrap metal or other waste metal is turned upon its hinges so as to rest å
upon the horizontal table of the hydraulic ram, the open chambers of
the box or receiver being immediately underneath the double fixed

page_text: compressing tool or bar. The sliding bottoms of the box or receiver
having been withdrawn the hydraulic ram makes its advance stroke and
raises the charged box or receiver, the said box or receiver sliding over
or upon the fixed compressing tool or bar. As the sliding box or
3 receiver moves over or upon the fixed compressing tool or bar the
waste metal in the said box or receiver is compressed with great force
and the particles in the box are consolidated into a compact mass ready
to be placed in the crucible for remelting. The hydraulic ram being
lowered the box or receiver descends with it, and the said box may be
turned outwards and the compressed metal removed from it, and the
second charged box turned inwards and the metal in it compressed in
the manner herein-before described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Milward Holmes in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 11th March 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
MILWARD HOLMES, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Secretary
of the International Agency, send greeting.
:
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in
the thirty-ninth year of Her reign, did, for Herself; Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said James Milward Holmes,
Her special license, that I, the said James Milward Holmes, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
James Milward Holmes, 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE, OR Apparatus

page_text: FOR COMPRESSING SCRAP METAL, METALLIC FILINGS, AND OTHER METALLIC WASTE
PREPARATORY TO REMELTING THE SAME," (a communication to me from
abroad by Lewis J. Atwood, of Waterbury, Connecticut, in the United
States of America,) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said James Milward Holmes, 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 James Milward Holmes, do hereby
declare the 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 :—
The said Invention consists of a new or improved machine or
apparatus for compressing scrap metal, metallic filings, and other
metallic waste, preparatory to remelting the same, the parts of the said
machine or apparatus being constructed, arranged, and used substantially
as berein-after described.
The said machine or apparatus consists essentially of a hydraulic
cylinder and its ram, a fixed compressing tool or bar, and one or more
boxes or receivers in which the scrap metal or other waste metal is to be
compressed.
The framing of the machine consists of two cross heads connected
together by vertical side rods. The lower cross head is situated on the
top of the hydraulic cylinder, and the hydraulic ram working in the said
cylinder has fixed upon its top a horizontal table or support on which
the scrap box or receiver rests, and on which it is raised and lowered for
the compressing operation, the said table or support sliding between the
vertical side rods connecting the two cross heads together. The upper
cross head has on its under side a fixed compressing tool or bar.
Jointed or hinged-to-the-side-rods-between-the-two-cross-heads and
capable of sliding upon the said side rods are two boxes or receivers, the
said boxes or receivers swinging or turning on the said rods, so that one
or other of them can at pleasure be brought over the horizontal table of
the hydraulic ram, or be turned outwards so as to remove it from over

page_text: the said table. By the use of two boxes or receivers, one may be filled
with the waste or scrap metal, while the machine is operating upon the
waste or scrap metal in the other box or receiver. It is preferred to
make in each box or receiver two compressing chambers, having in plan
somewhat the sectional figure of the crucible in which the compressed
metal is to be melted, the compressing tool or bar having a forked or.
double arm to fit the double chamber of the box or receiver.
Short compressing tools on the ram pass through the horizontal table,
and their ends and the ends of the fixed compressing tool are made
concave, so that in compressing the metal in the boxes or receivers the
consolidated mass has the general figure of a crucible. The scrap box
or receiver is open from end to end, but is provided at bottom with
slides, upon which the waste metal rests while the chambers of the box
are being filled through their open tops.
By the lifting of the hydraulic ram the chambers of the box or
receiver are made to slide upon or over the fixed compressing tool
whereby the scrap metal in the said box or receiver is compressed with
great force, and the particles in the said box consolidated into a compact
mass ready to be placed in the crucible for remelting.
Having explained the nature of the said Invention I will proceed to
describe with reference to the accompanying Drawing the manner in
which the same is to be performed.
Figure 1 represents a front elevation of a scrap compressing machine
or apparatus constructed according to this Invention, the parts being
ready for the compressing operation. Figure 2 represents a front
elevation partly in section of the same after the compressing operation
has been performed by the machine, and Figure 3 is a side elevation of
Figure 2. Figure 4 is a horizontal section of the machine taken on the
linc A, A, of Figure 1, and Figure 5 is a horizontal section of the
machine taken on the linc B; B, of Figure 2.
The same letters of reference indicate the same parts in the several
Figures of the Drawing.
c, c², are the two cross heads of the machine connected together by
the vertical side rods d, d, the said cross heads and rods constituting the
framing of the machine; e is the hydraulic cylinder, having fixed to it
or made in one piece with it the lower cross head c³; f is the hydraulic

page_text: ram working in the hydraulic cylinder e; g is the horizontal table or
support on which the scrap box or receiver herein-after described rests
during the compressing operation.
The shape of the said table or support 9 is best seen in Figures 4
and 5. The said table is supported during the compressing operation
on the top or head ƒ of the hydraulic ram f, the said table g sliding
on the motion of the said ram between the vertical side rods d, d, but
when the table g is in its lowest position it is supported by shoulders
ď³, d³, on the side rods d, d, (see Figure 1). On the head f³ of the
ramare two compressing tools h, h, which work through openings in
the table g; i, i, is the fixed compressing tool or bar. This compressing
tool is double, that is, it consists of two arms, each arm having in cross
section the general figure of a crucible (see Figure 4). The acting
faces of the tools i, i, and h, h, are concave (see Figure 2); k, l, are the
scrap boxes or receivers jointed to the side rods d, d, by the knuckles
³, k², and F, 1, respectively, each box or receiver having two compressing
chambers in it corresponding in size and figure to the double com-
pressing tool i, i. Each scrap box or receiver k and is open from end
to end (see Figure 2), but the chambers of the box are closed at bottom
when required by slides m, m, upon which the waste metal rests when
the chambers of the box are filled through their open tops as repre-
sented with respect to the box l. Besides turning on the side rods d, d,
the said scrap boxes k, l, are also capable of sliding upon the said side
rods d, d. By the swinging or turning of the said scrap boxes l, m,
upon the rods d, d, one or other of them can at pleasure be brought
over the horizontal table g or be turned outwards so as to remove it
from over the said table. In the Drawing the scrap box or receiver k
is represented in the position for the compressing operation, while the
-other box-marked-2 is represented turned aside ready to be filled with
the waste or scrap metal while the machine is operating upon the waste
or scrap metal_in_the_other_box_or_receiver ... The position of the
scrap box or receiver-on-the-table-or support is determined by the

page_text: .
compressing tool or bar h, h. The sliding bottoms of the box or receiver
having been withdrawn the hydraulic ram ƒ makes its advance stroke.
The first motion of the ram fraises the bottom compressing tools h, h,
in the chambers of the box or receiver k, and the head f of the said
5 ram on its further motion raises the charged box or receiver k, the said
box or receiver sliding over or upon the fixed compressing tool or bar i, i.
As the sliding box or receiver k moves over or upon the fixed com-
pressing tool or bar i, i, the waste metal in the said box or receiver is
compressed with great force between the tools i, i, and h, h, and the
O particles in the box are consolidated into a compact mass of a convenient
shape to be placed in the crucible for remelting, as illustrated in
Figure 2, where the compressed scrap metal is marked p. p. Any
required configuration may be given to the parts h and i of the machine
so as to produce a consolidated mass of the shape and size required.
The hydraulic ram f being lowered the box or receiver / descends with
it, and when the moving parts have arrived at the positions represented
in Figure 1 the said box ķ may be turned outwards in the direction
indicated by the arrow q in Figure 4 and the compressed metal removed
from it, and the second charged box / may be turned inwards in the
direction indicated by the arrow 2° in Figure 4 and made to
occupy the position of the box k, and the metal in it compressed in
the manner herein-before described.
I have only represented in the Drawing a portion of the hydraulic
cylinder, as the said hydraulic cylinder, the pump, and other
adjuncts of a hydraulic press used in combination with the machine
are of the ordinary kind, and constitute no part of this Invention.
Instead of working the ram f by hydraulic power it may be
worked by steam or compressed air with like effect.
The machine or apparatus described and illustrated is especially
useful for the compression of waste or scrap brass, copper, and German
silver, but may be used for compressing waste or scrap metal
generally.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that
I do not limit myself to the precise details herein described and
illustrated, as the same may be varied without departing from the
nature of the said Invention; but I claim as the said Invention the

page_text: new or improved machine or apparatus for compressing scrap metal,
metallic filings, and other metallic' waste preparatory to remelting the
same, herein-before described and illustrated in the accompanying
Drawing, that is to say, the arrangement or combination of the
sliding ram f, f, the fixed and moveable compressing tools i, i, and
1, h, the support or table g, and the jointed and sliding scrap boxes
or receivers k, l, the said parts being constructed, combined, and
working substantially as and for the purpose described and illus-
JAMES MILWARD HOLMES. (L.S.)
Witness,
HENRY SKERRETT,
Clerk to George Shaw,
Birmingham.