IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS FROM HORN, HORN SHAVINGS, AND OTHER MATTERS PLASTIC UNDER GREAT PRESSURE AND ELEVATED TEMPERATURE, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFORE
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Phillips Thompson, of the Firm of W. P. Thompson
and Co., Patent Agents, of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster,
and 323, High Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for an
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF
BUTTONS FROM HORN, HORN SHAVINGS, AND OTHER MATTERS PLASTIC
UNDER GREAT PRESSURE AND ELEVATED TEMPERATURE, AND IN APPARATUS
THEREFORE" A communication from abroad by Sieur Dominico Robbiati,
·Manufacturer, at Milan, in the Kingdom of Italy.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Phillips Thompson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 19th May 1880.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, of the Firm of W. P. Thompson and Co., Patent
Agents, of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, and of 323, High
Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS FROM HORN, HORN SHAVINGS, AND
OTHER MATTERS PLASTIC UNDER GREAT PRESSURE AND ELEVATED TEMPERATURE,
AND IN APPARATUS THEREFORE." A communication from abroad by Sieur Dominico
Robbiati, Manufacturer, at Milan, in the Kingdom of Italy.
In the manufacture of horn buttons two different kinds of waste products are
obtained. It is for the utilization of these products, as well as for the simplifying
and cheapening of the process, that this Invention is designed.
These products are chiefly,--
1st. The residues obtained in cleaning or picking after the horn has been softened
with boiling water.
2nd. In the cuttings and shavings obtained in cutting the horn into slices and
discs button thick.
My process has for its object the utilization of these two kinds of waste, and the
fabrication from them or from horn of button discs in a cheaper manner than the
ordinary process.
My treatment consists in pulverising or paring the horn to small shreds, and in
submitting said shreds to intense pressure and an elevated temperature simul-
taneously in cylindrical moulds. Thirdly. In cutting the cylinders so formed into
discs.

page_text: For pulverising I prefer a circular rasping machine, as it is found in practice
that the best result is obtained when the matter takes the form of minuto
shavings.
The plant required for this Invention consists,—
1st. Of the rasping machines of any ordinary form employed in rasping up the
horn.
2nd. Two pumps and accumulators, one accumulator, say, at fifteen atmospheres,
the other at 150 atmospheres.
3rd. An hydraulic cylinder arranged with a double piston, one piston or ram
being inside (and very much less in diameter than) the other. The two work in
opposition to each other, the inner one being always open to the water from the
high pressure accumulator always pressing the pistons toward a back stroke; a
rod from the larger piston or ram projects downward into a funnel shaped mill or
hopper having a long tubular chamber on the same axial line as the aforesaid rod,
so that when the rod is pressed down through the hopper it will nicely fit the
tubular chamber. Below the chamber is a swivelling block or stop with a hole, so
that if placed in one position it entirely stops the end of the chamber; if in
another, its hole forms a continuation of that chamber. Below this is the cutting
machine hereafter described. The hydraulic cylinder is connected with the
accumulators, so that water from either accumulator can be let in by the valves, so
as by bearing on the ram of larger area to force it down against the effort of the
smaller ram, driving the contents of the interior cylinder back into the accumulator
of high pressure.
The valves are so arranged that either pressure can be let in at
pleasure, or both cut off, or the exhaust port opened, in which case the pressure in
the small cylinder brings the large piston back to the commencement of its stroke.
A single lever works all the valves, lifting cach from its seat as required.
The mode of operation is as follows:-The funnel or mill being filled with
shredded horn (or refuse horn shredded) the block below placed so as to shut
the exit of the cylinder, the low pressure is let on into the hydraulic cylinder.
This forces the rod down, driving the shreds into the tubular chamber. If this be
not full enough a second or third stroke can be made till the tubular chamber is
filled with shreds as close as the low pressure in the large cylinder, minus the
counteracting high pressure in the little central cylinder, will pack it (or only one
" stroke-full can be operated on at a time). Now the low pressure is turned off
and the high let on. In the mean time the jacket surrounding the tubular chamber
is filled with hot steam, oil, or other convenient suitable fluid, heating the horn;
the combined heat and heavy pressure solidifies the horn. The pressure is then
removed, the block shifted, and the low pressure applied, forcing the horn cylinder
down into the somewhat larger tube leading to the cutting machine. The rod is
brought back by the water being permitted to escape, and the end just projecting
through the guide above the "funnel" or mill the chamber is ready for a fresh charge.
The cutting machine is a very simple affair; it forms part and parcel with the
larger mill, and is placed below the tubes leading from the tubular chambers in any
convenient position. A revolving knife placed concentric, or nearly so, with a groop
of tubes is so placed as to shave their mouths and cut off the ends of projecting horn
cylinders as it revolves. A stop below the knife revolving with it throws to one
side the discs as cut off. The thickness of the discs is accurately regulated by a
spring pin or pin held up by a spring to a button-disc distance from the mouth of
each tube and regulated by a nut and screw. The cylinder falls till it rests on the
pin, the knife as it revolves cuts the end off at the mouth of the tube, the revolving
stop pushes the disc so cut off from the top of the pin and the cylinder falls again,
and so on, till entirely cut into discs. The discs are then stamped and pressed into
buttons.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said William Phillips Thompson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
19th November 1880.
WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, of the Firm of W. P. Thompson and Co., Patent
Agents, of 6, Lord Street, Liverpool, in the County of Lancaster, and 323, High
Holborn, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN AND
RELATING TO THE MANUFACTURE OF BUTTONS FROM, HORN, HORN SHAVINGS, AND
OTHER MATTERS PLASTIC UNDER GREAT PRESSURE AND ELEVATED TEMPERATURE,
AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR." A communication from abroad by Sieur Dominico
Robbiati, Manufacturer, at Milan, in the Kingdom of Italy.
The following is a literal translation of the Specification as communicated to me
by my Italian correspondent with orders to file.
"In the manufacture of horn buttons two different kinds of waste products are
obtained, the utilization of which forms the object of my Invention. These waste
products consists chiefly, first, of the residues from the sorting which the horn
undergoes after having been softened in boiling water; second, of the cuttings and
shavings resulting from the cutting up of the horn into slices and dises of the
thickness of the button required.
My process has for its object the utilization of these two kinds of waste in order
to manufacture horn discs, which are afterwards transformed by stamping into
buttons. This process can be applied not only to the waste products mentioned,
which have hitherto been only used as manure, but also to the direct treatment of
the raw material in the state in which it is bought by button manufacturers. By
adopting this latter mode of application every kind of waste products is got rid of
almost entirely, such as those resulting from the softening in boiling water, from
the sorting, from the flattening out preceding the cutting up, and from the cutting
up itself, operations which form an essential part of the actual treatment of horn
for the manufacture of buttons.
The treatment to which I subject the horn, horn shavings, or any other similar
substance, consists, first, in pulverising it by means of apparatus of suitable
construction; second, in introducing the pulverulent substance so obtained into
cylindrical moulds, and submitting them for a certain space of time to the
simultaneous action of an elevated pressure and temperature; third, in cutting
up the cylinders of horn which are extracted from the moulds into discs or slices
while they are still hot and do not offer an excessive resistance to the action of the
cutting blades.
I have found by experiment that in order to insure good results from my process
it is necessary to obtain in the first operation a pulverulent substance, the particles.
of which when examined in the microscopo present the form of quite small shavings
like those obtained when turning articles in a lathe. This is the reason why I
prefer to every other kind of grinding apparatus a cylindrical rasp keyed upon a
shaft driven in any usual manner.
The accompanying Drawings represent the apparatus which I make use of to
put in practice the second and third portions of my process; Figs. 4 and 5 represent it
in side elevation and transverse section respectively. It is composed of any number
of presses (eight are shown in the Drawings), which compress and heat the horn or
horn shavings reduced to a powder by the grinding operation. Underneath the
presses are placed the machines for cutting up into discs the cylinders extracted
from the presses (two of these are shown in the Drawings); Fig. 1 is a half
elevation and half vertical section, and Fig. 2 is a horizontal section of one of the
said presses; Fig. 3 is a plan showing the relative position of the guide rods of the
clack valves by which the press is worked.

page_text: The plant necessary to put my new process in practice includes besides the
rasping machines, presses, and cutting machines, first, a hot air stove or any other
source of heat; second, two pumps compressing the water in the interior of two
accumulators to a pressure of about fifteen atmospheres in one and about one
hundred and fifty atmospheres in the other; third, the two accumulators containing
water at two different pressures, as has just been said. These two accumulators
can be constructed upon any of the types ordinarily employed; I prefer to use
those known as differential accumulators.
In Figs. 1 and 2, A represents the cylinder in which the piston B moves under
the action of hydraulic pressure; C is a small fixed piston by means of which the
return stroke of the piston B is effected; C is the hollow shaft of the said piston C';
Lis a clack valve of escapement intercepting communication between the interior b
of the cylinder A and the exhaust port ; M and N are two clack valves of injection
separating the interior of the cylinder A from the low and high pressure
accumulators respectively; m and n are conduits which terminate in the low and
high pressure accumulators respectively; M' is a stop valve arranged on the
conduit m in order to prevent communication being established through the
cylinder between the two accumulators; c is a conduit always open bringing
the water from the high pressure accumulator into the interior of the shaft C of
the small piston C¹; & is a passage establishing communication between the clack
valves and the interior of the cylinder A.
The
When there is no upward action exerted on the guides of the clack valves
tending to force the valves from their seats they remain closed. Promptitude in
closing is obtained by means of bell springs which abut against a plate supported
by the mounting O (Fig. 2) rising from the upper face of the valve box.
arrangement which I have just described is such that the piston B can be made
to descend under the action of either of the pressures maintained in the two
accumulators at pleasure, and that the return stroke of the said piston can also be
obtained. If the clack valve M or the clack valve N is pushed back, the piston B
descends, forcing back the water filling the cavity C of the small piston C¹ into the
pipe c and high pressure accumulator. If on the contrary the clack valve L is
pushed back the water escapes from the interior b of the cylinder, and the return
stroke of the piston B is effected by the pressure of water acting in the interior of
the shaft C.
The mode of operating the two pistons B and C is similar to that adopted by
Tweddel in his frapping machines, which is merely a reproduction of an arrange-
ment applied by Haswell to a forging press exhibited in London in 1862.
The three clack valves L, M, and N are put under the control of the man in
charge of the work, in the following manner :-In the lower face of the valve box
are inserted two bolts p, q, (Figs. 1 and 3), the axes of which are in a plane at
right angles to that of the guides of the clack valves L and M. These bolts are
cach terminated by an eye, into which pins r are introduced, by means of which
the cam R is hinged to the said bolts. The contour s, t, of the cam R is symmetrical
about the plane p, q (Fig. 3); this cam is provided with two lateral lugs S, T, the
planes of which are parallel to the said plane p. q. Each of these lugs is in its
turn pierced with a hole, through which another pin u passes in a plane parallel to
the plane L, M. On the pin u is pivotted the handle U, which is under the control
of the man in charge of the work; this handle is provided with a projection v.
When the handle U is turned upon the pin u, keeping the cam R in its middle
position, the clack valve N is pushed up from its seat, the valves L and M
remaining closed. The handle U, on the other hand, can be moved in such a
manner as to cause the cam to turn about the axis of which the straight line p, q, is
the projection; in this case the contour of the cam strikes against the guide of

page_text: one of the clack valves L or M, and forces the valve from its seat N, and the other
clack valve remaining closed.
D is a shaft or cylinder of steel fastened to the piston B, as shown in the
Drawing, and conducted to the interior of the hollow C. This shaft can be made
changeable so as to adapt it in diameter to the discs which it is desired to
manufacture e, e, is a sort of funnel into which the pulverized material to be treated
is introduced; this funnel conducts the material to be operated upon into a mould F
bored cylindrically. The piece G, consisting of the funnel e, the mould F, and the
small tube H, with a screw thread on the inside is also changeable, being replaced
every time that the diameter of the buttons to be manufactured is changed. Upon
the tube His screwed an obturator bored in the interior with a cylindrical hole
forming a prolongation to the mould F. It is by this hole, the diameter of which
should be a little greater than the greatest diameter of the buttons to be manu-
factured, that the cylinder of horn is, forced out of the apparatus after the
operation has been completed. The said discharge conduit must always be kept
closed by the block i whilst the operation of compressing the pulverised material
introduced into e is going on. The block i is worked by the workman by means
of the bent lever I, J, to which it is jointed at K. During the pressing operation
a constant stream of hot air or other fluid at a high temperature must be maintained
through the annular conduit h surrounding the mould; this stream enters by the
orifice f, and goes out by the orifice g.
A single workman is sufficient to manage four presses, or even more, according
to the diameter of the buttons to be manufactured. The following is the series of
operations which must be successively performed:-Suppose, to start with, that
the moulds are charged with horny matters which have already undergone
compression, and are reduced to the form of cylinders ready for cutting up. To
keep these cylinders of horn under pressure, it is sufficient for a certain length of
time to maintain the lever U in a position in which it forces up the clack valve N.
The workman begins by allowing the clack valve N of the first press to return to
its seat, which he does by placing the lever U in a vertical position, then by means
of the lever I, J, he draws back the closing block i, and again working the handle
of the lever U he opens communication between the interior of the cylinder A and
the low pressure accumulator. The piston B continues then to descend, and the
shaft or cylinder D forces the compressed cylinder completely, out of the mould F.
This cylinder falls out, whence it passes to the cutting machines. After the
compressed cylinder has been expelled from the apparatus, the workman closes
the clack valve M and opens L, causing the piston B to rise to the upper extremity of
its stroke; then by moving the lever I, J, he puts back the closing block into its
place, and puts into the funnel & the quantity of pulverized material necessary for
the formation of a fresh born cylinder; he then gives to the steel shaft or
cylinder D a vertical reciprocating movement by opening the clack valves M and L
alternately, and thus causes all the powder in e to fall down and be pressed into
the mould. When the mould is full the workman allows the clack valve M to full
down upon its seat, and pushes up N, thus establishing communication between
the interior of the cylinder A and the high pressure accumulator. Then having
fixed the lever U so as to keep the valve N open he leaves the first press, and
repeats with each of the other presses the different operations just performed upon
it. Having finished them he returns to the first press, and empties and recharges
it in the manner described, reproducing the whole series of operations above
mentioned. The pipe A¹ (Figs. 4 and 5) serves to bring the hot air or other hot
fluid to the branch pipes f leading to each of the presses; the pipe B' on the other
hand conducts away the air or other fluid coming out of the pipes g in a cooled,
state.
1

page_text: designed to cut them up into discs or slices. These machines are two in number in
the Drawings, as that is the number necessary for eight presses. They are
represented in Figs. 6 and 7 in approximately the position they should occupy
relative to the presses; Fig. 6 shows these two machines in transverse section ;
Fig. 7 shows an elevation of one of them, of which Fig. 8 is a transverse section
drawn to a larger scale; Figs. 9, 10, and 11, are detail views of the knife in the
operation of cutting, and of the socket to which it is fixed.
Each machine is composed of a vertical shaft G³, which receives motion by means
of the bevil gearing E' from the horizontal shaft d, actuated in its turn by the
pulley, and can be stopped at pleasure by the clutch t¹. The collar which
supports the shoulder g¹ of the shaft G' forms part of a plate P¹, through which are
bored several tubes or guides 71 (three in number in the Drawing), which receive
the cylinders of horny substance on their exit from the tubes H of the presses, and
keep their axes in a vertical position during the cutting; these conduits have their
axes equidistant from the axis of the shaft G¹. Upon the prolongation of the shaft
below the plate P is keyed the socket H¹; Fig. 11 is a plan of this socket;
Fig. 9 is a section on the line x, x (Fig. 11), and Fig. 10, a section on y, y (Fig. 11).
Upon the upper face of this socket is screwed the curved cutting knife S¹, which is
made double by the plate 8' on a small part of its lower surface, as shown by the
dotted line in Fig. 11. Below the plate P' there is another support Q of any form
which holds the bolts c', the axes of which are situated on the prolongations of the
axes of the guides 1. The bolts c¹ can slide freely inside the holes in the
support through which they pass; they are maintained in the position which
they occupy in the Drawing only by the action of the springs therein represented,
which are coiled round their upper extremities, and which when not subjected to
the action of any force (besides the weight of the bolts themselves) keep the nuts a¹
in contact with the lower face of the support Q¹.
The cylinders to be cut up when escaping from the tubes H are guided in such a
way as to pass through the guides ¹ in a vertical direction; they thus strike against.
the bolts c and are cut up into discs of a suitable thickness by the knife S₁; the
thickness can be regulated by the nut a¹. The cylinders to be cut up advance in
the guides by virtue of their weight, according as the discs cut off are shot out
from the apparatus by the plate 8. The special object of the arrangement
described is by the interposition of springs to avoid the aforesaid discs being
crushed by the pressure exerted upon them by the cutting knife.
The process and apparatus which I have described can also be applied to other
substances than horn, so I do not wish to confine myself to this substance."
Having now described the Invention exactly as communicated to me in Fronch
by my foreign correspondent, I wish it to be understood that what is believed to
be new and sought to be claimed under the herein before in part recited Letters
Patent is,-
1st. The process of manufacturing discs or button blanks of a plastic material,
such as horn, for the purpose of receiving an impression so as to bo transformed
into buttons, the said process consisting in pressing the plastic substance in
cylindrical moulds, and cutting the resulting cylinders when still bot in a direction
perpendicular to their axes.
2nd. The process of subjecting horny substance in a pulverulent state to the
simultaneous action of pressure and high temperature by means of a hydraulic
press, of which the piston is acted upon alternately by two different pressures, the
lowest of which is utilized for the introduction of the substance to be treated into
the interior of the mould, whilst the high pressure acts during the periods of
comparative repose, during which the substance to be pressed is submitted to the
continuous action of the piston of the press.
3rd. The manufacture of apparatus, substantially as herein described and
represented in the accompanying Drawings.
4th. The manufacture of button blanks or discs of corneous material under the

page_text: combined action of a high temperature and an intense pressure, both acting on the
material at the same time, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Phillips Thompson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this First day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty.
W. P. THOMPSON. (L.S.)