AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND MACHINE FOR REMOVING FROM SEAL AND OTHER SKINS THE STIFF OR COARSE HAIRS WHICH DISFIGURE THE SAME
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Robert Lake, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake,
& Co., Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, for an Invention of
"AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND MACHINE FOR REMOVING FROM SEAL AND
OTHER SKINS THE STIFF OR COARSE HAIRS WHICH DISFIGURE THE SAME."
A communication from abroad by David Mueller, of the City and State of Now
York, United States of America, Machinist,
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Robert Lake at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 8th June 1881.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents
Southampton Buildings, London. "AN IMPROVED METHOD OF AND MACHINE
FOR REMOVING FROM SEAL AND OTHER SKINS THE STIFF OR COARSE HAIRS
WHICH DISFIGURE THE SAME." [A communication from abroad by David Mueller,
of the City and State of New York, United States of America, Machinist.]
The treatment of a certain class of furs for removing the stiff hairs to make the
fur soft and uniform in appearance, thereby better adapting them to be used in
wearing apparel, is known as fur picking, and such work is now performed by
manual labor in the following manner :-Small sections of the fur are folded and
then the folded edge is blown against with sufficient force to separate the soft air
or wool from the stiff hairs causing the wool to lie down and leaving the stiff hairs
erect; the wool is now held down by the fingers of the operator and the hairs are
removed by cutting them off as closely to the skin as the jacent wool will permit,
and so the whole skin is gone over, small sections being operated on at a time,
consequently such work is very slow and tedious, moreover the short stubbles of
the hairs make the fur somewhat harsh, although the object of picking furs is to
make them uniformly soft and pliable.
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the operation of fur picking by means
of a machine constructed to operato automatically, also to improve the class of
work effected by an improved mtehod of removing the hairs from the fur, which
improved method consists in plucking or pulling the hairs out of the skin instead
A •

page_text: of cutting them off, so that no short stubble is left to detract from the natural
softness of the wool of the fur. To accomplish this work automatically the furs
are placed on a long piece of suitable fabric, such as convas, and secured thereto by
sewing or otherwise at one end of the furs only; the canvas, with the furs, is then
rolled up on a shaft and set in the frame of the machine; the end of the canvas
towards which the connected ends of the furs are is then passed over a coin-
paratively sharp-edged table and between feed rollers which are actuated to
gradually and slowly draw it over the table. A weighted roller having right and
left hand spiral grooves rests on the furs and spreads them laterally as they pass
under it, and the upper one of the feed rollers is similarly grooved. A long narrow
nozzle the width of the canvas carrier carried on an oscillating arm and connected
to a source of compressed air moves up towards the air and wool projecting from
the skin at the edge of the table and the air issuing from the nozzle blows, back the
wool, but is not under sufficient pressure to disturb the hairs which remain standing
A pair of gates then closes down on the wool and a pair of gripping bars
moves forward and seizes hold of all the hairs standing with a firm grip, which
hairs are pulled out by their roots upon the retrogrado movement of the gripping
bars. The gates now open to let the wool assume a standing position to the skin,
and a row of hairs adjacent to those pulled out also stands up in front of the edge
of the table as they have gradually worked forward by the continuous feed. The
gripping bars or jaws open and drop the hairs pulled out by them, and the various
devices perform their functions in the order described until the whole of the furs
on the canvas carrier have been operated upon when a fresh covered canvas carrier is
placed in the machine; or it may be tacked or sewed to the end of the previous
one so that the machine may be operating on furs without intermission, and one
attendant can attend to several machines.
out.
The air blast may or may not be caused to cease when the gripping bars are
pulling out the hairs as desired. And all the devices in the machine are
automatically actuated by means of suitable cams.
Instead of the air blast nozzle in front of the edge of the table adapted to blow
the wool down away from the airs, I propose in some cases to use two nozzles, one
placed above and the other below the edge of the table and arranged in Buch
positions that the wool will be drawn down away from the hairs by suction on
either side of the row of hairs, thereby obviating the necessity for using gates to
hold the wool down while the gripping device is drawing the hairs from the skins.
And for this construction of the machine I uso an air exhaust producing means
instead of an air blower as with the machinė hereinbefore described. These
exhaust air nozzles may, by increasing the exhaust by suitably opening the passage
connecting them to the source of air exhaust be caused to carry away the hairs by
suction from the gripping device after it has pulled them out of the skin and
opened ready for another operation, after which the exhaust would cease for a short
time to allow more hairs and wool to pass over the edge of the table, the feed being
continuous in its action as before set forth. By the combination and arrangement
of the devices described an automatically operating organised machine is produced
capable of removing the hairs from furs such as seal skins more perfectly than
heretofore, and in a small fraction of the time heretofore required for the purpose.

page_text: into the teeth of the ratchet-wheel e' secured rigidly to the shaft of the said
roller c.
This arrangement of the feeding device is also shown in Figures 3 and 4.
Above and below the edge of the table 63 and supported in bearings in the
frames a, a¹, are the gates ff, which are connected so as to work in unison by
means of the segmental pinions f³ secured to their ends at one side of the machine.
The upper gate f is actuated from the main shaft a at the other side of the
machine by the cam f³ operating the two-armed lever f which is fitted to rock on
the rod g, and connected by the adjustable link f" with the lever fo secured to the
shaft of the said gate f. The spring f' holds the gates open, and the cam f³ closes
them down on the fur.
Just in front of the gates ff', are located the hair-pulling jaws h, h², which are
carried by the vertical arms of the bell crank levers fitted to rock on the rod g,
the other arms of these bell-crank levers being so extended that rollers fitted
in them may rest on the cams ³ secured to the main shaft a² just inside the
frames a, a¹.
Projecting downwardly from the centre of the lower jaw is an arm connected
to one arm of the bell crank lever i by the adjustable link i', and a cam i secured
to the centre of the main shaft a' acts on a roller at the end of the other arm of
the said bell crank lever; a spring 3 holds this roller against the cam 2. As will be
seen by referring to Figure 2 the cam i in rotating raises the gripping edge of
the jaw and lowers the gripping edge of the jaw h, the two jaws being connected
by the segmental pinions fixed on the ends of their shafts. This closing action
of the jaws takes place just after the cams h³ have allowed the springs h³ to bring
the jaws forward, so that the hairs of the fur projecting out at the edge of the
table b lie between the said jaws, which after being closed to grip tho hairs are
moved back by the cams ³, and thus pull the hairs out of the fur.
K represents an air blast-producing-device driven by the belt k¹. The said
device is connected by the elastic pipe with the air-chamber, which is pro-
vided with a narrow nozzlo k arranged so as to be directly in line with the edge
of the table 3. This air-chamber and nozzle are supported on two arms L, L,
secured to the rod g which is firmly fixed to the frames a, a', and the nozzle * is
set in the desired position by means of the set screws l'. The nozzle is made of
sheet metal, and is adjustable with regard to the width of its opening in order to
regulate the amount and pressure of air issuing therefrom by means of the set
If it is
screws which force the plates of the nozzle apart when suitably turned.
desired to give the nozzle a movement to and from the fur lying over the edge
of the table 3, then the arins 1, l, are to be provided with extensions projecting
over the main shaft a², to be acted on by cams in a similar manuer to the arms
carrying the gripping or hair pulling jaws.
The air-blast requires to be shut off after the wool of the fur is blown down and
held back by the gates f, fl. To accomplish this object the air-blast producing
device is provided with the shut off valve m, adapted to be closed by the cain m¹
through the medium of the link m², and to be opened by means of the spring m³.
The various cams actuating the different devices are so shaped and adjusted on
the main shaft a as to cause the said devices to operate in unison, and perform the
work for which they are designed, as follows, that is to say: The fur is placed in
the machine as above described, a portion of the wool and hair thereof projecting
outward at the edge of the table bs; the gripping jaws h, h', are open and in their
backward position, and the gates f, f¹, are also opened, thus forming a channel
through which the blast of air passes. As the nozzle is between the jaws h, h¹,
the blast of air from the nozzle k blows the wool of the fur away from the hairs,
as shown in Figure 5. The gates f, f, now close down on the wool, leaving the
hairs only standing out between the edges, as shown in Figure 6. The air blast
now ceases, and the gripping jaws h, h, move forward and come together gripping
the hair firmly between them, as shown in Figure 7; if desired the blast may
continue until the gripping jaws have closed on the hairs. The gripping jaws now
nove back and away from the edge of the table, thereby pulling all the hairs

page_text: presented to them entirely out of the skin, as shown in Figure 8. The gripping
jaws h, h, now open, dropping the hairs which they have pulled out, and the
gates ff also open into the position shown in Figure 5. The feed device now
operates to bring a fresh part of the fur over the edge of the table bs, and the
operation of the various devices just described is repeated, and so on until
the whole fur has been passed under treatment and all the hairs removed
therefrom.
Having thus fully described the said Invention as communicated to me by my
foreign correspondent, and the manner of performing the same, I wish it understood
that I do not confine myself to the particular construction and arrangement of the
mechanical elements above set forth to operate the various devices for plucking fur
by entirely removing the hairs therefrom, as it is evident that various modifications
may be made in the machine above described without departing from the naturo of
my Invention, and I claim,-
First. The improved method of plucking furs, the same consisting in first
separating the soft wool from the hairs by means of an air-blast, and then pulling
out the hairs entirely from the skin, substantially as above set forth.
Second. In a fur-plucking-machine, the combination of a round edged-table over
which the fur is fed, and air blast producing device, gates for holding back the soft
wool of the fur, and a pair of gripping jaws for pulling out of the skins the hairs
which project between the gates, all constructed and operated substantially as
above set forth.
Third. The combination and arrangement of the automatically operated devices
constituting a fur plucking machine, namely, a feeding and spreading device,
consisting of spirally grooved rollers, and a diagonally grooved and round-edged
table, a pair of gates for holding back the wool on the rounded edge of the table,
an air blast producing device, and a pair of hair gripping and pulling jaws,
substantially as above set forth.
Fourth. The combination of the gates constructed and operated to hold back the
wool of the fur with the gripping jaws, adapted to be moved in close proximity to
the gates, then closed to grip between them the hairs standing out between the
said gates and then moved back, carrying the hairs with them, substantially as and
for the purpose above set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Robert Lake, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of December, in the year of our Lord Ono
thousand eight hundred and eighty one.