US518247A

US518247A - Kindling-wood

Info

Publication number: US518247A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1894-04-17
Anticipated expiration: 1911-04-17

Description

(NoModell) W. F. HUTGHINSON.

- KINDLING WOOD. No. 518,247.

Patented Apr. 17, 1894.

9 5 INVENTOI? WITNESSES: d

i/W 5m UNITED ST TES PATENT FFICE.

WILLIAM F. HUTOHINS ON, OF PASSAIO, NEW JERSEY.

KlNDLlNG-WOOD.

SPECIFICATION forming art Of Letters Patent NO. 518,247, dated April 17,1894.

Application filed August 13,1892. Serial No. 442,951. (No specimens.)

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, WILLIAM F. HUTCHIN- SON, of Passaic, in the county of Passaic and State of New Jersey,have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Kindling- Wood or Fire-Lighters, of which the following is a full, clear, and exact description.

Kindling wood, such as is put upon the market in bundles, is manufactured either by sawing a log or stick into blocks and then splitting the blocks, or by sawing logs or slabs of wood into long narrow lengths and then sawing such lengths transversely into blocks of the required dimensions. When the former method is used the blocks of kindling wood vary greatly in size, and the blocks at one end are liable to be much larger than at the opposite end. Where the second process is used the same trouble arises, but to a lesser extent, the difference in the sizes of the blocks being occasioned by the variations and knots on the outer surface of the wood. Moreover, in sawing, a great dealof wood is wasted by the saw kerf. Where blocks of unequal dimensions and with ends of differentsizes are bundled, a great loss is occasioned to the producer by the fact, owing to the unequal sizes of the blocks, that the bundles slip from the ties and the wood has to be rebundled.

The object of my invention is to overcome the difficulties mentioned, which is done by preparing the wood from strips or ribbons of veneer of uniform thickness, the width of the strips corresponding to the length of the blocks of kindling wood. In this way the blocks are made of a uniform size and especially of uniform thickness, so that when once tightly bundled they cannot work loose. Moreover, no waste is occasioned by a saw kerf, and as the blocks are of a uniform size the wood may be automatically dried and bundled; that is, passed through machines for drying and bundling, and this result cannot be obtained with the unequal blocks manufactured in the usual way.

To these ends my invention consists of a fire lighter or kindling wood constructed as hereinafter described and claimed.

Reference is to be had to the accompanying before it is formed into a bundle and after it has been cut or scored; and Fig.3 is a perspective view of a strip of veneer after being cut or scored,'the strip being stretched out fiatwise to show the scores more clearly.

In manufacturing my improved fire lighter or kindling wood, strips of veneer 10 are turned from a log in the usual well known way, these strips having their width made to correspond with the length of the individual blocks of kindling wood, and the thickness of the veneer corresponds, of course, with the thickness of the kindling wood. The strip is then scored deeply at equidistances apart, as shown at 11 these cuts or scores being made transversely and extending nearly through the wood, but leaving suflEicient material to cause the blocks 11, formed between the incisions, to hang together, but the blocks should not hang together so firmly as to prevent them from being readily torn apart by hand. It will be seen then that any necessary amount of kindling material may be torn from the strip and the fibrous edges of the blocks make them kindle readily.

The incisions may be made in the strip 10 in any convenient way, a good method being to run them through a rotary cutting machine which has the knives arranged so as to out not quite through the veneer. The strip, after being prepared as described, may be rolled up and pressed into a firm bundle, as shown in Fig. 1, and the bundle held together by a suitable tie 12.

It will be observed that a fire lighter or 0 kindling wood constructed as described overcomes the difficulties mentioned above, as the material may be easily handled and when bundled does not fall apart, even though it be roughly handled. I

Having thus described my invention, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent-- A fire kindler consisting of a thin rectanbeing equidistant apart so that the said block gnlar block or strip of veneer, havingalength or strip can readily be divided by hand, subsufficient to afiord division into a number of stantially as described.

blocks of corresponding size, said. block or VILLIAM F. HUTCHINSON. 5 strip being scored or cut transversely of its \Vitnesses:

length and nearly through, but leaving the WARREN 13. HU'IGHINSON,

adjacent edges of the blocks uncut, the scores EDGAR TATE.