Improvements in Ironing Machines.
Year: 1897

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Aug., 1897-Accepted, 23rd Oct., 1897
1
Improvements in Ironing Machines.
I, JOHN WILLIAM CRAW, of 40 Courtland Street, City of New York, in the
County and State of New York, United States of America, Manufacturer of Laundry
Machinery, 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:-
My invention relates to an improved method of ironing, and I have to this end
constructed the herein described and illustrated machine, and shall, in this speci-
fication, outline the structural elements, of which some are familiar but have been
arranged differently in my machine in order to fulfill the object I have in view,
in addition to which I also embody several new principles and mechanical
combinations entirely unknown to this class of machinery.
The object of my invention is to feed the material into the machine and have it
pass from roller. to roller by its own weight, in other words by gravitation;
secondly, by, the arrangement and action of the rollers and their steam heated
reservoirs with each other, to cause the material to be finished on both sides with a
smooth, well-ironed surface. To accomplish my object I have constructed a spring
device that will control the pressure of each roller against the steam chest so as
to prevent the continuous bearing of the roller against the reservoir or steam chest ;
and have devised means by which the said spring devices can be controlled from
a handwheel on each side of the machine, and through the instrumentality of the
levers supporting the rollers, pivoted to the frame, the rollers, when swung out
from the frame, are made easy of access when adjustment and repairs are necessary.
These points will be, found covered and brought out by the novel construction
of my machine, including the arrangement of a series of rollers having the same
diameter, with their centres in a vertical line, which has had the beneficial results
as herein described; all of which I shall now proceed to. describe, and, in so doing,
will call attention to the accompanying drawings, where like letters, of reference
indicate corresponding parts in the different views, and where Fig. 1 illustrates
a front view of my improved ironing machine, showing the mutual position of
the rollers and steam, chests with regard to each other and the pivotal action, as
in the instance of the roller B3, the cap of spring device D³ removed, and the collars
of swivel bearings C3 cut through, showing the journals of the roller lying in them,
and showing also the gearing operating the rollers, Fig. 2 is a side view of Fig. 1,
illustrating the mode of attachment of the steam chests and rollers to the side
frame, but, for the sake of clearness in illustration, the link system connected
with the springs is omitted in both Figs. 1 and 2; Fig. 3 is a section on line p
of Fig. 1 showing all the rollers and steam chests cut through and indicating by
the arrow heads the travel of the material in its downward course, from the curved
board to the apron N, and also the whole connection of the gearing system;
Fig. 4 illustrates the same front view of my machine as Fig. 1, omitting the chests.
and showing the connecting links and their ultimate attachment to the handwheels,
Fig. 5. is a side view illustrating the same elements shown in Fig. 4, Fig. 6 is a
detail view of my improved spring cap, the supporting lover, of the roller and the
cam mounted on the bearing of said lever, Fig. 7 is an end view of Fig. 6, and
Fig. 8 is a top view of the sleeve C as shown in Fig. 6.

page_text: A indicates one side frame of my machine, the other side frame A¹ is of the
same construction; between these frames are attached four rollers B1, B2, B3
and B' supported in bearings in levers C¹, C³, C and C. These levers are held in
their respective positions by spring devices 'D', D3, D3 and D', bolted to the frame
by bolts E; as they are all constructed alike and similar in their
action, I shall only describe one in connection with detail view Fig. 6.
Said spring device is composed of a cap D³ having sliding in it a
box Do with a pin projecting from the bottom thereof; lying in
the box D and coiled around the pin D is a spring Ds, compressed
between the bottom of the box and an externally screw-cut nut 1, screwed into a
similarly screw-cut aperture in cap D³ and sliding loose on the pin D', consequently
controlling the action of the spring, thus regulating the pressure of box D on the
cam, and when the cam projection is moved out of the way, presses continuously
inward in the direction of the arrow head. Controlling this inward pressure is a
screw-cut nut D10 fitted on the screw-cut end of pin 17, gaining thus this point
that no pressure will be exerted on the bearing of the roller having cam attached
or on the lever itself, and consequently no pressure will be exerted on the roller
when the cam is turned out of the way of box D, which was the object I had in
view, thus preventing scorching of the material passing between the chest and the
roller.
In this connection it will be as well to describe one of the supporting levers C³,
its action and thereupon dependent usefulness in permitting the roller B, if out
of order, to be repaired or adjusted without detaching the said roller from the
machine. The lever C (see Figs. 2, 4 and 5) being pivoted to the frame by
bolt G¹, and supporting at its other end in the bearing F, one of the journals H
of the roller B, it will readily be seen, as illustrated by the dotted line (see
Fig. 2) indicating lever C³ in connection with roller 13, that when the cap
containing the spring is unscrewed from the frame, the two levers can easily be
swung outwards, and, carrying the roller with them, it will be seen that the roller
will be accessible to repairs, adjustment and recovering. In having described
these rollers 133 and 13 with their supporting levers and spring devices, I have
described them all, as their construction and action are exactly alike.
Attached between the frames A and A¹ are furthermore heated reservoirs I', I³, I³
and I, each of which reservoirs have semi-circular, concave surfaces, into which
cavities the respective rollers are pressed with just the necessary tension required
to give the material the exact, smooth surface required from said reservoirs or
steam-chests; taking I as an example, it is attached between the two frames by
having the two extensions K' and K³ terminating in journals K³ and Ko (see I*
in Fig. 1) secured in the bearings K³ and K', cast respectively on each frame, so
that the steam chest has a pivotal action on its journals, being secured to these
bearings by washers and nuts.
It is thus seen, that in having a certain number of rollers, with their corre-
sponding concave reservoirs, which reservoirs have for this special construction
been furnished with a prolonged lip at the bottom, extending past the centre line
through the roller centres, arranged as above, a different method of ironing has
been attained as differing from the methods attending other constructions, where,
for instance, the concave reservoirs are rigidly attached to the frame work. These
reservoirs in their construction, are caused to pass the centre line y with the
tapered lips L, so that they will feed, aided by gravity, material into the next set
of roller and reservoir, in other words, these lips must be placed with such accuracy
above the mouth or opening formed by the underneath placed reservoir and roller,
that the material, partly aided by the motion given to it by the revolving of the
roller above, and partly by its gravity, will be caught in the said mouth and
proceed on its downward course in the machine from one set to the other. This
can best be seen in Fig. 3, showing a sectional view of reservoirs and rollers, the
travelling of the material being indicated by the arrow heads. Referring to the
said view, as explaining the entire working method of the machine; although

page_text: forming no part of my invention it will also be seen here how the material is fed
from the top of the stand M, having a recess M', containing the material ready for
the process, which, having been fed into the first set of reservoir and roller over the
curved part 3 of the stand M, passes from one set to another until it has passed
between the bottom roller B and reservoir I', where it is caught up by the
apron N, which, connected appropriately with the other driving gear of the
machine, carries the finished material to the table O. The means for giving
revolving motion to the rollers are the gear wheels attached to the end of the roller
journals supported in frame A', and connect in the following manner with the
motive power. Corresponding to each roller B, B, B and B are attached spur
gears W, W, W³ and W; gearing into the gear W is a pinion W, which, as
it is keyed on the same sleeve P as the gear Wo, said sleeve revolving on a pin P³
attached to the frame A', the pinion and gear will revolve with it, and gear W,
gearing into a pinion W7, will be revolved by the said pinion W attached to one
end of a shaft V₁ which is secured in bearings on the two frames, and, at the end
opposite to the one carrying pinion W, is a pulley which receives motion from
some molive power or other, thus transferring the proper motion through the
above-mentioned gears to the rollers 131, B2, B3 and B. The apron N, as seen in
Fig. 3, is connected with the previously mentioned gearing by pinion N¹ gearing
into the spur wheel W, and, as this revolves, it will carry the apron along over
the rollers, over which it is suspended sufficiently tight to prevent sliding.
The mechanical means, that make the different spring devices act in unison, I
shall next describe. As before stated, the box 16 acts upon a cam or projection C³,
part of a sleeve C, moving loose on the bearing F of a lever bearing C', this sleeve
has an arm C7 projecting from it, to which is pivoted a link C. Link C on both
sides of the machine connects thus the cam sleeves on lever bearings C3 and C4,
and in like manner connecting link C connects the cam sleeves attached to lever
bearings C and C. Connecting this link system, formed by the three links C³,
C and Co, with a crank lever C attached to a rod C13 which is secured
between the frames A and A', and two handwheels C+ attached to said rod C¹³,
the combination is complete. The entire movement moving the cam projections
away from contact with boxes D, speaking of both side frames, so that they will
occupy, relative to the said boxes, the dotted position of cam sleeve shown in Fig 6,
will thus be seen to be the following: When either of the handwheels C" (sec
Fig. 5) are given half a turn, so that crank lever C" occupies the position
diametrically opposite, indicated by the dotted delineation, the link C, connected
with the crank lever C, will be elevated, and with that being connected in the
above described manner, the other three pairs of links C, C and C¹º, will be
elevated and pivoted each to the arm of the cam sleeve lying around its respective
bearing on the lever, will bring the cam projection away from the box D, conse-
quently away from any spring action thus stopping the pressure of the roller
against its corresponding steam chest, which was the desired object.
In describing the component parts of this machine, its mode of operation has
been indicated so clearly that no summing up of the working thereof would seem
to be necessary. My machine has been found by me to possess the attributes,
first, of giving a smooth, desirable surface on both sides of the articles being
operated upon; secondly of preventing the crumpling or creasing better than other
machines, and finally, the adjustable arrangement of rollers and the spring devices
controlling their pressure against the respective chests, obviates the scorching of
the material.
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:-
In a machine of the character set forth, a series of rollers arranged vertically
according to a centre line through their individual centres, each operating in
combination with a heated reservoir or steam chest, a pair of levers having

page_text: bearings, pivoted in the side frames, supporting the journals of each of said rollers,
a loose sleeve having a cam projection pivoted to each bearing, a cap bolted to the
side frame adjacent to each of the said bearings, a box, sliding in said cap, having
a pin, an externally screw-cut nut, fitting into a similarly screw-cut aperture in
the cap lying loose around the più, a spring compressed between the bottom of
said box and nut screwed into the cap, and, surrounding the pin, the aforesaid
sleeve with a cam projection having an arm, said arm pivoted to one of a series
of links one of said links on each side of the machine, pivoted by an intermediate
link to a crank secured to a rod pivoted between the two side frames, said rod
operated by two handwheels, for the purposes as set forth, substantially as it is
illustrated and described.
Doted this 30th dox of August 1897.
FAIRFAX & WETTER,
37 and 39 Essex Street, Strand, London, Agents for the Applicant.