Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Feb., 1897-Accepted, 24th Apr., 1897
1, CHARLES EDGAR SACKETT, of Danbury, Fairfield County, Connecticut,
United States of America, Machinist, 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 :-
My invention relates to improvements in machines for carroting fur, a staple
used in the manufacture of hats.
The process of carroting fur generally consists in rubbing a liquid solution of
nitrate of mercury into the fur while it is on the skin, and drying it out more or
less by means of brushes.
The solution used is very destructive to all metals or machinery and to the
operators, unless they are protected from the spattering carrot by machines well
housed. The process has long been confined to the use of hand brushes, but
recently cylindrical brushes have come into use, the skins being fed to the brush
through a pair of rubber covered feed rolls. The rolls generally furnish the only
bearing point against which the brush can rub in the carrot, and as both rolls and
brush are moving in the same direction a very high speed of brush has to be used
to get much rubbing in done; while high speed of brush is objectionable with an
open brush as is most frequently used, as it throws the carrot, and injures the
operator who has to breathe its fumes.
The object of my invention is to construct a machine with a very few and simple
working parts which protect the operator, and which can be made mostly of wood,
so as to minimize the destructive effects of the carrot on metal and to give the fur
on the skin a much longer bearing surface in passing through the machine, so that
the carrot may be more thoroughly rubbed in, in one quick passage than can be
done by any machines now in use.
This I accomplish by leading the skin up over the top of the brush and confining
it to its action throughout its entire passage to the rear of the brush instead of
returning it to the front over the top feed roller, or leading it downward behind
the bottom feed roller, or running it straight through below or above a brush
touching it at only one point, as is done in machines now in use, and as will be
more fully hereinafter described and claimed.
In the accompanying drawings, like figures of reference relate to like parts.
Figure 1 is a left hand outside view.
Figure 2 is a section through the dotted line A on plan view Figure 4.
Figure 3 is a right hand outside view.
Figure 4 is a plan view.
1 is a suitable frame preferably of wood. 2 is a tank supported in the frame to
hold the carrot. The tank should be made of stone or pottery ware. The carrot
is supplied to the tank from time to time as required, by using a pitcher or a
convenient earthen vessel may be placed near the machine having a glass or stone
faucet, from which a small stream may trickle continually into the tank, adjusted
to the quantity to be used.
The carrot is very destructive to all metals. I therefore place on either side of
the tank, bedded on the frame but sufficiently far from the brush to be protected
from the carrot, metal boxes 3-3 which carry a shaft 4 supporting cylinder
heads 5-5 across which are screwed brush lags 6-6.
The lacs are filled with
ant hun which in adouted to amint the

page_text: action of the carrot, but brush and lags should be made so as to be easily renewed
and the brush should be withdrawn and soaked in clear water each day to make it
last.
For this purpose I construct the parts so that the brush and shaft are easily
removable. The brush should be bedded in the boxes so that the brush bristles
reach nearly to the bottom of the tank. In front of the brush and parallel with it,
are placed a pair of rubber feed rolls 7-7. They are journaled in boxes 8-8,
sliding in frames 9-9 and bedded on the frame 1. The boxes are held in elastic
contact by rubber blocks 10-10 placed above them and the caps 11-11. Set
screws 12-12 operate through the caps to regulate the pressure between the
rubber rolls. The rolls are bedded on the frame 1, as low down relatively to the
center of the brush as can be conveniently arranged. The object of this is to have
as great an area of brushing surface above the rolls and between the front and
hack of the machine as can be got. To this end the rolls should be of as small
diameter and the brush of as large diameter as possible so that it may have a
bearing or brushing surface over the entire length of the skin at one time. The
office of the rolls is merely to feed the skin into the brush at a fixed rate of speed
and hold the skin against the action of the brush at the same time, as they hold at
only one point, large diameter of roll as used in some machines is unnecessary.
The office of the brush in my machine is, as soon as the first inch of skin is fed
on to the brush by the rolls to begin rubbing in the carrot, and to keep doing so
until the whole skin has passed into the machine, when the action is simultaneous
over the whole skin at once. To accomplish this requires a long bearing surface,
and to provide this as well as to house the brush securely so that it cannot throw
any carrot except back of the tauk at its delivery end, I construct over the brush
from the top of the feed rolls in front to a convenient point in its rear, a close
cap 13 made preferably of wood and whose interior surface conforms to the
periphery of the brush, its sides fit close around the brush bristles down to the lags.
The cap confines all the carrot delivered by the bristles within it. To prevent the
side drip running out along the lags and reaching the shaft journals and boxes,
I construct in the lags just below the sides of the cap a recess 14, which causes
all the drip to be returned into the tank below the brush. This construction I
sbow clearly in Fig. 4 by cutting away part of the cap at one end.
At the rear of the brush and just below the terminus of the cap, I arrange a
grating 20 or any resisting medium, having interstices and in close contact with
the brush to strip the skins from the brush as they come out from below the cap.
The object of the interstices is to let any flying carrot that comes with the skin
pass through them downward into the tank, which is extended out below the grating
for that purpose as shown in Fig. 2.
In front of the brush and between it and the lower feed roll 7, I place a guard
board 15, extending from about the center of the brush downward to the bottom of
the brush, or just below the level of the carrot in the tank. This prevents any
carrot being dashed up below the rolls, but leads it up behind the rolls where the
brush applies it to the skin. Behind the brush I place a similar board 16 to prevent
any splash in that direction. It is essential that the inside of the cap 13 which is
made to conform to the periphery of the brush should constitute an adjustable
bearing surface over the entire upper part of the brush, which is the essential
feature of this invention, and in order that it should be adjustable as to space
between the brush and cap. I provide outer lugs 17-17 attached to the cap,
which are pierced for bolts 18-18 attached to the frame, and by inserting lining
pieces 25-25 between the cap lugs and the frame, it is held in position at any
desired height above the brush, to accommodate different thicknesses of skins.
I do not confine myself to this method of adjustment but give it as a desirable
simple method. A still more simple method is to leave the nuts on the bolts 18-18
loose and let the weight of the cap on the skin furnish the necessary pressure; the
cap then becomes automatically adjustable to any thickness of skin by its rise and
fall. The cap is made removable along the line B, as shown in section Fig. 2, 50

page_text: that the brush and shaft are then easily removable, and the tank all exposed for
cleaning, as is frequently necessary.
The brush is driven by a pulley 21, placed at one end of the shaft 4, on which
also is fastened a gear wheel 22. This drives the rolls by means of an intermediate
gear 23, which is adapted to allow the gear 24 on the end of the roll shaft to be
moved up with the roll as wear on the brush takes place. The two rolls are driven
in unison by means of the gears 25-25 on the outer end of the roll shafts. By a
suitable arrangement of gears any relative speed of brush and rolls is maintained.
The operation of the machine is very simple; the skins are fed in between the
rolls 7—7, fur side down. There they are met by the brush whose bristles are
charged with carrot from the tank. The periphery of the brush is moving many
times faster than the speed of the skin it meets. The skin is turned upward by
the brush and carried beneath the cap. The rubbing in action of the brush then
takes place inch by inch as the skin is fed, and is continuous and prolonged during
the whole length of the skin until the rolls let go of the end of the skin when the
brush carries it over to meet the grating in the rear on which it is discharged. It
is evident that this prolonged brushing of the fur in one direction in conjunction
with a liquid will stick the fur all down and leave the hairs all laid in one direction,
as is desirable in this process, the whole being done in a very simple manner.
I am aware that Letters Patent for a carroting machine having a very small brush
surrounded by a number of large rolls, having a single bearing point above or
below the brush, the skins passing through on a level and touching the brush at
but one point of its periphery, have been granted; also for a carroting machine
that delivers the skins downward in front of the brush, but the use of feed rolls
and a revolving carroting brush bearing against the rolls has long been public
property.
I do not claim these as my invention, but only my devices for simplifying the
general construction and usefulness of the machine, and for securing a simple and
prolonged action of the brush, by increasing the bearing of the skin through the
inachine.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In a carroting machine comprising a revolving brush and a pair of feed rolls
arranged in front of the brush, the combination of a tank of carrot placed
immediately below and around the lower portion of the brush, into which the brush
bristles dip, as a means of supplying carrot to the skins as fed by the rolls,
substantially as described and shown.
2. In a carroting machine the combination of a revolving brush, a pair of feed
rolls arranged in its front, means to supply a liquid carrot to the brush and a close
cap covering the upper surface of the brush, conforming within to its periphery
spreading from side to side of said brush, and extending from the feeding rolls in
front to the rear of the brush, between which cap and the brush surface the skin is
passed in the act of being carroted, said cap having a bearing upon the surface of
the skin as it passes simultaneously throughout its length and breadth, means to
adjust the distance between the cap and brush thereby regulating the pressure
upon the skin, and means to strip the skin from the brush as it comes out from
below the cap in the rear, for the purpose set forth and substantially as described
and shown.
3. In a carroting machine, the combination of a revolving brush, a pair of feed
rolls, a close cap covering the upper section of the brush and a liquid carrot supply,
all constructed and arranged to rub. the liquid carrot into the fur of the skin,
simultaneously throughout its entire length and breadth, for the purpose set forth
and substantially as described and shown.
4. In a carroting machine combining a revolving brush, a shaft and boxes
supporting the same and a liquid supply, the construction in the periphery of the

page_text: brush cylinder on either side of the bristles of a groove or depression to prevent
the liquid carrot running out to the shaft and boxes aforesaid, substantially as
described and shown.
11.
مد
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1007
ALLISON BROS.,
Agents for the Applicant.