Rensselaer Republican, Volume 27, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 May 1896 — Noiseless Machines. [ARTICLE]

Noiseless Machines.

Every day sees an Increase in the use of modern rawhide gearings because of their many excellent advantages. A striking illustration of their operation is afforded at the plant of the American: Book Company, in New York. In their new building on Washington square all the presses, folding machines, cutters, etc., are operated each by a separate electric motor. The speed of the presses is adapted to different kinds of work by changing the pinions on the motor shafts which engage with the operating gear of the press, the motor being adjustable in position to an extent sufficient to compensate for the difference in diameter. On machines where no other gearing i is employed there is no noise beyond a soft purr, while oh the presses and Other machines ‘ where metal gears are i used in contact the contrast between the noise of the ordinary and the smooth, quiet running of the rawhide gear Is so decided as to impress one very forcibly with the advantages which a press with rawhide pinions throughout would possess. Rawhide, as a material for gears, has been through the experimental stage, and its practicability and durability is an established fact. By compression and elimination in the process by which the pinions referred to are manufactured, the discs of which the gear blank are made up are rendered more like horn than leather in their composition, retaining, however, a toughness whiel* allows them to bend double without cracking. They run without lubrication, and in the plant referred to above ' show no deterioration after several months of use. Their extensive use in street railway work is a sufficient demonstration of their durability. There are many directions in which their use can be extended to advantage.—Pow r er.