IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR ASSORTING CORKS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bussey, of Dowgate Dock, in the City of
London, Cork Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY
FOR ASSORTING CORKS."
Scaled the 21st September 1875, and dated the 22nd March 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bussey at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
22nd March 1875.
I, JOHN BUSSEY, of Dowgate Dock, in the City of London, Cork
Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR ASSORTING CORKS," to be as follows:-
The chief object of this Invention is to assort hand made corks
automatically in an economical and expeditious manner. To this end I
mount in suitable supports a pair of rollers, setting them on an incline
and slightly out of parallel, the distance between them increasing
towards the depressed ends of the rollers. These rollers constitute an
inclined guide for receiving the corks to be assorted as they are fed
automatically or otherwise from a bore or hopper situate above the

page_text: rollers. Immediately below the inclined guide I provide shutes for
conducting the corks as they fall between the rollers into one or other of
a series of receptacles for the corks.
To facilitate the passage of the corks down the inclined guide and
their delivery out of the machine I impart rotary motion to the rollers
in reverse directions by means of an endless band passing over a pulley
on a crank shaft, which is driven by a treadle motion or by equivalent
means.
As the corks fall from the hopper or feed shute on to the highest and
narrowest part of the inclined guide the tendency will be for all but the
smallest corks to pass down the guide until they arrive at that width of
the guide which will allow of their falling through into a shute.
The smallest size of corks to which the machine is adjusted will on
reaching the guide fall through and be guided by the first shute into
receptacle No. 1; the second size will in like manner leave the guide so
as to reach by the second shute receptacle No. 2, and so on through the
whole length of the guide, whether the machine be arranged to assort
eight, ten, or more sizes of corks.
For convenience it may be desirable to arrange the receptacles in two
rows side by side, and to give the delivery shutes alternately an inclina-
tion to the right and the left.
Those corks which pass down to the end of the inclined guide from
being too large to fall through into the assorting shutes are delivered to
an end shute and pass thence out of the machine to be assorted in a
machine adjusted to a larger gauge.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Bussey in the Great Scal Patent Office on
the 22nd September 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BUSSEY, of Dowgate Dock, in the City of London, Cork Merchant, 3
send greeting.

page_text: year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said John Bussey, Her special
licence that I, the said John Bussey, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said John Bussey, my executors,
administrators, 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, excrcise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY
FOR ASSORTING CORKS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said John Bussey, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 John Bussey, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to
say):-
The object of this Invention is to assort hand made and machine made
corks automatically in an economical and expeditious manner. To this
end I mount in suitable supports a pair of rollers, setting them on an
incline and slightly out of parallel, the distance between them increasing
towards the depressed ends of the rollers. These rollers constitute both
à gauge for assorting the corks, and also an inclined guide for receiving
the corks to be assorted as they are fed automatically or otherwise from
a box or hopper situate above the rollers. Immediately below the
inclined guide I provide shutes for conducting the corks as they fall
between the rollers into one or other of a series of receptacles for the
corks.
To facilitate the passage of the corks down the inclined guide and

page_text: means.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional
elevation of the improved assorting machine; Fig. 2 is a plan view of
the same; Fig. 3 is an elevation of the feeding end of the machine;
and Fig. 4 is an elevation of the opposite end of the machine.
A, A, is the wooden framing of the machine, which is covered at top
by planking A' and by a box or hopper B; C, C, is a pair of inclined
rollers mounted in bearings C¹ and extending from a feed tube D in tho
box or hopper B to the delivery end of the machine. These rollers are
set at such an incline that the corks to be assorted when received
thereon will readily slide along the rollers as in a guide. They are
further adjusted relatively to each other so that the space between them
will gradually increase from their highest to their lowest level, and thus
they will constitute a gauge for determining at what point each cork
shall in its downward course fall from between the rollers. To admit of
this adjustment one of the bearings C¹ at each end of the machine is
made capable of receiving a slight lateral motion, and it is secured in
position by a clamping screw which passes through a slotted strap picce
attached to the adjacent fixed bearing. E, E', is a double series of
receptacles for the corks, arranged in two lines abreast of each other;
and F and F is a double series of right and left handed shutes situate
immediately below the rollers C, and intended to direct the corks as they
fall from the assorting rollers into their respective receptacles. The
axles of the rollers C are fitted with hand pulleys c to receive an endless
cord d from a pulley g on a fly wheel shaft G, guide rollers c¹, g¹, being
used to guide this endless cord the direction shewn in Fig. 3, which
direction ensures the rotation of the rollers in opposite directions when
the fly wheel shaft is driven. The driving of this shaft may be con-
veniently effected by means of the treadle arrangement H, H, or by
means of steam power where that is available.
As the corks fall from the hopper or feed tube on to the highest and
narrowest part of the inclined guide the tendency will be for all but the
smallest corks to pass down the guide until they arrive at that width of
the guide which will allow of their falling through into a shute For F¹
below.
The smallest size of corks to which the machine is adjusted will on

page_text: reaching the guide fall through and be directed by the first shute into.
the first receptacle of the series; the second size will in like manner
leave the guide so as to reach by the second shute the receptacle for the
second sized corks, and so on through the whole length of the guide.
The Drawing shews the machine as arranged to assort ten sizes of corks,
but a larger or a smaller number may be assorted as convenience may
dictate.
By arranging the receptacles in two rows side by side, and giving the
delivery shutes alternately an inclination to the right and the left, pro-
vision for an assortment of finely graduated sizes is obtained in a
comparatively short run.
Those corks which pass down to the end of the inclined guide from
being too large to fall through into one or other of the assorting shutes
are delivered to an end shute I and pass thence out of the machine to
be assorted in a machine adjusted to a larger gauge.
Having now explained the nature of my Invention, and the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under
the above in part recited Letters Patent I claim, the combination of
machinery above described in which an inclined guide serves as a gauge
to assort the corks supplied to the machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bussey, have hereunto set
my hand and scal, the Twenty-first day of September, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
5 Witness,
ALFRED MARSHALL BUSSEY.
JOHN BUSSEY. (L.S.)