Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 10th Nov., 1891-Accepted, 16th Jan.,
1892
removing all the woody or cellular material and leaving the fibre clean, compact
and straight in a condition to be gathered into hanks or bundles as it leaves the tail
of the machine.
The result is accomplished by means of the mechanism shown in the drawings and
now described.
Figure 1 is an elevation of the machine.
Figure 2 is a plan view.
Figure 3 is a detail of the break-jaw in cross section.
Figure 4 is a cross section of the scutching knives.
Figure 5 shows a cross section of the carrying chain, carrying bar and pressure
bar.
Figure 6 is a diagrammatic view showing the mountings of the chains used for
feeding and carrying the fibre.
Figure 7 is a plan view of the gearing 'employed to operate the break and feed
mechanism.
Figures 8, 9, 10, show details of a scutching knife.
Figure 11 shows details of a link of the carrying chain.
Upon a suitable frame is mounted at one end a table D'; considering this table
the front end of the machine, there are, toward the back of the machine, first, an
openwork table or grating D³ and a set of break jaws; second, a carrying bar
extending backward between and beyond two sets of revolving scutch knives;
third, an auxiliary carrying bar extending from near the rear of the first carrying
bar beside and beyond an auxiliary revolving scutch knife.
The carrying bars G Glare narrow bars set vertically and having a narrow groove
on their upper side, into which are received the thin projections extending downward
from the links of the carrying chain B B'.
Above the carrying bars G G₁ are pressure bars C C. These bars are thin bars
grooved on their under side to receive the teeth extending upwards from the links
of the carrying chain.
The carrying chain passes over a driving wheel 6 at the rear end of the carrying
bar G; also over wheel b, at the front end of the machine; both the wheels bare
grooved to receive the carrying chain and the rear wheel b' is furnished with pins or
sprockets by means of which it acts as a driving wheel, acting upon the projections
on the chain shown most plainly in Figure 11.
The pressure bar C is held down over the teeth of the carrying chain by
holding springs c c¹ and the pressure bar C¹ is held down by the holding
springs c
In front of the carrying chain B, parallel with it for a short distance but

page_text: extending beyond it, are two feed chains D D. The upper side of each of these
chains is also furnished with teeth which rise slightly above the surface of the
table D2, and receive the stems or straw of material to be treated, and carry them
backward until they are received upon the carrying chain B and drawn underneath
the pressure bar C.
At the forward end of the pressure bar C on either side of the carrying chain B
is a grated table or platform, having diagonally across it an opening within which
are received the under jaws a' of the break; each of these jaws consists of two
parallel pieces resting within the opening and forming, with the sides of the
opening, six sharp edges, over which the straw is broken by the descent of the
grooved upper jaw A. The extreme forward end of both the upper and lower
jaws are turned at an angle with the main body of the jaws, so as to present a
break for a short distance parallel with the carrying chain; but the main portion
of the break jaws is oblique to the carrying chain so that as the straw moves
through the machine the break acts constantly on a portion of straw farther away
from the carrying chain, and from a point at which the straw is held until all of the
straw from the middle out to the ends has been little by little broken by the action
of the jaws.
Behind the break jaws are located rotary scutching or whipping knives or
combs driven from the main shaft M by means of driving sprocket chains f¹f.
The scutching knives F F F F are mounted upon pinions journaled to the main
frame work and rotate so that each knife is brought at every revolution of the
pinion close down beside the carrying chain and whips and combs the ends of the
straw extending out on either side from the carrying chain, thoroughly removing
all the shives and woody matter from the fibre. The forward ends of the
knives FF are protected by a conical cap or cover y g, which prevents the fibre
from catching in the knives and winding on them, or upon the journal on which
they turn. The knives F F turn in opposite directions so that both ends of the
protruding straw and fibre are whipped in the same direction either upward or
downward; it is preferable to whip with the first knives upward and with the
second set F F downward and to aid in directing the broken straw the table D'D²
is furnished with extensions reaching quite into the straight part of the knives F,
while the after part of the knife F is bent with a re-entering curve to permit
the ends of the broken fibre to drop down in under the knives of the second
set F1 F1.
As soon as the fibre has passed the second set of knives, it passes off from
the carrying chain B and is received on the carrying chain B located behind and
slightly to one side of the chain B, and is treated by the third set of scutching
knives F which clean out the shives from the small portion of the stems that were
held in confinement between the chain B and pressure bar C while the stems were
undergoing treatment by the first and second sets of knives.
To regulate the feed, a ratchet H is employed on the end of the shaft carrying
the feed chain wheels; extending from the hub of the wheel H, are two radial
arms upon the outer extremity of each of which is a ratchet pawl ; between
the hub and the outer extremity of each radius arm II is a bar i, arranged to
slide along the radius arm and held to it by an eye or cap; the two bars ii are
hinged to an eccentric strap A¹ fixed to the upper end of the standard A². The
lower end of the standard A2 is connected by a sliding joint to the hub of the
ratchet wheel H.
The two bars ii are made symmetrically adjustable to the standard A2 by means
of a right and left hand screw i, journaled at its middle point to the standard A³,
turning in swiveled nuts on the bars ii, and operating to change the angular
opening between the two bars. Within the eccentric strap A' is an eccentric wheel,
receiving motion from the main driving shaft M through any suitable intermediate
gearing.
At the forward end of the driving shaft M is arranged, suitable gearing, to give
a continuous pounding or breaking motion to the upper members of the break

page_text: jaws A; the device shown in the drawings is preferred, consisting of beveled gears
and the cranks J and pitmans K; but many equivalent systems of gearing could be
used in the place of the one shown.
Other shapes or forms of break jaws could be used, as for instance instead of
meeting at a common point the jaws might be parallel, one in front of the other,
or they might be continuous across the entire table without deviating from the
essential feature of the invention, which consists primarily in feeding forward the
siraw to be treated by a sidewise movement instead of an end movement as hereto-
fore and breaking the straw as it advances gradually from the holding point to the
end of the straw or from the end of the straw to the holding point, and then
treating the broken straw with scutchers moving or having their axis of motion at
right angles to the fibre under treatment.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. A machine for dressing flax or similar material, consisting of a carrier
arranged to grasp the straw and carry it forward sidewise between break jaws
arranged to break the straw as it advances gradually between the holding point
and the end of the straw and in front of scutching knives having their axis of
movement parallel with the moving carrier and adapted to whip the carried straw
from the holding point outward to the end thereof, substantially as and for the
purpose described.
2. In a machine for cleaning flax or other vegetable fibre, in combination with
a carrier adapted to move the fibre forward, a vertically acting movable jaw and a
fixed jaw, arranged diagonally across the path of the moving fibre, substantially as
and for the purpose described.
3. In a machine for cleaning flax or other vegetable fibre, in combination with a
carrier adapted to grasp the fibre at a central point, a pair of break jaws each
consisting of a fixed and movable member lying diagonally across the path of
the moving fibre and thereby breaking the same without straining it end wise
against the pull of the opposing pair of jaws, substantially as and for the purpose
described.
4. In a machine for cleaning flax or other vegetable fibre, the combination of a
carrier and break bars lying diagonal to said carrier, the said carrier being adapted
to grasp
the stems at a central point and carry them forward sidewise between the
said jaws, and the said jaws being located diagonally across the line of feed, sub-
stantially as and for the purpose described.
5. In a machine for cleaning flax or other vegetable fibre the combination of a
carrier, break jaws arranged diagonally to the path of said carrier, and a grated
table, substantially as and for the purpose described.
6. In a machine for cleaning flax or other vegetable fibre, a carrier chain, a
supporting carrier bar, arranged to support and guide said carrier chain; a grooved
pressure bar arranged to rest over points extending upward from said carrier chain
and to be held in position by pressure springs, and means for moving forward said
carrier chain, substantially as and for the purpose described.
7. In a machine for cleansing flax or other vegetable fibre, the combination of a
carrier chain, a guiding grooved carrier bar, a pressure bar resting over pro-
jections extending upward from said carrying chain and revolving scutch knives
adapted to scutch and comb outward from the holding part of the carrier chain and
pressure bar the broken stems and thereby separate the same from the fibre, sub-
stantially as and for the purpose described.
8. The combination of a ratchet wheel, ratchet pawls mounted on arms radial to
said wheel, links adjustable radially on said arms, and connected to a common
vibrating driver, whereby continuous rotary wheel motion is produced on said
ratchet wheel from the vibrating motion of said driver and whereby also the speed

page_text: of the continuous rotary motion of said ratchet wheel may be regulated substantially
as and for the purpose described.
9. In a machine for cleansing flax or other vegetable fibre, a thin carrying chain
having depression on its upper surface to receive the stems of material to be
treated a pressure bar resting above such carrying chain and arranged to press
upon said stems and hold the same firmly in the depressions and thereby hold said
stems as the same move forward under the operating break-jaws and scutching
knives, substantially as and for the purpose described.
10. In a machine for cleaning flax or other vegetable fibre the arrangement of
two carrying chains, arranged the one after the other, the first of said chains being
adapted to deliver to the second of said carrying chains, partially treated straw, and
the second of said chains being adapted to receive and carry forward before an
auxiliary set of scutching knives the straw received by it from the first mentioned
chain substantially as and for the purpose described.
Dated this 9th day of November 1891.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Agents for the Applicant.