US250321A - Machine for beating napped hats - Google Patents

Description

(No Model.)

G. YULE.

MAGHINE FOR BEATING NAPPBD HATS.

No. 250,321. Patented Nov. 29,1881.

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UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE YULE, OF NEWARK, NEW JERSEY.

MACHINE FOR BEATING NAPPED HATS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 250,321, dated November 29, 1881. Application filed August 11, 1881. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern:

Be it. known that I, G. YULE, a citizen of the United States, residing in the city of Newark, county of Essex, and State of New Jersey, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Machines for Beating Napped Hats,'fully described and represented in the following specification and the accompanying drawings, forming a part of the same.

My invention relates to certain improvements in machines for beating napped hats; and it consists in the several combinations of mechanism hereinafter described and claimed.

Napped hats have heretofore had the .nap raised upon them chiefly by beating with rods upon a table, the felts being dipped in hot water from time to time until the completion of the operation. By such means one operator can finish that part of the napping process on but little over one hundred hats per day; and

the object of my invention is to substitute a' mechanical heater or heaters for the rods now used by hand, and to provide suitable means of sustaining and moving the felts beneath the heaters that they may be automatically conveyed through the machine. By the means I have devised the cotton formed in the naphat to prevent the felting of the fur fibers is speedily dislodged and the operation more per fectly performed than when done by hand.

In the drawings annexed is shown my improved machine, Figure 1 being a plan of the .same with one-half the heaters removed to show the hat-felts beneath them Fig. 2, a side view in part section; Fig. 3, a section of the tank, apron, and heaters on line an 00 in Fig. 1, the armsf being shown upon the shafts; and Fig. 4, an end elevation of the machine.

A is a tank supplied with hot water at any desired level. B B are rollers mounted upon the tank. (3 C are aprons carried by the rollers. D D are cones secured to the shafts of the rollersB B. E E are two other cones secured to the opposite end of roller B and a feeding-shaft,G, respectively. F is the drivingshaft, mounted upon the legs A secured to the tank A, and provided with driving-pulleys H, an adjustable crank, I, and a worm, J, the latter meshing into a worm-wheel, K, upon the feed-shaft G, and thereby transmitting to the rollers B B a much slower motion than the crank I transmits. The rollers B B are mounted upon shaftsb b at opposite ends of the tank A, each roller. extending but half-way across the tank, and the remaining portion of each shaft being covered by a loose roll or shell, d 11,

over which the aprons from rollersB B move at the desired rate.

Guide-rolls L are shown applied to the upper side of the aprons O O, the latter traversing the length of the machine side by side, and the rolls extending across both and turning freely as the aprons move. Upon these aprons are laid the hats II, to be beaten, and as they move slowly along upon the apron, driven by belts applied to the pulleys H and cones D 1), they are subjected to the action of vibrating heaters Z, which are attached at one end to vibrating or oscillating bars m arranged parallel with each side of the aprons, and are moved up and down by mot-ion transmitted to the bars from the crank I.

The driving-shaft extending lengthwise of the machine, beneath the tank, the end of it provided with the crank is below the side bar, m, and the crank-pint is fitted by a sliding block, a, to a slot, 0, in an arm depending from the end of the shaft in at n, and an oscillating motion imparted to the bar by the rotations of the crank. Slotted arms f are fitted to each of the bars m, and are provided with pins 0 adjusted in slots rbyscrews p. Connecting-links q are secured upon the pins 0, and the vibration of the single side bar, m, is thus transmitted to the bar m at the center and at the opposite side of the machine. Socketssare secured to the bars at at intervals by hubs t, and serve to hold and move the heaters or whips Z.

By means of the screws 19, the extent of the motion derived from the first bar 122 and transmitted to the others by the links 9 can be modified at pleasure, the oscillations of the arm n being regulated, as desired, by changing the position of the pin 6 in the crank I in any suitable manner.

The water in the tank is kept hot by steam hats lieis therefore supported by the surface of the water, and yields sufficiently under the blows of the heaters to make a very efficient bed.

By crossing the belt upon the cones D D the aprons B B may he traversed in opposite directions, as indicated by the arrows in Fig. l, hats It being shown upon the apron G, to indicate their disposition thereon.

With the mechanism thus described the hats can be supplied to the machine at one end and pass under the heaters in the direction of the arrow '12 to the opposite end of the machine, where an operator can receive them as they emerge from under the roller L and place them upon the other apron, to be traversed in the direction of the. arrow to under the other set of heaters.

If desired, the machine may be made with only one or two shafts m, and only one apron employed to traverse the hats beneath the heaters.

The guide-rolls L act as wringers to extract from the felts a large share of their moisture as they leave the machine, and thus save some time to the operator, who dips them in scalding water when heintroduces them into the machine, either in a separate vessel or into the end of the tank A.

The beating-rods may be made of hard or soft rubber, or wood, canes, or other materials, as preferred, and are preferably fastened into the sockets s by making the same in halves, or with a cap and clamping the same together by screws.

By means of thecones the speed of the apron relative to the heaters can be adjusted as desired, and the slots in the armsf and it. also afford any desired variations in the movement of the heaters.

I am aware that felting-machines have heretofore been made containing many elements of the combinations herein claimed but as the process of beating requires the employment of certain other mechanical elements not used heretofore, I will describe the difference in the processes performed by former inventions and my present one, that its nature may be distinguished from others already known.

In felting a hat-body a bat is formed upon a perforated cone of fur or wool fibers, and then subjected to a rolling and pressing operation in a felting-cloth for a period of time adapted to interlock the fibers thoroughly and constitute a solid tenacious felt. The first part of the operation, termed hardening, requires gentle handling, and the application of a moderate amount of hot water, the hat-body being frequently unrolled and crozed or folded in a different position, to prevent the whole from felting into a solid mass. The next stage of the felting or sizing consists in a severer rolling and pressing of the felt, with the application of more hot water and less frequent crozing. The final sizing consists in a still harder rolling and pressing, and the application of scalding hot water at frequent intervals to facilitate the shrinking and consolidation of the felt, the body contracting'to one-half its initial size in these several hardening and sizing operations. Unless intended for a napped hat the body is now ready for drying, blocking, and finishing; but if supplied with a nap-bat upon the whole or any part of its surface the same operations are required to a great extent, to join the fibers of the felt and the bat, and to prepare the body for the beating operation.

As the nap, if formed wholly of fibers capable of felting, would become merely a part of the original body by augmenting its thickness when subjected to the hot water, rolling, pressing, and crozing to which it is subjected in the so-called scalding operation, which is employed to stick and secure the nap to the bodyfelt, it is necessary to mix other fibers therewith to prevent such a result, and to make the nap adhere to the body-felt in separate fibers instead of a compact mass. To effect this result cotton fibers are intimately mixed with the fur before making the nap-bat, and the two are thusformed into a hat together, which is then applied to the hat-body, as described above.

The object of the scalding operation is to get the fur fibers inserted endwise into the bodyfelt, that they may project uniformly therefrom when the cotton is removed and although this operation, or its results, is rather different from the sizing of a hat-felt, which results in the hardening of all the fibers into a compact fabric, the same machinery is largely applicable, if adapted merely to roll and press the felt body, in either case. This is not at all true of the beatin g operation, the object of which is to remove the cottonfrom between the nap-fibers, and which is not effected by any rolling or pressing, but by an opposite sort of action, tending to open and loosen the fur fibers and shake out the cotton fibers which have never been joined to one another or to the fur by the scalding process. performed, the hat is laid upon a bench or plank and thoroughly wet with hot water, and then beaten with a rod in each hand of the operator. The cotton is discharged by degrees, and the operator removes it partly by combing out and partly by washing in hot water. As performed by my machine, the hat is traversed slowly under a series of rapidly-vibrating rods under the influence of more or less hot water, as required, and turned over or changed to expose all parts to the beating operation, the same as when beaten by hand, each time that it emerges from the action of the rods at the end of its traverse. To effect these changes with ease and rapidity, my double machine is provided with two aprons, traveling in opposite directions, so that when it is thrown out'by one of the aprons it can be turned over and fed in to the other. The heating operation is thus not only opposite in its character to the felting process, but involves the use of heatingrods, as Well as mechanism to vibrate them rap As usually idly, neither of which mechanical elements ex ist in machines constructedfor the prior operations to which the hat-body is subjected.

It is therefore evident that although Imight use certain elements previously know n-as the traveling apronin a machine for performing the heating process, I use them to secure a to-- tally difl'erent object, and in an essentially new combination.

Having thus fully described the construction and operation of my invention, I do not limit myself to the precise construction shown, as

various other means of'adjusting the different parts may be substituted for any of those employed; but

Iclaim myinvention in the following manner:

1. In a machine for beating napped hats, the combination of a mechanism for support-v ing and moving the hat-bodies under the beaters, as apron O, a mechanism for beating the hat-bodies, as rods Z, a mechanism for holding and moving the heaters, as s, and a mechanism for vibrating the heaters, substantially as herein described.

2. In a beating-machine, the mechanism for vibrating the rods or whips, consisting of the shaft m, sockets or holders 8, vibrating arm n, and crank I, the whole combined and operated substantially as described.

'apron, as U, and driving-shaft provided with cone or equivalent means of varying the speed of the apron beneath the heaters, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

4. In combination with the apron O, mounted upon rollsv on a tank, as described, the beaters l, operated as described, and the guide-rolls L L, for pressing the apron down to the level of the water in the tank, substantially as shown and described.

5. In a double beating-machine, the combination, with two sets of heaters operated by suitable mechanism, of two aprons operated substantially as described, and mechanism for moving the aprons at the required velocity in either direction, substantially as and for the purpose set forth.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my hand in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

GEORGE YULE. Witnesses:

CHARLES A. MOLAR'IY, THOS. S. CRANE,

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