Improvements in Hat-sizing Machines.
Year: 1888

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Hat-sizing Machines.
I, GEORGE FREDERICK REDFERN, of the firm of G. F. Redfern & Co., the General
Patent Office, No. 4, South Street, Finsbury, in the county of Middlesex, Patent
Agents, do hereby declare the nature of this invention (a communication from abroad
by E. M. Bulkley of Danbury, Connecticut, United States of America) and in what
manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :-
The invention communicated to me relates to machines for scalding, sizing and felting
hat bodies, and is an improvement upon the machine illustrated and described in the
Specification of United States Patent No. 263075 dated August 22, 1882, the object of
the present invention being to greatly improve the operation of this class of machines
by a special construction and combination of rollers, in other words, to give to the
bundle or roll of hat-bodies a positive rolling, squeezing, pulling and felting action,
and at the same time to retain the hot water with which the bundle is at all times
saturated. This result is accomplished by the action of the rollers constructed and
arranged in the manner hereinafter more particularly described.
In the accompanying drawing,
Figure 1 is a section of the three rollers in use showing the manner in which the
felting action is performed upon a bundle of hat bodies, and,
Figure 2 is a perspective of the three rollers detached, illustrating their position
n use.
The usual or any preferred frame-work and gearing may be employed. As the
present construction relates to the rollers only, I have simply illustrated the rollers in
he drawings.
1 denotes a roller having longitudinal projections 2; 3 a roller having diagonal

page_text: or annular projections 4-for example, a rope from three-quarters to one inch in
diameter wound spirally around it, and 5 is an upper roller also provided with
longitudinal projections 2, which is vertically movable in the usual or any preferred
manner.
I have shown roller 1 as provided with eight projections or lags and roller 5 as
provided with six projections or lags. A definite number of projections or lags upon
the rollers is not an essential feature of this 'invention. It is essential, however, that
the diameter of the said rollers and the number of projections thereon shall be so
proportioned relatively to each other that in operation only two of the projections on
either roller will act on the bundle of hat-bodies at the same time, a long radius of
one roller having longitudinal projections acting at all times in connection with a short
radius of the other roller having longitudinal projections. By the term "long radius
I mean a line drawn from the centre of the roller to the top of one of the projections
and by the term "short radius" a line drawn from the centre of the roller to the
surface between the projections. It will, of course, be understood by those familiar
with the art that these rollers act in connection with a tank of boiling water.
"
In practice rollers 1 and 3 usually make about 120 revolutions a minute. It will be
apparent that roller 5 must be speeded proportionately so that a long radius thereof
will at all times be acting in connection with a short radius of roller 1. The projections
upon roller 3 are preferably made of three-quarter-inch rope wound spirally, as shown,
and placed about three inches apart. The hat-bodies are saturated with hot water
rolled in bundles and wrapped in a cloth in the usual manner and then subjected to
the action of the projections on the rollers for fifteen or twenty revolutions before
being rerolled. In the operation of sizing, each bundle is taken out a number of times
and the hats saturated with hot water and then rerolled and wrapped in the cloth.
The object of the present construction is to produce a squeezing, wringing, and
working action upon the hat-bodies in the bundle while saturated with hot water,
which shall be similar to the working by a skilful operator in the operation of sizing
by hand. The rollers of course all rotate in the same direction as indicated by arrows
in the drawing. The action of the rope roller having spiral projections is to press the
bundle of hat bodies against the other rollers and to keep it rotating the projections
thereon acting to squeeze the water endwise in the bundle of bodies, and, the
projections being arranged spirally it follows that the location of this end wise squeezing
action is necessarily continually changing in the successive revolutions of the rollers
and bundle of bodies.
The action of the two rollers having longitudinal projections is clearly shown in
Figure 1. As the rollers all rotate from right to left the bundle of hat-bodies must
rotate from left to right. At the instant illustrated in Figure 1 the principal operation
of the longitudinal projections upon the bundle of hat-bodies is by the projection
denoted by 1ª on roller 1. This projection acts as it rotates towards the left to force a
portion of the bundle of bodies up between projections 5 and 5° on roller 5. An
instant later the same action will be taking place upon another portion of the bundle
of hat-bodies, and will be performed by projection 5ª upon the upper roller which will
act as the projection 1ª is acting in Figure 1 and squeeze a portion of the bundle of
bodies in between the projections 1 and 1b on the roller 1, the action of the said
projections 1 and 1b being at that instant the same as the projections 5ª and 5b in
Figure 1. It will be seen that the squeezing action of the longitudinal projections on
the rollers 1 and 5 forces the water sidewise in the bundle of bodies, and the action of
the annular or spiral projections on the roller 3 is to squeeze it end wise, as already
explained. There are thus two simultaneous squeezing and working actions in
opposite directions upon the bundle of bodies. The bundle is rolled over and over and
the squeezing and working motion in different directions is produced continuously
upon it, the portions of the bundle acted upon being continuously changing.
By this special construction and combination of rollers I am enabled to produce an
entirely different and a much better effect than has ever heretofore been produced in
the sizing of hats by machinery.

page_text: Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is
In a machine of the class described, the combination with a roller having annular
or spiral projections thereon, of two rollers having longitudinal projections, the said
rollers with longitudinal projections being so proportioned relatively to each other
that a long radius of one roller will act in connection with a short radius of the other
roller having longitudinal projections, whereby in use continuous squeezing actions,
both end wise and sidewise, are maintained upon constantly changing portions of a
bundle of hat-bodies, thereby retaining the water in the bundle.
Dated the 19th day of December 1888.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London,
Agents for the Applicant.