US518872A

US518872A - wendell

Info

Publication number: US518872A
Authority: US
Publication date: 1894-04-24
Anticipated expiration: 1911-04-24

Description

(No Model.) 3 Sheets-Sheet 2.

F. 0. WEN DELL.

IRONING MAGHINE.

INVENTOR:

WITNESSES: mag .W

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THE NATIONAL umocmmma coMPAm.

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3 Sheets-Sheet 3.

(No Model.)

P. 0. 'WENDELL.

IRONING MACHINE.

Patented Apr. 24, 1894.

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WITNESSES:

NATIONAL LIIHOGRAPHING COMPANY,

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NITED STATES PATENT FFICEQ IRONING-MACHINE.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 518,872, dated April 24, 1894.

Application filed. J'annary 9,1890. Renewed October 29,1892. Again renewed August 23,1893, and again renewed March 22,1894. Serial No. 504,724. (No model.)

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, FREDERICK O. WEN- DELL, a citizen of the United States, residing in Brooklyn, in the county of Kings and State of New York, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Ironing-Machines, of

which the following is a specification.

The object of this invention is to provide a machine for rapidly ironing or smoothing towels, napkins and other similar laundry surface thereof. The towels or other goods are seized by the rollers in succession, so that each separate towel is being fed along by one or simultaneously by two or more rollers. The rollers are covered with cloth or any soft materialwhich will enable them to grasp the towels and propel them over the table.

In order to make the machine as compact as possible, and at the same time to secure an extended heated surface for drying and smoothing the towels, I employ two or more tables of suitable length arranged one beneath the other, and I provide means for transferring the towels which reach the end of one table onto the end of the next table, the rollers on which are arranged to carry the towels across in the opposite direction, so that they travel back and forth over the successive tables.

I provide means for adjusting simultaneously the pressure with which the several rollers bear upon the table or tables, and also for separating the rollers from the tables when the machine is not in use so .that the rollers shall not be overheated by contact with the hot tables.

The accompanying drawings illustrate a machine embodying my invention.

Figure 1 is a vertical longitudinal section of the machine, a fragment thereof being shown in side elevation. Fig. 2 is an elevation of the receiving or entering end of the machine, the right-hand portion of the figure being in vertical section in a plane coincident with the axes of the smoothing rollers. Fig. 3 is a fragmentary planof the receiving end of the lower table. Fig. 4 is a fragmentary side elevation of one end of the three tables and their connecting frame. Fig. P 1s a fragmentary horizontal section of the frame. Fig. 4 is an elevation of one of the slideways. Fig. 5 is a fragmentary side elevation of the machine, showing the operating lever, and Fig. 6 is a fragmentary section of a modification.

Referring to'the drawings, let A, A A designate heated tables having smooth upper surfaces, and heatedeither by being made hollow and admitting steam to them from a pipe at, as shown, or in any other suitable manner. These tables are suitably supported by the side-frames B B of the machine. A succession of rollers O C O is arranged over the several tables, each roller having bearings in sliding blocks suitably guided in the side-framesB Band pressed down by the springs o c adjusted by screws bb to regulate their tension. These rollers are all revolved in the direction of the arrows marked adjacent to them in Fig.1, and preferably all at the same surface speed by means of any suitable gearing. The particular kind of gearing shown is worm-gearing, each of the rollers having a worm-wheel upon the shaft projecting beyond the side-frame, and a worm d on a shaft D being arranged to mesh with this wheel (as best seen in Fig. 2). .The three shafts D D D are geared together by cogs e e, and one of the shafts carries fast and loose pulleys f f by which it may be driven by a belt from any suitable source of power. Other known methods of gearing, however, may be employed to impart simultaneous rotation to these rollers.

A basket, E, is preferably provided at the receiving end of the machine to hold the towels or other laundry work to be operated upon. The operator stands at this end of the machine and feeds the towels one after another smoothly upon a feed-board g, presenting them to theaction of the first roller 0, which feeds them in and pushes them on to the second roller 0, which in turn engages them and propels them to the third roller 0 and so on, whereby they are moved continuously over the smooth surface of the upper heated table A, being pressed firmly against it by each of the successive rollers, and there by simultaneously dried, smoothed and polished. When the towels reach the end of this table A they are received upon a cylinder F of a diameter approximately equal to the distance between the upper surfaces of the first and the second table. Pressed against this cylinder F is a hood G by which the towel in passing around is held in contact with the cylinder F and driven thereby, being finally delivered upon the end of the second table A and pushed along thereon by the action of the cylinder F until engaged by the first roller 0, after which the operation is repeated except that the opposite side of the towel is presented to the polishing action of the table. The towels are carried along on this second table in the same manner as the first until they reach the opposite end thereof, whereupon they are transferred to the third table, this transfer being effected by the cylinder H and a series of endless tapes I I at intervals arranged to hold the towels firmly against this cylinder as it revolves. These tapes are carried over the end roller 0' of the series of rollers on this table, and over a series of pulleys J J on a shaft J at the end of the third table. The outer or ascending portion of the tapes is carried over rollers 72. to keep it out of contact with the cylinder H. The end of the third table is notched, as shown at t' z' in Fig. 3 in order to receive the tapes as they descend, while the spaces between these notches serve to receive the advancing edge of the towel which is still held by the tapes, and guide it properly onto the upper surface of the table. The towels are carried along the third table in the same manner as over the others, being further dried, smoothed and polished thereon, and are finally delivered therefrom by the terminal rollers 0 onto a receiving table or board K, Fig. 1. An operator should be stationed at this table to receive the towels and spread them in a uniform pile, count them, and remove them from the machine. The cylinders F and H are driven preferably by cog-gearing from one of the adjacentrollers O 0', preferably from the roller just above. Thus the cylinder II has fixed upon its shaft a cog-wheel j which is'driven by a cog-wheel j fixed on the shaft of the roller G just above it. Preferably the rollers O, O, O are made of wood in two parts fastened together by screws, and their shafts are made square where the rollers are fas' tened on them. The rollers are covered with cotton or woolen cloth, flannel, chamois, or any other yielding material presenting a sufficiently frictional surface.

The tables A A A are heated by steam admitted at one end, as for example by the pipe or shown in Fig. 1, and are arranged on a slight incline, sloping downwardly from this end toward their other ends in order to drain oif the water of condensation,fwhich escapes through a pipe m the branches of which lead from the under side of the tables at their lower ends.

The three tables A A A are movable vertically relativelyto the supporting side-frames 13 B, so that by moving them up or down the rollers O, G, 0 may be lifted more or less and their springs c c compressed to greater or less tension, so that thereby the pressure of all the rollers may be varied simultaneously in order to adapt the machine for different kinds of work. The tables are also movable to a position sufficiently below the lowermost position to which the rollers are movable as to bring them entirely beneath and out of contact with the rollers in order that when the supply of goods to be laundered runs short, or whenever the machine is disused for a short time, the tables may be dropped out of contact with the rollers and the burning or overheating of the rollers be thereby prevented. I accomplish both these results preferably by means of one mechanism. The three tables are connected together at their opposite ends by means of uprights L L, one of which is shown in Fig. 4, these uprights being provided with vertical slides (or projections),n n engaging corresponding vertical slide-ways on the plates L L fastened to the side-frames B B. By means of this arrangement the three tables are connected together and are moved simultaneously up and down, being guided in their vertical movement by the guide-ways, and their displacement both in longitudinal and transverse directions is prevented. The bottom ends of the uprights L L, or of blocks connected to them, or to the lower table, rest upon eccentrics or other shaped cams M M carried on cross shafts M M having bearings at or near their opposite ends in the sideframes 13 B. These shafts are caused to move simultaneously by being provided with crankarms a connected together by parallel bars M, as shown in Figs. 1, and 2. On the outer end of one of these shafts is fixed a handlever N arranged to be within convenient reach of the operator. This lever stands normally in the position shown in dotted lines in Fig. 1, so that the tables are held by the cams M M at such height that the rollers C, C, C bear against them with moderate pressure. By swinging the lever toward the left in Fig. 1, the tables will be raised still higher and the pressure of the rollers increased. By swinging it toward the right in Fig. 1, the tables will belowered, and when lowered to a certain point until the bearing blocks of the shafts of the rollers rest on the solid bottoms o 0 of their slide-ways so that the rollers can descend no farther, the continued descending movement of the tables carries them out of contact with the rollers. Thelever N may be held in either of itsseveral positions by being constructed in the manner shown in Fig. 5, with a pawl 19 operated by a grip-1e verp' and entering one or another of a series of notches in a sector-piece '1", which is fastened against the exterior of the frame 13.

The hood G by which the towels are held in contact with the cylinder F is fastened on a pivoted rod 3 and is pressed against the cylinder by the tension of a weight or spring applied to an arm 3' fastened on this rod. In case a towel should become misplaced or jammed between the cylinder and hood or adjacent thereto, the 'hood may be thrown outwardly to afford access to the roller. By so doing the weight is carried over the axis of the rod 8 so that it acts to hold the hood down. 7 It may sometimes be desirable to use only the upper table of the machine, in which case the hood will be thus turned down while the machine is being so used, and the towels will be delivered from the cylinder F and dropped therefrom onto the receiving table K.

In case a towel should run crooked and become wedged or jammed at any other part of the tables it may readily be reached through the openings in the side-frames and pulled out laterally. Or in case a towel should fail to pass properly around the cylinder H it may be drawn out between the tapes I I.

The rollers O, O, C may be removed separately from the machine in ca'sethey require to be repaired by first detaching from the sideframes the vertical strips or pieces t t which confine the bearings of the roller, and then displacing the roller sidewise into the middle of the opening or space between two rollers, whereupon it may be drawn out endwise through the corresponding opening in one of the side-frames.

It must not be inferred from the particularity of detail with which I have illustrated and described my improved machine that my invention is essentiallylimitedto the precise construction shown, since in fact the novel features of my invention may be otherwise availed of.

If desired,the article being smoothed may be transferred from an upper table to the next lower one by means of a carved guide extending from the upper table downward toward the lower one. Such a construction is shown in Fig. 6, wherein the table A is shown as provided with a guide H at its end, over the surface of which a belt I is run in a manner similar to the tapes I I seen in Figs. 1 and 2. A towel fed along an upper table, would,

in this construction, be carried around the guide H and be delivered onto the next lower table.

I claim as my invention the following-defined novel features and combinations, substantially as hereinbefore specified, namely:

1. The combination of two elongated flat tables arranged one above the other, a succession of rollers over the upper table and means for revolving them to propel the goods to be smoothed over the table in one direction, a similar succession of rollers over the second table and means for revolving them in the opposite direction, mechanism intervening between the delivery end of one table and the receiving end of the other table for transferring thegoods from one table to the other, and separate uprights and frames supporting said tables and said rollers constructed to permit their relative movement.

2. The combination of two tables arranged one above the other, a succession of rollers over the upper table and means for revolving them to propel the goods to be smoothed over the table in one direction, a similar succession of rollers over the second table and means for revolving them in the opposite direction, a roller or cylinder arranged to receive the goods at the delivery end of the upper table and transfer them to the receiving end of the lower table, and means for holding the goods against the surface of said cylinder during their transfer from one table to the other.

7 3. The combination of two tables arranged one above the other, a succession of rollers over the upper table and means for revolving them to propel the goods to be smoothed over the delivery end of the upper table and trans,-

for them to the receiving end of the lower table, and a hood held firmly close against said cylinder to retain the goods in contact therewith during their transfer and movable away therefrom to get access to the surface of the cylinder. V

4. The combination of three tables arranged one above another a succession of rollers over each table and means for driving them to propelthe goods to be smoothed in one direction over the first table in the opposite direction over the second table and again in the original direction over the third table, means for transferring the goods from the delivery end of the first table to the receiving end of the second and means for transferring them from the'delivery end of the second table to the receiving end of the third table, the latter means consisting of a cylinder intervening between the upper surfaces of the second and third tables, and a succession of tapes passing partly around said cylinder for holding the goods against the cylinder during their passage between the tables.

5. The combination of supporting side frames, a succession of rollers extending between said frames and having their journals guided thereby, a long flat table arranged beneath said rollersand movable up and down relatively to the side-frames, vertical tracks on the latter, provisions on the table engaging and traveling on said tracks, and mechanical means for so raising or lowering the table at will constructed to simultaneously and uniformly move both ends thereof at the one operation.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses;

FREDERICK O. WENDELL.

Witnesses:

GEORGE H. FRASER, J NO. E. GAVIN.