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INDUSTRIAL MACHINES. · Inventions of the Century

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  Section twenty one of Inventions in the Century. This is a LibriVox recording.
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  All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer,
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  please visit LibriVox dot org. Rate by PROJECTA. Inventions in the Century
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  by William Henry Dolittle, Chapter twenty Industrial Machines. One invention engenders another,
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  or cooperates with another. None leaves or stands or dies alone. So in
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  the humble but extensive art of broom making, main and weemen work along through
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  ages, binding with their hands the supple twigs of trees or bushes, or
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  of corn, by thongs or courts or wire upon the rudely formed collar of
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  a hand smooth stick. Until the modern lathe and hollow mandrel armed with cutters,
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  the power driven shuttle, and the sewing machine were invented. The lathe
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  and mandrel to hold the stick while it was cut was used before, but
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  it was long within the century that a hollow mandrail was first invented, which
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  was provided internally with cutting beveled knives, and into which the stick was placed,
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  carried through longitudinally, and during its passage, cut smooth and finished as
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  broom corn became the chief product from which brooms are made. It became desirable
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  to have a machine after the corn had been scrapped off its seed, to
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  size and prepare the stains in regular lengths for the various sizes of brooms,
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  and accordingly such a machine was invented. Then a machine was needed and invented
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  to wind the corn brush with the cord or wire and tie it in a
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  round bunch preparatory to flattening and sewing. It then followed different forms of broom
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  sewing machines. Among the pioneers was one which received the round bunch between two
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  compressing jaws and pressed it flat. While so held, a needle with its
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  course thrade was forced through the room above the binding and the cort twined around
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  it. Then a shuttle, also carrying a stout thread, was thrown over
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  the cord. The needle receded and was then forced through the broom again under
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  the binding cord. Thus, in conjunction with the shuttle, the stitches were
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  formed alternately above and below the binding twine, the holding jaws being raised intermittently
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  for that purpose. As each stitch was formed, the machine faded the broom
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  along laterally and intermittently by another engineer device. The cord was tied and cut
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  when the sewing was completed. It is only by such machines, which treat
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  the entire article from the first to the last step, that the immense number
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  of rooms now necessary to supply the market are made true. It is that
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  at first labor was displaced. At one time, seventeen skilled workmen would manufacture
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  five hundred dozen brooms per week. They had reduced the force of earlier times
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  by making larger quantities by better processes. Then, when the broom sewing machines
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  and other inventions got fairly to work, nine men would turn out twelve hundred
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  dozen brooms per week. Thus, while the force was reduced nearly one half,
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  the quantity of product was more than doubled. But as the cost of
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  labor decreased and the product increased, the product became more plentiful and cheaper,
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  The demand and u use became greater. More broom corn was raised, more
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  broom factories started, and soon the temporary displacement of labor was succeeded by a
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  permanent increase in manufacture and in laborers, an increase in their wages, and
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  an improvement in their condition, useful and extensive as is its use, the
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  broom does not compare in variety and wide application to the brush. The human
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  body, cloth, leather, metals, wood and grains. Everything that needs
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  rubbing, cleaning, painting, and polishing meets the acquaintance of the brush.
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  Nearly one hundred species of brushes might be enumerated, each having an especial construction
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  for a particular use. Although the majority of brushes are still made by hand,
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  yet a few most ingenious machines have been made which greatly fascilitate and speed
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  the operation, and many mechanical appliances have been invented in aid of handwork.
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  These machines and appliances, together with those which cut, turn bore smooth,
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  and polish the handles and bags to which the bresh part is secured, have
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  greatly changed and improved the art of brush making during the last fifty years.
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  The first machine which attracted general attention was invented by Oscardy An E. C.
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  Woodbury of New York and patented in eighteen seventy. As in handmaking,
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  and before subjected to the action of the machine, the bristles are salted as
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  to length and color, a brush back boled with holes by a gang of
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  bits which holes do not extend. However, all the way through the back
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  is placed in the machine under a cone jointed plunger adopted to enter the hole
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  in the brush back. A coomb shaped slated plate in the machine has then
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  each slit filled with bristles sufficient in number to form a single tuft. When
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  the machine is started, the bristles in a slit are forced out therefrom through
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  a twisted guideway which forms them into a round tuft, and which is laid
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  horizontally beneath a plunger, which, descending first doubles the tuft, and as
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  the plunger continues to descend, forces the double end down into the hole.
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  The plunger is supplied with a wire from a reel, turns as it descends
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  and twists the wire around the lower aid of the tuft, the wire being
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  directed in that way by a spiral groove within the plunger. The continuing action
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  of the plunger is such as to screw the wire into the back. The
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  wire is cut when the rotary plunger amenses its descent, and when the tuft
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  is that secured the plunger assents, the block is moved for another hole,
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  and another set of brisseles is presented for manipulation. Brushes with seventy holes can
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  be turned out by this machine at the rate of one a minute. Another
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  most ingenious machine for this purpose is that of Kennedy dis and Cannon, patent
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  in the United States in eighteen ninety two. In this brush, blocks of
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  varying size but of the same pattern are bored by the same machine, which
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  receives the bristles, and the tufts are inserted as fast as the holes are
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  bored. Both machines are automatic in operation. Street sweeping machines began to appear
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  about eighteen thirty one in England, shortly after in France, and then in
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  cities in other countries. The simplest form and most effective sweeper comprises a large
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  cylinder armed with spiral rows of splints and hung diagonally on the underside and across
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  a frame having two or four wheels. This cylinder is connected by bewailed gearing
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  with the wheels and in revolving throws the dirt from the street into a ridge
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  on one side thereof where it is swept into heaps by hand sweepers and is
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  then carted off. King of the United States was the inventor. A more
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  recent improvement consists in the use of pneumatic means for removing the dust that is
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  caused by the use of revolving brooms or brushes. Such removal being effected by
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  means of a hood that covers the area of the street beneath the body of
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  the machine and encloses an air exhaust, the sweepings being drawn through the exhaust
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  mechanism and deposited in a receptacle for the purpose, or in some instances deposited
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  in a furnace carried by the machine and there burned. In cities having hard,
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  smooth paved streets and sufficient municipal funds, the most effective, but most
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  expensive way has been found to keep a large force of men constantly at work
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  with hoods, shovels, brooms, bags and carts, removing the dirret as
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  fast as it accumulates upbreading machines. One of the most striking inventions of the
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  century is the application of the sand blast to industrial and artistic purposes. For
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  ages, the sands of the desert and wild mountain plains lifted and driven by
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  the whirling winds, had sheared and polished the edges and faces of rocks,
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  and cut them into fantastic shapes. And the sands of the shore, tossed
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  by the winds of the sea, had long scratched and cleared the windows of
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  the fishermen's hut. Before it occurred to the mind of man that here were
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  a force and an agent which could be harnessed into his service. It was
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  due finally to the inventive genius of B. F. Tiltman of Philadelphia,
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  Pennsylvania, who in eighteen seventy patent a process by which common sand, powdered,
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  quartz, emery, or other communitd sharp cutting material may be blown or
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  driven with such force upon the surface of the hardest materials as to cut,
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  clean, engrave, and otherwise upbraid them in the most wonderful and satisfactory manner.
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  Diamonds are upbraided, glass depolished or engraved or bowed, metal castings,
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  cleaned, lithographic zinc plates, grained silverware, frosted stone and glass for jewelry,
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  shaped and figured the inscriptions and ornaments of monuments and tombstones cut thereon,
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  engravings and photographs corpied steel, files cleaned and sharpened, and stones and marble
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  carved into forms of beauty with more exactness and in far less time than by
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  the chisel of the artisan. The gist of the process is the employment of
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  a jet of sand or other hard upbraiding material, driven at a high velocity
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  by a blast of air or steam under a certain pressure in accordance with the
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  character of the work to be done. The sand is placed in a box
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  like receptacle into which the air or steam is forced, and the sand,
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  flowing into the same chamber, is driven through a narrow slit or slits in
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  the form of a thin sheet, directly onto the object to be upbraided.
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  By one method, the surface of the object is first coated with tinfoil on
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  which the artist traces his design, and this is then coated with melted transparent
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  wax. Then, when the wax is hardened, it is cut away along
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  the lines already indicated and seen through the wax. The object now is subjected
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  to the blast, and as the sand will not penetrate, a softened material
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  sufficient to upbraid a surface beneath the exposed portions alone will be cut away.
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  The sand after its strikes, is carried off by a blast to some receptacle,
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  from which it is returned to its former place for further use. Other
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  means may be used in the place of a slated box as a small or
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  large blowpipe, but the driving of the sand or similar upbraiding material with great
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  force by the steam or air blast is the essential feature of the process.
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  Emery, that variety of the mineral corundum, consisting of crystalline aluminum resembling in
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  appearance, dark fine grained iron ore, ranking next to the diamond in hardness
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  and a sister of the sapphire and the ruby, has long been used as
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  an abredant. The Eastern nations have used corandum for this purpose for ages.
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  Turkey and Grease once had a monopoly of it. Knight says the corandum stone
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  used by the Hindus and Chinese is composed of corandum powdered two parts, lack
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  raising one part. The two are intimately mixed in an earthen vessel, kneeded
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  and flattened, shaped and polished. A hole in the stone for the axis
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  is made by a heated copper rod. However ancient, the use of artificial
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  stones for grinding and polishing. Nevertheless, it is true that the solid emery
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  wheel in the form that has made it generally useful in machines known as emery
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  grinders, is a modern invention and of American origin. In the manufacture of
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  such machines, great attention and the highest scientific skill has been paid, first
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  to the material composing the wheel, and to the cementing substances by which the
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  emery is compacted and bound in the strongest manner to prevent bursting when driven at
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  great speed. Secondly to the construction of machines and wheels of a composition varying
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  from the finest to the coursest, And thirdly to the proper balancing of the
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  wheels in the machines, an operation of great nicety, in order that the
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  wheel may be used on delicate tools at high speed without producing uneven work,
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  marking the objects, or endangering the breaking or bursting of the wheel. Such
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  machines, when properly constructed, although not adapted to take the place of the
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  file. Other steel cutting tools and the grindstone for many purposes, yet have
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  very extensively displaced those tools for cutting gages and the grinding and polishing of hardened
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  metals by raising chiefly of their greater convenience, speed, and general adaptability.
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  Not only tools of all sizes are ground and polished, but plowshares, stove
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  and wrought iron plates, iron castings, the inner surfaces of hollow ironware,
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  the bearings of spindles, arbors, and the surfaces of steel chilled or cast
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  iron rolls, et cetera. In the great class of industrial mechanics, no
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  machines of the century have contributed more to the comfort and cleanliness of mankind than
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  those by which were in apparel, in its vast quantities, is washed and
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  iron more thoroughly, speedily, and satisfactorily in every way than is possible by
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  the old hand systems. When it is remembered how under the old system such
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  a large part of humanity, and this the weaker part, devoted such immense
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  time and labor to the universal washing and ironing days, the invention of these
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  machines and appliances must be regarded as among the great labor saving plessings of the
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  century. True, the individual washerwomen and washermen and ironers have by no means
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  disappeared, and are still in evidence everywhere. Yet the universal and general devotion
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  of one half the human race to the washed up and ironing table for two
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  or more days in the week is no longer necessary, and even for the
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  individual worker, the convenient appliances and helps that have been invented have greatly relieved
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  the occupation of pain and dregedy. Among modern devices in the laundry worked by
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  hand is first the washing machine, in which the principle is adapted of rolling
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  over or kneeding the clothes by moving a lever by hand up and down.
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  The clothes are thoroughly rubbed, squeezed, and lifted at each stroke. Then
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  comes the wringer, a common form of which consists of two parallel rolls of
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  vulcanized and otherwise specially treated rubber fitted to shafts, which, by an arrangement
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  of cogwails, gearing and springs in the framework at the ends of rolls,
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  and a crank handle, are made to roll on each other. The clothes
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  are passed between the rollers. The springs permit the rollers to yield and part
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  more or less according to the thickness of the clothes. Then the old fashioned
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  or the new fashioned mangle is brought into play. The old style mangle had
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  a box weighted with stone, which was reciprocated on rollers and was run back
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  and forth upon the clothes spread upon a polished table beneath. One of the
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  more modern styles is on the principle of the ringer above described, or a
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  series of rollers arranged around a central drum and each having a rubber spring attached
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  by which means the clothes are not subjected to undue pressure at one or two
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  points. As in the first mentioned kind. Starch is also applied by a
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  similar machine. The cloth is ripped into a body of starch, or the
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  same is applied by hand, and then the superfluous starts squeezed out as the
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  clothes are passed through the rollers. But for hotails and other large institutions,
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  washing is now done by steam power machinery. It is an attractive site to
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  step into a modern laundry operated with the lattest machinery on the largest scale.
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  The first thing necessary in many localities is to clarify the water. This is
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  done by attaching to the service pipe tanks filled with filtering material through which the
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  water flows before reaching the boiler. The driving engine and shafting are compactly placed
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  at one end or side of the room, with boilers and kettles conveniently adjacent.
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  The water and clothes are supplied to the washing machine and operated by the
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  engine. Steam may be used in addition to the engine to keep it boiling
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  hot, or steam may be substituted entirely for the water. The machine may
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  be one of several types, selected especially for the particular class of goods to
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  be washed. There is the dash wheel constructed on the principle of the cylinder
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  churn, the outer case being stationary, and the revolving dash wheel water tight
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  or perforated, which is the preferred form for collars and cuffs. In place
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  of the dash wheel. Cylinders are sometimes used, having from sixty to seventy
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  revolutions a minute. Another form has vibrating arms or beaters, giving between four
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  hundred and five hundred strokes a minute, and by which the clothes are squeezed
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  between rubbing corrugated boards. The rubbing boats also roll the clothes over and over
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  until they are thoroughly washed. In another form, a rotating cylinder for the
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  clothes is provided with an arrangement of pipes by which either steam, water or
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  bluing can be introduced. As desired into the cylinder through its hollow journals,
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  so that the clothes can be washed, rinsed, and blued without removal from
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  the machine. Another type has perforated reciprocating pistons, between which the clothes are
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  alternately squeezed and released, a supply of fresh water being constantly introduced through one
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  of the hollow cylinder journals, while the used water is discharged through the opposite
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  journal, and in still another. The clothes are placed in a perforated cylinder
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  within an outer casing, and propeller blades, assisted by other spiral blades,
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  force a continuous current of water through the clothes. In iron, hollow polishing,
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  rolls of various sizes are used heated either by steam or gas. The
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  articles to be ironed are placed in proper position upon a table and carried under
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  and in contact with the rolls, or the goods are ironed between a heated
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  cylinder and a revolving drum covered with felting, and the polishing effected by the
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  cylinder revolving faster than the drum. Engineous forms of hand operated ironing machines for
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  turning over and ironing the edges of collars and other articles are in successful use.
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  End of Section twenty one