IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINES FOR WORKING AND PREPARING SKINS
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Archibald Brooman, of 166, Fleet Street,
in the City of London, Patent Agent, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINES FOR WORKING AND PREPARING SKINS."- A communication
from abroad by André Adler, residing at Paris, France.
Sealed the 4th March 1864, and dated the 8th September 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Archibald Brooman
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th September 1863.
1, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR WORKING AND PREPARING SKINS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention consists in constructing machines for working and preparing
skins as hereafter described. I take a square frame of such size that the skin
to be prepared. may be spread over it. This frame is of cast iron or other
metal, and is covered with a sheet of cork, over the cork a sheet of vulcanized
india-rubber is placed, and the whole is covered and held by calf skin prepared
in alum. The frame is furnished at one end with a slide or holder, in which
one extremity of the skin to be prepared is secured. It is supported by and
is held by flanges on a carriage running on rails and fitted with a rack parallel
to the rails. Across the frame, and fitted in bearings, is a cylinder armed
with blades, edged or not, according to the particular operation to which the

page_text: skin is to be submitted. These blades vary in number from, say, 8 to 16, they
spring from the middle of the cylinder and pass round it spirally, half of them
from right to left, and the other half from left to right. At one end of this
cylinder is a pulley, and behind the pulley, on the same shaft, a pinion; the
pulley receives motion from a driving band, and the pinion drives a toothed
wheel which has attached to its axis another pinion in gear with the rack.
This arrangement may be modified; for instance, motion may be imparted to
the cylinder and to the carriage independently of each other. Suppose a skin
to be prepared is spread on the frame and held by the slide or holder before
mentioned, the carriage must be placed in such position that the holder is
directly beneath the cylinder armed with blades; the pulley being put in
motion transmits motion to the cylinder, and the carriage moves with the
frame in the opposite direction to the rotation of the cylinder until the other
end of the carriage comes beneath the cylinder, a wedge inside the rack then
disengages the pinion in gear therewith and the frame stops. The attendant
then turns the skin round, fixes another end thereof in the slide or holder,
pushes back the carriage into the position it occupied at the commencement,
engages the pinion in the rack, and the movement recommences. The frame
rests on the carriage in a manner somewhat similar to a cover on a box, and
may be raised a certain height. The frame may be supported against the
cylinder at any desired pressure by a movable weight placed on a lever con-
nected to a support below the frame. To avoid loss of time from the inter-
mittent motion of the carriage I.sometimes place two frames thereon, one of
which makes the forward while the other is making the backward motion, and
vice versa; these two frames should be mounted on special carriages. The
continuous alternative motion of the frames may be produced by differential
wheels or other suitable mechanical appliances. The same machine may be
used for cutting and splitting skins by placing in front of the blade cylinder
stretching cylinders with a screw thread in the same direction as the spirals of
the blades, but of much less pitch; they are furnished at their extremity with
toothed pinions worked by a chain from a toothed pinion on the axis of the
blade cylinder. The blades, instead of being placed at right angles to the
cylinder, as in the machine first described, are fixed parallel to the cylinders,
so as to cut instead of scrape. The surface of the carriage is a plate of
polished metal, and four screws placed at the four corners of the frame regulate
the thickness to which the skin is to be cut.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Archibald Brooman in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 8th March 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, Patent
Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Richard Archibald Brooman, Her special licence that I, the said
Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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 Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR WORKING AND PRE-
PARING SKINS," (communicated to me by André Adler, a person resident at.
Paris, France;) upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said. Richard
Archibald Brooman, 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 Richard Archibald Brooman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said. Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto.
annexed, that is to say :-
This Invention consists in constructing machines for working and preparing.
skins as hereafter described and represented in the accompanying. Drawings.
Figure 1 is an elevation, and Figure 2 a plan of a machine constructed.
according to this Invention.
I take a square frame A, B, of such size that the skin to be prepared may.
be spread over it. This frame is of cast iron or other metal, and is covered

page_text: with a sheet of cork, over the cork a sheet of vulcanized india-rubber is placed,
and the whole is covered and held by cowhide prepared in alum. The frame
is furnished at one end with a slide or holder C, D, in which one extremity of
the skin to be prepared is secured. It is supported by and is held by flanges
on a carriage E, F, G, H, running on rails I, K, and fitted with a rack L, M,
parallel to the rails; this rack may be fitted at either side or to the middle of
the carriage. Across the frame A, B, and fitted in bearings, is a cylinder N, O;
armed with blades, edged or not, according to the particular operation to which
the skin is to be submitted. These blades vary in number from, say, 8 to 16;
they spring from the middle of the cylinder and pass round it spirally, half of
them from right to left and the other half from left to right. This arrange-
ment of the blades forms an important feature of this Invention. At one end
of this cylinder is a pulley P and a pinion Q; the pulley P receives motion
from a driving band, and the pinion Q drives a toothed wheel R, which has
attached to its axis another pinion S in gear with the rack L, M. Suppose a
skin to be prepared is spread on the frame and held by the slide or holder
C, D, the carriage must be placed in such position that the holder is directly
beneath the cylinder armed with blades; the pulley being put in motion
transmits motion to the cylinder, & the carriage moves with the frame in the
opposite direction to the rotation of the cylinder until the other end B, B, of
the carriage comes beneath the cylinder; a wedge or projection inside the
rack at the point I then disengages the pinion S and the frame stops. The
attendant then turns the skin round, fixes another end thereof in the slide or
holder C, D, pushes back the carriage into the position it occupied at the
commencement, engages the pinion S in the rack, and the movement recon-
mences. The frame rests on the carriage in a manner somewhat similar to a
cover on a box, and may be raised a certain height. The frame may be sup-
ported against the cylinder at any desired pressure by a movable weight placed
on a lever X connected to a support T below the frame. The same machine
may be used for cutting and splitting skins by placing in front of the blade
cylinder stretching cylinders J with a screw thread in the same direction as
the spirals of the blades, but of much less pitch; they are furnished at their
extremity with toothed pinions a driven by a toothed pinion b on the axis of
the blade cylinder. The blades, instead of being placed at right angles to the
cylinder, as in the machine first described, are fixed parallel to the cylinder,
so as to cut instead of scrape. The surface of the carriage is a plate of polished
metal, and four screws placed at the four corners of the frame regulate the
thickness to which the skin is to be cut. The blade cylinder and the pinion
in gear with the rack may be actuated separately and by distinct bands. The

page_text: rack may be worked by the shaft carrying the blades by means of an endless
screw.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, constructing
machines for working and preparing skins, substantially as herein-before
described and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Archibald Brooman, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Eighth day of March, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-four.
R. A. BROOMAN. (L.B.)