Improvements relating to the Formation of Bales or Packages of Fibrous Material, to Facilitate the Withdrawal of Portions thereof.
Year: 1898

page_text: Date of Application, 31st Aug., 1898-Accepted, 8th Oct.,
1898
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements relating to the Formation of Bales or Packages
of Fibrous Material, to Facilitate the Withdrawal of Portions
thereof.
I, GEORGE ARCHIBALD LOWRY, of 1124, Monadnock Building, 260, Dearborn
Street, Chicago, Illinois, United States of America, Mechanical Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to.
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the follow-
ing statement:-
The invention relates to a bale of fibrous material as a new article of manu-
facture, and the object of the invention is to produce a bale of highly compressed
fibrous material which will occupy a comparatively small space compared with
its weight, and at the same time permit a ready and easy withdrawal of a por-
tion of the contents of the bale for sampling or other purposes.
The invention consists substantially in the construction which will be herein-
after described, and more particularly pointed out in the claims.
Referring to the accompanying drawing,
Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation of a bale of fibrous material embodying
the invention, a portion of the bale covering being removed in order to more
clearly illustrate the manner of the formation of the bale.
Fig. 2 is a broken detail view of a portion of a bale embodying the invention,
partly in perspective, illustrating the manner in which the bale is built up and
compressed.
It is well understood that fibrous material of various sorts and kinds, such
as cotton, wool, hemp, hay, flax, tow, and the like, have, for purposes of trans-
portation and storage, been compressed so as to considerably reduce their original
volume when packed in bulk. The extreme compression to which it is desirable
to subject the fibrous material, in order to form a bale of sufficiently reduced
size, has disadvantages, in that it is difficult to separate the compressed material
easily and readily when the bale arrives at its destination, or to separate or detach
a portion of the material from the bale, when under compression, for sampling
or other purposes. The objection above noted is greatly augmented in propor-
tion to the degree of compression to which the fibrous material is subjected.
Moreover, such compression renders it exceedingly difficult, if not impossible,
to procure samples of the bale from the center thereof for inspection of the
quality of the entire bale on account of the difficulty of penetrating to the center
of the bale. In prior methods of baling wherein the fibrous material is subjected
to any considerable degree of compression, it has been necessary to devise special
machinery for obtaining samples from the bale, and some times it has been
the custom to attach samples to the outside of the bale as a guarantee of the
composition and texture of the contents of the bale, without the necessity of
sampling the bale itself. This, however, is objectionable, and affords an oppor-
tunity for the practice of fraud, and hence is unreliable. Again, in the form of
bales wherein the material is wound into convolute layers, it has been difficult,
Price 8d1

page_text: if not impossible, to unwind the hale when it reaches its destination without the
employment of special machinery therefor.
It is the purpose of the present invention to produce a bale of fibrous material
which is compressed to the desired or any degree of compression, and wherein
the objections above noted are avoided.. In producing a bale in accordance
with my invention, I form the bale A, by building up the same endwise by
auperimposed spiral layers or bats, each thin spiral or bat, indicated at B, in
the drawing, being flattened and compressed upon each other, the several layers
composing the bale being joined so as to form substantially a continuous spiral,
which when extended or drawn out endwise of the bale will appear as shown in
Fig. 2, but when tightly pressed or compressed flatwise upon each other will
have the appearance shown, at C. Fig. 1. These several spiral layers are ap-
proximately parallel to each other. This bale may be produced by subjecting
each layer to compression or pressure-that is, by compressing the web from
which the spiral layers are formed flatwise, so as to either partially or wholly
expel the air therefrom, and then spirally coiling such web upon itself and com-
pressing each spiral layer upon the previously formed coils. By thus spirally
coiling a compressed flat web of the material to be baled upon itself, the bale
is built up endwise. The fibres of the material in the spiral coil adhere to each
other, so that by the interlocking and intermeshing of such fibres the strip or
.web is continuous, but little or no cohesion exists between the individual layers
and the next adjacent layer. Thus the body of the bale may be penetrated
easily and readily from the outside through or between adjacent layers com-
posing the bale, even though the bale as a whole is compressed to a high degree
of compression. This is important for sampling purposes, and also for the pur-
pose of facilitating the opening of the bale when it reaches its destination.
Again, a bale produced as above described may be readily and easily sampled
at the center of the body thereof, because in building up the bale endwise by
superimposed spiral layers, compressed upon each other, a longitudinal central
opening is produced, in the bale, and hence a sample or a portion of the material
composing the bale can be readily obtained from the center of the bale, and
from any point in the length thereof, for sampling or other purposes, as desired,
through such longitudinal central opening and from either end thereof. Thus
it will be seen that the bale may be readily sampled at any point either from
the outside or from the inside thereof. In this respect a bale formed in accord-
ance with the present invention differs essentially from those bales made by
winding the material in convolute layers, or by simply compressing a mass of
material with no definite line of separation, for in these two instances the density
of the material is such that it is impracticable to penetrate the interior, while
in my bale, even though the material is more dense, a separation between ad-
jacent layers can be readily made.
In practice I have found that the best way of producing this bale is by means
of a machine the essential elements of which are, an open-ended chamber and a
cap, said chamber and cap being relatively movable, the material being supplied
to the chamber through the cap. By preliminarily filling the chamber and then
supplying material to the opening through the cap, such additional material
is caught by the initially introduced material and drawn into the chamber by
the relative movement of the chamber and cap, each complete relative revolution
of the chamber and cap. adding a spiral layer to the bale, and advancing just
so much the mass composing the bale through the chamber. By continuing
the relative movement of the chamber and cap and supplying additional material
the bale is built up endwise, each layer being compressed and superimposed
endwise upon the previously introduced material, until a bale of the desired
length is finally produced.
Thus I produce a bale with a central longitudinal opening, and which is com-
pressed to a high degree of density, and which may be readily sampled at any
point either from the inside or the outside thereof.

page_text: When finally completed the bale may be held against endwise expansion in
any suitable manner, as by means of a suitable bag or covering, wires, or the
like. I have found that a bale produced as above described has little or no
tendency to lateral expansion.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
1. As an article of manufacture, a bale of highly compressed fibrous material
composed of a continuous spiral with the convolutions flattened and resting
one upon the other.
2. A bale of fibrous material formed in continuous spirals, each layer or spiral
being compressed or flattened and compressed upon the preceding layers, thus
forming a longitudinal central opening through the bale.
3. A cylindrical bale of fibrous material built up endwise by successive spiral
layers, each succeeding layer compressed upon the preceding layers.
4. A bale of fibrous material built up endwise by superimposed spiral layers,
each layer being compressed or flattened and compressed upon the preceding
layers, whereby the fibres in each layer adhere together but without substantial
adherence between adjacent spirals, said bale having a longitudinal central
opening therethrough.
1000