IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ROLLING, CUTTING, OR SPLITTING LEATHER."
Year: 1877

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by Aaron Francis Stowe at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents ou the Sth May 1877.
AARON FRANCIS STOWE, of the State of Massachusetts, of the United States of
America.
IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR ROLLING, CUTTING, OR SPLITTING
LEATHER."
One portion of my Invention is represented as applied to machinery for cutting
leather into strips or straps, and also to machinery for splitting leather into sheets;
the other part or portions of my Invention being shown as applied to the machine
for splitting the leather into sheets. The first portion of my Invention is also
applicable to machinery for rolling or condensing leather by means of a pair of
rollers, between which the sheet of leather is to be passed for being rolled or con-
densed by them.
The first part of my Invention relates to machinery for cutting or splitting leather,
and consists in the combination with the main feed rollers thereof of an auxiliary
feed or pressure roller, arranged substantially in manner, and to operate therewith,
as shown and described.
The second part of my Invention relates to or consists in certain devices or means
not only for supporting the sustaining springs of the lower of the feed rollers of a
machine for splitting leather, but for enabling such springs to be relieved from a
state of compression, especially while the machine may not be in operation.
The third part or portion of my Invention relates to or consists in certain means
or devices by which the splitting knife of the machine may be removed from its bed
without the necessity of removing therefrom the confiuing bolts and nuts by which
the knife is fastened to the bed.
Of the Drawings above mentioned,―
Figure 1 is a top view; and Figure 2 a vertical and transverse section of a
leather stripping machine, provided with the first part of my Invention, or, in other
words, the first of my improvements.
Figure 3 is an end view; Figure 4, a rear elevation; Figure 5, a transverse
section; and Figure 6 a longitudinal section of a leather splitting machine, embo.
dying my entire Invention, or each of the said improvements.
Figure 7 is a top view of the knife, and its confining bolts.

page_text: In Figures 1 and 2 A denotes the frame for sustaining the main operative parts,
such frame having within it two main feed rollers, B, C, one of which is placed
directly over the other. Each roller has its journals resting in suitable bearings,
duly applied to the end parts of the frame.
The Tower roller B has fixed to it, at suitable distances apart, in manner as shown,
a series of circular knives D, which are to enter grooves g, in the upper rollers C.
The frame A is provided with platforms a', a¹, arranged with the lower of the
main feed rollers in manner as shown, such platforms being extended around and
underneath the said lower feed roller in manner as indicated in Figure 2, in order
to shield and protect the edges of the cutters or knives D thereof.
E is the auxiliary or smoothing roller, it being arranged as represented, and
having its journals supported in bearings or boxes h, placed in inclined slots in
brackets F, F, attached to the frame A. Each of these bearings or boxes h is
provided with a spring G to press it forward in the direction of the upper feed
rollers.
The said roller E, disposed in the angular space in rear of the bite of the rollers
B, C, is grooved or channelled to receive the knives. By means of it the leather,
which in order to be operated on by the knives has to pass over it, the roller E, and
down between it and the upper feed roller, and thence between the two feed
rollers B, C, is prevented from wrinkling, so as to be cut unevenly. The springs G
allow the roller E to yield or accommodate itself to the varying thickness of the
leather, which as it may pass from between the feed rollers B, C, will be received
upon a guide plate H, affixed to the front platform a', and extended into the space
between such rollers. This plate H is slotted to receive the knives in manner as
shown in Figures 1 and 2.
The knives may be arranged at equal or unequal distances apart, according as it
may be desired, to separate the leather into straps of equal or different widths. In
this way the machine may be adapted to so cut at one and the same time the
leather. This construction is particularly advantageous in workshops, where boots
of different, or men's and boy's, sizes are made. The sheet of leather while being fed
forwards for being cut is compelled to bend and move in a curved path about the
auxiliary roller, and under the pressure thereof becomes evened, or is thereby
prevented from wrinkling, before entering between the main feed rollers and being
cut or split.
Without the auxiliary feed or pressure roller, arranged and combined as
described, with the main feed rollers, the leather is liable to curl or warp, or become
uneven, so as not to be properly cut.
The leather splitting machine, shown in Figures 3, 4, 5, and 6, has also to its main
feed rollers F, M, an auxiliary feed or pressure roller W, arranged and supported
substantially like that herein-before described. This last machine has, in advance
of the main feed rollers, and extending between them, a single knife Y, which by
the action of the feed rollers is caused to split the sheet of leather into two layers or
sheets. The sheet, on entering the machine, is to pass between the auxiliary roller
W and the upper feed roller F, and thence between the two feed rollers F and M,
and to the cutting edge of the knife, the auxiliary or pressure roller serving to
even the sheet or prevent it from wrinkling, folding, or curling in its passage to the
knife..
Each of the boxes N of the journals of the lower feed roller M rests on a helical
spring P, which is supported on a disc Q pivoted to the upper end of a screw R.,
that screws through a lever S pivoted to the frame A of the machine, and arranged
as represented. There is to the frame A certain latches T for catching upon the
levers S, and supporting them when raised up. By throwing the latches out of
engagement with the levers, the levers may be depressed in order to relieve the
springs P from their compressing forces.
The knife Y has a series of clongated slots a made through it, each of which is
recessed to receive the head of one of a series of bolts X for confining the knife to
its supporting bed C; these bolts extend through the bed into horizontal openings &',

page_text: made through the bed C, in manner as shown in Figure 6. These slots are to receive
the nuts that are screwed on the bolts.
The heads of each of the bolts has a width a little less than that of the knife
slot through which the shank of the bolt is passed. By loosing the nuts and turning
each of the bolts quarter around, the knife may be easily detached from its bed,
without the necessity of first removing the bolts and nuts from their places in the
bed. The slots in the bed enable access to the nuts to be readily had for turning
them on their screws.
Having thus described machinery to which my improvements appertain, what I
claim as my Invention may be stated as follows, that is to say,
In a machine for rolling, stripping, or splitting leather, I claim, in combination
with the main reducing or feed rollers thereof, au auxiliary feed or pressure roller
arranged therewith, substantially in manner and to operate as set forth.
I also claim, in combination with the lower foed roller supporting springs,
mechanism substantially as described, or its mechanical equivalent, for relieving
such springs of their forces of compression, while the machine may not be in
operation.
I also claim, in combination with the knife furnished with the oblong slots and
recesses, arranged in it as set forth, the confining bolts provided with oblong heads,
and the bed, having the slots for reception of the nuts of such bolts all being
essentially as shown and explained.
In witness whereof. I, the said Aaron Francis Stowe, have hereunto set my
1038
AARON FRANCIS STOWE. (L.S.)