US35710A - Improvement in machinery for breaking and cleaning hemp and flax - Google Patents

Description

SANFORD & MALLORY.

Flax and Hemp Brake.

No. 35,710. Patented June 24, 1862.

UNITED STATES PATENT @Ti iciso GELSTON SANFORD AND JAMES E. MALLORY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y.

IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY FOR BREAKING AND CLEANING HEMP AND FLAX.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 35.710, dated June 24, 1862.

T 0 or whom it may concern:

Be it known that we, GELSTON SANFORD and JAMES E. MALLORY, both of the city, county, and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Machine for Breaking and Cleaning Flax, Hemp, and other like Fiber-Yielding Plants; and we do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description thereof, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making part of this specification in which- Figure 1 is a plan; Fig. 2, a side elevation, and Fig.3 a longitudinal vertical section taken at the line A a of Fig. 1.

The same letters indicate like parts in all the figures.

The object of our said invention is the more effectually to break the woody part of the flax, hemp, and other like fiber-yielding plants and separate the fibers therefrom.

In the accompanying drawings, a represents a suitable frame, andb btwo bars, the adjacent faces of which are fluted longitudinally, the flutes from the upper to the lower edge being made gradually smaller, for a purpose to be presently described. The ends of the said bars are fitted to slide in longitudinal ways 0 c in the sides of the frame. The outer face of the barb is connected, by suitable connectingrods, d d,with cranks on the crank-shaft e, which is to be driven by any suitable motor, to give to the said bar a rapid reciprocating motion toward and from the other bar, I), which is capable of yielding to the violence of the blows and the varying thickness of the material operated upon by means of springsf f, placed behind its ends in the ways 0 c. The said springs ff are secured in any suitable manner to the ends of the fluted bar I) and to a third bar, g, the ends of which are also fitted to slide in the ways 0 0, and the rear face of this bar g is connected to toggle-joint levers h h, and these in turn are connected-by rods 1 t to aspringtreadle, 9'. By means of this arrangement, when the operator lifts his foot from the treadle, the bar 9 with the springs ff, and the fluted bar b attached to them, are drawn back to admit of readily introducing the flaX or other material to be operated upon, and then, by depressing the treadle, the bars 9 and b are pushed forward to the required position for the breaking op eration.

Just below the lower edge of the breaking bars I) b there is a rod, 7;, on the upper ends of two arms, Z Z, projecting up from a bar, m, the ends of which slide in horizontal ways a a, parallel with and below the ways 0 0, before described, and the ends of the said bar or project outside of the frame, and are there at tached to springs 0 0, the tension of which draws it and the rod is in the direction of the arrow.

On each end of the fluted bar b there is hinged a spring-catch, 1), so located that when the fluted bar I) reaches the end of its motion toward the yielding bar b,the said catches take hold of the projecting ends of the bar m, and by the return motion draw it and the rod it forward, distending the springs 0 0, and be fore the fluted bar breaches the end of its back movement the springcatches strike a stop, q, on the frame to liberate the bar m, which is instantly drawn in the direction of the arrow by the tension of its springs. The crank-shaft being set in motion and the bar b drawn back by the spring under the treadle, the operator introduces a bunch of flax or other fiber-yielding plant between the two bars Z) 6, and by depressing the treadle pushes the fluted bar 1) forward to its proper position, so that by the reciprocating motion of the fluted barb the flax or other plant is broken between the fluted faces of the two bars, and as this progresses the attendant permits the bunch of material to descend gradually between the two bars. So soon as the lower ends of the broken fibers descend below the fluted bars they (the fibers) receive a whipping or jarring action from the rod k, which strikes them at or nearly at right angles to their length, which action has the effect of knocking out the broken woody and other foreign fragments, an operation which is effectual, and which has less tendency to injure the fibers than what is known as the scntching operation. As before stated, the flutes on the bars b b are gradually finer from the upper to the lower edge. The object of this is to gradually break the woody parts of the plant without undue strain on the fibers. WVhen the flutes are all of an equal size, if made small to effectually reduce the woody parts of the plants, so as to insure a thorough separation from the fibers, the strain onthe fibers is so great as seriously to injure and often break them, and if the flutes be made large to avoid this strain on the fibers, then the woody parts are broken into pieces so long that they remain attached to the fibers, and can only be separated by a violent and longcontinued scutching operation,whieh is known to be seriously injurious to the fibers. This dilfi'culty is avoided by making the flutes large at the upper part of the bars and gradually finer toward the lower edge, so that at the up per edge,where they first act on the plant, they can be made so large as to break the woody parts into long pieces without serious strain to the fibers, and then these are gradually reduced in length as they pass down between the finer-flutes. In this way the woody and other frangible parts of the plant are effectually reduced and detached from and without undue strain upon the fibers, so that they can be knocked out by the jarring or whipping action of the reciprocating rod 7c, and without the necessity of the scutching operation.

GELSTON SANFORD. JAS. E. MALLORY.

W'itnesses:

A. DE LACY, PETER COOKE.

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