IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING SKINS FOR TANNING AND DRESSING
Year: 1845

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DENIS
JONQUET, of Chateaudun, in the Kingdom of France, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirty-first day of October, in the ninth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Denis Jonquet, my exors, admors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Denis Jonquet, my
exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Denis Jonquet,
my exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein ex-
pressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, ny Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PREPARING SKINS FOR TANNING AND DRESSING;"
in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Denis
Jonquet, shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled
in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent,
as in and by the same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at
large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Denis Jonquet, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described

page_text: and ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say:-
The Invention relates to an arrangement of machinery for preparing skins
for dressing and tanning that have not been previously tanned nor treated with
oil, by submitting them to the action of a series of cutters or scrapers for the
purpose of clearing them of the lime or pieces of flesh that may have been
left on their surfaces. But in order that my Invention may be fully under-
stood, I will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a side view, and Figure 2 a front view of one arrangement
of machinery for carrying out my Invention. a, a, is the framing of the
machine; b, b, are rails on which the wheels c of the carriage d travel, and by
which the carriage d is guided, as hercafter described. This carriage d
may
supports three rollers e, f, g, the rollers e and ƒ carrying the endless wire
cloth h, which serves to sustain the skins whilst being operated upon by knives
or stones carried by the cylinder i; but that the skins whilst being prepared may
not be in contact with the wire cloth h, I make use of an endless leather cloth j
which passes over the rollers e, f, and g, as is shewn, and travels with the
wire cloth. The frame or cylinder i carries a series of knives or scrapers k, k,
and a series of thin stones l, l, arranged in lines across the cylinder, as shewn,
the knives and also the stones being tightly held between the bars i, ³, which
are secured together by the tightening screws so that the knives and stones
be adjusted or removed to be replaced by others as required; and instead
of arranging the cylinder with knives and stones as shewn, I sometimes
arrange it entirely with knives and sometimes entirely with stones, the object of
the knives, when knives only are used, being to operate upon both sides of the
skin, but when the stones are used they are only to operate upon the green
side of the skin; but in either case I prefer to place the separate instruments
,, so that in the revolution of the cylinder i they may not follow each other a
in the same line on the skins, and so that the skins may be more uniformily
operated upon. Motion is given to the cylinder i by a band driven by a
steam engine or other suitable power acting on the drum or pulley m on the
shaft of the cylinder i, such shaft also carrying a pinion n by which motion
is given to the toothed wheel through the intermediate wheel ', which is
carried by a pin on the adjusting piece n³, so that the wheel n may, if required,
be thrown out of gear with the wheels n and o, and admit of those wheels
being geared into each other, for which purpose the axis of the wheel o is

page_text: capable of being slided in a slotted opening formed in the framing, and there
fixed as required. The bos of the toothed wheel o carries a pinion o¹ which
gears into and gives motion to the wheel p on the axis of the roller f (when
the carriage d is in the position shewn in the Drawing), and to the endless
cloths carried by the rollers e, f, and g. 9 is another roller which in the
working of the machine rests upon and travels with the endless cloth by a
toothed wheel q' taking into a toothed wheel p' on the axis of the roller f,
and by its weight the roller q serves to keep the skins distended. The ends of
the axis of the roller q are carried by levers r, r, one on each side of the
machine, such levers being connected to the framing by pins r¹, and there are
stops to prevent the levers, and, consequently, the roller q, descending too low
when the carriage d is withdrawn. s is a brush extending across the machine,
and capable of being adjusted thereon, for the purpose of cleaning the knives
and stones k, l, of the matters which accumulate thereon in the course
of working the machine.
In commencing to use the machine I take the skins from the lime pit,
and having rinced them I place them in pigeon's or other dust according
to the ordinary plan; I then draw out the carriage d and place a skin
on the endless apron j. I then move the carriage d into the position
shewn by the Drawing, so that the skin on the endless cloth in the revo-
lution of the cylinder may be operated upon by the knives or stones, or
by both carried thereby, as the case may be, taking care to place another
skin over about one half of the first, and the same with the third, and so on,"
so that the succeeding skin may serve to hold that preceding while it is being
operated upon by the instruments k or 7. The skins as they fall from the
endless cloths are received into a trough provided for the purpose. But as by
the once passing the skins through the machine, only about one half of their
surface will be operated upon, in consequence of each one being partly covered
by the next, it will be necessary to pass them through again to have the
remaining part operated upon, when that part of each skin should be exposed,
to the action of the cylinder i which was previously covered.
Figures 3 and 4 show a front and side view of another arrangement of
machine in which, in place of the cylinder i carrying the frames of blades or
scrapers, the frames of blades or scrapers are carried by endless chains which
pass over rollers i, ¹; these blades have a yielding or elasticity given to them
as they pass over the skin by the springs z 2. Motion is given to the axis of
the roller i, as before described in the other machine, and that motion is
communicated by wheelwork, as is shown in the Drawings, to a roller f, over
which and the roller e passes the apron p, which in this case I prefer to be

page_text: composed of a series of wooden lathes. Over these lathes and a roller g passes
the apron of bullocks' hides ; as before. In this case the rollers e, f, g, in
place of being supported on a separate carriage, are carried by the framing of
the machine, and the skin to be operated upon is simply placed upon the
apron j in front of the machine, and will be drawn through, as before described.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and the manner in
which I perform the same, I would have it understood that I do not confine
myself to the precise details, nor to the form of the blades shown and described,
so long as the peculiar character of my said Invention be retained. 'And I
would have it understood that I do not claim the operating upon skins with
a series of blades or scrapers after the same have been tanned, nor do I
claim operating upon skins that have been previously treated with oil. But
what I claim is,―
First, the arrangement of machinery for preparing skins for tanning and
dressing by operating upon them with a series of divided blades or scrapers, as
herein described. And,
Secondly, I claim the arrangement of the parts e, f, and g, shewn in
Figures 1 and 2, on a travelling carriage for placing the skins in the
machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Dennis Jonquet, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-six