for Method of and Apparatus Configuring Surfaces and in Surfaces Produced thereby, the Improvements being applicable to the Bed Plates of Glass Casting Tables.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Aug., 1893-Accepted, 18th Nov., 1893
Improvements in
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
for
Method of and Apparatus
Configuring
Surfaces and in Surfaces Produced thereby, the Improvements
being applicable to the Bed Plates of Glass Casting Tables.
I, EDWARD WALSH, Jr., of No. 304 North Eighth Street in the City of
St. Louis, State of Missouri, United States of America, Gentleman, 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:-
Heretofore, in the production of configured sheet glass, two principal methods
have been in use-.e., pressing and rolling. In the rolling method, several
different methods have been practiced :-The glass has been configured by a
following configuration roller; one of two rollers, between which the glass has been
relled, has been configured; a differential rotary and longitudinal movement has
been imparted to the flattening roller giving to the surface of the sheet of glass
irregular design that could not be produced by the previous methods; and, finally,
the bed-plate of the casting table has received the converse of the desired design on
the sheet of glass and a smooth-surfaced roller has been used.
an
My invention relates to the last-named method, and has for its object convenient
and economic means for producing designs on the bed-plates of the casting tables,
for the purposes specified. It consists, generally stated, in nurling the design into
the surface of the bed-plate.
The accompanying drawings will serve to make my invention understood.
Figure 1 is an elevational view of a bed planer of ordinary construction, being
used to accomplish my improved method of configuring a casting table bed-plate-
i.e., nurling the design into the surface of the same;
Figure 2 is a perspective view of the nurling wheel;
Figure 3 is a diametrical longitudinal section of the nurl wheel;
Figure 4 is a cross-section of the same;
Figure 5 is a plan-view of a portion of the finished bed-plate; and
Figure 6 is a cross-section of a portion of the bed-plate with the nurl wheel
matched into its counterpart on the bed-plate, as in the process of forming the
configuration in the bed-plate.
In the first place, there are certain essential features in the character of the
design that must be observed in following this method:-First, the design in its
integral parts should not be so symmetrically repeated that, in the removal of the
sheet, different portions of the design can again find a matching counterpart in the
bed-plate; second, the relatively raised portions of the design should not be too
pronounced; third, sharp corners in the extremities of these elevated parts, as well
as in the bottom of the depressions, in the design, should be avoided-preferably
the relatively raised and depressed portion in the design should be effected by
curved, rounded surfaces corresponding to the outline of the design shown in
Figures 4, 5, and 6; and, fourth, due attention should be paid to the general
character of the design that it may "draw" and that the integral parts of the
design or pattern be not too delicate, in order that, when the rolled sheet is
withdrawn from the roller table, the design be not defaced.
In-as-much as the features in the design enumerated above necessarily enter into
the practical problem of configuring the comparatively extensive bed-plate of the
casting table with the counterpart of the desired design on the rolled sheet, it has
heretofore been considered impracticable to make use of this method in the economic
production of configured sheet glass.
By my method, however, I have produced a design on the face of the bed-plate

page_text: of the casting table that in all particulars con'or.ns to the requirements enumerated
above, and that to a practicable, convenient, and economic degree that heretofore in
the art has been thought impossible.
In the drawing, like letters of reference denote like parts in the several figures.
A represents the longitudinally-movable bed-plate of a bed-planer of any approved
construction, the only difference in this instance- e., in applying it to this purpose,
the back or return movement of the bed is effected at the same rate of speed as the
forward movement. B represents the body frame-work of the planer, in which are
formed slide guides for the bed-plate A; C, the standards secured to the framing B
for supporting the vertically-movable cross-piece D; E, the head-stock for which
guides are formed in the cross-piece D, adapting the head-stock to be given a
traverse movement relative to the bed-plate A, and, consequently, a relatively
vertical movement, and, in-as-much as the bed-plate A is adapted to be given a.
reciprocating longitudinal movement, a third relatively longitudinal movement;
F, the drive-pulley by which power and consequent motion is transmitted to the
planer as a whole; G, the nuil wheel which is revolubly mounted in a bearing
rigidly secured to the head-stock E, and, therefore, adapted to be given the three
movements of the head-stock E, described, relative to the bed-plate A.; and
H represents the bed-plate of the casting-table the surface of which is to be con-
figured, which is rigidly, secured to the travelling bed-plate A of the planer, and
moves with it.
The operation of the planer, in configuring the bed-plate H of the casting table,
is as follows:-Power is applied to the drive-pulley F, which will give to the bed-
plate A a reciprocating longitudinal movement, and carry the bed-plate H, which
is secured to the same. in under the nurl-wheel G. The nurl wheel is forced down,
by the vertical adjustment of the cross-piece D, on to the face surface of the super-
posed bed-plate H and, when the bed-plate is moved backwards and forwards by
the mechanism of the planer, the surface of the same is given a configuration the
counterpart of that on the nurl wheel, by the url wheel being forced against the
face of the bed-plate H by the adjustable lowering of the cross-piece D and rotating
as the bed-plate A is reciprocated, repeating itself on the return movement of the
bed-plate. In this manner, the relatively elevated portions of the design on the nurl
wheel are forced into the material of the bed-plate H, and the material of the bed-
plate forced up, to a certain degree, into the relative depressions in the design in
the nurl wheel. At first, of course. the impression of the nurl wheel on the face of
the-bed-plate does not correspond in depth to the design on the nurl wheel, the full
impression being effected by causing the nurl wheel to repeatedly traverse the same
path over the bed-plate H longitudinally. When a correct reproduction of the
design on the nurl wheel-rather, the converse thereof-has been effected on the
bed-plate H along the path traversed by the nurl wheel as at first set, the nurl
wheel is moved across the bed-plate H, by the adjustable movement of the head-
stock E to a degree that this secondary position will lap slightly the path as at
first traversed by the same. For this reason, in the practice of this method, it is
obvious that, in the design on the url wheel one of two things must be observed-
either the integral features of the design must be symmetrically duplicated on either
circumferential edge of the wheel, or the wheel must be reversed for each
consecutive lateral movement of the head-stock E for a new path for the nurl
wheel.
-
Moreover, it is obvious that the design on the nurl wheel will be repeated in any
particular path of the nurl wheel for every revolution of the same, thus producing
a symmetrically repeated design on the bed-plate H, longitudinally. In order to
avoid a symmetrical repetition of the design across the bed-plate it is only necessary
that the nurl wheel be started, at each lateral removal, with a given reference
point in its circumference differently placed with reference to a given starting line
on the bed plate. For this reason, again, the special features of the design must
be symmetrically repeated circumferentially, so that they will match in the lap in
all possible positions of the nurl wheel circumferentially.

page_text: The conditions, however, in the configuration on the nurl wheel, for the purposes
just described, by no means prevent, or in any way interfere with, the placement of
any desired configuration in the longitudinally middle portion of the nurl wheel.
In the drawings, I have illustrated a design similar in general character, and
producing a similar general effect to the eye in the rolled sheet of glass, to the
wavy, ondoyant surface of the product illustrated and described in the Specification
to a Patent granted to myself on Aug. 5th 1886, No. 10,049. This design is
eminently suited to the method herein described, in that it in every particular
conforms to the requirements enumerated as essential to the practice of the general
scheme of configuring the bed-plate of a casting table, and, moreover, the
observance of these requirements itself alds to the desired general effect in
producing an irregular wavy surface more nearly approaching the very desirable
result obtained by the differential roller movement as described in the above-
mentioned Patent."
This method i.e., configuring the bed-plate of the casting table with the
converse of the desired design on the rolled sheet of glass, considered in connection
with the method described in the aforementioned Specification to Patent No. 10,049
of 1886, is of advantage in that it leaves one surface of the rolled sheet glass in a
comparatively smooth or semi-polished condition, a result that could not be
obtained in the practice of the method the subject of said Patent.
I am aware, as already stated, that the bed-plates of casting tables have been
configured. These configurations, however, have been produced by means other
than that herein described. In the case of right-line designs, the configurations
have been produced by routing out the metal of the bed-plate with the proper tool;
in symmetrical and symmetrically-repeated designs, it has been effected by milling
out the configurations; and, in irregular designs, it has been produced by etching
out the configuration on the bed-plate. This last method, however, is objectionable,
in that it is impossible to give to the operative surface of the configured bed-plate
the proper finish for glass rolling purposes. My present method has, indeed,
features not found in any former methods of configuring the bed-plate of the casting
table.
Having thus particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
--
1. The herein-described method of configuring a plane surface, consisting in
nurling the configuration into the said surface, substantially as described.
2. The herein-described method of configuring the surface of the bed-plate of a
glass casting-table, consisting in nurling the converse of the desired design into the
said surface, substantially as and for the purposes specified.
3. In an apparatus for configuring a plane surface, the combination with a nurl
wheel provided with the converse of the desired design, of means for forcing the
nurl wheel into contact with, and giving it a horizontal movement relative to the
said surface, substantially as and for the purposes described.
4. In an apparatus for configuring the operative surface of the bed-plate of a
glass casting-table, the combination with a nurl wheel of a support for the bed-plate
and means for forcing the nurl wheel into contact with the surface of the bed-plate
and giving to the nurl wheel a longitudinal and lateral movement relative to the
bed-plate, substantially as described.
5. As a new article of manufacture, a plate upon which a design is produced by
nurling the same into its surface, substantially as described.
6. As a new article of manufacture, a plate whose surface is formed with an
irregular, wavy, ondoyant configuration, said configuration being nurled upon the
surface of said plate, substantially as described.
7. In an apparatus for configuring the surface of a bed-plate of a glass casting-
table, the combination with a head-stock, of a nurl wheel supported thereby and

page_text: configured with a design duplicated at its circumferential edges and irregular at its
middle intermediate portion, substantially as described.
8. In an apparatus for configuring the surface of a bed-plate of a glass casting-
table, the combination with a head-stock, of a nurl wheel supported thereby and
configured with a design circumferentially symmetrical at its edges and irregular
at its middle intermediate portion, substantially as and for the purposes specified.
Dated the 2nd day of August 1893.