US1636195A - Apparatus for drying shoes - Google Patents

Description

Jul 19, 1927.

J. W. QUINN APPARATUS FOR DRYING SHOES Filed June 25, 1925 3 Sheets-Sheet 1 [uvenior JZIzniL Quu ln 1? V filial w July 19,, 1927.

J; W. QUINN APPARATUS FOR DRYING SHOES Filed June 25. 1925 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 inventor JbhnWQulnle.

Jilorney I 1,636,195 J. W. QUINN APPARATUS FOR DRYING SHOES Fi'led June 25. 1925 3 Sheets-Sheet 3 Patented July 19, 1927.

UNITED STATES P JOHN WILLIAM QUINN, OF HULL, MASSACHUSETTS.

APPARATUS FOR DRYING SHOES.

Application filed, June 25, 1925. Serial No. 39,601..

This invention relates to an apparatus for drying solutions applied to leather of any kind. The leather can be kid, calfskin, side leather or any leather imitation. This invention has for its mainpurpose to afford a process whereby so-called patent leather or enameling solutions or similar materials can be applied to a shoe and quickly and thoroughly dried thereon without damage to the sole and other parts of the shoe.

In the manufacture of enameled leather shoes, in spite of great care duringthe lasting operations, cracks or scratches are developed in the toes, counters or other parts of the shoe upper. Careless handling of the shoes may result in damages to the leather finish.

These cracks, scratches or damaged parts are repaired by buffing, either by handor machine, the cracks, scratches or damaged parts. After buffing a filler is applied to the buffed spot, thus a finish is restored to the cracked, scratched or damaged parts. This filler is either cut down with a cutter in order to conceal the fact that a s ot has been repaired, or there is appliedto t-lie-spot a flow. The whole shoe is often flowed even though it has not been necessary to repair the whole shoe. This method is open to serious objections, the most serious being that the repaired part and the rest of the flowed shoe dry very slowly. On days when the humidity is great and atmospheric conditions are unfavorable for drying, a long time is required to dry the flowed shoe. This delay in drying causes considerable inconvenience to the shoe manufacturer because their production may be seriously impeded. Frequently a repaired shoe will stick to the paper in the shoe box in which it was packed because the filler, although apparently dry, was not absolutely so. The difficulties of drying shoes, especially enameled leather shoes, which have been repaired and flowed cannot be exaggerated. 1

My present invention contemplates an improved apparatus by which the shoes may be. rapidly dried without the necessity of hand manipulation. templates in brief, subjecting the shoes, after they have been repaired with filler or re paired with filler and flowed to an atmosphere of dry and preferably warm air, kept constantly changing as by exposing the shoes in a chamber tosuch an atmosphere,

My invention con continuously supplied from without and continuously withdrawn from within. I am thus able to keep the shoes surrounded by an unsaturated airenvelope which is constantly' changed to withdraw that portion which has become loaded or charged with the escaping volatile solvent.

Under such treatment, the shoes are uniformly freed from the solvent of the filler or the flow as the air bath circulates freely on all sides and against all parts. No hand manipulation is required and the drying out is uniform and regular. A shoe dried by this means will not be sticky and can be packed without any loss of time.

Throughout the s ecification and drawings like reference CEZLIElCtQl'S are employed to indicate corresponding parts. In the drawings I show characteristic apparatus for the practice of my invention. In the drawings, the figures appear as follows:

Fig. 1 is a side elevation of such an apparatus.

Fig. 2 is a front view.

F ig- 3 is a plan view.

Fig. 4 is a section on line 4-4 of Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a transverse section on line 5-5 of Fig. 3, and

Figs. 6 and 7 are transverse sections on lines 66 and 7-7 of Fig. 3.

The apparatus for practicingmy invention consists of a drying chamber 1, open from front to rear, and within which the shoes or other articles to be treated are placed through the open front end thereof.

Located in advance of the chamber 1 and preferably slightly below the planeof the bottom wall thereof, 'is a heater 2 of any desired type, here shown as an electric heater, and located in rear of the drying chamber is a suction fan 3.

By this construction, the shoes may be exposed in a constantly changing bath of dry, warm and unsaturated air which is continuously supplied from without and continuously withdrawn from within, so that the shoes are surrounded by an envelope of unsaturated air. The effect of this treatment is to uniformly and rapidlv drv the shoes without hand manipulation thereof, and at the same time to withdraw the escaping volatile solvent from the work-room rather than into the room.

Preferably the shoes are'spaced from the floor of the drying chamber, as by means of the open frame rack 4, so as to insure free circulation of air beneath and around them, and the side walls of the drying chamber converge towards the rear end thereof so as to insure proper draft of air through the chamber. The suction fan 3 is mounted at this point and is preferably of the motor unit type, the motor being indicated at 5.

The solventladen air drawn through the chamber by the fan is discharged through an exhaust flue 6 behind the fan which preferably delivers outside of the work room. The current connection to the tan motor is indicated at 7, and that to the resistance of the electric heater at 8, both preferably being such that the speed of the fan and the degree of heat may both be simultaneously regulated. Y

The drying chamber has a vertically disposed reticulated guard 10 extending from side to side thereof to prevent the shoes frombeing inserted so deeply therein as to be likely to interfere with the fan, and the heater is also "suitably enclosed by the perforated guard 11. Preferably the heater is attached as a staggered coiled resistance upon an apron 12 depending vertically from the forwardedge of the chamber floor.

The exhaust connection 6 is removably fastened to the fan housing, as by a collar 13, and if desired, the guard 10 may have a hinged door 14 to further facilitate access to the fan or motor.

The temperature and time of treatment varies according to the character of the shoe being treated, the solvent employed, and the general conditions prevailing, usually only a few minutes being required.

Various modifications of the apparatus may obviously be resorted to Within the spirit and scope of my invention as defined by the appended claim.

What I therefore claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

An apparatus for drying shoes coated with a liquid, comprising a chamber adapted to receive the shoes, said chamber being opened at one end and communicating directly with the outer atmosphere, a screen at the other end of the shoe receiving chamber, a perforated support in said chamber for ho ding the shoe in spaced relation to the bottom of the chamber, an electric heating means mounted outside of the shoe chamber below the perforated shoe sup ort and adjacent the opening to the cham er, a second chamber havin with the shoe 0 amber through the screen and the other end opening to the atmosphere and a suction fan in said second chamber 'whereby the air preheated outside the first chamber is drawn through the shoe chamber. In'testimony whereof afi'ix my signature.

JOHN WILLIAM QUINN.

one end communicating

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