Year: 1860

page_text: will be allowed to drop at the points of the cam of the least radii; or a similar
effect may be accomplished by means of two grooved wheels caused alternately to
come together and to separate at intervals. The cam and the wheel are carried
by a carriage which has a to-and-fro movement to the extent necessary to allow
of the ram or beater to pass from side to side of the cask or other receiver,
and such carriage, as well as the wheel and cam, receives motion from a shaft
driven by a steam engine or other power. It will be evident that the cask or
other receiver might have a to-and-fro motion communicated to it as well as
a rotatory motion, which would render unnecessary the to-and-fro motion com-
municated to the carriage of the ram or beater, but it is preferred that the
cask or vessel should only have a rotatory motion communicated to it, and
that the beater or ram should have the requisite to-and-fro motion com-
municated to it.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Robinson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th March 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
ROBINSON, of Saint Helen's, Lancashire, Iron Founder, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty, in the twenty-fourth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Thomas Robinson, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas
Robinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said Thomas Robinson, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should
at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PACKING SODA ASH AND OTHER MATTERS OR SUB-
STANCES IN CASKS AND OTHER VESSELS," upon the condition (amongst others) that
I, the said Thomas Robinson, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be
filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and.
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Robinson, of Saint Helen's, Lancashire,
Iron Founder, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
PACKING SODA ASH AND OTHER MATTERS OR SUBSTANCES IN CASKS AND OTHER
VESSELS."
Sealed the 19th March 1861, and dated the 29th September 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Robinson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
29th September 1860.
I, THOMAS ROBINSON, of Saint Helen's, Lancashire, Iron Founder, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS FOR MACHINERY
POR PACKING SODA ASH AND OTHER MATTERS OR SUBSTANCES IN CASES AND OTHER
VESSELS," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object "improvements in machinery for packing
soda ash and other matters or substances in casks and other vessels. For
these purposes the cask or other vessel is placed on a revolving platform,
and when heavy it is preferred that such platform should have rails thereon, to
facilitate the movement of a truck on wheels moving on and off such platform,
in which case the cask or vessel would be placed on the truck. The soda ash
or other substance is to be progressively allowed to descend from a mill or
from a suitable hopper or other vessel or chamber into the cask or other form
of receiver in which it is to be packed; a ram or beater mounted at the end
of a suitable bar is caused constantly to beat the substance as it is fed into
the cask or other vessel. The bar of the beater is alternately lifted and dropped
by means of a grooved lifting cam and grooved wheel geared together, so
that the cam at the points of its longer radii will lift the bar, whilst the bar

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Robinson, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for packing
soda ash and other matters or substances in casks and other vessels. For
these purposes the cask or other vessel is placed on a revolving platform, and
when heavy it is preferred that such platform should have rails thereon to
facilitate the movement of a truck on wheels moving on and off such platform,
in which case the cask or vessel would be placed on the truck. The soda
ash or other substance is to be progressively allowed to descend from a mill
or from a suitable hopper or other vessel or chamber into the cask or other
form of receiver, in which it is to be packed, a ram or beater mounted at the
end of a suitable bar is caused constantly to beat the substance as it is fed
into the cask or other vessel. The bar of the beater is alternately lifted and
dropped by means of a grooved lifting cam and grooved wheel geared together,
so that the cam at the points of its longer radii will lift the bar, whilst the
bar will be allowed to drop at the points of the cam of the least radii; or a
similar effect may be accomplished by means of two grooved wheels caused
alternately to come together and to separate at intervals. The cam and the
wheel are carried by a carriage which has a to-and-fro movement to the extent
necessary to allow of the ram or beater to pass from side to side of the cask or
other receiver; and such carriage as well as the wheel and cam receives motion
from a shaft driven by a steam engine or other power. It will be evident
that the cask or other receiver might have a to-and-fro motion communicated
to it as well as a rotatory motion which would render unnecessary the to-and-
fro motion communicated to the carriage of the ram or beater; but it is
preferred that the cask or vessel should only have a rotatory motion communi-
cated to it, and that the beater or ram should have the requisite to-and-fro
motion communicated to it.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed more fully
to describe the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is an elevation, partly in section; Figure 2 is another ele-
vation, partly in section, taken at right angles to that shown in Figure 1;
Figure 3 shows a plan, and Figure 4, the parts separately for lifting the beater.
In each of these Figures the same letters are used to indicate the same

page_text: a is the main or driving shaft, having fixed thereon the fast and loose
pulleys b, c, the fly wheel d, and the pinion e. The pinion e, by taking into one
of the cog wheels f, f, gives motion to them and to the shafts or axes g, g, on
which they are fixed. One of the shafts or axes 9 has fixed on it a screw or
worm h, which takes into and drives a [screw or worm wheel i, on the upright
shaft or axis j, which has two discs k, k, fixed thereon, which by crank pins 1, 1,
give motion to the two connecting rods m, m, which are attached at their other
ends by pin joints to the frame n, the nature of which is shewn in the Drawing;
o is a grooved wheel on one of the shafts or axes g, and p is a grooved cam on
the other of the shafts or axes g. The wheel o and cam p are capable of
sliding on and at the same time of moving with their respective shafts or
axes 9, 9; hence when the machine is at work the wheel o, and cam or excen-
tric p, will be caused to revolve by the shafts g, and be slid to and fro thereon
by the movement of the frame n, which moves to and fro on and is guided by
the rails or bearers 9, 9. The cask or other form of receiver r is received on to
the tables, a carriage being used with flanched wheels suitable for moving on
the rails t, t, and v, v, on to and off such table; w is a beater on the stem or
rod x, which is raised up and allowed to drop by the wheel o and cam p.
Motion is communicated to the tables, by the screw s³, taking into the screw
wheels on the axis of the table; and by reason of the movement to and fro
of the beater frame, and the rotation of the cask or other receiver, all parts of
the materials fed continuously into such receiver will be similarly beaten down
by the beater.
I would state that in place of the beater frame having a to-
and-fro motion the cask or other receiver may have a to-and-fro as well as a
rotating motion communicated to it.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim
to any of the mechanical parts separately; but what I claim is the com-
bination herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Robinson, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of March, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
THOMAS ROBINSON. (L.S.)