IMPROVEMENTS IN RECIPROCATING PRESSES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Stevens, of No. 52, St. Giles Street,
Northampton, in the County of Northampton, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN RECIPROCATING PRESSES."
Sealed the 16th February 1875, and dated the 15th December 1874.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Stevens at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th December 1874.
I, WILLIAM STEVENS, of No. 52, St. Giles Street, Northampton, in
the County of Northampton, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RECIPROCATING PRESSES," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to reciprocating presses such as are usually
employed for stamping, compressing, moulding, and other like purposes,
wherein a head or presser is made to move alternately up and down so
as to act in its descent on materials placed on a table or frame below it.
The object of my Invention is to give the attendant workman ready
means of either applying the pressure or arresting the movement of the
pressing head at the end of any stroke, and also to facilitate the placing
of the materials to be operated on in the required position for receiving

page_text: on.
the pressure and the removing of them when they have been operated
For this purpose I work the pressing head by a lever acted on by a
cam fixed on a shaft which is mounted in bearings so that it can revolve.
This cam may either be single acting to move the lever in the one direc-
tion, a spring or counterweight being provided to move it back, or it may
be a cam acting both ways. On the cam shaft I fit with a feather a sliding
boss, so that it must turn with the shaft, and can slide longitudinally on
it, and in this boss I form a helical groove extending partly round it
with a gap at its termination. Into this groove can enter the sloped end
of a lever, the other end of which is in a convenient position for the
hand of the attendant. On the cam shaft, but fitted free to revolve
thereon, is a toothed wheel worked by a pinion from the prime moving
shaft of the machine, which may be driven by a strap from any con-
venient motor. On the face of this wheel near the circumference thereof
are two stops sloped on their backs, and on the before-mentioned boss
are fixed two arms projecting radially from it, and facing the said wheel.
The sliding boss with its arms is pressed towards the wheel by a spring,
so that the arms of the boss engage with the stops on the wheel in
the manner of a clutch, and the wheel being caused to revolve the shaft
and cam revolve with it, working the lever of the press. When however
the attendant desires to stop the press he moves the hand lever, so that
its sloped end enters the gap of the helical groove on the boss, and the
boss as it revolves is by the pressure of the lever against the inclined side
of the groove shifted away from the wheel, disengaging its arms from
the stops thereon, so that the shaft and cam remain at rest. For starting
the press again the lever is moved out of the groove, and the spring then
causes the arms of the boss to engage with the wheel. Under the
pressing head I mount a table fitted to slide to and fro like a slide rest,
and I provide on the lower side of this table a rack gearing with a
pinion, which is connected by reversing bevil gear to the prime moving
shaft of the machine.
Stops are fixed on the table, which act at the end of each stroke on a
sliding clutch of the reversing gear, so that when the table has made its
stroke in either direction its movement is reversed in the manner of a
planing machine table. By this arrangement two workmen are enabled
to operate, the one putting on or taken off the work at the one end of
the table, and the other at the other end.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Stevens in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 14th June 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
STEVENS, of No. 52, St. Giles Street, Northampton, in the County of
Northampton, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Horself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Stevens, Her
special license that I, the said William Stevens, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Stevens, 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, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN RECIPROCATING PRESSES," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said William Stevens, 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
Scal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Stevens, 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 accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings and to the figures and letters marked thereon,
that is to say :-
This Invention relates to reciprocating presses such as are usually
employed for stamping, compressing, moulding, and other like purposes,
wherein a head or presser is made to move alternately up and down so
as to act in its descent on materials placed on a table or frame below it,

page_text: '
The object of my Invention is to give the attendant workmen ready
means of either applying the pressure or arresting the movement of the
pressing head at the end of any stroke, and also to facilitate the placing
of the materials to be operated on in the required position for receiving
the pressure and the removing of them when they have been operated
on. For this purpose I work the pressing head by a lever acted on by a
cam fixed on a shaft, which is mounted in bearings so that it can
revolve. This cam may either be single acting to move the lever in the
one direction, a spring or counterweight being provided to move it back, or
it may be a cam acting both ways. On the cam shaft I fit with a feather
a sliding boss, so that it must turn with the shaft and can slide longitu-
dinally on it, and in this boss I form a helical groove extending partly
round it with a gap at its termination. Into this groove can enter the
sloped end of a lever, the other end of which is in a convenient position for
the hand of the attendant. On the cam shaft, but fitted free to revolve
thereon, is a toothed wheel worked by a pinion from the prime moving
shaft of the machine, which may be driven by a strap from any con-
venient motor. On the face of this wheel near the circumference thereof
are two stops sloped on their backs, and on the before-mentioned boss
are fixed two arms projecting radially from it, and facing the said wheel.
The sliding boss with its arms is pressed towards the wheel by a spring,
so that the arms of the boss engage with the stops on the wheel in the
manner of a clutch, and the wheel being caused to revolve the shaft and
cam revolve with it, working the lever of the press. When however the
attendant desires to stop the press he moves the hand lever so that its
sloped end enters the gap of the helical groove on the boss, and the boss
as it revolves is by the pressure of the lever against the inclined side of
the groove shifted away from the wheel, disengaging its arms from the
stops thereon, so that the shaft and cam remain at rest. For starting
the press again the lever is moved out of the groove, and the spring then
causes the arms of the boss to engage with the wheel. Under the pressing
head I mount a table fitted to slide to and fro like a slide rest, and I
provide on the lower side of this table a rack gearing with a pinion,
which is connected by reversing bevil gear to the prime moving shaft of
the machine.
Stops are fixed on the table, which act at the end of each stroke on a
sliding clutch of the roversing gear, so that when the table has made its
stroke in either direction its movement is reversed in the manner of a

page_text: planing machine table. By this arrangement two workmen are enabled to
operate, the one putting on or taking off the work at the one end of the
table, and the other at the other end.
DESUNLITION UT
DRAW
Fig. 1 represents a longitudinal section; Fig. 2, a bäck elevation; and
Fig. 3, a plan of a reciprocating press constructed and arranged according
to my Invention.
A is the main driving shaft caused to revolve continuously by any
convenient prime mover; B is a pinion fixed on the shaft, gearing with a
wheel C, which is mounted loosely on the cam shaft D. On the wheel C
are two projections c, c, sloped off on one side; in front of the wheel is a
boss E fitted with a feather on the shaft D, so that it can slide longitu-
dinally thereon, but must revolve with it. This boss has two arms e, c,
which, when the boss is pressed towards the wheel C by a spring F,
engage with the projections c, c, so that as the wheel C revolves the
shaft D is made to revolve with it. The sliding boss E is made with a
groove, which is in part of an inclined or helical form, and a lever G is
mounted on the framing of the press, so arranged that when the atten-
dant depresses one end of it the opposite end is caused to rise into the
groove of the boss E, the inclined or helical part of which as it revolves
bears against the end of the lever, and thus causes the boss E to be slid
away from the wheel C, thereby disengaging the arms e, e, from the
projections.c, c, and stopping tho movement of the shaft D. The lover G
may be of the form shewn in the Drawings, conveniently placed to be
worked by the hand of the attendant, or it may be connected by a rod or
chain to a stirrup or treadle near the ground, and worked by his foot; it
may be counterweighted, so that when left free its end comes out of the
groove of the boss E, leaving it free to be pressed by the spring Fagainst
C, so that the arms e, e, can again engage with the projections c, c, and
the shaft D can thereby be caused to revolve. On the shaft D is fixed a
cam d, on which bears a roller h mounted on the lever H, at the opposite
end of which is the reciprocating pressing plunger J working in a guide,.
On the shaft A are loosely mounted a pair of bevil or mitre wheels a, a,
having between them a sliding clutch K fitted with a feather on the
shaft A. The wheels a, a, gear with a wheel / on a shaft L, on which is
a pinion M gearing with a rack on the under side of the sliding table N.
The clutch K. has a groove engaged by the fork of a lever o, which is

page_text: fixed on a spindle O, having on its front end an arm P, which comes
within the range of two stops or projections p, p, fixed on the sliding
table N. When by moving the arm P to the one side or the other the
clutch K is made to engage with the one or the other of the wheels
a, a, then by means of the wheel 7, shaft L, and pinion M the table N is
caused to slide in the one direction or the other. Having moved a
certain distance one of the stops p coming to bear against the arm P
moves it aside, and thus disengages the clutch K from the one of the
wheels a, and engages it with the other, whereby the movement of the
table N is reversed.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim,-
First. The use in a reciprocating press of a sliding clutch with arms
that are caused by a spring to engage with projections on the driving
wheel, which clutch can be disengaged at will by the action of a lever
on an inclined or helical part of its periphery for the purpose of stopping
the movement of the press, substantially as herein described.
Second. The use in a reciprocating press of a sliding table moved
alternately in opposite directions by means of reversing gearing governed
by an arm acted on by stops on the sliding table, substantially in the
manner and for the purposes herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Stevens, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five.
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