IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE OF BOOTS AND SHOES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Cecil Linley at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th February 1878.
JOHN CECIL LINLEY, of Manchester Street, King's Cross, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR THE MANUFACTURE
OF BOOTS AND SHOES."
My Invention of improvements in machinery for the manufacture of boots and
shoes has reference to the machines known as boot rivetting machines or tack
driving machines, and it relates more particularly to means of feeding or supplying
rivets or tacks, one by one, to a plunger or hammer; to means whereby the said
plunger or hammer is enabled to drive such rivets or tacks into a boot or shoe held
in suitable position on a last or otherwise, and to means of feeding and presenting
the last with the boot thereon to the plunger.
My machine allows of employing ordinary lasts and boot rivets such as are at
present used by hand boot rivetters.
The leading features of my improved machine are,-
First. A peculiar construction of guide way or channel, by which the rivets or
tacks, supplied from a slotted shoot or otherwise, are fed singly to a device, which
I call a "
separator."
Secondly. The peculiar construction and action of this "separator," which, as each
successive rivet is fed thereto, first holds it, and then passes it to the upper end of
a tube, which conducts it to a holder; this holder is situated at a point below and
in a line with the axis of the plunger or hammer.
Thirdly. An arrangement whereby the said holder during the descent of the
plunger to drive the rivet into the boot, guides the rivet until a portion of it has
entered the boot, and then opens to allow the rivet head to pass and the point
or acting face of the plunger to come down upon the boot, driving the rivet
before it.
Fourthly. A particular arrangement for feeding the last with the boot thereon to
the plunger.
Fifthly. An arrangement for keeping the last with the boot up to its work.

page_text: And, lastly. The general arrangement and action of the machine, whereby all the
requisite motions and operations are produced with regularity and certainty, and
without complication of parts.
The nature of my Invention and the manner in which it may be carried into
effect will be fully understood by the following description of the construction and
action of a machine in which the same is embodied :-At the upper part of the
machine is a hopper, in the outlet of which is a feed screw made to rotate by any
ordinary means. The rivets are supplied to the hopper, and are gradually allowed
to escape from the outlet of the same by the rotation of the screw. From the hopper
they fall upon the upper end of an inclined shoot, to which a vibrating or jogging
motion is imparted, preferably by means of a ratchet wheel, as herein-after described.
This shoot is formed of two inclines which are kept apart at their lower edge, so as
to leave a longitudinal slot or space between them. This slot is wide enough to
allow the shanks of the rivets to pass through, but not the heads, and the result is
that, owing to the vibratory motion of the shoot, the rivets become arranged in a
row in the slot, being supported by their heads, and travel gradually towards the
lower end of the shoot; while any headless rivets and waste pieces fall through the
slot into a suitable receiver, the rest pass on until they reach a portion of the slot,
which is wide enough to allow the heads of the perfect rivets to pass through; these
rivets therefore fall point first, and are received by the upper end of the guideway
or channel before referred to; while any rivets which have protuberances or pro-
jecting blemishes, usually called "fins," being unable to pass through the widened
portion of the slot pass on to the end of the shoot, and fall over into another suitable
receiver.
The first portion of the guideway into which the perfect rivets from the shoot
fall is an inclined curved channel of semicircular form in section; this channel
becomes contracted at its lower end, and is succeeded by a portion which is grooved
or recessed only sufficiently for the rivets to travel singly, and this portion again
is succeeded by a more widely grooved portion, which leads to the "separator"
before named.
The guideway or channel has a vibrating or jogging motion imparted to it, by
preference, in the manner herein-after described, and the rivets gradually travel
down the first portion thereof to the portion where they can only travel singly;
from this portion, if the supply is too quick, the excess rivets fall over the sides into
a vessel (from which they may be returned to the hopper by an endless chain of
buckets or otherwise), while single rivets travel along the last portion of the guide,
way, from which they pass successively, and in a more upright position, into the
"separator." This device consists of a pair of spring jaws, which, when in contact,
leave a central space or aperture between them large enough to receive the rivet
shank, and bevilled or widened at the top to receive the rivet head, the rivet is
thus detained by the head only.
When the rivet is in the separator, a pusher, preferably in the form of a plate,
moves forward with its lower edge over the rivet head, and then moves down. upon
the head, and pushes the head before it, the pressure causing the jaws of the
separator to open sufficiently to allow the head to pass; the rivet is thus pushed
through the separator into the upper end of a tube.
If desired, the pusher, instead of neting upon the rivet head to cause the separator
to open as before described, may act directly upon or between the separator jaws,
but I much prefer the arrangement described, because the heads of the rivets vary
in size, and any opening of the jaws, caused by direct action on such jaws, would
allow more rivets than one to pass through at a time. As each successive rivet
passes through the separator, it falls down the tube above mentioned, and is received
by the holder before described, and is held in a line with the axis of the plunger or
hammer.
The holder is composed of a pair of jaws, carried by pivoted levers, which, as the
plunger descends, are caused to open at a determined time; this opening may con-

page_text: veniently be produced by rollers or projections on the plunger coming against inclines
on the tails of the levers.
The particular time of the opening is such that the plunger shall have already
driven the rivet sufficiently into the boot to allow it to act as its own guide, the
jaws acting as the guide during the first portion of the descent, and allowing the
plunger to descend within them to a sufficient extent before they open.
The last portion of the descent of the plunger completes the driving in of the
rivet. As the plunger rises, the jaws of the holder close, ready to receive the next
rivet, which then drops into it.
The mechanical arrangements for producing the movements before described, in
such manner that they shall work in unison one with another, that is to say, shall
be properly timed," may be varied in many ways.
"
The vibrating motion of the inclined shoot may, for example, be produced by
causing the teeth of a rotating ratchet wheel to act on a projection on the shoot,
the vibrating motion of the guideway or channel may be produced by an arm
connected to the vibrating shoot, the lifting of the plunger after each descent may
be effected by means of a volute cain or "snail," rotated by gearing from the shaft
of the ratchet wheel above mentioned, and the plunger as it rises may stretch a
strong spiral spring, which, when the cam or snail releases the plunger, brings the
latter down with sufficient force to drive in the rivet.
The movements of the pusher before described are by preference produced by
means of a hand mounted on a rocking shaft, and carrying a pair of claws, which
may be called a finger and thumb; this arm and its claws together with a spring
act on a pin carried by a pivoted bar to which the pusher is fixed. The claw,
which I call the thumb, lifts the pusher bar then in the downward movement of the
hand, the portion between the finger and thumb acting like a cam or excentric
moves the bar forward over the rivet, the finger then pulls the pusher down on the
rivet, and lastly, the spring during the first part of the next upward movement of
the hand causes the pusher to recede.
The rocking shaft may be worked from the plunger or from the "suail" above
referred to, or otherwise.
Sometimes, instead of the separator before described, I employ a separator com-
posed of a series of arms forming a sort of toothed wheel, and projecting through an
opening into the tube which conducts the rivets to the plunger. As this wheel
rotates, its arms successively enter the tube and stop the descending rivets, allowing
only one to pass at a time. A vibrating finger, projecting into the tube from the
opposite side, inay be used in conjunction with this wheel to assist in feeding the
rivets singly.
The boot or shoe to be rivetted is fitted to an ordinary last. I mount this last
on the top of a weighted rod, the lower end of which is connected by a ball and
socket or other universal joint to one end of a lever, the opposite end of which is
weighted sufficiently to overcome the weight on the rod above-named, and so keep
the last up to its work; I make these weights proportionately heavy in order that
there may be so much inertia to overcome that the last will not be forced down by
the blow of the plunger.
In order to feed the last to the plunger, so that the successive rivets may be
driven in at the proper places, I employ a feed wheel with a roughened periphery,
which wheel has an intermittent rotary motion imparted to it from the plunger or
otherwise;
this feed wheel works upon the face of the outer sole of the boot on the
last, while a roller or wheel forms a bearing for the edge of the sole to be pressed
against by the attendant.
The feed wheel should be recessed in the centre to allow space for the plunger
box, or it may be kept clear of the plunger box by being inclined, in which case its
periphery should be bevilled.
The intermittent motion may be imparted thereto by an ordinary paul and
ratchet wheel; or, instead of a ratchet wheel, a plain wheel or disc may be employed,

page_text: which may be driven intermittently by means of an excentric clutch pivoted on a
shaft which rocks on the spindle of the said wheel or disc; in the motion of the
shaft in one direction, the excentric arm acts upon and moves the wheel; but in
the motion in the other direction, it does not act upon it. A spring may be
employed to keep the arm up to its work.