Improvements in the Method of and Apparatus for Filling Match Boxes.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 26th May, 1898-Accepted, 23rd July, 1898
[Communicated from abroad by THE MASCHINEN FABRIK PROMETHEUS GESELLS-
CHAFT MIT BESCHRANKTER HAFTUNG, of Uferstrasse 5, Berlin, in the German
Empire, Machinists.]
Improvements in the Method of and Apparatus for Filling
Match Boxes.
I, WILLIAM GEORGE HEYS, of 70, Market Street, Manchester, in the County of
Lancaster, Chartered Patent Agent, 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 the method of and apparatus for filling match boxes,
and its object is to simplify both principally in order to avoid the risk of explosion
or conflagration. In the existing machines the matches have been transferred
from the dipping frames to a hopper arrangement by means of a complicated
system of devices or carriers. By their use the matches have been liable to cross
one another instead of maintaining their parallelism, to take fire or to explode
owing to the violent movement sometimes communicated, and to have their heads
loosened or removed.
By the use of the apparatus which forms the subject of this invention all these
disadvantages are removed or greatly reduced.
Figures 1 and 2 illustrate apparatus constructed to embody these improvements,
Figure 1 representing it in side elevation and Figure 2 in cross section.
b
The matches are taken from the dipping frame by any suitable means, such, for
example, as those at present employed, and are placed within the case a which
is divided by partitions b into a convenient number of compartments. The par-
titions may, if desired, be of a breadth smaller than the length of the matches.
The box is provided with a removable bottom and is placed upon the slide or the
like c, and the bottom is removed. By any convenient device the box a is moved
forward so that it passes over an opening f leading to the filling machine. Each
compartment is thus emptied of its contained matches as it comes over the opening.
Before the last compartment is emptied a second filled case may be attached to
the first and follow it up so that a constant stream of matches is maintained with-
out any violent motions or undue friction.
The progress of the match filled case a over the opening f must be regulated
according to the consumption of matches by the filling machine, and this may
easily be accomplished by means of the devices illustrated in the drawings. d is
a screw driven or rotated in any suitable manner and capable of being easily con-
nected to or disconnected from the nut o which is attached to the case a. In the
example shewn the nut e is hinged so that it may be thrown out of gear with the
screw. When the nut is closed the rotation of the screw feeds the case a forward.
Should the progress of the case and the consequent feeding of the matches not
be in accordance with the consumption by the filling machine, then the nut e may
רנס....מ

page_text: be disengaged and the case moved backwards or forwards by hand and again con-
nected with the screw.
The front of the case a is preferably closed by a transparent material not shewn
in the drawings.
By the use of this apparatus even should an explosion or fire occur, which is
very improbable, the damage would be confined to that compartment of the case a
in which it originated.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
1. In an apparatus for filling matches into boxes, the method of conveying the
matches to the filling machine, consisting in charging with matches the compart-
ments of a suitable case and causing the case to pass over an opening leading to
the filling machine, the bottom of the case being removed so that the matches are
free to fall, substantially as herein before described and as illustrated by the accom-
panying drawings.
2. Apparatus for use in a machine for filling matches into boxes, consisting of
a suitable case divided into compartments and provided with a removable bottom,
and adapted to pass along a slide in which an opening is formed leading to the
filling machine, constructed and arranged substantially as and for the purpose
herein before described and as illustrated by the accompanying drawings.
3. Apparatus for use in machines for filling match boxes, constructed arranged
and operated substantially as and for the purpose herein before described and as
illustrated by the accompanying drawings.