IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PREPARING SKINS FOR TANNING, AND FOR CURRYING OR DRESSING THE SAME
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and Foreign
Patent Offices, 24, Rue du Mont Thabor, Paris, in the Empire of
France, and 38, Porchester Terrace, Bayswater, in the County of
Middlesex, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR PREPARING SKINS FOR TANNING, AND FOR CURRYING OR
DRESSING THE SAME."-A communication by Prosper Dumas, residing at
Roanne (Departement de la Loire).
Sealed the 12th January 1866, and dated the 7th October 1865.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and
Declaration, on the 7th October 1865, pursuant to the 9th Section of.
the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI
ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 24, Rue du
Mont Thabor, Paris, in the Empire of France, and 38, Porchester Terrace,
Bayswater, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR PREPARING SKINS FOR TANNING, AND FOR CURRYING OR DRESSING
THE SAME," communicated to me by Prosper Dumas, a person residing at
Roanne (Departement de la Loire), in the Empire of France, aforesaid, and

page_text: have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn
Declaration that it is a communication.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, do hereby
declare that the following Complete Specification under my hand and seal
fully describes and ascertains the nature of the Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawing, and to the letters marked thereon, that is to say:―
This Invention consists in an improved apparatus for preparing skins or
hides for tanning, and for dressing or currying the same after this operation.
The accompanying Drawings represent the improved apparatus applied in
the manner found most convenient for its working.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation; Fig. 2, an end view, showing the mechanism
employed for turning the drum; Fig. 3, another end view, showing the means
employed for raising and lowering the same; Fig. 4 shows one form of the tool
or knife used in connection with the above apparatus for preparing the skins;
and Fig. 5, the means used for mounting the stones employed for currying
the same after tanning."
In all these Figures A is a drum, having something like the form of a
barrel, that is to say, being larger in the centre than at the ends; it turns in
sliding journals B, which are raised or lowered by means of the lever C.
This drum is turned by a winch D fixed in a toothed wheel E, which cogs
with the wheel F mounted on the axle of the drum, or by the shaft G moving
the pulley H placed at its opposite end; I is an endless band passing over
the pulleys J and K, which may be stretched by means of a screw L acting
on the sliding journal M of the pulley J. Movement is communicated to
this band by a pulley N fixed on the shaft O of the pulley K. This shaft O
is also provided with a fly wheel P. At suitable distances throughout the
whole length of the endless band I are securely attached the tools or stones Q.
The hair and other matters removed from the surface of the skins are
received in a trough R provided with a tube for water, which aids in
cleansing the tools; S is a second tube pierced with spout holes at suitable
distances, and serving for watering the skins placed on the drum A. The
tools employed are of the same kind as those used for the preparation,
unbairing, currying, and other operations performed by hand. Fig. 4 shows
the form of knife found most convenient; and Fig. 5, the way of mounting
the stones on the band I. The skins or hides are placed on the drum A, and
the latter is raised by means of the lever C and the sliding journals B
sufficiently high to compensate for the elasticity of the centre of the band I

page_text: (which is allowed by the peculiar form of the drum). The sliding journals
are kept at any desired height by means of a rack shown, Fig. 3. The band
is then made to move, and when the hide is sufficiently scraped or dressed at
one part the drum is turned, so as to expose another part of the surface to
the action of the tools.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood that I do
not confine myself to the precise mechanical details above described and
represented in the accompanying Drawing, neither do I claim the different
means of tension and movements indicated; but what I claim and wish to
secure by Letters Patent is, the use of a barrel-shaped drum for supporting
bides or skins when subjected to the action of tools mounted on an endless
band or its equivalent, in order to compensate for the difference of tension
and elasticity of the said band at different distances from the wheels over
which it passes, and secure an equal action of said tools on the hide or skin,
substantially as and for the purposes above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
H. BONNEVILLE. L.S.)