GB681280A - Improvements relating to the tying and general handling of tobacco leaves for various purposes such as curing - Google Patents

Abstract

681,280. Stringing tobacco leaves. STOKES, W. M. Jan. 20, 1950 [Feb. 1, 1949; May 2, 1949; Nov. 10, 1949], No. 1623/50. Class 130. [Also in Groups XXIX and XXX]. The butts 3 of hands 2 of tobacco leaves fed, e.g. by a pair of endless belt conveyers 1, 1 (see Group XXX), in succession and alternately on opposite sides of a pair of advancing and tensioned strings 6 'are clamped between the strings which pass in sinuous paths alternately over and under the butts. In drooping, the hands on opposite sides of the strings are counterbalanced and the gripping tension of the strings is increased to prevent the hands from becoming detached. The butts may overlie sticks 10 attached to and fed between the strings, Figs. 2 and 6. Members operated by mechanical means or by an electrical solenoid controlled by a light-sensitive cell, Figs. 13 to 25 (not shown), may reciprocate the strings vertically. The strung hands are led away in a continuous stream for subsequent treatment, e.g. curing, and may be transported on a portable conveyer, Fig. 28 (not shown), from which the leaves are unloaded and attached in a zig-zag path and by the strings to frames, Fig. 29 (not shown), which are arranged in tiers on columns, Fig. 30 (not shown), in a barn. When sticks are used, these are laid across the frames, Fig. 12 (not shown). The hands may be strung on a mobile machine, Figs. 26, 27 (not shown), that is driven or hauled along the rows of tobacco plants and which may be converted for spraying (see Group XXIX) or used for planting or fertilizing.