Improvements in the Manufacture of Card Teeth, and in Apparatus Employed in such Manufacture.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 16th Feb., 1894.
Complete Specification Left, 19th Sept., 1894-Accepted, 24th Nov., 1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Card Teeth, and in Apparatus
Employed in such Manufacture.
I, JOHN PLATT of Holborn Viaduct Hotel, London, Commercial Traveller, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to improvements in the method of and means employed for
manufacturing card teeth from steel wire either from hardened and tempered or
from mild steel wire, the points of which and a portion of the length of the working
part of the teeth are hardened, the object being accomplished by passing the
length of wire from which the dents or teeth are to be made through an apparatus
which will harden the wire at intervals of its length previous to the teeth being
formed therefrom and in such a manner that the dents or teeth formed or cut from
the wire will have their points and a portion of the working part of the card
hardened the remaining portion being soft i.e. mild steel.
The invention consists in the employment of electrical apparatus wherein an
intermittent contact is made between two poles between and through which the wire
is passed and thereby heated afterwards passing into oil or other cooling medium,
and thence to a card setting machine when the dents or teeth are cut and formed
and set as usual.
According to this invention I employ a trough containing oil or other cooling
medium. In the lid or cover of the trough and dipping into the cooling medium
in same are the two poles connected with an electric current. Close to one of the
poles are two plates placed side by side and close together in the oil or other
cooling medium which is drawn up by capilliary attraction between such plates to
above the level of the surrounding medium.
The wire is drawn through the trough and through the two poles by the feed
motion of the machine, thence between the two plates and through the cooling
medium therein.
An intermittent current of electricity is sent through the two poles, and the wire
between the two is heated and then drawn forward into the cooling medium between
the two plates, and hardened.
A suitable appliance for causing the electric circuit to be completed consists
of a tappet or cam which depresses an armature and closes the circuit.
A resistance is added to the apparatus to regulate same.
The poles are preferably absorbant so as to draw up the cooling medium and the
poles are thus kept cool.
BRIERLEY & HOWARD,
Penny Bank Chambers, Halifax, Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in the Manufacture of Card Teeth, and in Apparatus
Employed in such Manufacture.
I, JOHN PLATT of Holborn Viaduct Hotel, London, Commercial Traveller, 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 the method and means employed for

page_text: manufacturing card teeth from steel wire either from hardened and tempered, or
from mild steel wire, the points of which and a portion of the length of the
working part of the teeth are hardened, the object being accomplished by passing
the length of wire from which the dents or teeth are to be made through an
apparatus which will harden the wire at intervals of its length previous to the
teeth being formed therefrom and in such a manner that the dents or teeth formed
or cut from the wire will have their points and a portion of the working part of
the tooth hardened the remaining portion being soft i.e. mild steel.
The invention consists in the employment of electrical apparatus wherein an
intermittent contact is made between two poles between and through which the
wire is passed and thereby heated after which it is passed into oil or other cooling
medium and thence to a card setting machine where the dents or teeth are cut,
formed and set as usual.
Such being the nature and object of my said invention the following is a
complete description of same reference being had to the accompanying drawings in
which :-
Fig. 1 is a plan view of the improved apparatus for purpose aforesaid, said
apparatus being carried on a table or frame not shewn.
Fig. 2 is a side elevation partly in section of part of the improved apparatus.
Fig. 3 is a side elevation of the apparatus for opening and closing the electric
circuit.
Fig. 4 is a front elevation on enlarged scale of the two poles and their carrying
flap.
Fig. 5 is an end view on an enlarged scale of one of the poles ready for inserting
the wire.
According to my invention 1 employ a trough divided into two compartments 1.2
the compartment 1 containing oil or other cooling medium and the compartment 2
felt, fibre or other material which will clean and dry the wire 23. To the side or
upper edge of the trough I binge a small flap 3 of non-conducting material such as
vulcanite, and carried by this flap 3 are two poles 4.5 having binding posts 45
connected by wires 6. 7 with a source of electric supply. The lower ends of the
poles 4.5 dip into the cooling medium in the trough 1. Close to one of the poles 5
are two plates 8.8 fixed close together to the bottom of the trough 1 the upper
ends of which extend to above the level of the cooling medium which is drawn
up between the plates by capillary attraction to above the level of the surrounding
medium.
The cooling medium in the trough 1 is automatically maintained at about one
level by filling the tank 9 with medium by way of the screwed plug 10. The top
of the tank has a bent pipe 11 fixed to it and the open end of this pipe dips into
the medium in the trough i. Near the bottom of the trough 1 and opening into it
is a pipe 12 which is connected with the bottom of the tank 9 and on this pipe 12
is a tap or valve 13. When the apparatus is in operation the tap 13 is opened and
the medium just covers and closes the orifice of the pipe 11 and when from any
cause the medium sinks below this level the end of the pipe 11 is open and air
enters and forces the medium out of the tank 9 through the pipe 12 into the
trough 1. The medium rising in this trough, closes the end of the pipe 11 and
prevents more cooling medium passing from the tank 9 into the trough.
The necessary intermittent opening and closing of the electric circuit sent
through the two poles 4. 5 is obtained by means of a tappet or eccentric 14
mounted on a shaft 16. This tappet or eccentric 14 imparts a to-and-fro motion
to an arm 15 free to move on its stud or pin 15 said arm being moved in one
direction by means of a spiral spring 17 attached to any fixed point.
On the arm 15 is a hinged bracket 18 of non-conducting material and on this
bracket is fixed a plate of copper 19 a binding post 19 being carried by the
bracket 18 and connected to the plate 19. On the plate 20 of non-conducting
material is a plate of copper 21 with a binding post 21 and this copper 21 can be
moved nearer to or further from the copper 19 by means of the lever 22 so that

page_text: the length of time the circuit is completed can be regulated, the screw 22" and
plate 22 serving to hold the copper 21 in the position in which it is set on the
plate 20 which is slotted to enable the plate 21 to move.
The wire 23 to be tempered is drawn through saw gates 1ª 1 and 2 in the
troughs 1. 2 and through the poles 4.5 thence between the two plates 8.8 and
through the cooling medium therein by the ordinary intermittent feed motion of
the card setting machine.
The pole 4 is connected by wire 6 with the negative pole of the dynamo or other
source of electric supply and the pole 5 by wire 7 to the binding post 214 of the
contact maker 21 and the binding post 194 is by wire 6ª connected to the positive
pole of the dynamo or other source of electric supply that when contact is made
between these two 19. 21 the current passes along the wire 23 and heats same
between the poles 4. 5 the circuit being then broken and the wire drawn forward
into the cooling medium and hardened.
In order to readily pass the wire 23 through the poles 4. 5 an inclined saw
gate 25 (Fig. 5) is cut in each one and over each saw gate is a short collar or
socket 26 forced downwards by means of a spiral spring 27. By moving the
collar 26 up the pole and compressing the spring 27 as shewn in Fig. 5 the wire
can be passed into the saw gate, and the collar 26 when released is forced down on
to the wire and so holds same in position.
The lower ends of the poles 4. 5 are chased or screwed so that the cooling
medium is drawn up same and prevents their being overheated.
The position of the flap 3 can be adjusted and fixed by the thumb screw 28
which works in a slot 29 in the wall of the trough 1.
I am aware that hardened wire has been softened at intervals of its length by
means of gas flame so as to produce card teeth harder from the point to the bends
than from the bend to and including the crown.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature and object of
my said invention and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare
that what I claim is :-
1. Heating at intervals of its length by an electric current wire for improved
manufacture of card teeth or dents.
2. The improved apparatus as and for the purpose herein described or any mere
modification of same.
Dated this ɔist day of July 1894.
Dated this 1st day of July lost.
JOHN PLATT,
By his Agents, Brierley & Howard,
Penny Bank Chambers, Halifax.