IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PEBBLE' AND 'PELLET' GUNPOWDER
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by George Haycraft at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 1st
November 1871.
I, GEORGE HAYCRAFT, of Faversham, in the County of Kent, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF PEBBLE' AND 'PELLET'
GUNPOWDER," to be as follows :-
--
.
The improved machinery of my Invention is designed to convert
gunpowder meal, produced by breaking down (through rollers or other-
wise) what is known as mill cake into pebbles or pellets, cut into one
or more parts, or entire.
In carrying out my Invention I employ a cranked shaft working
in a suitable frame, to the crank of which shaft is attached a rod which
gives an up-and-down motion to three plungers or forcers, the fore-
most having a plain rectangular face on which stand out transversely
V shaped cutting edges half an inch or more apart. The framing
carrying the cranked shaft is attached to a fixed bed having a flat surface
on which a die plate, perforated with rectangular holes or moulds, is
made to travel by a suitable rack and pawl motion. The second forcer

page_text: or plunger is so fixed as to be depressed lower at every revolution of the
crank than the foremost one, and may or may not have V shaped
cutting edges. The third or hindmost forcer or plunger is so fixed as
to be depressed quite to the bottom of the die plate, and has a plain
rectangular surface. On the die plate is fixed a bottomless hopper
to contain the meal, the hopper being provided with a sieve near the
bottom to which a reciprocating motion is imparted from the crank
shaft, for the purpose of supplying the die plate with finely divided
meal. Agitators are also applied to the sieve to break up lumpy
particles and to prevent the meal clogging.
In working the machine the crank is set in motion and the die plate
charged with meal from the hopper is brought so that the first hole or
mould is under the foremost forcer, which compresses the meal in its
descent to the requisite density and produces a rectangular finger of
compressed powder, having transverse spaces identical with the V shaped
cutter on the foremost forcer or plunger. As soon as the plungers or
forcers are raised above the die plate the die plate is moved forward by
the rack motion, when the second hole or mould is brought under the
foremost forcer or plunger and the first hole is under the middle forcer
or plunger, which as it descends presses the finger of powder first
formed upon cutting edges in the bed below, thus dividing it into cubes
ready for rubbing and glazing what is finally "pebble" gunpowder. By
the next revolution of the crank the rear forcer or plunger is brought
into operation, and discharges through a suitable aperture in the bed
the pebbles formed and cut by the first two forcers.
By altering the form of die plate and forcers or plungers I can form
and cut in two or more parts cylindrical or other shaped pellets, and
discharge them from the machine in a divided form. Or I can form
pellets of any shape, and by dispensing with the cutting edges discharge
them from the machine whole and uncut.
It is obvious that a die plate having circular or rectilinear motion may