US770484A - Process of treating quills and product - Google Patents

Description

No. 770,484. PATENTED SEPT. 20, 1904. v

E. K. WARREN. PROCESS OF TREATING QUILLS AND PRODUCT.

APPLIGATION FILED FEB.20, 1901.

N0 MODEL.

Witgesses:

UNTTED STATES Patented September 20, 1904.

PATENT OEEicE.

PROCESS OF TREATING QUILLS AND PRODUCT.

QPEGIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent N 0. 770,484, dated September 20, 1904.

Application filed February 20, 1901. Serial No. 48,043. (No specimens.)

To to whom, it Duty concern:

Be it known that I, EDWARD K. WARREN, a citizen of the United States, residing at the village of Threeoaks, in the county of Berrien and State of Michigan, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Processes of Treating Quills and Product, of which the following is a specification.

This invention relates to an improved process of treating quills and to the improved product. The objects of the invention are to avoid much of the labor that has heretofore been expended in the manufacture of stiffening material from quills and to produce a satisfactory and strong stiffening material with a minimum amount of labor. I accomplish this result by the processes described in the following specification.

The invention is clearly defined, and pointed out in the claims.

In the accompanying drawings I show a single quill treated according to my invention.

Figure 1 is a view of a quill with the plumage stripped off and the ends clipped. Fig. 2 is an end view of the dies for the press. Fig. 3 shows the improved blade. Fig. 4 shows the blade partially reduced to fiber where it is desired to make the same into fiber after it has been treated in this way.

In carrying out my invention 1 strip or trim the plumage from the quills, saving the enamel portion. This is soaked and heated until its entire substance, including the pith within, is softened and reduced to a semiplastic condition by the heat. While the quill is thus hot and soft it is placed between suitable forming-dies, as A A, (see Fig. 2,) and is put under heavy pressure by any suitable means, as by a screw or by hydraulic power. The quill is allowed to set or cool under pressure, when it will be found to remain in the form of a thin flat blade of great resiliency. This is all that is necessary to do where short stifi'eners are required. lVhere a long stiffener is required, these parts can be spliced together and cemented or otherwise secured together, or the blade can be reduced to a fiber (see at B, Fig. 4) and these fibers can be assembled together in the usual way in which featherbone and similar stifi'eners are now manufactured. I have described the process fully for accomplishing this result. By applying heat carefully and under proper regulation the soaking may be omitted. The quill can be compressed between perfectly fiat surfaces without the aid of the forming-dies A A, though these dies are preferred because they give the stiffener an even width from end to end.

Having thus described my invention, what I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is

1. The process of treating the quill portion of a feather consisting in soaking and heating it and its contained pith until softened and then subjecting the same to heavy pressure until fixed, whereby the whole is flattened and the pith compressed into a firm substance.

2. The process of treating the quill portion of a feather consisting in heating it and its contained pith until softened and then subjectin g the same to heavy pressure until fixed, whereby the whole is flattened and the pith compressed into a firm substance.

3. The process of treating the quill portion of a feather consisting in soaking and heating it and its contained pith until softened and then subjecting the same to heavy pressure whereby the whole is flattened and the pith compressed into a firm substance.

4. A stiffening material consisting of the quill part of a feather and its contained pith, compressed into a flat blade.

5. A stiffening material consisting of quill substance having the enamel and pith portions compacted together.

In witness whereof I have hereunto setmy hand and seal in the presence of two witnesses.

EDWARD K. WARREN. [L. s]

Witnesses:

MORRIS Gr. MoGrAwN, MARY A. DAVIDSON.

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