Improvements in and relating to Machines for Stamping or Printing Soap.
Year: 1896

page_text: This Print is in accordance with the Original Specification as it stands after
Amendment (under Section 11 of the Patents, &c. Act, 1883) as required by
the decision of the Chief Examiner of the 3rd day of February 1898.
Date of Application, 22nd July, 1896
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in and relating to Machines for Stamping or
Printing Soap.
I, COLIN CAMPBELL CALDER of Cedar Villa Invergowrie in the County of
Perth Scotland and presently residing at One hundred and three Guilford Street
off Russell Square London W.C. Commission Agent do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to improvements in machines for stamping marking or
printing soap, the object being to indelibly mark soap in an improved and simple
manner. The stamps which I employ may be that special form of stamp described
in the British Specification of Macdougald and Sturrock No. 1793 of A.D. 1893
or other stamps made in any suitable known way.
In the machines at present in use the cake or cakes of soap are held by grippers
designed to make a joint, altogether or nearly tight to fluid colour, and the colour
touches the surface of the soap only on that part or on a part a very little larger
than that portion where the stamp enters the soap.
In these machines the colour is conveyed to that part of the surface to be operated
on either by means of collapsable bags or displacers for raising the level of the
liquid colour or by means of shutters which on being withdrawn allow the liquid
to flow to that part exposed by the grippers.
It has been found in practice that the making and keeping of a fluid colour tight
joint or joints between the grippers and the soap gives a considerable amount of
trouble which it is difficult to avoid owing to the varying sizes and curves of the
soap.
In my improved stamping machine the grippers or the portion of the apparatus
which performs the function of holder and which is used to retain the soap when
the stamp or stamps are being inserted and withdrawn operate in such a manner
or are in such relative position to the fluid colour as to permit of the cake being
either wholly submerged or submerged to a sufficient depth beneath the level of
the fluid colour during the operation of stamping. The fluid colour is contained in
a suitable vessel and the cakes may be inserted and removed by hand. I prefer
to use a rising and falling holder which places the soap in position and removes it
subsequent to the operation of stamping.
It will therefore be understood that I do not endeavour to localise the fluid
colour to the least area necessary for the operation of stamping as has been the case
heretofore by means of fluid colour tight joints between the holder or gripper and
the cake, but I submerge the cake or cakes completely or to such a depth as is
necessary to insure the desired stamping effect and I thus avoid one of the chief

page_text: difficulties which has been experienced in the manufacture and working of such
machines.
Dated this Twenty-second day of July 1896
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION (AMENDED).
Improvements in and relating to Machines for Stamping or
Printing Soap.
COLIN CAMPBELL CALDER Agent sometime of 103 Guilford Street Russell
Square London W.C. now of Cedar Villa Invergowrie in the County of Perth
Scotland 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:-
My invention relates to improvements in machines for stamping, marking, or
printing soap, the object being to indelibly mark soap in an improved and simple
manner. The stamps which I employ may be that special form of stamp described
in the British Specification of Macdougald and Sturrock No. 1793 of A.D. 1893
or other stamps made in any suitable known way.
In my improved stamping machine the grippers or the portion of the apparatus
which performs the function of holder, and which is used to retain the soap when
the stamp or stamps are being inserted and withdrawn, operate in such a manner
or are in such relative position to the fluid colour as to permit of the cake being
either wholly submerged or submerged to a sufficient depth beneath the level of the
fluid colour during the operation of stamping. The fluid colour is contained in a
suitable vessel and the cakes may be inserted and removed by hand. I prefer to
use a rising and falling holder which places the soap in position and removes it
subsequent to the operation of stamping. That my rising and falling holder used
in combination with the fluid colour tank for the more or less complete immersion
of the cakes of soap as differentiated from immersion in the older machines may be
more easily understood I append drawings with similar parts marked alike in
which:-
Figure 1. (Sheet 1) is an end elevation of a soap stamping machine fitted with
my new rising and falling soapholder in combination with Huid colour tank.
Figure 2. (Sheet 1.) is an upper plan of the machine.
Figure 3. (Sheet 2.) is a sectional elevation of same through X X of Figure 1.
Figure 4. (Sheet 2.) is a part sectional view showing the soapholder and section
of colour tank.
Figure 5. (Sheet 3.) is a sectional elevation of a soap stamping machine fitted
with my rising and falling fluid colour tank in combination with fixed soapholder.
Figure 6. (Sheet 3.) is a part sectional elevation of same showing the framing
and rising and falling fluid colour tank and fixed soapholder.
I affix the stamps A A to slides B. B. in a way similar to what has been in use
heretofore. These slides are actuated by the lever C. C. which in turn derive
their motion through the rods D. D. from the wrist plate E. which again derives
its motion through the rod F from the spur wheel & and pinion H on the belt
pulley shaft K. By means of this mechanism the stamps are caused to advance
and retire synchronously as in machines used heretofore. L is a tank containing
fluid colour, M is the soapholder containing the cakes of soap N which is attached
to the rods 0. O actuated by a cam P on the shaft Q. The cam P may cause the
soapholder with the soap to rise and fall through an intermediary lever R which is
the method I prefer but without departing from the nature of my invention I may

page_text: operate on the rods directly and cause them to rise and fall in a similar way if
such rods or uprights are guided.
The machine fitted with my new rising and falling soapholder and colour tank
operates as follows. On the rotation of the shaft Q by means of the pinion H on
the belt pulley shaft K operating on the spur wheel G the stamps AA are caused
to reciprocate. At a period of such rotation when the stamps are completely with-
drawn from the soap the holder M is caused to rise sufficiently above the level of
the liquid colour in the tank L by the operation of the cam P on the intermediary
lever R as to allow of the stamped cakes being removed and unstamped cakes
inserted. On a farther rotation of the shaft the cam P allows the spring S
attached to the intermediary lever R to depress the soapholder and thereby carry
the unstamped soap cakes sufficiently beneath the surface of the liquid colour in
the tank L as to ensure the efficient stamping of them in the manner as described
in the British Specification of Macdougald and Sturrock No. 12974 of A.D. 1892.
It is evident that if the spring S is dispensed with and the cam P made grooved
the same action may be secured and a positive motion obtained for bringing down
the soapholder. Such obvious changes may be made without departing from the
nature of my invention.
As I have already said I prefer to use a rising and falling soapholder but an
obvious alternative is shown in Figures 5 and 6, in which the fluid colour tank is
caused to rise and fall by similar mechanism to that already described for raising
and lowering the soapholder, and the soapholder remains stationary. The tank a
is guided by rods bb in the framing at e. c. The camp on the shaft q causes the
tank a to rise and fall through the intermediary lever and rod v. The machine
fitted with my rising and falling colour tank and stationary soapholder as shown
in Figures and operates in other respects exactly as described in my first
method with this exception that no spring is necessary to depress the tank as, when
filled with fluid colour it falls by reason of its own weight. In Figures 5 and 6 d
is the stationary soapholder and e. e is the framing to which it is fixed.
I desire it to be distinctly understood that I do not confine myself to the exact
details of construction as hereinbefore described and as shown on the accompanying
drawings, but I reserve to myself the liberty of altering the same to such an extent
as may be consistent with the nature and scope of my invention.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed I wish it to be understood
that I lay no claim to the general construction of the machines and that I am
aware that it has been previously proposed to stamp or mark soap by partially or
wholly immersing the blocks or tablets in the liquid colour, and causing the stamp-
ing blocks to reciprocate and penetrate the soap while immersed, but I declare
that what I claim is:-
(1.) In machines for stamping or marking soap, the rising and falling soap-
holder substantially as described and as shown in Figures 1. 2. 3. and 4 of the
accompanying drawings.
(2.) In machines for stamping or marking soap the combination of rising and
falling soapholder and fluid colour tank substantially as described and as shown in
Figures 1. 2. 3 and 4 of the accompanying drawings.
(3.) In machines for stamping or marking soap the combination of rising and
falling fluid colour tank with stationary soapholder substantially as described and
as shown in Figures 5 and 6 of the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 21st day of Anvil 1807
C. CAMPBELL CALDER.