IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR IRONING AND POLISHING SHIRT FRONTS
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Melville Clark at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 14th September 1877. A
communication from abroad by Henry Monk, of Troy, in the County of
Rensselaer, State of New York, United States of America.
ALEXANDER MELVILLE CLARK, of 53, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES FOR IRONING AND POLISHING SHIRT
FRONTS." [A communication from abroad by Henry Monk, of Troy, in the County
of Rensselaer, State of New York, United States of America.]
This Invention relates to machines for ironing shirt fronts, and it consists in the
combination of a number of hollow rolls for ironing and polishing the shirt front,
and a device for holding and carrying the shirt to be ironed. It also consists in a
device for moistening the shirt front, and in mechanism for imparting motion to the
various parts of the machine.
The frame of the machine consists of two similar side pieces connected by suitable
cross bars, and having a track formed upon their upper edges for supporting the
ironing tables. On the sides of the frame are supports, in which the ironing and
polishing rolls are journalled. The shafts of these rollers are tubular, and to them
are secured worm wheels, said wheels being driven by worms on a horizontal shaft
journalled in brackets projecting from the side of the frame. The two outer rolls
are plain, and the centre rolls indented with small concavities, such as are formed
by the point of a drill. The worms are right and left hand, so that the two outer
rolls rotate in opposite directions, and the motion of the indented rolls is opposed
to the adjacent smooth rolls. The centre indented roll rotates in the same direction
as the outer smooth rolls, but with greater speed, the difference in speed being
secured by making the worm wheel of said roll smaller and its worm larger than
the others.
The ironing table consists of a frame mounted on wheels and carrying a table,
which is attached to it by hinges. The table is recessed to receive an elastic pad of
rubber or other suitable material. This pad is cut away to receive the neck band
of the shirt, and a cloth cover is attached to the under surface of the table at its
free end, and is of sufficient length to cover the face of the table and extend into a
fastener, which consists of a split roller journalled at the hinged end of the table,
and provided with a ratchet and pawl by which the cloth is kept taut.

page_text: To counterbalance the weight of the table and enable it to be readily raised, a
rocking shaft, journalled in the frame, carries a lever arm that bears against the
under surface of the table, and is provided with two arms, to which a pair of spiral
springs are connected, the other ends of the springs being attached to the frame.
When the table is in a horizontal position its free end rests in a rabbeted rib on
the upper face of its frame.
The shirt is drawn over the table and its lower end is clasped between the halves
of a split roller, the movable part of which is hinged to the main portion, and
secured, when closed, by a ring which encircles both halves. This split roller is
journalled in the frame near the hinged end of the table, and is provided with a
ratchet and pawl.
The frame is provided with two ribs, one at each side of the table, for engaging
with collars on a moistening roll suspended at the front end of the supports of the
hollow rolls.
Two similar ironing tables are employed in this machine, one at each end, so
that when one is passing under the rolls the other is being made ready to pass
thereunder.
The moistening rolls, one of which is suspended at each end of the ironing rolls,
are hollow and perforated, and provided with a covering of sponge and an outer
envelope of cloth.
The collars on the two moistening rolls are different distances apart with the ribs
on each frame corresponding thereto, so that as one frame is moved under the one
moistening roll the latter is raised so that it will not touch the shirt, but as the
frame passes under the second roll, the collars of the said frame being wider apart
than the ribs are not engaged by them, and the roll touches and moistens the shirt
front. The other table operates in a similar way, its ribs being the proper distance
apart to engage the collars of the one moistening roll, raise the said roll as the table
moves forward, so that it does not touch the shirt carried by the table, but as the
table moves under the other roll, the ribs being farther apart than the collars of the
Baid roll, the roll touches and moistens the shirt.
Each table carries a pair of racks, which are engaged by pinions on a shaft which
is journalled in the frame of the machine, and they are each provided with a finger
that extends downward and engages a finger on a sliding rod which moves in guides
attached to the side piece of the frame. A stud projects from the side of this rod
for receiving a link that connects the said rod with a weighted lever which turns
on a stud projecting from a vertical bar forming a part of one of the side pieces of
the machine. The lever has a right-angled arm which extends to the outside of
the frame and engages the forked end of a clutch lever which turns on a stud that
projects from the said vertical bar. The opposite end of the lever engages a grooved
sliding sleeve on a vertical shaft journalled in brackets that project from the frame.
The sleeve is prevented from turning on the shaft by a feather, and it is provided
with lug pins at the ends for engaging similar pins that project from two mitre
wheels, which are placed loosely on the shaft, one above and one below the sleeve,
and mesh into a mitre wheel on the driving shaft.
A worm wheel is placed on the upper end of the shaft carrying the pinions above
mentioned, and takes motion from a worm on the vertical shaft; and to the upper
end of the said shaft is a mitre wheel, which meshes into a mitre wheel on the
shaft having the worms for driving the ironing rolls.
Lock levers are pivoted one above and one below the clutch lever, the long arms
of the levers projecting beyond the forked end of the clutch lever in position to be
engaged by the projecting end of the arm of the weighted lever. The shorter arms
lock the clutch lever in either of its positions.
The operation of the machine is as follows:-The shirt, the front of which is to
be ironed, is drawn over the table when the latter folded down upon its frame,
and the lower end of the shirt is secured in the split roller, which is turned until
the shirt is made taut. The table is moved forward until its racks engage the
pinions, when the rotation of the pinions carries the table forward under the ironing

page_text: rolls, which are heated and rotated in different directions, as already described. As
the table passes under the moistening roll the shirt front is moistened, and as the
table emerges from the rolls the finger in the table touches the finger on the sliding
rod and moves said rod, so that the weight of the weighted lever is carried over its
fulcrum, and the upper lock lever releases the clutch lever, while the lower lock
lever locks it as the lever is moved by its arm in shifting the sleeve from one of the
bevel wheels to the other. By this means the motion of the machine is reversed,
and the shirt is carried back under the rolls and polished.
The indentations in the rolls, the rotation of the rolls in different directions and
at different speeds, and the movement of the table at less surface speed than that of
any of the rolls, gives the shirt front a superior finish.