IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE APPLIED TO AND USED IN CONNECTION WITH SILK DRESSING REELS IN FLOUR DRESSING MACHINES."
Year: 1881

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Thornton at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd July 1881.
JOHN THORNTON, of Worksop, in the County of Notts, Manufacturer.
IMPROVED APPARATUS TO BE APPLIED TO AND USED IN CONNECTION WITH
SILK DRESSING REELS IN FLOUR DRESSING MACHINES."
This Invention relates to and consists in the application and use of a brush or
brushes, or other suitable and soft material in connection with the silk dressing
reels of flour dressing machines, for the purpose of clearing the silk surface of the
reels more effectually than is at present done.
The brush or brushes or the soft material will be so arranged as to run along the
whole length, or any part of the length of the silk reel, and applied externally to the
silk surface; they are fitted with an arrangement of gearing consisting of levers and
eccentrics or cams having motion transmitted to them direct from the reel axle
or shaft, in such a way as to cause to revolve a light shaft running the whole
length, or any part of the length of the reel, and parallel to the axle of the reel
at any desired distance from it, but so connected by gearing from the axle of
the reel, that it will make exactly the number of revolutions that there are angles
or rails in the reel to one revolution of the reel itself. On this light shaft are
fixed any desired number of eccentrics or cams, so arranged as to give a backward
and forward motion to any desired number of levers or arms, to which are
attached long fine brushes or other similar appliances made of suitable soft
material; these eccentrics or cams are so arranged and connected to the levers
or arms as to give them the desired lift or motion, in order that the brush or
brushes, or their equivalents, may have the proper variation to suit the variable
motion of the silk reel in its rotation, so that the brushes shall not press on the
silk heavier at one point than at another.
It will be evident that this arrangement can be made and applied in various
forms to effect the desired movements of the brushes; it can be adapted to any
silk reels, and can be attached to flour dressing machines driven by either spur or
bevil gearing, the only necessary point being that the brush or eccentric shaft shall
be so proportioned as to make the same number of revolutions as there are angles
Price 71

page_text: or rails in the silk reel, and so that the eccentrics or cams shall give such a
movement to the arms or levers as is required to allow the brush or brushes to
have a uniform pressure at all points of the silk surface of the reel when in contact
therewith.
The advantages gained by this arrangement of mechanism for actuating the
brushes are:-That it is entirely independent of the external surface of the reel for
its motion, being driven direct from the axle of the reel by the gearing referred to,
thereby greatly reducing friction on the reel; it also entirely obviates the necessity
for beaters or knockers, either internally or externally; it is easily adaptable to
any silk reels; it can be detached at pleasure; there is no complicated machinery
to get out of order; it can be attached in any desired position, and the motion can
be given to the brushes either by attaching the eccentrics direct to them, or by the
use of levers of any desired length and form, to which the brushes may be fixed by
pivots, so that they may be adjusted to any desired position; or they may be
allowed to hang loose in the pivots, and be so balanced therein as to rest lightly on
the silk of the reel; and if desired this arrangement of mechanism is also applicable
and may be adapted to revolving brushes, which may be suspended by or in levers
or arms from any desired point in the frame of the machine, the eccentrics being
attached to the brush of the opposite end of the arm, and the brush driven or
rotated by pullies attached to the eccentric shaft.