The Fluting Iron: A Hot Corrugated Bed and a Roller

"This invention has relation to improvements in fluting-irons; and it consists in a certain novel combination of a transversely-serrated fluting-bed, having upon its under side crossed ridges, and a heating-plate, having corresponding depressions adapted to receive said ridges, whereby the said bed is prevented from endwise or lateral displacement." The heating-plate "is made of cast-iron, preferably", with a recess in its end for a lifting device, "by means of which it is conveniently placed on and lifted from the fire." The fluting-plate "is made of galvanized iron, preferably". The roller is cast with a central web and a double-conical hub, forming a conical recess at each side, "which greatly lessens the weight of the same, and facilitates its being cast and detached from the mold-sections."

Cut a strip of cotton fabric 30 cm long, dampen it and lay it across a corrugated form (a piece of corrugated card or metal sheet). Press it into the grooves with a rounded tool and iron over it with a warm iron until dry. Lift the fluted strip, measure its new length and the pitch and depth of the flutes with the caliper. Compare the shortening with the notebook's ratio. Try a damp strip and a dry one and note which holds its flutes.

**Florence H. Stumpf** of St. Joseph, Missouri, filed US 203,214 on 8 December 1877; it is dated 30 April 1878. She notes that a hollow sad-iron with ribs inside to receive a heater-block was already known, and does not claim that broadly. **Honest limits.** The notebook assumes a sine-shaped flute; real flutes are rounder or sharper, and cloth stretches a little. Pitches and depths are examples. Your measured strip is the measurement.