IM- PROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING AND FEEDING OR REMOVING PAPER AND OTHER SHEETS FROM A PILE, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Collins, junior, of Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, for the Invention of "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING AND FEEDING OR REMOVING PAPER AND OTHER
SHEETS FROM A PILE, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR."
Sealed the 27th April 1869, and dated the 30th October 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Collins at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 30th October 1868.
I, WILLIAM COLLINS, junior, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING AND FEEDING OR REMOVING PAPER AND
OTHER SHEETS FROM A PILE, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object the automatic separation of paper or
other sheets from a pile and the feeding or removing of the sheets for
various purposes, such as printing, embossing, gumming, folding and

page_text: the like. In one modification of the improved apparatus a sucker is
used consisting of a mouthpiece connected by a pipe with a pump or
its equivalent, and the improvement consists in making the holding
surfaces of the mouthpiece uneven or indented so that air can enter to
some extent even when the paper sheet is as close as the suction will
draw it. The mouthpiece is a ring or otherwise shaped frame fixed to
the end of a flexible or jointed tube through which the suction is effected,
and instead of this mouthpiece being flat and smooth on the under
surface, that is applied on the surface of the paper so that the paper
completely closes the mouthpiece when sucked up to it, it has inden-
tations on such under surface at which air can still enter. In particular
the mouthpiece is arranged to admit air in this way at the side, that is
applied at the edge of the paper, and the air thus entering causes a
quivering of the paper which shakes off the second sheet should two
happen to be at first lifted. The current of air towards the mouthpiece
also tends to separate the edges of the sheets from each other when two
or more tend to cling together, and this action may be assisted and
intensified by causing a distinct blast of air from bellows or a pump or fan
to blow against the edges of the sheets, or a brush or its equivalent may
be made to revolve against the edges of the sheets to facilitate their
separation. The sucker lifts the edge of the sheet, and then gripping
blades or equivalent details such as are already in use for conveying sheets
enter above and below, and closing on the sheet receive it from the sucker
and move it away as required. The blade which enters under the sheet
is accurately adjusted so as not to catch a second sheet should one be
lifted nearly up to or be in the act of just falling away from that actually
in contact with the sucker. Where the paper or other sheets are apt
to cling together blades may be arranged to enter above and below, when
a sheet (with possibly a second one or more clinging to it) is lifted,
which blades will rub in different directions in order to separate the
sheets if there are more than one; after which the lower ones will retire
to allow the second sheet to fall before the gripping blades enter for
carrying the sheet away. Instead of the blades one or more rollers with
a frictional surface of rubber or other suitable material may be made to
enter under the sheet when lifted by the sucker, and the position or
upward pressure of the roller may be easily adjusted to rub away all
but one sheet. The rubbing blades or rollers may be used with the
improved sucking or blowing arrangements or otherwise. The various

page_text: movements herein-before referred to of the rubbing blades or rollers can
be obtained with facility by means of cams and levers or equivalent
appliances analogous to those in use in envelope-making machines and
others which deal with paper.
The accessory details of the improved apparatus may be variously
modified, but the essential features of the Invention are the indenting
of the sucker mouth so as to admit air even when a sheet of paper is
sucked up to it; the combination with the improved sucker of a blast
of air directed against the edges of the sheets or of a brush revolving
against them; the merely lifting of the sheets by the sucker whilst
they are moved away by ordinary travelling grippers instead of the
suckers being also used to move them away, and the applying of
rubbing surfaces above and below to separate two sheets that may cling
together.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Collins in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 29th April 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
COLLINS, junior, of Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirtieth day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said William Collins, junior, Her
special licence that I, the said William Collins, junior, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Collins, junior, my exccutors, 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 In-

page_text: vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN SEPARATING AND FEEDING OR REMOVING PAPER
AND OTHER SHEETS FROM A PILE, AND IN APPARATUS THEREFOR," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Collins, junior,.
my executors or administrators, by an instrument 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Collins, junior, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement in writing, reference being had to
the accompanying Drawings, that is to say:-
My said Invention has for its object the automatic separation of paper
or other sheets from a pile, and the feeding or removing of the sheets
for various purposes, such as gumming or folding to make envelopes, or
embossing or printing; and it consists principally in employing a sucking
mouthpiece of a peculiar conformation, in applying it so as to lift only
one edge or corner of the sheet, and in limiting the action of the sucker
to mere lifting, gripping fingers, rollers, or equivalent details being used
to remove the sheet after it is lifted.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood I have hereunto appended two
Sheets of explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to and repre-
senting apparatus as furnished with my improved separating and feeding
appliances. The same reference numerals are used to mark the same or
like parts in all the Figures in which they occur.
Figure 1 on Sheet 1 of the Drawings is an elevation of a modification
of my improved sucker mouthpiece, and Figure 2 is a plan of the mouth-
piece as turned up; Figure 3 is a sectional elevation of apparatus for gum-
ming envelope blanks, in which the separation and removal of the blanks
are effected according to my Invention. The sucking action is effected
by means of bellows 1 connected by a strong flexible tube 2 with a metal
mouthpiece 3. Hitherto so far as I am aware suckers for lifting paper
have been made with the mouth quite even or flat, and so as to be

page_text: completely closed by the paper when. sucked up to it; I however make
the mouth uneven or indented, so that air can enter to some extent
even when the paper sheet is as close as the suction will draw it. This
unevenness may be obtained in various ways, a simple plan being to
form a small projection 4 at the front of the mouth rim. which prevents
the complete contact of the paper on each side of it.. In Figure 3 the.
front of the mouthpiece 3 is at the left-hand side, and the air drawn in
by the suction approaches it from the left, so as to blow against the
edges of the paper blanks 5, and this tends to separate the edges of the
sheets and causes a quivering of the paper, which shakes off the second
sheet should two happen to be at first lifted. The action of the current
of air towards the edges of the sheets. may be assisted and intensified
by causing a distinct blast or jet of air from bellows or a pump to be
directed by a suitably placed nozzle against the edges of the sheets; or
a brush or its equivalent may be arranged to revolve against the edges.
of the sheets to facilitate their separation. In applying my improved
sucker to envelope blanks however, as in the various arrangements
herein described, I have found that the additions- last herein-before
referred to are not required, whilst unevenness or indentation of
the mouthpiece such as has been herein-before referred to allows
air to enter and so facilitate the separation of the sheets; it also
causes the top sheet to be more or less bent, and should a second
sheet have been lifted with it such bending necessitates a slipping of
the two sheets upon each other which induces their separation. This.
part of the action, the bending, may be employed without the other part
by making the mouthpiece smooth, but curved when the part of the
sheet sucked up will be bent, although in close contact all round the
mouthpiece; and this curving and the consequent bending-of the paper
may be made sufficient for the effective separation without recourse being
had to the action of air currents. The envelope blanks 5. are placed on a.
plate 6 fixed to and guided by rods 7 which work in lower and upper.
transverse bars 8, 9, forming part of the framing of the machine and
which are suspended by means of rubber springs 10 from an overhead
cross bar 11. The springs 10 keep the blanks 5 always raised to the
same level and so that the top blank is in contact with the under side of
the gummer 12, which is a small vessel fixed to the frame bar 9 and
supplied with gum in solution by a tube 13. The gumming vessel 12.
has the part of its under side corresponding to the part of the blank.to

page_text: be gummed made of a permeable material through which the gum oozes,
and the action of drawing away each blank scrapes off any superabundance
of gum. The machine from which the drawing is made is constructed
with six sets of the details which act immediately on the blanks 5, but
the section being supposed to be taken transversely to the row in which
the several sets are placed only one is scen. The machine may of course
be constructed for any other convenient number of sets. The various
movements are derived from a main shaft 14 placed horizontally and
transversely, and they are effected by various cams on that shaft. The
suckers 3 are fixed to a transverse horizontal bar 15 which is carried by
pairs of parallel levers 16 at each end of it and having their fulcra on
the side standards 17 of the framing. The upper levers 16 of each pair
are extended to the right of their fulcra to be acted on by grooved
cams 18, and at the proper times each sucker 3 is by their means raised
and carried over a little to the right, so as to take up the top blank 5 by
its left-hand corner and turn it up as though it were hinged at its right-
hand corner, where it is held down by the gummer 12. After the blank
has been lifted in this way it is taken hold of by grippers 19, 20, drawn
out from under the gummer towards the left, and then carried downwards
and laid on a set of endless cords 21 which carry it towards the right
hand. The grippers 19, 20, ȧro represented as in their lowest positions.
The upper ones 19 are fixed on a transverse horizontal bar 22 carried by
levers 23 at each end, and kept from turning by a bar 24 fixed to it and
jointed to a lower parallel lever 25. The bar 22 is moved up and down by
means of connecting rods 20 jointed to the levers 23 and acted upon by a
crank on the shaft 14. The lower grippers 20 are fixed on a spindle 27
capable of turning in brackets fixed to the upper gripper bar 22, and
they are opened and closed by means of a small lever 28 on one end of
their spindle 27. An antifriction roller on the small lever 28 runs on
the edge of a lever guide 29, which is acted on by a cam 30 on the shaft
14 and shown separately in Figure 4. A strong spring applied to the
spindle 27 tends to close the lower grippers 29, and they are opened at
the proper times by the action of the cam 30 and lever guide 29. When
the grippers holding the blank are brought down to the endless cords 21
the lower ones pass down between these cords and opening downwards
leave the blank on them. The endless cords 21 pass round two rollers
31, 32, one of which is driven at a slow rate from the shaft 14 by worm-
wheel gearing which is not shown. From the endless cords 21 the

page_text: gummed envelopes pass onwards upon an endless cloth 33 which is of
such a length that each blank becomes dried by the time it reaches the
other end of it; the drying being accelerated, if desired, by causing
currents of heated or dry air to pass over the cloth. It merely remains
to be stated in reference to the machine shown on Sheet 1 of the
Drawings that the bellows 1 are drawn open to produce the sucking
action by means of springs 34 fixed to a transverse bar 35, being closed
at the time when the blank has to be released from the sucker 3 by the
action of levers indicated by dotted lines at 36 and acted upon by cams
on the shaft 14; also that vertical pins 37 fixed to the frame piece 8
prevent any of the blanks 5, excepting the top one which is lifted up
clear of them by the sucker, from being drawn away from the pile.
Figure 5, on Sheet 2 of the Drawings, is a sectional elevation showing.
one application of my Invention for separating envelope blanks from a
pile and removing them thence to place them under the folding plunger
of an envelope folding machine. In this modification the grippers 19, 20,
are upon a slide 38, guided upon two horizontal rods of which one 39 is
shown, and moved backwards and forwards by a connecting rod 40,
actuated by a lever and cam which are not shown. The fixed gripper 19
is the lower one in this case, and is adjusted so as not to catch a second
slicet should one be lifted nearly up to or be in the act of just falling
away from that actually in contact with the sucker, and the upper one 20
is jointed to the slide 38 and is pressed down by a spring whilst it is
opened by the action of a catch lever 41. On the slide 38 approaching
the sucker 3 the catch lever 41 encounters a stop 42, which causes the
grippers to close and take hold of the blank. On the return movement
of the slide another stop 43 is encountered, which causes the grippers to
let go the blank in the required place immediately below the folding
plunger. Figure 6 is a diagram showing another modification in which
the details for gripping and removing the blank from the sucker 3 are in
the form of rollers 444, 45. The sucker 3 lifts the point of the blank up
against the upper roller 44, and the lower one 45 which is carried by a
pair of levers 46 actuated by a cam is then moved back, under the blank,
and grips it against the upper roller. The suction is then stopped, and
the roller is made to revolve and so convey the blank forward under the
folding plunger 47. Where the paper or other sheets are very apt to
cling together blades may be arranged to enter above and below when
a sheet (with possibly a second one or more clinging to it) is lifted, which

page_text: blades will rub in different directions in order to separate the sheets if
there are more than one; after which the lower ones will retire to allow
the second sheet to fall before the gripping details enter for carrying the
sheet away. Instead of the blades one or more rollers with a frictional
surface of rubber or other suitable material may be made to enter under
the sheet when lifted by the sucker, and the position or upward pressure
of the roller may be easily adjusted to rub away all but one sheet.
The manner of applying such a rubbing roller may be understood from
Figure 6, in which the lower roller 45 carried by the levers: 46 may
be the one.
The top sheet having been lifted by the sucker 3 the
roller 45 is entered under it into the position in which it is shown,
and is then made to revolve by a cord or toothed gearing so as to rub
д under sheet (should two be lifted) to the left hand and downwards,
and so separate it. The roller 45 will then be turned in the opposite
direction or be set free to revolve, when the upper roller 4 turns
to remove the top sheet on that sheet being relieved from the sucking
action. The rubbing rollers or blades may be used with my improved.
sucker or with plain suckers.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I have to state that I do not
restrict myself to the precise details herein described or delineated,
also that I do not claim to have invented every mode of applying
suction for separating sheets nor the application of grippers, rollers,.
endless cords, or endless cloths for removing sheets, nor any of the
mechanical details taken separately that I have had occasion to refer to,
excepting as herein-after stated. What, however, I believe to be novel
and original, and do claim as my Invention and as secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The employing of an indented uneven or curved sucking mouth..
2. The limiting of the sucking action to the mere lifting of one
corner or edge of the sheet, whilst other details immediately take hold
of and remove it.
3. The arranging of the parts in envelope gumming machines so
that the blanks are drawn from under the gummer in one direction,
then lowered, and afterwards carried forward in the opposite direction.
And 4. The applying of rubbing rollers or blades to separate the sheets

page_text: when more than one are lifted, all substantially as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Collins, junior, have
hereunto set my hand and scal, this Twenty-eighth, day of April,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
ninc
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
WILLIAM COLLINS, JUN". (L.S.)