A NEW IMPROVED MACHINE FOR UNHAIRING HIDES OR SKINS
Year: 1883

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Augustine Galway at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 17th April 1883. Communicated to
her from abroad by Alphonse Depierre of Brussels in the Kingdom of
Belgium.
OR
AUGUSTINE GALWEY, of Upton, in the County of Essex,
"A NEW
IMPROVED MACHINE FOR UNHAIRING HIDES OR SKINS 33
[communicated to her
from abroad by Alphonse Depierre of Brussels in the Kingdom of Belgium]
Heretofore the preparation of hides or skins for tanning, including the unhairing,
fleshing, and shaping, has been effected entirely by hand. The various attempts
that have been made to produce machines for performing these operations have
been unsuccessful. These parts of the work of preparation of the hides or skins
require however the intervention of machinery, not only by reason of the incon-
veniences of manipulation on account of the caustic employed, but machinery
would also obviate several inconveniences inherent in that part of the operation
performed in running water.
The machinery forming the subject of the present invention consists of the
following arrangements.
A rotating working cylinder or drum is arranged in suitable framing, and
adapted so that it can be moved away from or towards an elastic table, over which
the hides or skins to be unhaired are drawn. This cylinder is furnished at its
circumference with a number of blades or knives, the position of which may be
inclined or otherwise according to the nature of the work to be done, but by
preference the knives on one half of the length of the working cylinder are
disposed in right handed helical rows, and the knives on the other half of the
length of the working cylinder are disposed in left handed helical rows.
A horizontal, inclined, or vertical working table is fixed behind the working
cylinder, and is by preference made of a sheet of india-rubber, which may be
supported behind by a series of bars of wood, against each of which presses a
blade or other suitable spring, the pressure of which can be adjusted at will by
the person using the machine by means of screws, or cams, or by both. The india
rubber working table may be tightened up, so as to offer the required resistance to
the action of the knives, by means of screws arranged in any suitable way.
A drawing-off roller is arranged behind the above mentioned working table, the

page_text: object of such roller being to draw the hide over the said table as it is being
acted upon by the knives on the working cylinder.
The action of the machine is as follows:-
The working cylinder being drawn away from the table by a lever or other
suitable mechanism, space is left for the introduction of the hide or skin between
the two; the hide or skin is then introduced with the hair side placed towards the
working cylinder, and is secured to the drawing-off roller. The cylinder is then
returned to its place so as to press against the hair side of the hide on the table,
the cylinder is caused to revolve, and the knives remove the hair, the flexible
table bending or yielding according to the inequalities in the thickness of the hide
or skin. The arrangement of the knives on the working cylinder in right and
left handed helical rows tends to stretch the hide or skin as it passes between the
working cylinder and the table. Jets of water are directed from a perforated
pipe on to the hide during the operation of unhairing, and the drawing-off roller
draws the hide across the table as the knives on the working cylinder remove the
hair therefrom. The machine may be driven by gearing or belting, suitable
connecting and disconnecting gear being applied for stopping and starting the
various parts at pleasure.
If preferred the working cylinder may be arranged to rotate in fixed bearings,
and the table be adapted to move to or from the said cylinder, instead of the
cylinder being moveable and the table stationary as above described.
The speed of the drawing-off roller may be varied according to requirements by
means of differential friction gear or other suitable mechanical appliances.