An ingenious machine for filling splints, devised by E. B. Beecher, of Connecticut, is shown in Figs. 989 (plan), 990 (longitudinal section), 991 (side elevation), and 992-994 (details). The frame a rests upon a bed-plate, to which the legs of the frame are fastened. On the main driving-shaft 1', are fast and loose driving-pulleys, and a toothed-wheel which gears it to a counter-shaft c, surrounded between its bearings by a sleeve d', attached to the vibratable frame d, which swings thereon as its axis, irrespective of the rotation of the shaft. The splint-frame mandrel x rotates in a long pipe-bearing x, attached to the end of the frame d that hangs over the mechanism for setting the splints. Upon this mandrel, is placed the drum f, upon which the splints are framed, this being slipped upon the mandrel at the end and held so as to rotate with it, and be readily removed.
To compensate for the increasing size of the frame, and to maintain a constant tension on the binding tape, the frame-drum mandrel is driven by a rapidly revolving friction surface on the mandrel-pulley y, its tension being regulated by the adjustable tightening pulley y'. The frame-drum should be about 3 in. in diam., and for two-length splints about 3 in. wide.
The binding-tape A is of cotton-webbing, about the thickness of the splints, some 23 in. wide, and attached at one end to the frame-drum by wind ing a coil around the same. The other end of the tape ie placed in a coil upon tt journal, from which as it uncoils it passes through the guide s to a holding mechanism, consisting of an endless band h, which is mounted on drums and a weighted pressure-roller h'. The coil of secondary tape B is located in a plane above the lower belt, and carried through a guide to the winding-drum. The main tape passes from A upwards, partially around a guide-roller, and thence to the frame-drum f. The guide-roller turns loosely on the shaft i between two setting-wheels F, constructed with notches the thickness of a splint apart, to take the splints one by one from the count-wheels, at a point above the binding-tape, as it passes over the guide-roller, to carry in the splints regularly between the binding-tape going in to the frame and the preceding coil, the splints being lifted out of the notches of the setting-wheel by the binding-tape ; the auxiliary tape is at the same time drawn in over the latter. By this arrange ment, the splints lie between two thicknesses of taping, the order being : (1) the main belt, (2) the splints, (3) the auxiliary belt, (4) the main belt, and so on.
The frame, having been completed, may be removed from the machine, and treated in the ordinary manner. When it is desired to unroll the frame, the upper tape should first be unwound, one turn, for the purpose of changing the relative position of the belts, so that in unwinding them the matches will lie between them. The splint-setting wheels are rotated by a toothed-wheel J on the end of the shaft i, which gears into and is driven by a toothed-wheel on the shaft j, actuating the holding and feeding mechanism of the binder - tape, so that the setting-wheels and feed-me chanism move simultane ously.
The driving-drum which moves the endless belt h is fast to the shaft j, and the loose drum runs on a bearing in the middle of the tie-rod le, which is fast at both ends to the sides of the machine frame. The pressure-roller h' runs loose on a fixed axis 1, fast to a frame which swings on bearings on the tie rod at each side of the loose drum, and is connected with a heavy weight 1' by links.
A rotating wire-brush cylinder, covered with card teeth inclined backwards, is placed over the receiving cylinder D, as close to it as possible, and is rapidly rotated in the direction of the arrow, Fig. 990, for the purpose of sweeping from the surface of the cylinder those splints which are not taken into the grooves. There are also curved guides placed over the receiving-cylinder and count wheels E, and running up in front of the setting-wheels F, for the purpose of keeping the splints in the grooves and notches of these devices. The hopper c, which is of suitable width for the splints, is wider than the receiving-wheel, the excess width being equally apportioned at both ends of the receiving-cylinder, so that the splints, when taken into the grooves of the receiving-cyliuder, project equally from both ends of the same, iu order that the count-wheels may lift them by their projecting ends, and transfer them to the setting-wheels.
A pair of stationary cams m, fast at one end to the tie-rod n, come up close to the sides of the setting-wheels, and extend forward with a curve into the groove of the count-wheels. These cams assist in the transfer of the splints from the count-wheels to the setting-wheels, by lifting them from the former at the point of transfer.