AN IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY FOR PICKING HORSE HAIR FOR UPHOLSTERY PURPOSES
Year: 1879

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Gustave Dittmar at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 3rd May 1879. A communication from
Siegmund Rödelheimer, of Fulda (German Empire).
GUSTAVE DITTMAR, of the International Patent Office, 4, Elizabeth-Ufer, Berlin,
Prussia, Engineer and Patent Agent. "AN IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY FOR
PICKING HORSE HAIR FOR UPHOLSTERY PURPOSES." [A communication from
Siegmund Rödelheimer, of Fulda (German Empire).]
The horse hair when prepared for trade in the horse hair mills has the form of
twisted pig-tails. Before used for upholstery purposes, stuffing mattresses, sofas, etc.,
the pig-tails must be opened and the hair must be disentangled from the twisted
form so as to make a loose elastic mass. This work of plucking, tugging, or
picking has heretofore been done by women, who could pick a quantity of about
30 lb. per day.
The machine described in the following Specification and represented in the
Drawing is capable of picking 250 lbs. and more per day.
Figure 1 is a front elevation of the machine.
Figure 2 is a side elevation of the same, and Figure 3 is a vertical section.
A casing supported by the frames A, A, receives a cylinder V provided with
pointed teeth on its circumferential surface. This cylinder receives a rotary motion
by a pulley C keyed upon its shaft, which motion is imparted to said pulley by a
belt surrounding the fly wheel D. Motion may be given to the machine by fixing
a crank on the fly wheel shaft, or by using any other convenient means.
The back end of the fly wheel shaft carries a pinion gearing into a cog wheel
key upon the axis of the upper entrance roller or feeding roller E being also
covered with sharp points or teeth. The rotary motion of this upper feeding roller
is transferred to the lower feeding cylinder by the cog wheels F, F. It will be
understood from the Drawing that the revolutions of the toothed feeding rollers E, E,
take the directions indicated by the arrows in Figure 3. Above the rollers E, E,
a third roller G is arranged, being provided with teeth in the same manner as the
main cylinder and the feeding rollers, and receiving a slow rotary motion by grooved
pulleys and a rope or by any other suitable means.
The horse hair to be picked is placed on a table arranged before the two entrance
rollers, and the ends of the twisted pig tails are pushed between the teeth of the

page_text: rollers E, E. The rotary motion takes the pig tails into the machine towards the
main cylinder, and all hair resting on the said table slowly advances, and is drawn
into the machine, whereby the pins H, H, Figure 2, avoid a diagonal guidance of
the tails and keep the bearings and the oily pivots free from the hair.
The fast revolving main cylinder strikes its teeth through the tail ends presented 5
to it by the feeding rollers combing the hair parallel and taking the picked and loose
hair along with it, in order to throw it on the opposite side out of the machine
The roller G having a very slow motion is used to straighten the hair, which is
not wholly opened after leaving the entrance rollers.