Improvements in and relating to Driving Belts.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Apr., 1896-Accepted, 30th May, 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to Driving Belts.
I, WILLIAM E. SHARPLES of Fall River, in the County of Bristol and State of
Massachusetts, United States of America, Cotton Mill Superintendent, 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 :-
This invention relates to belting for conveying motion and power, and especially
to belts intended for conical pulleys, such as are used in spinning or other
machinery.
When an ordinary belt is placed on a pair of conical pulloys, it comes in contact
with them at one edge instead of across the entire face of the belt, owing to the fact
that the face of the belt is perpendicular to the plane in which the belt travels,
while the surfaces of the pulleys are oblique to said plane. This produces an uneven
tension on the belt, and renders it difficult to make it work properly.
The object of this invention is to remedy this defect by making the bolt with its
working face divided into two or more parallel sections united at one edge only to
a suitable backing.
In the drawings, Figure 1 shows a couical pulley and a belt made in accordanco
with my invention. Figures 2, 3, 4 and 5 are oross sections of belts on enlarged
scalee.
My improved double belt is composed of a suitable outor portion or backing A,
of leather, rubbor, canvas or the like, having upon its inner or working face, two
or more narrow flaps or sections B3 B, which are united to the backing A along one
edge only. These sections or flaps constitute practically separate narrow belts,
placed side by side and attached to a common backing. They are preferably
integral with the backing, being made by folding the edges of a wide belt upon
itself, as shown in Figs. 1 and 2. The flaps thus formed may be cemented for a
portion of their width. Or, if desired, the flaps may be separate pieces secured
to the backing in any suitable manner, as by riveting, pegging, lacing, sewing
or cementing.
Between the backing and the flaps, I place a reinforcing strip C of some tough,
non-stretchable substance, such as linen tape, canvas, or even leather. This is
especially necessary when the edges of the belt are turned over as shown in Figs. 1
and 2 to form flaps, since, if the belt is made of thick leather, it is liable to crack
along the edges. By nsing a reinforcing strip the leather does not make so sharp a
turn, and even if it cracks it will be held together by the strip C, which is firmly
united to the backing and to the flaps by any of the agencies specified above for
uniting the flaps to the backing.
In some cases it may be found desirable to place the reinforcing strip on the
outside of the backing, letting it lap over the edges; but this I do not regard as so
desirable a construction as the one shown in the drawings.
In case a thin belt is required, the reinforcing strip may be omitted, as shown in
Fig. 4. But it is essential, not only in this modification but in all instances, to
leave one edge of each flap free, preferably to about the middle of the flap. It is
also preferred when two flaps are used to have the free edges adjacent, as shown.
When a belt thus made is placed over a pair of conical pulleys D, it assumes the
form shown in Fig. 1, and as soon as a tension is brought upon it, the flaps tend to
hug the palley closely, the backing yielding sufficiently to allow this effect. The

page_text: result is that the belt works with less wear and transmits more power than one
made in the old way.
It is customary to join the ends of belts by cutting them square across, skiving
the meeting edges, and then gluing them together. As the whole strain comes
upon the glued edges, frequent breakages result. My improvement consists in
cutting the ends of the belt diagonally, skiving the diagonal edges, gluing them
together and then turning down and securing the flaps, which makes a joint as
strong as the rest of the belt. A joint of this kind is shown in Fig. 1, the cone
pulley being broken away to disclose the whole of it. Fig. 5 is a cross section of
the belt on the line 5-5, Fig. 1, showing the skived diagonal ends of the belt.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
olaim is :
1. A belt for conical pulleys comprising a flexible backing, flat narrow flaps
united thereto at or near one of their edges, with their other edges left free, and a
reinforcing strip of non-stretchable material secured to the backing, substantially
as described.
2. A belt for conical pulleys, comprising a flexible backing having its edge
portions folded to form flaps, and a reinforcing strip of non-stretchable material
enclosed between the backing and the flaps and secured to both, the edges of the
flaps being left free, substantially as described.
3. A belt for conical pulleys comprising a flexible backing having two or more
flat narrow flaps united thereto at or near one of their edges, with their other edges
left free, substantially as described.
4. A double belt for conical pulleys, consisting of the flexible backing A, having
the flaps B B' united thereto at or near one of their edges only, with their free
edges adjacent to each other, and a reinforcing strip C between the backing and
the flaps, substantially as described.
5. The method of making a joint in a belt which consists in cutting the meeting
ends diagonally, skiving the diagonal edges, gluing them together, turning down
the edge portions of the belt to form flaps, and scouring the flaps to the main
portion of the belt, substantially as described.
Dated this 22nd day of Amuil 1900