IMPROVED MACHINERY FOB FOLDING PAPER
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughts-
man, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOB FOLDING PAPER."-
A communication.
Sealed the 23d September 1856, and dated the 31st March 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
31st March 1856.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for IMPROVED MACHINERY POR FOLDING
PAPEF, to be as follows:-
mechanical arrangements for
Instead of a moving knife or
Inventor employs a stationary
Instead of moving the sheet
This Invention relates to certain improved
facilitating the folding of paper by machinery.
straight edge, used in former machines, the
knife, by which the folding is in part effected.
from the table in the act of folding, the sheet remains upon the table while the
fold is made; and in place of pushing or carrying the folded sheet between
[Price 8d.1

page_text: plates or rollers, it is carried by nippers, which seize the sheet by the middle of
the middle margin. It is preferred to make the machine double in its opera-
tion. The sheets are laid on a table or fly-board in order to be introduced
to the folding apparatus. This board has register pins, which are operated
in the manner adopted in printing presses. The sheet is seized on its edge
by fingers attached to a reciprocating carriage, and withdrawn from the fly-board
and carried by the fingers under the folding nippers. These fingers are caused
to open and close at the proper times by mechanism commonly employed in
printing presses to effect the same operation; they are raised and dropped
at the time of seizing the sheet by the following contrivance: Attached to the
finger bar near its end is an arm, which carries a wrist pin on the frame; near
the edge of the fly-board is a trip dog, that turns upon a pivot; the wrist pin
enters a slot in this dog as the carriage advances, and from the rotation of the
dog on its pivot the fingers rise up until the dog is vertical, and then descend
as the dog moves on; when the finger bar moves away from the fly-board
the wrist pin carries the dog back to its place for the reception of the pin on
its return. Attached to and near the end of the carriage is a folding edge or
knife, the edge of which rises slightly above its level. Working in connection
with this is a folding nipper, consisting of a pair of grasping edges or jaws,
which are opened by pressing over the folding edge or knife, and closed
by the natural spring of the metal of which they are made. When by
the movement of the carriage the knife is brought immediately under the
folding nipper the carriage stops, and the middle margin of the sheet is
over the edge of the knife. The nipper is now depressed, and the paper
pressed over the knife edge to make the fold. When the nipper moves
away from the knife it carries the folded sheet with it into a position to be
folded a second time by a second knife and nipper. To keep the nipper from
rising beyond the required position an adjustable check piece is provided; the
check pin slides towards and from the nipper, and is kept against a stop,
which the nipper carries, by a spring. The second nipper, when it has come
up to the folded sheet, folds it over a second knife, at the same time opening
the first nipper to release the sheet. The second nipper having completed the
second fold, carries the sheet back to be subjected to a third folding, by a third
arrangement of nipper and knife. The mode of operating, checking, and open-
ing the second nipper to release the sheet is similar to that employed with
the first nipper. When the sheet is folded it is dropped from the last
nipper on to the delivery table.
For folding octavo volumes, the halves of the sheet must, to suit the mode
of printing, be folded in opposite directions, the machine being so arranged

page_text: that one half is folded up and the other half down. The sheet is laid on the
fly-board, and as it is taken along by the fingers upon the carriage it is cut
in halves by a rolling cutter upon a straight edge or bed, and while one half
is carried through and folded, as already described, the other goes through a
similar course, except that it passes under a knife attached to the fixed block,
and is folded by a nipper which rises up from below.
The machine being made by preference double-acting, there are two knives
attached to the reciprocating carriage, which knives come- alternately under
the same nipper. When the sheet passes under the knife, one knife fixed
to the framework of the machine will answer to cut the sheets on both sides
of the machine. Two rolling cutters are fitted at the extremities of a rocking
bar, which is pivotted to the frame; one end of this bar is in contact with a
bifurcated spring catch or kind of escapement, and slips over (above and
below) a projection in the centre of this catch. The extremities of the bed on
which the cut is made arc provided with inclined planes, and as the cutting
rollers ascend these inclined planes they are alternately raised and depressed,
and the end of the rocking bar is forced to pass over the projection of the
escapement, so that it is above the projection when that end of the bar is up,
and below when it is down. A spiral spring holds the bar in either of its
positions with sufficient force to keep the cutters to their work. The various
motions given to all the folding nippers are derived from a single cam
operating upon the lower end of two T levers, furnished with sector teeth,
which take into sector teeth carried by rocking arms at opposite sides of
the machine, connected respectively with rock shafts, which impart a recipro-
cating motion through arms and levers to the nippers.
The carriage is moved back and forth by a crank upon the main driving
shaft through the medium of a connecting rod lever and connecting link. As
the carriage must be stopped while the sheet is folded upon it, the stoppage is
caused by a slot in the connecting rod, in which plays the pin connecting the
rod with the lever, so that the crank moves through nearly a quarter revolution
while the slot is passing over the pin.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 27th September 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of March, in the year of our
Lord 1856, in the nineteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton,
Her special license that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred Vincent
Newton, 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 "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR FOLDING
PAPER," being a communication from abroad, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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 Seal Patent Office within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
Fig. 1 is a plan of the machine; Fig. 2 is a side elevation; Fig. 3 is an
end view; Fig. 4 is a detached view, showing in perspective the nipper and
folding knife, and parts connected therewith; Fig. 5 is an enlarged view,
showing the mode of checking and adjusting the motion of folding nipper;
Fig. 6 is a detached view of the trip dog and part of a finger bar; Fig. 7 is
a detached view of the cutting apparatus; Fig. 8 is a detached view of the
cam which gives motion to the nippers; Fig. 9 is a section of one pair of
the concentric rock shafts; Fig. 10 is a section of the fingers and finger bar.
My Invention consists in certain improvements in machines for folding

page_text: paper, hein-after described, whereby I am enabled to fold accurately, and
with great neatness, economy, and rapidity. In paper-folding machines
hitherto essayed it has been found impracticable to fold accurately, that is, to
fold every sheet alike, and this defect has entirely prevented the use of such
machines to any profitable account. Machines have been devised in which
the folding was effected by means of a moving straight edge or knife pressing
the paper between a pair of rollers, and in practice it is found, from slight
differences of friction on different parts of the sheet from resistance of the air,
and various slight disturbing causes, that the fold cannot always be accurately
made upon such principle of operation. The use, however, of a moving knife
or straight edge to lift or push the paper between griping, pressing, folding,
or carrying surfaces must be attended with inaccuracy in the folding, for
reasons already stated. Another objection to the above modes, and a fatal
one for the operation of book-folding, is, the soiling of the paper; the
carrying or folding surfaces become in time covered with ink, and soil the
sheet more or less every time in passing.
The object of my Invention is to remedy these defects, and otherwise to
improve the operation of book-folding. Instead of a moving knife or straight
edge I use a stationary knife, by which the folding is in part effected. Instead
of moving the sheet from the table in the act of folding, the sheet remains
upon the table while the fold is made. Instead of pushing or carrying
the folded sheet between plates or rollers, I carry it by means of nippers,
which scize the sheet by the middle of the middle margin, as herein-
after set, forth. The framework of my machine, as seen at a, a, in Figs. 1
& 2, is somewhat similar in appearance to a double printing press.
the machine is double in its operation, it will be necessary only to describe
As
one half, similar letters referring to similar parts in the two halves. b is
the table or fly-board upon which the sheets are laid in order to be intro-
duced to the folding apparatus. This board has register pins c, c, which
are operated in the usual manner adopted in printing presses. The sheet is
seized on its edge by the fingers d, d, attached to the reciprocating carriage,
and withdrawn from the fly-board and carried by the fingers under the
folding nippers. The fingers d, d, are made to open and close at the proper
times by mechanism commonly employed in printing presses to effect the
same operation, which need not be described. The fingers are raised and
dropped at the time of seizing the sheet by a peculiar contrivance, described
as follows:-Attached to the finger bar (Fig. 6) near its end is a project-
ing piece e, having near its end a wrist pin or bolt f. On the frame near
the edge of the fly-board is a trip dog g turning upon a pivot h. This

page_text: dog is provided with a slot i, into which the wrist pin enters as the carriage
advances, and from the rotation of the dog on its point it will be seen that
the fingers must rise up until the dog is vertical, and then descend as the dog
moves on. When the finger bar moves away from the fly-board the wrist
pin carries the dog back to its place for the reception of the pin on its return.
Attached to and near the end of the carriage is the folding edge or knife k, as
seen in Fig. 1, under the folding board, part of which is represented as broken
out to show the knife. The knife is fixed to the frame, the edge rising
slightly above its level. The folding nipper m (Fig. 2, 4, and 5) has a pair
of grasping edges or jaws. which jaws may be opened and closed in various
ways, the mode represented being merely to open the jaws by pressing over
the folding edge or knife, and keeping them closed by the spring of the metal
of which they are made. The edge of the knife is slightly raised above the
level of the frame on which the paper is carried, so that the paper rests at
that part on the edge of the knife. When by the movement of the carriage
the knife is brought immediately under the folding nipper m, the carriage
stops, and the middle margin of the sheet is over the edge of the knife. By
mechanism, shortly to be described, the nipper is brought down upon the
knife, the jaws of the nipper pressing the paper over its edge and making
the fold. When the nipper moves away from the knife it carries the folded
sheet with it into a position to be folded a second time by the knife ¹ and
nipper m. In order to keep the nipper from rising beyond the. required
position, and to determine or gauge this position, I use a check piece p, which
is adjustable on the graduated stem s and a stop piece t on the nipper m.
The check pin slides towards and from the nipper, being grooved or dovetailed
into the piece u, which is fixed to the stem s; the spring w keeps the check
piece against the nipper m. The nipper m' is moved by mechanism, shortly
to be described, and as it comes up to the sheet, which is held in place by
the nipper m, it folds it over the knife k. At the time the nipper m² comes
up to make the fold, it opens the nipper m in the following manner:-A
projecting piece a on this nipper strikes the pin a¹, which is attached to one
jaw of the nipper m, and passes through an opening in the other jaw, so as
to open the jaws, and relieve the sheet from the grasp of nipper m. The
nipper m is cut out in the centre of the folding edges to the extent of the
width of the bite or grasp of the nipper upon the sheet, so as to allow the
second nipper m¹ to act upon the whole extent of the sheet. While in the
act of folding, the nipper m² pushes the check piece p from above the stop t
and allows the nipper m to be carried up till the stop
piece u, and the nipper m is entirely clear from the sheet.
strikes the fixed
The check piece

page_text: bears against the stop piece until the nipper m is carried down again to make
another fold. The nipper m¹ having completed the second fold,
carries the sheet back to be subjected to a third folding by nipper m² and
knife k². The operating, checking, and opening the nipper m¹ and
and of clearing it from the sheet are performed in a manner similar to those
just described for nipper m, and so on for nipper m³, and any number that may
be requisite. When the sheet is folded it is dropped from the nippers upon
the delivery table b¹.
The Drawing represents a machine for folding octavo volumes. According
to the mode of printing, the halves of the sheet must be folded in opposite
directions, and the machine is so arranged that one half is folded up and the
other half down, the part for folding from below being similar in construction
and operation to that already described. The sheet is laid on the fly-board,
and as it is taken along by the fingers upon the carriage it is cut in halves by
the rolling cutter cupon the straight edge or bed d¹, and while one-half is
carried through and folded, as already described, the other goes through a
similar course, except that it passes under a knife attached to the fixed block e¹,
and is folded by a nipper which rises up from below.
In the machine represented there are two fly-boards, and there are two sets
of fingers d, d, upon the reciprocating carriage; and also upon that side of
the carriage where the paper is first carried over the knife, I have two knives
attached to the carriage, these knives k, k¹, coming alternately under the
nipper m. A single knife might be placed under the carriage and raised up
and carried down at proper times, but the machinery required to effect this
would be far more expensive than the two knives moving with the carriage,
and otherwise objectionable; when the sheet passes under the knife, one
knife fixed to the framework of the machine will answer. To cut the sheets
on both sides of the machine, I have two rolling cutters c', c², at the extremities
of a rocking bar /, which is pivoted to the frame; one end of this bar is in
contact with a bifurcated spring catch or kind of escapement g, and slips over
(above and below) a projection in the centre of this catch, as it is shewn in
Fig. 7, by the following means:-The extremities of the bed on which the cut
is made are provided with inclined planes, one of which is shewn at h¹, Fig. 7,
the other being at the opposite part of the carriage. As the cutting rollers
ascend these inclined planes they are alternately raised and depressed, and the
end of the rocking bar is forced to pass over the projection of the escapement,
so that it is above the projection when that end of the bar is up, and below
when it is down. The spiral spring n' holds the bar in either of its positions
with sufficient force to keep the cutters to their work. The various motions

page_text: given to all the folding nippers are derived from a single cam A operating
upon the lower ends of the two T levers T, T¹. The arms of lever T are
furnished with sector gears B, B', which take into arms C, C¹, connected with
the rock shafts D, D¹. These rock shafts are inclosed in and pass through
hollow rock shafts E, E', with which they are concentric. The arms of the
lever Tare also furnished with sector gears.B2, B3, similar to gears B, B¹, and
these take into arms C³, C³, connected with the hollow rock shafts E, E¹. The
first folding nipper m gets its motion from rock shaft D¹ through the medium
of the vibrating arm F, connecting link G, and lever H, to which this nipper
is attached. The second folding nipper m¹ gets its motion from the lever H³.
The third nipper m² gets its motion from the rock shaft D' through the medium
of arm connecting link G2 and lever H³. The nippers below the carriage get
their motion from rock shafts E, D, by means similar to those just described
for nippers m, m³, m³. The carriage is moved back and forth by the crank K
upon the main driving shaft L (which shaft is enclosed within the hollow shaft
T), through the medium of the connecting rod M, lever N, and connecting
link P. As the carriage must be stopped while the sheet is being folded upon
it, the stop is caused by the slot R in the connecting rod M, in which plays
the pin connecting the rod with the lever, so that the crank moves through
nearly a quarter revolution while the slot is passing over the pin, and before it
acts upon the lever N. The cam A makes two revolutions to one of the
crank K, and this is effected as follows:-The small gear R' on the driving
shaft T takes into the larger gear R on the cam shaft T3, and the small
gear R on the cam shaft takes into the larger gear R on the hollow shaft T",
enclosing the driving shaft L. The crank is connected with this hollow shaft,
and by the suitable proportionment of the gearing the requisite relative motions
are given to cam and rock shafts.
Having now set forth the nature of this Invention, and explained the manner
of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that under the
above recited Letters Patent I claim,-
1st, folding the paper by means of a stationary straight edge or knife and
folding nippers, substantially, as herein set forth.
2nd, I claim the manner of relieving the sheet from the nipper, as set
forth.
3rd, I claim the adjustable check, and the mode of releasing its hold by the
advance of the nippers, as set forth.
4th, I claim the rotating trip dog for raising and depressing the fingers, as
set forth.
5th, I claim attaching the knives to the reciprocating carriage, as set forth.

page_text: 6th, I claim operating the reciprocating carriage by means of the crank K,
the slotted connecting rod M, the lever N, and the link P, whereby I attain
accuracy and ease of movement.
7th, I claim the cutting rollers hung on a bar vibrated and checked, as
herein set forth.
8th, I claim the arrangement of the T levers, with the double concentric
rock shafts for operating the nippers by one cam, as herein set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-seventh day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
AV NEWTON
rol
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.