Improvements in Brush Making Apparatus.
Year: 1896

page_text: Date of Application, 3rd Nov., 1896-Accepted, 5th Dec., 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by EMMA MORRISON, of Lausingburgh, New York,
United States of America.]
Improvements in Brush Making Apparatus.
I, HENRY HARRIS LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake & Co., Patent Agents,
45 Southampton Buildings, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Fig. 1 of the drawings is a view in side elevation of my improved apparatus, with
a portion broken away.
Fig. 2 is a vertical cross-section of the same taken on the broken line 2-2 in
Fig. 1.
Fig. 3 is a horizontal cross-section of the same on the line 3-3 in Fig. 2.
Fig. 4 is a view in cross-section of the bristle-plate and bristles in the operation of
forming the brush-pad.
Referring to the drawings, A is a plate having a plurality of apertures formed
therethrough, adapted to receive and support the several knots or bunches of bristles A¹
to be embodied in a molded or other brush, which apertures are preferably tapered
from one side of the plate to the other.
The plate is preferably made of metal, and provided on one side with a molding
surface A 2 in which are the smaller end-openings of the bristle-recesses.
B is a hopper adapted to contain a supply of bristles, and B' a vertical slideway
support on which the hopper is mounted by means of the frame B 2 free to slide
longitudinally on the support.
Reciprocating movements can be imparted to the hopper by means of the cam B3
mounted upon and rotary with the drive-shaft B4 supported in bearings B5 and
provided with a drive pulley B 6 to which power is transmitted through the belt B 7
to operate the shaft and cam.
The cam is engageable with the under side of the frame B 2, which may be
provided with a pad B8 of leather or rawhide to resist the wearing effect of
the cam.
The hopper is provided with a reticulated bottom comprising one or more meshed
diaphragms or sieves B 9.
In the operation of filling the plate with bristles, the plate is placed upon a
support or carriage D with its molding surface on the under side and supported
a short distance above the floor of the carriage by means of the ring D₁ which
surrounds said molding surface.
The carriage is then placed beneath the hopper, the flaring ends of the bristle-
apertures in the plate being uppermost; and a supply of bristles having been
inserted in the hopper, the same is rapidly reciprocated by means of the cam-
mechanism above described.
The agitation thus imparted to the bristles in the hopper causes them to assume
various positions therein in some of which positions the ends of the bristles enter the
meshed openings in the hopper bottom, and guide the bristles therethrough in
approximately vertical lines.
The bristles thus fed through the hopper bottom by agitation, enter the flaring
mouths of the bristle apertures in the plate A, and are guided by the converging
walls of such apertures through the contracted end-openings to project from the
molding surface A 2 into the space A 3 hetween such surface and the carriage.
As the operation of the hopper is continued the bristle apertures in the plate A

page_text: are gradually filled, the impact of the continuously falling bristles, as well as
gravity causing the bristles to descend through the apertures until their progress
is arrested by engagement with the floor of the carriage or an interposed plate D 2.
When the bristle plate is properly filled, the carriage is taken from beneath
the hopper and the surplus. of bristles removed from the uppermost surface of the
plate.
The filled plate can then be removed from the carriage by superposing thereupon
a plate D3 and inverting the bristle-plate and plates D2 and D3 together, after
which the plate D 2 can be removed to expose the molding surface of the bristle-plate
and the ends of the bristles projecting uniformly therefrom in proper position for the
application of the plastic composition in the process of forming a brush pad.
The brush pad may be formed in any known manner.
I prefer to form the brush pad in the manner hereinafter described.
The bristle-plate having its tapered apertures filled with bristles projecting from
the molding surface A 2 as above set forth, is provided with a removable flange or
ring, which may be the ring D' used in the operation of filling the plate, and which
surrounds the molding surface and the space above the same into which the ends of
the bristles project.
I employ for the brush-pad a fusible composition which I reduce by heat to a fluid
state, in which condition it is poured upon the molding surface of the bristle plate
around the ends of the bristles, the enclosing ring D' preventing the escape of the
molten material.
After a sufficient quantity of the molten material has been applied to the bristle-
plate and distributed properly around the ends of the bristles, it is permitted to harden
by cooling, and forms when hard, a supporting pad P for the bristles.
The removal of the pad from the bristle-plate will withdraw the bristles from
said plate, and the connected pad and bristles constitute a brush suitable for many
purposes.
The brush may be provided with an ornamental back and handle in any known
manner.
The composition for making a pad in this manner, may he any known material
which can be reduced by heat to a fluid-state, and will harden upon cooling.
The hopper may be provided with any known form of reticulated or apertured
bottom adapted to separate the bristles and induce an endwise movement of the same
toward the subjacent bristle-plate.
The apparatus above described is adapted to be used for feeding bristles, brush-
fibre or other capilliform brush material.
The springs as well as gravity tend to maintain the hopper in its lowermost
position, acting in opposition to the cam in producing the reciprocating movements of
the hopper.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is―
1. In a brush apparatus, the combination with a bristle-feeding hopper having a
reticulated bottom and mechanism for agitating the hopper, of a bristle-receiving
plate having a plurality of bristle-recesses and a stationary support for the plate below
the hopper, substantially as described.
2. In a brush apparatus, the combination with a bristle-feeding hopper, having a
reticulated bottom, and means for agitating the hopper, of a bristle-receiving plate
having a plurality of downwardly tapering apertures; and a stationary support for
the plate below the hopper, substantially as described.
Dated this 3rd day of November 1896.
HASELTINE, LAKE & Co.,
45 Southampton Buildings, London, W.C., Agents for the Applicant.