IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING THE ORNAMENTAL TIPS OF PARASOLS, UMBRELLAS, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES
Year: 1863

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Edward Thomas Hughes at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 6th
April 1863. A communication from abroad by Léon Sestier, of Lyons,
in the Empire of France.
I, EDWARD THOMAS HUGUES, of the Firm of Hughes and Son, Patent
Agents, 123, Chancery Lane, London, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR MANUFACTURING
THE ORNAMENTAL TIPS OF PARASOLS, UMBRELLAS, AND SIMILAR ARTICLES," a com-
munication to me from abroad by Léon Sestier, of Lyons, in the Empire of
France, to be as follows:-
A cutting machine is employed, consisting of a bench, to which is fixed a
pair of shears worked by the foot. To the bench is also fixed a graduated
scale adapted to the different sizes or numbers of parasols, umbrellas, or other
articles. There is also a planing and squaring machine for planing and
squaring the part to be worked on three sides. To a plato is fixed a cutter at
an angle of 45 degrees, which plate is also arranged to receive two other
cutters, the blades of which are at right angles with the first. In front of
these three cutters there is a square placed at a short distance from the
cutting tools. This square carries a rod encircled by a spring resting on a
bracket forming part of a cross picce of iron fixed solidly to the plate. The
square is placed in a groove in the said cross piece, and according to the
pressure exercised upon it gives more or less pressure to the tools. A swing
lever is jointed on pivots and carries a clip having a slido and groove intended

page_text: to keep the tip whilst being operated on in a fixed direction, the slide being
raised or lowered by means of nut in order to give more or less pressure on
the square. On one of the sides of this lever there is a pin or projection
which catches a hooked lever for maintaining the pressure on the tip, which is
placed between the groove of the slide and the square. The hooked lever is
mounted on a moveable iron bench, which will be described hereafter. It is
easy to understand that the plate with the cutting tools is no other than a
plane arranged to plane the tip on three sides when it is placed between the
square and the groove of the slide. I also employ a pair of pincers having an
additional arm jointed to each of its ordinary arms, which additional arm is
also jointed to a ring, so that the more the ring is pulled the closer the pincers
are closed; these pincers are placed on a frame of iron capable of sliding to
and fro on the bed or table of the machine. To the ring of the pincers is
fastened a strap which encircles a cylinder put in movement by means of two
other straps passing round a second cylinder, which is put in movement by a
crank or speed pulley. This second cylinder moves the straps so as to turn
the first cylinder which moves the strap of the pincers, and also the sliding
frame to which the pincers are connected, until the frame runs against a stop,
which alters the motion of the cylinder and at the same time opens the hooked
lever and relieves the tip, and by means of a weight and cord a return move-
ment is given to the pincers, so as to take them back to the cutters, and also
catch hold of another piece to be operated upon. The lever which carries the
hooked lever is moveable on a centre placed near the hooked lever in such a
manner that if a chain is connected to the before-mentioned weight and joined to
the hook of the lever, the weight when rising lifts the lever which rests on the
pivots of the swing lever, and thereby causes the planing to be a conical shape,
the angle of the cone being regulated by tho length of the chain.
This system includes a machine for drawing and straightening, which diffors
only from that of the planing or squaring machine by a system of pressure
instead of the plate and cutters. There are three pressing tools placed in
three grooves, which tools are regulated by pressure screws. That which is
called a swing lever in the descriptions of the plane is also used in the drawing
and straightening, but instead of the slide and groove there is a piece of metal
which fills up the space occasioned by the action of two of the tools, and the
hooked lever which was used in the planing machine in this case sustains a
piece of metal, which fills up the space between the three tools, the lever
acting in the same way as already described.
The stretching or elongating of the tip is performed in the following manner:-
There is a block or chuck of cast iron intended to receive four cylinders, to

page_text: which are adapted bevil wheels at right angles in such a manner that the four
cylinders turn when the first cylinder is put in motion by a pulley or crank.
If an unfinished tip of proportionate size is passed between these cylinders it
would come out perfectly square, but as it happens that the piece does not
come out straight, there are guides placed at the outlet, which guides give a
pressure on the tip by a spring, four cutters being employed to cut off the
angles or sides. There is also a machine for squaring the edges of the tip by
actual pressure. I employ two wrought or cast iron frames, fitted together
firmly at a right angle to each other, and also a support fixed to the opposite
side of a vertical plate for containing the bearings of five shafts, two of which
are vertical and three horizontal. The middle horizontal shaft is the driver of the
press, and the two other horizontal shafts, which receive their movement from
the first, have at each of their extremities an eccentric, which gives a vertical
pressure by means of a second plate. Each of the two vertical shafts which
receive their movement from the horizontal shafts have also an eccentric, in
order to give the lateral pressure by means of a second horizontal flat surface
in such a manner that if the fly wheel is put in movement and an unfinished tip
placed between the two straightedges, the tip receives a lateral pressure as well
as a vertical pressure, and then the press opens so as to allow space for the
entrance of another tip, and the operation is constantly repeated. There is
also a machine for turning the tip and ball at the end.
The formation of the ball which terminates the tip is obtained by two
operations. The first operation consists in giving to the end of the tip the form
of a cone; for this purpose I employ a tool connected to a cylindrical rod
placed in the maundril of a lathe, so that it may receive a rapid rotation. The
head of this tool is bored conical, according to the required form of the pre-
paratory cone of the tip, then an opening is made in the side of the hole,
through which opening is placed a blade or cutter in such a manner that the
cutting edge will be in the middle of the opening; there is a plate for
tightening the blade, and a plate for regulating the thickness of the shavings
or cuttings. The second operation is performed by a tool in the form of a T,
having a nut at the end of the rod, and holes at the ends of the cross piece
perfectly square with the rod. The head is countersunk in front to receive
and hold the prepared end of the unfinished tip, and two pieces of metal are
fitted to a joint held in clips jointed to the holes in the ends of the cross piece.
These two pieces are countersunk the form of the cone with its ball. The
maundril of the lathe which receives the apparatus is a hollow tube, one end
of which carries the driving pulloy, and the other side four brackets carrying
wo rollers turning on their axes. The tool, of a T-shape, is placed in the

page_text: maundril, then the nut is so fastened that the rod can have a to-and-fro move-
ment. The two-jointed pieces form a corner, which the rollers tighten and
open during the movement of rapid rotation, and thus permit the unfinished
tip being adjusted when the corner is open. When pushing the unfinished
tip, the rollers squeeze the corner, and in retiring the corner opens. The two
sides of the tool when closing together remove from the tip that which the
previous operation had left. This system of turning can also be applied to
other articles of a similar nature.