AN IMPROVED CLOTH PLAITING OR FLUTING MACHINE
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd April 1877. A communication from
abroad by Cornelius Morgan Meserole, of the City and State of New York,
United States of America.
WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co., Patent Agents,
Southampton Buildings, London. "AN IMPROVED CLOTH PLAITING OR FLUTING
MACHINE." A communication from abroad by Cornelius Morgan Meserole, of the
City and State of New York, United States of America.
This Invention relates to knife or side plaiting machines, in which the cloth is
fed through between two horizontal revolving pressing rollers after the plait has
previously been formed by a knife or blade, and the object of the said Invention is
to improve the construction of such machines in the following particulars, that is
to say,
First. In the construction of the frame.
Second. In separating the rollers and bringing them together on the cloth with
any amount of pressure that may be required.
Third. In the manner of operating and adjusting the feeding blade.
Fourth. In changing from one size plait to the next size with but one adjustment
of the machine.
The said machine has a frame consisting of a base plate and two arms or supports,
which are curved for the purpose of allowing room for the arms of a bifurcated
adjusting lever and under roller to move freely in front, and also to provide a
fulcrum for the said lever to rest upon. The upper roller is made of metal and
covered with india-rubber or other suitable material; on its ends are journals,
which enter holes in the upper ends of the frame arms.
This roller is cast hollow
and bored out to receive the driving shaft, which passes through the said roller and
is held in place by a nut or pin. To the outer end of this shaft I attach an
adjustable crank.
The adjusting lever is bifurcated in front to receive a hollow heating roller. The
rear end of the said lever is carried to the end of the base, where it receives an
adjusting screw. The said heated roller has journals on its ends, which rest in
bearings in the arms of the bifurcated adjusting lever. A perforated gas pipe
passes through the centre of the under roller, and to its ends are attached arms.

page_text: There is a square shaft whose ends are rounded off and enter holes in the front
ends of the said arms, through which they extend a sufficient length to receive a
link on one end and a pitman rod on the other end.
The feeding blade is attached to the said shaft by screws. There is a handle
which has on its crank end a pin that passes through one of the holes in the upper end
of the said pitman rod, and screws into one of the holes in the adjustable crank.
To one journal of the upper roller which passes through the frame I attach an
oscillating arm and a ratchet. The said arm moves freely on the shaft and is kept
in place by a ratchet wheel, which is firmly secured to said shaft. A pawl is attached
to the said arm and is set to engage the said rachet wheel. The link which
swings on the aforesaid shaft is attached to the end of this oscillating arm by means
of a shouldered screw. A spring is attached to the said shaft at the right-hand end,
and extends around the pitman rod and back through the shaft.