GB161163A - Improvements in apparatus for softening toe-parts of uppers of boots and shoes - Google Patents

Abstract

161,163. Baynard, W. H. April 1, 1920, [Convention date]. Softening.-In an apparatus for softening the toe.ends of assembled uppers before lasting by treatment with hot moistened air, electric or other high-temperature heaters are used for heating the air prior to its mixing with the vapour and for producing vapour, the vaporizing-chamber is fed from a supply tank, and an outlet separate from the toe-receiving, aperture is provided for each treating chamber to minimize gaseous flow through the said aperture. As shown, assembled uppers rest on a vertically and horizontally adjustable tube 36, Fig. 4, with their toe ends in semicircular apertures in a front wall 22 of the apparatus between cut-away plates 70, 71, Fig. 5. Draught in a slack 27 draws air through apertures in the lower part of the front wall 22 to a chamber 88 whence it passes by apertures 91 past an elecric heater 85, around the toes of the shoes and over baffles 81 to the stack 27. At the same time water in a tank 39 is vaporized by submerged electrio heaters 57, the vapour passing between baffles 76, 77, over the toes and over the baffles 81. The water in' the tank 39 is constantly replenished from a heated tank 40, a valve 47 being adjusted by the operator on inspection of the water level visible in an elbow 51. The electric heaters comprise a central resistance, through which the current passes, surrounded by mica or like material for insulating the central member and conducting heat to an enclosing tube 57. This tube has heat radiating and conducting rings in contact with it which, in the case of the submerged heaters, are further enclosed in tubes 52. A rotary switch controls the heating-circuits, and a pilot lamp is provided in a shunt circuit for indicating the resistance in the heating-circuits.