442- 



CARD S. 



Card,. 



Cutting. 



Doubling. 



Bending. 



Bending 

 machine. 



them the form at y, Fig. 1.; and, 3d, Giving the 

 ' knee bend Y, %vhich is done by a little machine pla- 

 ced close to the doubler's seat. We shall describe 

 these operations in order, as they follow each other. 

 Cutting. The workman clips oft the wires from a coil, 

 or skaine, making 30 or 40 turns ; so that this num- 

 ber of wires are cut off at once by a pair of strong 

 shears fixed at the edge of the work bench, and mo- 

 ved by pressing the foot upon a treadle. A weight 

 over a pulley is the re-action for opening them when the 

 pressure is relieved. By this means the workman has 

 both hands at liberty : in one he holds the end of the 

 skaine, or bundle of wires, and applies the ends to a 

 gauge, which has an adjustable stop, to determine 

 the length of wire to be cut off from the end, when 

 the end of the gauge is held in contact with the 

 blade of the shears, and one tread cuts them off. By 

 this means 30 or 4-0 wires are cut at every stroke to 

 the intended length, for which the stop of the gauge 

 is previously adjusted. 



Doubling or bending the wires to the form of a 

 staple. The wires are held in a tool adapted to the 

 purpose, called a doubler, and bent by the pressure 

 of another tool, called the bender, which is formed like 

 a small reaping hook, but without any edge. The 

 doubler is a wooden handle, having a steel gauge 

 fixed in the end of it, to the stop of which the ends 

 of the pieces of wire are applied, and doubled into 

 the form of a staple, over a small flat bar of steel 

 (bridge) fixed in the doubler, perpendicular to the 

 length of the wire ; and by means of the stop of the 

 gauge, the proper part of the wire is presented to 

 the bridge, so that the two ends or legs of the staple, 

 when formed, shall be exactly of the same length : The 

 bridge is, of course, the same breadth as the distance 

 between the two legs and points of the staple, which 

 is formed by bending or doubling the wire over it. 

 The workman, having adjusted the wires in the 

 doubler, presses the bender (held in the other hand) 

 against them ; and thus, by one operation, bends 

 them to the form of the letter L, over one angle of 

 the bridge, and by repeating it over the other an- 

 gle doubles them, forming 30 or 40 staples together 

 very quickly. 



Bending. The workman now removes the wires 

 from the bridge of the doubler by a small steel knife, ojr 

 spatula, introducing its point under the shank, and be- 

 tween the legs of all the staples at once, and thus lifts 

 them off from the bridge over which they were doub- 

 led, and conveys them suspended on the blade of this 

 knife to a very curious little machine, which gives 

 them the knee bend. The workman hangs the sta- 

 ples upon a small brass bar, or ruler, fixed in the 

 machine, and then withdrawing his knife leaves them, 

 and prepares to double another packet of wires. The 

 machine has an axis extending its whole length, 

 which is about eight inches ; and this is turned with 

 a regular and equable motion, by the same wheel- 

 work as the common roasting jack ; and the work- 

 man, from time to time, winds up the handle, to keep 

 it always in motion. The axis has ten small levers, or 

 claws, upon it, at different parts of its length ; and 

 opposite to each is one of. the rulers, witl- staples on 

 it always ,eady t>j be bent. Each claw does one at 

 once. The rulers being placed rather inclined, the 



staples always have a tendency to run down towards Cards. 

 the axis, but are prevented from falling off the end ^~~~-i~~~ l/ 

 of it by a knob or projection on the top of the ruler. 

 Over this knob one staple is lifted at every revolu- 

 tion of the axis, by a small detent, called the kicker, 

 which lies concealed in a groove in the upper surface 

 of the ruler, like a knife blade in its handle ; but is 

 lifted up at every revolution of the axis, and then 

 raises one staple over the stop, and it slips down an 

 inclined plane, or continuation of the ruler, towards 

 the axis. At the bottom of this inclined ruler is a 

 sort of die, or recess, into which the legs of the wire 

 staple fall ; and then the claw, or lever, upon the 

 axis coming past,' gives the knee bend to the wire, 

 by forcing its point while it is held in the dies, and 

 bending it over a prbper rest. The instant the claw 

 has passed by, the spring of the wire causes it to 

 leap out of its die, and make way for another, which 

 is kicked down at the next revolution. Thus every 

 turn of the spindle crooks ten staples ; and the work- 

 man keeps it constantly supplied, so as to bend an 

 immense number per day. This machine is said to 

 have been invented about 1775, by a Quaker, whose 

 name we have forgotten. 



This is the process of forming card wires, as at jvi r Beard's 

 present practised ; but some more complete machines card wire 

 have been invented by ingenious mechanics : One is machine, 

 in use in the neighbourhood of Halifax, in York- 

 shire ; and another, similar in its properties, is pre- 

 served in the repository of the Society for the En- 

 couragement of Arts, &c. London. It was invented 

 by. Mr Joseph Beard of Cogeshall, in Essex, who 

 received a reward from the Society of a silver medal 

 and 40 guineas for it, in 1805. This machine dis- 

 plays so much ingenuity, that we requested and ob- 

 tained permission of the Society to have a drawing 

 made of it, which is given in Plate CXI. It has 

 not been published in the volumes of their Transac- 



PLATE 

 CXI. 



Fig. 2v 



tions. The machine is double, having parts to make 

 two complete card wires at once. It receives two 

 wires at once, from two reefs, on each of which a coil 

 of wire is placed. The wires pass between a pair of 

 rollers, by which they are drawn into the machine, 

 which cuts off a proper length from the ends, and 

 bends the pieces into the proper form, then drops them 

 into a drawer beneath, and proceeds with two others. 

 Our draughtsman has found it necessary, for simpli- 

 city, to exhibit only one of the halves of the ma- 

 chine, which is by itself a complete machine ; and in 

 this division some alterations were necessarily made 

 in the form of some few of the parts, which were in the 

 original common to both halves. This drawing is not, 

 therefore, to be considered as an exact representation 

 of the machine in the Society's possession, though it 

 contains all the essential parts and movements. AA, 

 Fig. 2. is a main axis, which puts all the parts in 

 motion. It has a fly-wheel C fixed on the end of 

 it, and is turned round by a handle B ; or it might . 

 receive its motion from any machinery, by an endless Fig. 2. 

 band, or strap and pulley, as it does not require any 

 attendance. 



The wire a a is conducted from the reel before 

 mentioned to the machine, and first passes over a 

 rest or frame b, which has a notch in each of its 

 sides to receive the wire, and to keep it down in 



Descrit 





