IMPROVEMENTS IN IRONING PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Oswald Barnsdale, of the Town and County of the Town
of Nottingham, Merchant, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN IRONING
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Oswald Barnsdale at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th December 1877.
OSWALD BARNSDALE, of the Town and County of the Town of Nottingham,
Merchant. "IMPROVEMENTS IN IRONING MACHINES."
I employ a roller covered with leather, paper, india-rubber, felt, or other suitable
substance. The axle of the roller revolves in suitable bearings, carried by standards
or a bed plate; the axle also carries a pulley for a strap from any prime mover, or
the roller may be driven by a worm and wheel. Under the roller is a flat plate,
which is depressed for a short portion of its length under the whole width of the
roller; this plate has a to-and-fro movement given it in the direction of the length
of the roller by a lever and cam, or other equivalent means; underneath the plato
is an inverted trough supplied with tubes pierced for jets of gas and air mixed, one
The
or both of which is impelled through the tubes by a fan or force pump.
traverse of the plate may be effected by a cam movement driven by bevel wheels or
equivalent apparatus.
By a machine constructed as above described I am enabled to save considerable
time, and the ironing is finished in a much superior manner.

page_text: Figure 1 represents a front view of one of my improved ironing machines,
Figure 2, the right end of the same, shewing the gearing by which it is driven, and
Figures 3 and 4, parts of the machine shewn separately.
In carrying out my Invention I employ a pair of standards A, A, the upper end
of each of which is connected to a strong tic bar B, which is tapped to receive it
Sciewed pin at the centre of its length; the screw is provided at its upper end with
a hand wheel, by which it may be turned; at its lower end is secured by two lock
nuts, in a bracket screwed to the top side of a bearing bar C³, the outer ends of
which are enlarged to form an eye, each of which has the upper end of a bearing
bar C¹ passed through it, and secured therein by a nut at the top; there is a space
on the first-named screw at the lower end to allow of a little play in the bracket, so
that the bearing bar C² may be raised or lowered thereon by means hereafter
described; the lower ends of the bearing rods each pass through a bracket secured
to the outside of the end standards, the axle of a roller C at each end is passed
through a bearing brass shewn by dotted lines at Figures 1 and 2, which, with the
ends of the bearing bar C2 slide up and down in the slots of the standards. The
roller O is of wood, covered with paper, felt, or other suitable substance, and in
Figures 1 and 2 is shewn raised above a flat iron plate D¹, which is highly polished
on its upper side, and is supported by a bed plate D, connected at each end to the
standards. The plate and bed are shewn in section at Figure 3; below the bed are
a number of gas burners H, scrowed into a pipe H', by which they are supplied
with gas, only one of these burners is shewn by dotted lines at Figure 1, they
being alike, and each is pierced with a number of holes, through which air rushes,
thus furnishing a mixture of gas and air which burns without producing any
smoke, and thoroughly heats the polished plate. Such heat may be regulated by
the amount of gas consumed being adjusted by a stop-cock conveniently placed on
the gas pipe. The standards, besides being connected by the tie bar B and bed
plate D, are likewise connected near the floor by means of two tie rods B¹. Below
the bed plate the standards carry bearings for a shaft G, provided at each end with
a lever Ġ¹, upon which the lower ends of the bearing bars C² rest when the levers
are in the position ahewn, the levers being so placed by one or other of two pins or
studs E* alternately, which are carried by a toothed wheel ES, which is the upper-
most of a train of toothed wheels E, E, and E, the latter wheel being carried by

page_text: a shaft provided with a pair of fast and loose pulleys E to enable the machine to
be driven by a belt from any prime mover.
The train of wheels E to Es have their axles carried by a bracketed frame I,
firmly secured to the right-end standard; the axle of the wheel ES passes through
the outer side of the bracket, and has a grooved lever F* secured on it, in this
groove a pin is capable of being adjusted excentrically by means of a screw shewn
by dotted lines in Figure 2; the pin projects from the grooved lever and into the
slot shewn by dotted lines at Figure 2 of a box F, which rocks upon the axle of
the wheels E, E; the box is covered by a plate F, which is removed when the
throw of the excentric pin requires altering, the box terminates at its upper end in
a toothed arc, the teeth of which gear into the toeth of a spur wheel F³, secured on
the outer end of an axle provided with a toothed wheel Fs gearing into a smaller
toothed wheel F³, secured on the right outer end of the axle of the roller C; by such
means the roller C may be caused to revolve ono whole revolution, or any part of a
revolution, and back again, the roller being lifted clear of the plate D' at the ter-
mination of each throw by one of the pins E' before mentioned.
At the back of the machine, next the plate D', is a stout board provided at its
back edge with a roller C', the axles of which evolve in bearings formed by
brackets secured to the standards, an end view of the roller and one such bracket
being shewn at Figure 4; over the roller C, a blanket or sheet of felt runs, one end
of which is secured to the roller C, or its covering; this blanket or felt is held close
to the polished surface of the plate D' by an intermediate roller C³, which revolves
in bearings, each of which is passed through a slot in the board before mentioned,
and is firmly pressed down by a weight C³ By a machine constructed and
operating as above described, I am enabled to iron small or large articles; whon
ironing small articles I adjust the throw of the excentric pin near to the centre of
the axle so as to obtain a portion of a revolution of the roller C to correspond to the
length of the articles to be ironed, or nearly so; the blanket or sheet of felt carries
the articles to be ironed or nemly so, the blanket or sheet of felt carries the articles
to be ironed over the face of the polished plate, and the roller C presses them thereon.
When articles which are longer than the circumference of the roller Care to be
ironed, I remove the blanket or sheet of felt, and adjust the excentric pin to its
greatest throw, and the attendant in front of the machine partially withdraws por-
tion of the ironed article when the roller rises to ensure that the whole surface may
be ironed. By such means I am enabled to save considerable time, and the ironing
is finished in a much superior manner.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same may be performed, I declare that I claim for an ironing machine, con-
structed and operating substantially as herein-before described, and illustrated
by the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Oswald Barnsdale, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
Witness,
H. W. GOUGH, C.E.,
Nottingham.
OSWALD BARNSDALE. (L.S.)