IMPROVEMENTS IN OAT CAKE MACHINES
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Hobden and Henry Holt at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 6th April 1878.
WILLIAM HEBDEN, Mechanic, Clough Fold, nr. Manchester, and HENRY HOLT,
Cashier, Haslingden, both in the County of Lancaster. "IMPROVEMENTS IN OAT
CAKE MACHINES."
Our Invention consists of improvements in the machine employed in partly
forming the oat cake, and transferring it to the hot plate or oven, thus dispensing
with what is known as throwing," an operation requiring considerable manuel
skill, and we obtain the desired result in the manner following, that is to say:-On
a suitable frame near the hot plate or oven is placed a carriage mounted on wheels
or slides, and running on rails, so that the carriage can be drawn over the hot plate
or oven. This carriage or slide carrios an endless cloth or apron of suitable length
and width mounted on two rollers. A latch or treadle at about the level of the
floor is connected by a rod to one end of a double lever centred on the framing of
the inacbine in such a manner that the point of support may be altered to suit
certain weights of persons working the machine; the other end carries a rope, chain,
or the like wound round and fixed to a pulley, on the shaft of which a cam is fas-
tened, so that a movement of the pulley also actuates the cam. Somewhere about
the centre of the machine is centred a lever carrying a stud, pin, or pulley below,
and a connecting rod jointed to the carriage above. From the cain mentioned
before a rope, strap, or similar appliance runs over the pulley or pin on the central
lever to a fixed point on the frame, and from any point between the support or
centre of the lever and the connecting rod a double rope, strap, or similar appliance
runs over the ends of one of the rollers of the endless cloth on to a pair of pullies
or a shaft, to which a spring or weight is attached.
The machine operates in the following manner, namely:-The operator places
the prepared dough on the endless cloth or apron, and in so doing will be standing
on the latch or treadle above mentioned, which is prevented from descending by a
catch on the side lever and frame; but as soon as this catch is liberated by the action
of the knee or otherwise, the latch gives way under the weight, drawing down the
lever, and turning the cam shaft. The cam then draws the lever, which actuates

page_text: the carriage, and thus moves the latter out over the hot plate or oven, while the
endless cloth, having a revolving motion of its own, deposits the cake or dough upon
the hot plate.
As however the carriage is not actuated from the same point of the lever as the
endless cloth, but is actuated in such a manner that the movement of the carriage
along the rails is quicker than the movement of the cloth round its rollers, the cako
dough is thus given off the endless cloth at a slower rate than the carriage travels,
and hence the dough is stretched during its deposit on the hot plate. The extent
of this stretch may be regulated by altering the point of attachment on the carriage
lever.
When the dough is fully deposited, and the latch relieved from the weight of the
operator, the carriage is drawn back by the action of the springs or woight upon
the pullies, and the operation is repeated.
It is obvious that many modifications of this arrangement may be made; thus, a
connecting rod on the carriage lever might be dispensed with by working the lever
in a slot or similar contrivance on the carriage.
The cam rope or strap, instead of having one end fixed, may be altered in the
usual way, or be substituted by a connecting rod and lever in place of the cam,