Machine for Cutting or Breaking Tea or similar Substances.
Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Sept., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 21st June, 1889-Accepted, 31st Aug., 1889
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
[Communicated from abroad by JOSEPH EDWARD LYNDALL, of Sylhet, India,
Engineer.]
Machine for Cutting or Breaking Tea or similar Substances.
I, DANIEL SMITH SINCLAIR of 54 Gordon Street, Glasgow, Engineer, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
This invention relates to the cutting or breaking of Tea whilst in the process of
manufacture & consists of a machine of novel construction which performs this
operation without the 'grinding' that is a defect in other machines for the same
purpose.
The frame of the machine is of rectangular box shape of any suitable material.
On the top is a hopper for filling in tea as required to a chamber which is traversed
from side to side by a number of knives which are firmly attached to a guide-plate
which slides in a frame & receives its reciprocating motion from a crank or by any
suitable means. It may be driven by hand or other power its normal speed being
about 200 strokes per minute.
The knives may be flat plates of steel & are arranged parallel to one another
with their edges (& planes) at an angle of about 30° to the horizontal. There may
be two sets of blades or knives in the machine working from opposite sides & con-
nected by gearing or otherwise so as to be in the same phase of motion or in opposito
phases. Both sets of blades will be inclined & to the same amount but in opposite
directions. The knives pass through narrow openings in the side of the machine
which allow them to work freely but prevent the escape of the tea.
The rate of feeding & consequently the size of the broken leaf delivered are
under separate control from the other arrangements of the machine.
In the bottom of the Cutting chamber is an opening underneath which is a siove
or tray capable of being brought close against the opening thus stopping the progress
of the tea downwards. One end of this tray or shoot can be lowered so as to present
a variable size of opening for the escape of the broken leaf and the tray at the same
time may receive a 'jigging' motion from any convenient reciprocating or rotating
part of the machine, to help the escape of the leaf and, in case of using a sieve, to
free the tea from dust.
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COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Machine for Cutting or Breaking Tea or similar Substances.
I DANIEL SMITH SINCLAIR of 54 Gordon Street Glasgow in the county of Lanark
N.B. Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
This Invention relates to a machine for breaking Tea leaf one form of which is
shown on the drawings annexed, figures 12 and 3. In these figures the same letters
of reference indicate the same part of the machine.
Figure 1 is a side elevation. Figure 2 is an end elevation having removed the
driving crank and part of the feeding gear and figure 3 sheet 2 is a plan but having
the hopper K removed.
In these figures the machine is shown as adapted for being driven by means of a
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page_text: belt on the pulley A alongside of which is a loose pulley A'. The crank-shaft B
rotates with the pulley and by means of the connecting-rod C imparts a reciprocating
motion to a guide plate D. This plate has fixed to it a number of steel knives or
cutters arranged parallel to one another as E E and preferably inclined as shown in
Fig. 2. G is the cutting chamber whose width is about the same as the breadth of
the knives, or two cranks length so that in making one complete revolution of the
shaft B, the knives will pass from one side of the cutting chamber almost to the
opposite side and back again. F F is a plate forming one side of the chamber G &
having slits to permit the passage of the knives into the chamber. I is the back wall
of the machine & may be provided with ridges projecting towards and in the planes
of the knives. The object of this is to obviate the making of dust as the last leaves
to be cut at each stroke would without this provision be pressed against the flat
plate I. The chamber G is open at the bottom and underneath it is a shoot M from
which the broken tea is delivered. The shoot may be plain or of fine wire cloth &
will serve to free the broken tea from dust.
The shoot is supported at the outer end by brackets T T and links N N¹ having
joints at the lower ends and at the top ends adjusting nuts P P. At its inner end
the shoot is hung on links L so that it may be moved to & fro with a jigging'
motion when the machine is at work. This jigging motion is derived from that of the
guide plate D in the manner clearly indicated in the figures. Q is a bracket affording
a fixed centre at its lower end and there are joints about which the pieces are free to
move at the points marked J J.
When the machine is to be used the tea to be reduced in size is placed in the
chamber G filling it & part of the hopper K and resting on the shoot M. The
reciprocating knives EE penetrate the mass breaking the leaves in their passage from
side to side of the chamber G. By the jigging of the shoot the broken leaves are con-
tinuously removed passing under the projection O¹ on the bottom of the casing and
unbroken tea from the hopper comes down into the cutting chamber.
The rate at which the broken tea is delivered from the machine can be controlled
in three separate ways:-(a) by lengthening the links N the shoot falls away
from 0 and so a larger opening is provided for the escape of the tea; the nuts at P P
provide a means of doing this, and by bringing the shoot close against the stops O
and O¹ the escape is entirely prevented and the tea may be reduced to a fine powder-
(b) by altering the position of the end of the link X on the rod R the pitch of the
jigging motion is increased or diminished as the position is chosen higher or lower-
(c) by fixing on the shoot nearly opposite O¹ a bridge piece with a rectangular open-
ing of suitable size of the whole width of the shoot and having a plain or blank top
to pass close to O¹, the inclination of the shoot may be altered without interfering with
the area of opening and aid or retard the escape of the tea.
It will be clear from the foregoing that the rate of passage of the tea through the
cutting chamber is completely and easily under control and the size of tea delivered
must also be regulable.
Another form of this machine has a second set of knives similar to the first and
similarly actuated but entering at the opposite side of the chamber G.
I also make this machine with a second set of knives acting at right angles to the
first set and in this case the planes of both sets of the knife-blades are preferably
horizontal but the machine is otherwise substantially the same.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said Inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. A machine for breaking tea substantially as & for the purpose described.
2. A machine for breaking tea having a number of knives actuated by a crank or
eccentric and operating as described.
3. A machine for breaking tea in which the rate of feed and size of tea delivered
can be adjusted and are effected by the methods described.

page_text: 4. The employment of a set of levers & rods substantially as shown in the
drawings hereto annexed to produce the reciprocating of a shoot or feeding attachment
in a tea breaking machine.
5. In a tea breaking machine the methods of adjusting the rate of feed by the
links N N¹ and the shoot M.
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