AN IMPROVED METHOD OF CONNECTING THE ENDS OF PACKING HOOPS OR OTHER METAL HOOPS OR BANDS, AND FOR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Whittaker and William
Bradbury at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 10th December 1869.
We, HENRY WHITTAKER, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
Engineer, and WILLIAM BRADBURY, of Prestwich, in the same County,
Clerk, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED METHOD OF CONNECTING THE ENDS OF PACKING HOOPS OR OTHER METAL
HOOPS OR BANDS, AND FOR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN CONNECTION THEREWITH," to
be as follows:-
Our Invention relates to the metal hoops or bands employed to
encircle bales of woven fabrics, cotton, hay, and other substances or
materials, in manner as is well understood, and has for its object to
effect the connecting together of the ends of the said hoops or bands
more readily and securely than by the means most usually employed.
For this purpose we employ in lieu of the ordinary rivets fasteners made
from flat strips of metal, each strip being doubled so as to bring the
two ends together, the central portion of the said strip being so formed,

page_text: compressed, or flattened as that it may form a projecting shoulder on
each side of the fastener, the said fastener when completed being of
a T form. In each end of the hoop or band a slot is punched or
formed, the said slot being of a size suitable to receive the aforesaid
fastener, so as that when the slots in the two ends of the said hoop or band
are made to coincide the end or point of the said fastener may be passed
through both slots, and this being done the two aforesaid ends of the
strip of metal from which the fastener has been formed are seperated
and flattened against the hoop or band by hammering or otherwise, the
connection being then completed. If found to be necessary two or
more fasteners may be used to connect the ends of each hoop or band.
We prefer to make the aforesaid strips of a rhomboidal form, so as
that the fasteners shall each have two points which may be readily
seperated and flattened down, our method of forming the said fasteners
being as follows:- The bar of metal from which the fasteners are to be
formed is fed by preference in a heated state to a pair of cutters, which
sever the said bar into short strips, and each strip is received on a finger,
partly around which it is bent by means of a pair of jaws, which are
suspended from a block to which a reciprocating motion is imparted by
means of an excentric or otherwise. As the said jaws are raised they
are caused to approach each other, and thus to bend the strip further
around the said finger, so as to form a cylindrical head on the partly
formed fastener, and the said finger being withdrawn therefrom the said
head is compressed against a stationary block, and the fastener is then
completed.
The slots in the ends of the hoops or bands may be formed by any
suitable means, but when this has to be effected by hand power, and
during the operation of packing, we prefer to employ a punch of the
following description, namely:-One, say, for example, the lower one, of
two levers, which are jointed together, is so formed and fitted as that a
block of metal may slide to and fro in a direction at right angles to the
surface of the die which is formed or fixed in or to the said lower lever.
The said sliding block is fitted or formed with a suitably shaped punch,
and is worked to and fro by means of an excentric shaped cam
formed on the upper lever and working in a slot in the said block,
the perforation of the hoop or band being effected by pressing the said
block towards the die by means of the said upper lever.

page_text: This apparatus, or a modification thereof, may be employed to
perforate the rivet holes formed when connecting the ends of the hoops
or bands in the ordinary manner.
Metal hoops of some other descriptions than have been herein-before
mentioned may have their ends connected by means of the aforesaid
fasteners, as, for example, the hoops employed by coopers.