IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING WOOD
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Edwards Wilson, of Bromley, in the
County of Kent, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING WOOD."
Sealed the 10th October 1873, in pursuance of an Order of the Lord
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Edwards Wilson
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 8th April 1878.
I, JAMES EDWARDS WILSON, of Bromley, in the County of Kent,
5 Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
“IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING WOOD," to be as follows:-
In the ordinary mode of cutting wood by means of saws there is a
waste or loss of so much of the material as is reduced to the state of
dust, besides the operation is comparatively slow, and as the saws leave

page_text: the surfaces in a rough state, the subsequent operation of planing, with
a further waste of material is in most cases necessary.
Now my Invention consists in cutting wood by means of blades or
knives, as herein-after described, in such manner that there is no waste
or loss of the material, that the operation is quickly performed, and
that the cut surfaces are left so smooth and even that planing is un-
necessary.
In carrying out my Invention I employ one or more fixed thin
vertical blades or knives, and bring the wood up to and carry it past
them at such a speed that they cut quite through it.
The wood may either be fixed to a carriage, which is provided with
guides, running on pulleys in suitable positions, or the carriage may
have grooved wheels to run on corresponding rails, or the wood may be
carried up to the knives by vertical or horizontal rollers driven at the
necessary speed.
By means of my Invention the cutting of the wood is affected at one
stroke, the surfaces are cut perfectly smooth and even, and there is no
waste or loss.
The position of the blades, or of some of them, should be adjustable
so that the distance between them may be regulated as required.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said
James Edwards Wilson in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th
October 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, James 2
EDWARDS WILSON, of Bromley, in the County of Kent, Civil Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of April, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-sixth 3
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said James Edwards Wilson, Her special licence that
I, the said James Edwards Wilson, my executors, administrators, and

page_text: assigns or such others as I, the said James Edwards Wilson, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during
the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING WOOD," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said James Edwards Wilson, my executors or ad-
ministrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to
be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent
Office on or before the Fourteenth day of October One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-three.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Edwards Wilson, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement thereof, that is to say:—
These improvements have for object to cut wood with a less amount
of power, and without the waste involved in the present system by
sawing.
The saw in its passage removes a portion of the wood equal to the
whole length and breadth of the cut by the width of the extreme lines
of the set of its teeth. It therefore actually performs an amount of
cutting double in surface to that of the wood which it divides, besides
tearing the whole of the portion of wood it removes into sawdust. It
was therefore considered that by the substitution of a fixed thin sharp
blade instead of a movable saw, the wood being driven there against
with the necessary pressure, a considerable amount of power would be
saved, and none of the wood torn out into sawdust or otherwise wasted.
This by trial was found to be the case, with the additional advantage
that the surface of the wood so divided become perfectly fair and smooth,
so that the operation of planing, with its further waste of wood indis-
pensable in the sawing system, is unnecessary.
These improvements are therefore carried into effect by the adoption,
in the place of saws, of thin blades of steel without teeth, but with a

page_text: keen edge. These blades may either be used singly or several may be
placed side by side, as in the manner of vertical saws. They may be
fastened only at the bottom and come through the table like circular
saws, or they may be fixed in a frame like vertical saws; the frame
of course being solidly attached to a fixed frame, the same as in the
vertical sawing machine. They may be also fastened by the tops in a
frame, like the cross frame which supports the tool in a metal planing
machine. They may also have cutting edges on both sides so as to cut
the wood on its return.
The blades should have the same thickness from top to bottom, that
is to say, that the horizontal section should be similar throughout. The
blades must all be made with the cutting edges inclined from the
vertical from about 10° to 30°, so that the wood where it first meets the
blade may only strike a small portion thereof at once; this set back of the
edge should also be from the fastened edge backwards where the blade
is only fastened at either the top or bottom, and should be from the
bottom in the case of the blades fastened both at the top and the
bottom.
The best way of fastening the blades to the brackets or frames which
have to hold them is to bolt them thereto by a solid piece screwed on:
to the body of the bracket or frame, with the holes in the blade for
the bolts to pass through, considerably larger than the bolts. In fact in
the way the vertical saws are best fixed into their frames.
The manner of driving up the timber against the blades may be in
any ordinary way in use for sawing, but the speed of feeding should be 2
at least double that used in sawing machines, so as to avoid all danger
of splitting the wood, the work done by the blades not being the one
half of that done by the saws.
For new machines specially made for these improvements I prefer a
construction something like that of a shaping machine, in which the
blade or blades are fixed to a side bracket, the wood being placed on a
table like that of a planing machine, with a specially arranged carriage
to move the wood sideways towards the blade or blades at the end of
every stroke by the exact width of the required cut.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in a
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim, con-

page_text: structing machinery for cutting wood with fixed blades instead of saws,
substantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Edwards Wilson, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fourteenth day of October One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
J. EDWARDS WILSON. (L.S.)