CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR REMOVING WOOL OR HAIRS FROM SKINS
Year: 1830

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
BELL, of Chapel Place, in the Borough of Southwark, Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date
at Westminster, the Fourth day of November, in the first year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Alexander Bell, His special licence, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Alexander Bell, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Alexander Bell, my executors, administrators, 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 mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise,' and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR REMOVING WOOL OR HAIRS FROM SKINS;" in which said Letters Patent thero
is contained a proviso that I, the said Alexander Bell, 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 His 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:

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Alexander Bell, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained by the following description thereof (reference being had to the
Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon),
that is to say:-
In preparing the down or beaver for the manufacture of hats, it is necessary,
before shearing or cutting the down or beaver from the skins, to draw out the
coarse long hairs which stand up above the down. This has been usually done
by the hands of women and children, and is technecally termed pulling. My
object in the present Invention is, to supersede this tedious and expensive
process by the employment of a machine, in which the skin is previously
brought up to a pair of revolving pincers, which take hold of the ends of the
hairs as the skin passes through the machine, and draw the hairs out, leaving
the fine down or beaver upon the skin, to be afterwards removed by the
ordinary process of shearing or cutting. The revolving pincers which I have
above mentioned consist of a pair of rollers, round each of which is coiled a
spiral rib, and the edges of these ribs running in contact with each other, and
taking hold of the ends of the hairs like pincers as they go round, draw the
hairs out of the skin, and leave the soft down thereon untouched.
In the accompanying Drawings I have exhibited the machine as seen in
various positions, and have referred to the several parts by corresponding
letters in all the Figures.
Fig. 1 is a front view of the machine, shewing the situation of the revolving
spiral pincers, and their mode of operating.
Fig. 2 is a horizontal or top view, in which the skin is seen passing through
the machine.
Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the machine, and Fig. 4 is an elevation of the
reverse side.
Fig. 5 being a longitudinal section taken through the middle of the machine
in a ventical direction, seen in the same position as Fig. 3.
a, a, are a pair of fluted rollers, which conduct the skin forward in t
distended flat sheet under the breast bar b, over the edge of which it is drawn
by the roller c. The pincers are formed by two spiral ribs fixed round the
rollers d and c, which act against each other as they revolve in opposit
directions. In commencing the operation the neck part of a skin is intro
duced between the rollers a, a, the furry surface of the skin being downwards
The pivots of these rollers turn in slots in the brackets f, f, affixed to the sid
of the wood frame, and the rollers are pressed together by weighted lovers g, g

page_text: which cause them to hold the skin tightly, but allow the upper roller to rise
when necessary, and accommodate itself to the unequal thickness of the skins
passed between. The skin is then carried forward a short distance by turning
the cross handle h on the end of the axle of the lower roller a, and the end of
the skin is passed over the edge of the breast bar 6 by the fingers of the
operator, with the assistance of a small hook. The slips are then affixed to
the end of the skin, for the purpose of drawing it, by means of the strap and
weighted roller c. It will be perceived that the hairs on the skin, in passing
over the edge of the breast bar b, project in the direction of the pincers d, e;
and in order to bring up the skin so that the hairs may be taken hold of by the
pincers (their lengths varying in different skins), the breast bar i may be adjusted
by turning the mill'd-head finger screws k, k. The pincers, as before stated,
are formed by spiral ribs fixed round the rollers d and e, which ribs act as
teeth of wheels or pinions bearing against each other. The sectional Figures
of the ribs, therefore, should be accurately made as teeth in epicycloid curves,
and they should be bent round the cylinders or rollers d and c in such helical
curves as the points of contact would describe in travelling along the roller
from end to end during one revolution.
Fig. 6 is a detached representation of the pincers in section, shewing the
situation of the points of contact when taking hold of the hairs; and as the
ribs continue in contact holding the hairs as the rollers turn in the direction of
the arrows, the hairs will be drawn out with their roots, and after being thus
removed from the skin, the hairs will be let fall from the pincers by the time
that the points of contact have reached the situation shewn in Fig. 7. The
skin being placed in the machine in the manner above described and shewn
in the Figures, that is, passes between the flated rollers a, a, and brought
over the edge of the breast bar b, the machine is then put in motion by means
of a band passed round the rigger or pulley 1, which drives the lower pincing
roller, and the spiral rib of that roller acting against the spiral rib of the
upper one they both revolve together for the purpose of pinching and drawing
out the hairs in the way already described.
It is necessary here to state, that I find it desirable to cover the
spiral rib of one of the rollers with some soft substance, in order to afford
clasticity at the points of contact, otherwise the hairs would be liable to be cut
by the hard surfaces of the metal ribs. For this purpose I usually apply a
coating of indian rubber, and cover it with a strip of leather. In order to keep
the spiral rib of the upper roller d in continual contact with that of the lower
one, I find it necessary to put a small degree of friction upon the axle of the
upper roller, which I do by affixing a pulley m upon that axle, and carrying a

page_text: carry
catgut band round it and round small pully 2, which turns upon a pivot to the
side of the wood frame below. This pulley n carries a fan o, which, being
driven round by the rotation of the upper roller by means of the pullies and
band, meets with so much resistance from the air, is sufficient to produce the
which
friction required. For the purpose of driving the fluted rollers a, a,
the skin forward, I place an eccentric roller p on the end of the axle of the
lower spiral, which as it revolves actuates a pall or click q, that takes into the
teeth of the ratchet wheel affixed on the end of the axle of the lower fluted
roller, and hence as the click moves to and fro it draws the ratchet wheel
round one tooth at every stroke, which causes the rollers a, a, to advance the
skin progressively to the breast bar as the pincers draw out the hairs. In
pulling the hairs from such skins as may be ragged and tender it is necessary
to diminish the speed of the machine, in order to give time for the operator to
adjust the different parts of the skin, and prevent it from tearing. This I do by
fixing upon the wood frame of the machine a swinging carriage, which turns upon
a pivot at s. In this swinging carriage is mounted a pair of tension pullies t, t,
the driving band passing between them. When I wish the machine to work
with its full speed I place the pullies t, t, in the situations shewn 'by dots in
Fig. 3, which is done by the operator pressing his foot upon the treddle u,
when by means of the connecting rod v the lever w is brought down, and
with it the swinging carriage into the dotted position, and the band being
drawn out of the strait line is made to embrace the driving rigger tightly.
But when I wish to impede the velocity of the machine, I allow the treadle to
rise, and with it the lever of the tension pullies t, t, which relaxes the band,
and permits it partially to slip round the rigger, consequently driving with less
speed. And when I desire to stop the machine the foot of the operator is to
be removed from the treadle, which allows it, and also the pullies t, t, to
assume the situation shewn in the Drawing at Fig. 3, and at the same time
to bring the break up into contact with the periphery of the fly wheel y.
Lastly, though I have described the complete construction of a machine
adapted for pulling or drawing the hairs out of the skins of beavers and other
animals, yet I do not intend to confine myself to the particular construction or
combination of mechanism which is above described and exhibited in the
Drawings; my Invention of Improvements in Machinery for Removing Wool or
Hairs from Skins" consists in the adaptation of a pair of spiral or helical ribs
or bars, which, by revolving in contact, are enabled to take hold of and draw
out the hairs from skins in the manner above described, or by any other
construction of mechanism which may enable the said spiral or helical ribs
or bars, either with or without a central roller or shaft, to revolve upon their

page_text: axes in contact with each other, or by one of the said spiral rollers acting
against an elastic roller, by indenting into the surface of which a counterpart
of the pincers may be produced, so as to draw out the hairs from skins for the
purposes above stated.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of May, in the
first year of the reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth, the said
Alexander Bell came before our said Lord the King in his Chancery, and
acknowledged the Instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And. also the Instrument
aforesaid was stamped according the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-fifth
year of the reign of His late Majesty King Georgo the Third.