NEW OR IMPROVED MECHANISM FOR PREPARING ORANGE PEEL FOR MARMALADE
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by David M.Donald and John.
McDonald at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 3rd December 1874.
We, DAVID M'DONALD and JOHN MCDONALD, both of the City of
Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Engineers and
Machine Makers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"NEW OR IMPROVED MECHANISM FOR PREPARING ORANGE PEEL FOR MARMALADE,"
to be as follows:-
This said Invention consists of a new or improved construction and
arrangement of mechanism, or parts of a machine generally, preferably
portable and self-contained, all carried on two side frames secured
together by three or more transverse stays, and having two pairs or sets
of rollers, preferably cylindrical and of about two to three inches in
diameter. The first or feeding in pair of rollers are preferably placed
near the top or higher than the second or finishing pair, the under rollers
of both sets are preferably made of brass and turned cylindrically on iron
or steel spindles which revolve horizontally in deep stationary bearings
in the two side frames, and are geared together by a large spur wheel on

page_text: each spindle, and an intermediate pinion working on a fixed stud in the
outside of and close to one side of the frame. Both rollers would thus
revolve at the same speed and in the same direction, either of their
spindles being made the first motion shaft driven by a fast and loose belt
pulley fitted on its one end, and a belt from any adjacent motive
transmitting or revolving shaft, or other equivalent means.
The upper
rollers of both pairs work close over their under rollers, with their
spindles revolving in bearing bushes or other equivalents through
vertical slots in the side frames, so as to be driven by a spur pinion fixed
on one end outside gearing into a corresponding pinion on the spindle
of their under driving roller direct in each set.
The top feeding in roller is preferably made of brass, and has its
periphery fluted with small longitudinal sharp A shaped ridges, and V
shaped recesses, alternately so as to gripe and feed the orange peel
through them, and press it against the sharp edge of a cutter or knife
secured to a transverse stay close to the part where the rollers gripe or
roll out the orange peel, which is fed forward to the rollers in picces with
their inside up (cleaned of the inside part of the orange) upon an endless
travelling band or screen of brass, wire cloth, or other suitable material,
all so as to slice off the inside useless fibrous part of the pecl, and
deliver it in slices or shavings above or over the cutting knife on to
another corresponding endless travelling screen into a shoot or spout, to
keep it quite separate from the useful oleaginous acrid outside part of
the orange peel in thin layers, sheets, or shavings, which as cut are
delivered under the knife at the back of the rollers on to another corre-
sponding endless travelling screen below, which feeds them into the
second pair of finishing rollers, which cut and deliver this part of the
peel all in narrow stripes. For this purpose the upper roller of the second
set is formed of a set of thin discs or circular steel knives, sharpened
towards their outer periphery, all with holes through them fitting on to
the spindle and secured or screwed up with a thin brass disc washer
between, and considerably less in diameter than the knives, all between
two strong end washers secured to the spindle, and thus forming a
cylindrical roller of knives of about th of an inch in "pitch," more or
less, according to the width into which the strips of orange peel are
desired to be cut..
The plain under brass roller is preferred to have turned iron washers or

page_text: when the upper roller is screwed down (by its upper bushes and
pinching screws in the covers above its journal bearings, or other
cquivalent pressing mechanism), the knives will not press too hard into
the brass part of the under roller, but only work in shallow annular
recesses or cuts made in its surface (formed for or by the edges of the
knives) so as not to blunt the sharp edge and yet effectually cut the peel
quite through into the thin strips. Some little distance behind the
cutting and delivering part of these finishing rollers a transverse round
bar is secured to the frame at cach side, having as many sharp angled
chisel-shaped plates of steel of the same thickness as the brass washers
or spaces between the knives, and of a uniform length of two inclics or so,
with a hole in each fitted on to the said round bar with thin washers
between them of the same thickness as the knives, and tightened up by
a screw nut at one or both ends with the sharp chisel points coinciding,
but with the angled sides of the alternate ones reversed, and inserted
between the knives of the upper roller nearly close up to the washers
between the knives and the point where the cut strips of peel are delivered,
so that these chisel points press the strips down (as cut) from between
the knives, and keep them clean (as a kind of comb or "doctor") and
deliver the strips of the outer part of the orange peel in very narrow
and thin or nearly square strips into any receptacle below the said
rollers and cleaners, all ready for use in the making of marmalade.
The upper fluted roller of the feeding in set may either rise and fall
to receive the peel by the yielding of a bow or coach-shaped spring
mounted transversely, with its two ends resting on the bush bearings in the
slots of the side frames, and tempered or tightened up by a screw in the
top cross stay or otherwise. The journals of this roller might be carried in
two levers fulcrumed to studs in the side frames, and have the long free
ends of these levers attached by spiral springs to the frames behind or
before the rollers or weights, or other equivalents might be employed,
as in mangles and other such rolling or pressing machines.
The endless travelling feeding screens pass over, and are driven by
large wooden rollers (of two inches or so in diameter) at their free end,
and a small turned iron roller at their other end close to the under roller
of each set, and with the top of the web at this part on a level with or
tangential to the griping part of the rollers, and having the delivery part
of the web preferably lower than the receiving end. These screens are
driven from a pitch chain wheel or pulley on the lower spindle of the

page_text: delivery rollers, and one on the outer end of each of the spindles of the
wooden rollers, and one endless pitch chain passed over or round the
whole, and which may be tightened up by a pressure pulley carried on a
movable stud or bracket on the side frame in a middle position between
any two of the other chain pulleys.
Side plates or flanges of metal or wood may be secured to the inside of
the side frames close to the edge or side of the travelling screens or
bands to guide the peel to or from the roller as the case may be, preferably
a little narrower than the acting part of the rollers.