GB131213A - - Google Patents

Abstract

131,213. Goold, L. W., (American Laundry Machinery Co.). Nov. 27, 1918. Ironing-tables and like work-supports; shirt clamps and like holders; dressing or folding shirts after ironing.-A shirt-folding table for dressing laundered shirts and for preparing manufactured shirts for sale, of the type in which a padded shirt-receiving bed is fitted with a recess adapted to receive an expansible neck-band former, is provided with a metal shield or guard to prevent displacement of the padding round the edge of the recess, and with a pivoted board, on which the shirt is folded symmetrically. The bed 1 of the apparatus is provided with a shelf 4 at one end for holding hand-irons and with a shelf 5 at the other end for holding the shirts under treatment. The recess 6 has an enlarged portion at one end occupied by the neck-band former, and beyond this comprises a narrow slot portion for receiving the buttons on the shirt. The thin metal shield 8 fits closely round the edges of the recess and has an outwadly-extending flange overlying the padding on the table. It is secured in position by pins 12 driven through the flange, and by bolts 11 passing through the table. When the shirt has been positioned on the bed with the bosom downwards, by arranging the buttons in the recess and clamping the neck-band, the finishing touches are given by the hand-irons, and then the pivoted board 47 is turned down from the position shown in Fig. 2 into contact with the shirt. The shirt can then be folded rapidly round the board with the tail portion enclosing the sleeves, the board being made accurately to size so that the operation of producing a symmetrically folded article without wrinkles requires little experience on the part of the operator. Finally, the board is raised again until the stops 51 contact with the table, and the folded shirt is slipped off the end. A neck-band former is described, comprising a sliding member 16 connected by crossed links to two other sliding members 23. The member 16 is kept normally at the forward limit of its movement by a spring-controlled rod 31 connected to it by a member 30 and a pair of connecting-pins 20. By depressing the treadle 44, the member 30 is drawn rearwardly against the action of the spring through the linkage shown in Fig. 2, thus temporarily collapsing the former while the shirt neck is placed round it.