IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BASKETS, SKELETON BARRELS OR CRATES FOR CARRYING ACID CARBOYS OR OTHER MERCHANDIZE REQUIRING A STRONG BUT NOT WATERTIGHT CASING OR PACKAGE
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Brunner of Widnes in the county of Lancaster
for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MANUFACTURE OF BASKETS,
SKELETON BARRELS OR CRATES FOR CARRYING ACID CARBOYS OR OTHER
MERCHANDIZE REQUIRING A STRONG BUT NOT WATERTIGHT CASING OR
PACKAGE" a communication to him from Charles Garneri, Captain of
Engineers of the Italian Army at present resident at Paris, France.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Brunner at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th December 1883.
HENRY BRUNNER of Widnes in the county of Lancaster "IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF BASKETS, SKELETON BARRELS OR CRATES FOR CARRYING
ACID CARBOYS OR OTHER MERCHANDISE REQUIRING A STRONG BUT NOT WATER
TIGHT CASING OR PACKAGE a communication to me from Charles Garneri, Captain
of Engineers of the Italian Army, at present resident at Paris, France.
"
This invention was originally designed for making the carboy baskets described
in my specification No 3190 of 1883. It is also applicable with trifling alteration
for making skeleton baskets and crates and other casing formed of bars or
standards and hoops. The base of the basket or box consists of two truncated
cones or pyramids formed by bending hooks of wood, iron or other material on
mandrils, the inner of these is placed on a revolvable cone or pyramid on a press,
and the outer placed round its smaller end, the standards are placed between the
two truncated cones or pyramids with or without distance pieces, and lying in
grooves or guides on the same revolving mechanism as the mandril.
When all are
in place the outer thin cone is pressed forward over the other till the two are
opposite each other, when they are nailed together. Upon this mandril or another
to which the unfinished basket or crate is carried, is placed an inner hoop against
which the standards lie. A second series of standards lighter and shorter than the
first and alternating with them can be nailed to this hoop and to an outside hoop
covering them. The entire set of standards are now encompassed by a wire belt
D

page_text: hoop or side pressing apparatus near the ends of the shorter standards, and
compressed over a projecting mandril which can be capable of contracting and
expanding as required in the case of barrel shaped articles. This compression
brings them against inside hoops held on an expanding mandril which is itself
expanded after the wire is tight till the hoops are pressed against the standards.
Outer hoops are now added and the whole nailed in place, the wire and expanding
mandril or mandrils are loosened and the basket, barrel or crate taken off, handles
bottom and lid if required attached, and if used for acid or other corrosive
substances the whole plunged in melted paraffin or other protective, until
thoroughly soaked when it is taken out and is complete.
The machinery can be all in one except the mandrils for forming the bottom
cones, or in two machines and the basket transferred. The expanding mandril or
mandrils can be formed of guide segments working in slides and forced outward by
a sliding cone or pyramid in the centre, or by a screw cam groove or other
mechanism well known in such cases.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent and of
an Order of the Lord Chancellor filed by the said Henry Brunner in the
Patent Office on the 5th July 1884.
HENRY BRUNNER of Widnes in the County of Lancaster
"IMPROVEMENTS IN
THE MANUFACTURE OF BASKETS SKELETON BARRELS OR CRATES FOR CARRYING
ACID CARBOYS OR OTHER MERCHANDIZE REQUIRING A STRONG BUT NOT WATER-
TIGHT CASING OR PACKAGE." A communication to me from Charles Garneri Captain
of Engineers of the Italian Army at present resident at Paris, France.
This application has for its object the protection of the machinery described in
my final specification N° 3190 of 1883 for manufacturing the carboy basket
therein protected.
Referring to the drawings:—
Fig. 1 is a sectional elevation and Fig. 2 an end elevation of the machine used
for building the baskets. Figs. 3. 4. 5 and 6 mandril, cones and rings for use, as
hereafter explained. Figs. 7, 8 and 9 vertical section, elevation, and plan,
respectively of finishing machine.
A, Fig. 1, is a conical frame, B a disc sliding on screw E, which is fixed in
frame A. D is a fly nut for forcing the disc B towards A when the standards and
rings are adjusted. G another disc with spacing pieces G' all round, forming a
template and guide for the standards, the disc G with the other mechanism already
described can be rotated by hand in central bearings T and round the shaft I set
at an angle as shewn or horizontally if preferred.
The mode of action with this machine is as follows.
A boy makes the thin wood cones on simple conical mandrils of the required
size such as Fig. 3, and closes them by iron hoops F Fig. 5. shown in position in
Figs. 4 and 6.
These cones are placed, the inner one on the surface of cone A, the other loosely
round it against disc B. The standards are now inserted with their ends between
the two wooden cones, a distance piece between each. The conical frame A and
accompanying mechanism being turned round on shaft I by hand for the purpose.
The other extremities are caused to lie one between each of the divisions or
teeth G¹ on disc G, by which means they are evenly spaced. The disc B is now
pressed home by fy nut D and screw E and the wooden cones firmly nailed to the
standards. The fly nut and disc B are now removed and the body of the basket
taken off and removed to the machine set forth in Figs. 7, 8 and 9, which I will
now describe. C is a conical mandril upon which the body of the basket, formed
as already described is placed. Q spacing block disc. Q₁spacing blocks on same
similar to G already described. P projections carrying shanks S sliding in sockets
in said projections and carrying clamps K. The shanks S are preferably square in
section, but any angular or feathered section will do as they are simply required to
slide in their sockets without turning round, M is a screw fixed by collar into
shaft L so as to be free to rotate while its position is stationary. U screw threaded
bearings or nut fixed by screws as shown to the casting V, so that by turning the
screw the entire casting V with its mountings C, Q, P, et cetera, is raised or
lowered. This lowering causes the sliding shanks or presses S to slide outward as
they are lowered against stationary cone N. R is a winch, and W registering
blocks to keep the basket true by, when being tightened up.
The mode of action is as follows:-
The body of the basket is taken from the machine (Figs. 1 and 2) where it was
constructed, and placed broad end downward on cone C, against a wooden hoop

page_text: clamped thereon by clamps H; another outer ring is placed over the body above
this inner ring, and a short distance piece is placed between each standard and the
next, and is nailed to the two hoops which are all nailed to the standards, and
the standards are adjusted to fall upon the discs Q and over two hoops clamped to
the sliding pieces S round P by clamps K. A wire or flexible hoop or band is now
wound once or twice round the standard ends, and is drawn tight by means of
.winches R till the standards and spacing pieces are strained over the discs Q to the
required curve or bulge, the spacing pieces or subsidiary standards being only long
enough to just overlap the first of the two hoops carried by the clamps K. The
outer wooden hoops are now slipped on, one over each of the inner ones, and forced
'down onto the basket standards. The screw M. is applied, causing the basket and
the mandril surfaces to advance over the cone N and thus to force out the slides S
carried in the projections P, and by this means bring the inside hoops tight against
the standards which are held in place by the wire, all the hoops are then nailed
in place.
.
Instead of the whole basket and mandril moving the cone N can be made to
slide on shaft L, and a lever may be employed for actuating it, where desired,
instead of a screw.
It will be obvious from the foregoing that the two machines could be combined
in one, parts A and G taking the place of C and Q with suitable modifications-
but I find in practice that the use of two independent machines worked together
produces more economy than is effected by combining all the working in one
machine, while the machinery is less likely to get out of order.
I do not therefore wish to confine my claims to the exact arrangement depicted,
but I claim as the invention protected by the Letters Patent :-
1st. The manufacture and use of basket making machinery, substantially as
described and shown in Figs. 1 and 2 and also in Figs. 7. 8. and 9, whether the
same be in separate machines or combined in one, and also the following points
taken separately, but each substantially as and for the purposes described.
2nd. The combination of mandril cones A. or C carrying inner hoops, straining or
distance pieces G, G¹ or Q, Q', and operating device for pressing the basket ribs and
the inner hoop or hoops tightly together, while nailing on the outer hoops.
3rd. The combination of a cone N with hoop holding device (S, K,) and frame-
work (V) carrying the basket body moved along with the holding device relatively
to the cone by means of a screw (M) or its mechanical equivalent substantially as
described.
In witness whereof I the said Henry Brunner have hereunto set my hand and
seal this 3rd day of July in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred
and eighty four.
HENRY BRUNNER. (L.S.)