Improvements in Sacks, Bags, and like Receptacles.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 7th Mar., 1899-Accepted, 8th Apr.,
1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Sacks, Bags, and like Receptacles.
I, ADELMER MARCUS BATES, of Hyde Park Hotel, Chicago, in the County of
Cook, and State of Illinois, United States of America, Gentleman, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement-
My invention relates to sacks, bags and other flexible receptacles for holding
granular or powdered substances such as salt, sugar, flour, meal, tea, coffee, ore,
shot, grain, etc., and it has for its primary object to provide improved and simple
means whereby the bag or receptacle may be entirely filled after the stitching,
pasting or other securing operation is entirely completed, and at the same time to
automatically prevent the contents from afterwards escaping through the filling
aperture, thereby enabling the sack or bag being stitched or secured entirely by
machinery with a resultant saving of material, labor and expense.
In filling a bag or sack with granular material the latter forms itself into a
pyramid and consequently if the bag be filled through a filling tube or small
aperture inserted at its centre, the pyramid will rise in the bag until it chokes off
the supply but the upper corners or shoulders of the bag will not be filled without
jostling or agitating the bag. Hence another object of my invention is to provide a
bag or sack with a filling aperture so located that when filled through a filling
tube the material will rise uniformly in the bag and fill all the corners without
the necessity of agitating the bag during the filling operation.
Another and subsidiary object of my invention is to provide the bag with a
filling aperture of such construction that the bag may be entirely stitched on all
sides sufficiently to contain the material, and the bag filled without turning it
right side out as heretofore, whereby the additional handling of the bag necessary
for stitching up the end of the bag after it is turned, will be avoided and an
appropriate and cheap receptacle for carrying coarse material such as granulated
ore, coal, etc., will be provided.
In carrying out my invention I provide the bag or sack at the corner with a
comparatively small filling aperture around which is formed or located valvular
folds or lips which will open to admit the end of a filling funnel or spout but
will automatically close under the pressure of the contents when the funnel is
withdrawn and thus prevent leakage with a resistance increasing in direct ratio to
the pressure of the contents thereagainst.
With these ends in view my invention consists in certain features of novelty in
the construction, combination and arrangement of parts by which the said objects
and certain other objects hereinafter appearing are attained, all as fully described
with reference to the accompanying drawings and more particularly pointed out
in the claims.
In the said drawings,
i sile view of a hav or sack embodying my invention.

page_text: Figure 3 is a vertical section showing the manner of filling the bag.
Figure 4 is a perspective view of a portion of the bag looking down thereinto.
Figure 5 is a view similar to Figure 1 illustrating a slight modification, and
Figure 6 is a view similar to Figure 1 illustrating a still further modification.
The bag or sack may of course be composed of any of the materials from which
such articles are usually made but when composed of cotton cloth or other fabric
it is desirable in some instances that the securing of the edges be effected by stitch-
ing. Heretofore it has been customary to make sacks of a piece of folded cloth
having a line of sewing machine stitching extending across one end and down one
side, thus forming a bag open at one end, the lower end being usually closed by
hand stitching after the bag is filled. In the accompanying drawing I have shown
as an example of my invention, a bag of this character, 1 representing the body
of the bag and 2 the line of sewing machine stitching extending down one side
to secure the edges of the folded cloth together. The line of stitching 2 however
is usually and more conveniently a mere continuation of the line of stitching 3
which closes the top or one end of the bag. Before this line of stitching 3 is run
the corner of the bag adjacent to its folded side is turned over as clearly shown
in Figure 1 at substantially right angles to its edges and the line of stitching 3
is started from the diagonal side of its turned down corner and is carried across
four thicknesses of material thus formed, straight to the opposite side of the
bag and then turned down the line of stitching 2. By thus folding over the corner
of the bag it will be seen that I form a tubular neck or valvular fold 4 sur-
rounding a filling aperture that is left in the corner of the bag between the
points 5 and 6. If the purposes for which the bag is intended do not make it
objectionable to have the raw edges of the fabric along the line of stitching, on the
outside of the bag, the line of stitching 2 may be continued around the lower
end of the bag as shown at 7 so as to completely close the bag on all sides with
the exception of the filling aperture between the points 5 and 6. When the bag
is to be filled a filling tube or funnel 8 is introduced through the neck 4 and the
bag preferably held in a diagonal position as indicated in Figure 3 so that the
conical formation of the material will rise into the upper corner of the bag and
completely fill it without the necessity of jostling. When the filling funnel is
withdrawn the neck 4 will fold back to its original position as shown in Figure 1,
this tendency being induced by the line of stitching thereacross, and thus
prevent the escape of the material from the bag.
If it should be desired to turn the raw edges of the material into the bag before
it is filled, then in that event the line of stitching will be deferred until the
bag is turned inside out, bringing the tubular neck 4 inside the bag as shown in
Figure 4. When the bag thus turned is to be filled the filling funnel is inserted
through the aperture at the corner and the tubular neck 4 as before explained and
when the tube is withdrawn the tubular neck 4 will rest against one side of the bag
as shown in Figure 4 and prevent the material from escaping, and the neck 4
in being thus doubled on itself as it were and also turned wrong side out constitutes
a very efficient closure for preventing the escape of very fine granules and the
pressure of the material against the neck will seal it all the tighter.
In applying my invention to large sacks where the material wasted between
the line of stitching 3 and the upper end of the bag would be a desideratum, I
employ the construction illustrated in Figure 5 which consists in turning the
corner of the bag in such a manner that the lower edge of the fold will be at an
acute angle to the left hand side of the bag and I then start the stitching 3 at about
the same point on the corner but carry it upwardly on a curved line across the
folded corner so as to bring the stitching closer to the edges of the material at the
end, thus forming a tubular neck or valvular fold 4 which is flaring at one end.
In the form shown in Figure 6 the valvular fold is produced where the two
edges of the material are brought together or in other words, at the corner of
the bag where the lines of stitching 2-3 meet. And the valvular fold instead
of being in the form of a tube is in the form of two flaps or lips 4b 4° constituted by

page_text: the two corners of the folded fabric. In accomplishing this the line of stitching
at the end of the bag indicated at 3" is run from the folded side of the bag entirely
across the end and across one corner of the flaps 4b 4° and then the stitching is run
back down the other corner of the flaps and carried down the side of the bag as
shown at 2" thus leaving a filling aperture between the points 5" 6" which is sur-
rounded or guarded by the two valvular lips or folds constituted by the said flaps,
the folds or lips being always held against one side of the bag by reason of the
stitching being carried through them and the two other thicknesses of the material.
My invention also forms an appropriate means for the filling of paper and in
fact all other bags or sacks in advance of sale inasmuch as the sack may be
appropriately secured all around by the manufacturer and shipped to the grocer
and other dealers ready to be filled, thus forming a tight package when filled and
relieving the grocer or other user of the necessity of securing the edges of the
end which is an operation difficult to accomplish properly after the contents have
been inserted owing to the necessity of doing it by hand.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is-
1: A bag or sack having the herein described means whereby the same may be
filled at the corner and the filling aperture automatically closed by the pressure
of the contents of the bag, substantially as set forth.
2: A bag or sack having its corner at one end turned down upon itself and
secured along a line extending across that end and partially but not entirely
across said turned down corner so as to leave a corner opening and form a valvular
fold or lip for closing said opening, substantially as described and shown.
3: A bag or sack having a filling aperture located in the corner thereof and a
fold or lip arranged contiguous to said aperture and projecting normally into the
bag so as to be closed by the pressure of the contents, substantially as described
and shown.