US13981A - Improvement in machinery for whipping hair - Google Patents

Description

I. DAVIS;

Hair Picker.

Patented Dec. 25,1855.

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ISAAC DAVIS, OF MEOHANICSBURG, OHIO.

IMPROVEMENT lN MACHINERY FOR WHIPPING HAIR.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. I 3.981, dated December 25, 1855.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, ISAAC DAVIS, of Mechanicsburg, in the county of Ghampaign and State of Ohio, have invented an automatic hair-whipper for the purpose of preparing crude hair for the use of plasterers, uphol sterers, saddlers, and others; and I do hereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact description of the construction and operation of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, which form part of this specification, and in which Figure 1 represents a view in perspective of the machine. Fig. 2 represents a vertical section through the center, and Fig. 3 repre sents a horizontal section,showing the register for regulating the admixture of air with the hair as it passes from the machine, and also at the same time regulating the feed of the hair by varying the force of the current of air flowing in at the hopper.

In whipping or beating hair by hand, long flexible sticks about the thickness of the finger are employed. The operator places a quantity of hair on a suitable table or platform, and then with a stick in each hand beats it vigorously, striking with the sticks alternately. If the sticks be too rigid, they will neither prepare the hair as well nor as rapidly as if they possessed the required degree of flexibility. The object of this beating is to separate the lime and earthy matter from the hair, and to beat out the numerous clotted lumps or tufts, so that the whole mass will be homogeneous, flocculent, and light. Various attempts have been made to perform this operation by machinery, but without success. The wool-picker seems to have been the favorite contrivance of .those who have attempted to whip hair by machinery, but it has not been found efficient for the purpose, because it discharged hair too soon, and broke the lumps into smaller pieces, instead of whipping them into a flocculent mass of hair and dust, as is done by hand with flexible sticks. Other contrivances that have been resorted to for the same purpose have failed as signally as the picker to perform the operation.

My automatic hair-whipper consists of two series of long flexible rods of metal, one series,

a, mounted radially on a shaft, A, in spiral rows, and the other series, 1), arranged in rows in the periphery of a hollow cylinder, B, and converging toward the center of the same. This hollow cylinder is about the size of a com mon flourbarrel, and stands upon three legs, 0. On its bottom a step, d, is secured, on which the pivot of the lower end of the shaft A turns. The upper end of the shaft turns in a suitable bearing on a bracket, 0, secured to the top or upper head of this cylinder, which bracket also carries a hand-crank, f, that turns a bevelwheel, which takes into a pinion, h, on the upper extremity of the shaft A,to give the latter a rapid rotary motion. The rotary flexible rods on the shafts are so arranged that their planes of rotation are in the spaces between the stationary flexible rods, converging from the periphery of the cylinder. The upper head of i the cylinder is provided with a hopper, i, through which the hair .is fed into the cylinder. The lower part of the side of the cylinder has an aperture made in it, through which the whipped hair and dust are discharged. The bottom head of the cylinder is perforated with numerous holes, and immediately over the bottom athin register-plate,j, is mounted, which turns on the same center as the shaft. This registerplate is perforated with holes corresponding to those on the bottom, so that by turning the plate more or less the holes in the bottom can be wholly or partially closed as may be required for purposes that will presently be explained.

This machine is operated to very great advantage by turning thecrank with the right, and feeding in the hair with the left, hand. The hopper at which the hair enters is near the axis of the cylinder,while the aperture for the discharge of the hair is in the periphery of the cylinder. Then, therefore, the shaft and its rods are rapidly rotated, their centrifugal force will, like a fan, cause an influx of air at the hopper and an efilux at the dischargeaperture. If the entering current is too strong, it will feed in the hair too rapidly, and will also carry it through the machine too fast to give it time to be thoroughly whipped. To remedy this the register at the bottom may be opened to admit air, and if the discharge of air by centrifugal force through the aperture k, at which the hair leaves the cylinder, is supplied in part from the bottom, it is obvious that less will be drawn in at the top. Again,

' if the hopper be kept filled with hair, as it always will, when the machine is doing full duty, the openings through the bottom of the cylinder will supply the necessary air to cause the hair to be deposited in a light flocculent mass, and to carry off the dust. When the hair enters the cylinder it is instantly struck by the revolving rods, and thrown violently among the stationary rolls. If a lump be too large to pass freely between the rods,the latter, being elastic, will yield to alow it to pass, and it will be carried round by a rapid succession of blows by the revolving rods from one stationary rod to another, at the same time that its gravity and the current of air from above will impel it downward, until finally it is thoroughly whipped and driven out at the aperture 70 on the lower edge of the cylinder. As the hair is entangled and impeded in its clownward course by the rods, it cannot descend as rapidly as the dust, hence the latter is effectually separated from the, former.

What I claim in the foregoing as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, 1s

1. A combination of a series of long, slender, and elastic revolving rods with a similar series of stationary rods arranged and operating within a cylinder, as herein set forth, for the purpose of whipping hair.

2. In combination with the foregoing, a register, in the bottom perforated head of the cylinder, for the purpose of reg ulating the strength of the downward current in the cylinder and insuring a due admixture of air with the whipped hair as it leaves the machine.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto subscribed my name.

ISAAC DAVIS.

WVitncsses:

A. B. GOWAN, JOHN WV. J ONES.

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