IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR SAWING WOOD
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Benjamin Normand, of Havre, in the Empire
of France, Ship Builder, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY
FOR SAWING WOOD."
Sealed the 3rd November 1854, and dated the 8th May 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Benjamin Normand
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
8th May 1854.
I, CHARLES BENJAMIN NORMAND, of Havre, in the Empire of France, Ship
Builder, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
MACHINERY FOR SAWING WOOD" to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, first, to a new arrangement of saw mill intended to saw
out timber through straight cuts or in slight regular curves, by which I mean
arcs of circles of a large radius. The saw frame has its motion in a horizontal
direction, the saw blades of course working in horizontal planes, as in the arrange-
ment patented by me on the 27th October 1852; but the piece of timber,
instead of gliding over a sinooth and straight floor, is fixed by dogs.at its under
part to a flexible bed, which is made to travel under the saws, and is borne on
a set of parallel rollers. One of the borizontal braces of the saw frame (which
in ordinary saw mills would stand in a vertical position) moves under the bed,
to which the log of timber is affixed; the other brace has its motion over and
clear of the said log.

page_text: The lower of the saw blades is set at such a height that it works clear of the
heads of the dogs which bind the pieces of timber to the bed. The bearings
carrying the rollers, over which the flexible bed advances, are so constructed
as to admit of the rollers being set at variable heights,, to suit the cut desired
to be made, whether it be in a straight line or take the arc of a circle. When
all the rollers have been set in the positions corresponding to the curve or
straight line in which the piece of timber is to be severed, the flexible bed, by
its own weight and that of the piece of timber laid upon it, naturally takes
the shape required; both being then securely bound together, they cannot but
advance to the saws in the exact direction intended. The reciprocating motion
is given to the saw frame by the usual arrangement of connecting rod, fly
wheel, &c., which may be varied, and needs no description.
The feed motion is given to the bed by racks, pinions, &c., or by any other
ordinary mode.
If the work to be performed does not include curve sawing, and requires,
moreover, a high degree of accuracy, the flexible bed might be superseded by a
rigid bed of cast iron, moving on slides, as the bed plate of a common planing
machine for working metals.
This Invention relates, secondly, to a mode of reducing the amount of power
necessary to perform mechanical sawing, and at the same time diminishing
the wear of the saws and of the whole machine, and the labor and expense
consequent on their maintenance in good order.
This I propose to effect by giving the saw blades a curvilinear or rocking
motion, similar to that naturally imparted by the pit sawyers; and for this
purpose I connect the saw frame at its opposite ends with rocking frames, the
centres of motion of which are set nearer together than the points of junction
of the saw frame and these rocking frames; when, therefore, a reciprocating
motion is imparted to the saw frame, the blades will produce a cut in imitation
of hand sawing.
This contrivance I propose to adapt to the arrangement of saw frame above
described, and also, if required, to other arrangements of machinery for
sawing wood.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Benjamin Normand in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 8th November 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES.
BENJAMIN NORMAND, of Havre, in the Empire of France, Ship Builder, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Charles Benjamin Normand, Her special license that I, the said
Charles Benjamin Normand, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Charles Benjamin Normand, my executors, ad-
ministrators, 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 "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR SAWING WOOD," upon
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Charles Benjamin Normand,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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 within six calendar months next and immediately, after
the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Charles Benjamin Normand, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
--
This Invention of "Improved Machinery for Sawing Wood" relates to
certain arrangements of machinery, whereby the sawing up of timber, whether
by straight or curved cuts, may be effected with expedition and economy.
My Invention consists, firstly, in a novel mode of securing the timber, so as
to bring it under the action of the saws; secondly, in the use of a flexible or
yielding table or frame for supporting the timber to be sawn; and, thirdly, in
a peculiar mode of mounting and actuating saw blades.
In Sheet I. of the accompanying Drawings, Fig. 1 represents in sectional
elevation the simplest arrangement of parts which I employ in connection

page_text: with the first and second parts of my Invention, the object being to bring the
timber under the action of the saws in a more convenient manner, and, when
required, cause it to travel in regular curves, being arcs of circles, to prevent
the waste ordinarily experienced when sawing curved timber into planks, and
also sawing such timber as deck beams for ships, which must necessarily have
the above-mentioned shape; Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same; and Fig. 3.
is a cross section. To the floor a, bearings b, b, are secured, for the purpose of
receiving horizontal bearing rollers c, c, which lie parallel to each other, and
are intended to carry a table or frame d, to which the log of wood e to be
sawn up is attached. The saws f,f, which lie and move in horizontal planes
(as in the arrangement patented by me, October Twenty-seventh, One thou-
sand eight hundred and fifty-two), are set in a frame g,, which slides between
horizontal guides, it being actuated in any ordinary or convenient manner,
as indicated by the dotted lines in Fig. 3. The table d is provided with dogs
or holdfasts, (shewn best at Fig. 3,) for securing the log to the table; and
the forward movement, usually termed feed motion, to bring the log under the
action of the saw blades, may be effected by a pinion taking into a rack on the
under side of the table, as is well understood. An important advantage which
I obtain by this mode of presenting timber to the saw (whether for the purpose
of making straight or curved cuts) is, that the action of sawing is rendered
continuous, that is, it is not requisite to suspend the operation for the purpose
of shifting the dogs or holdfasts out of the way of the saw blades, the lowest
blade being always set so that it shall clear the dogs. The timber may be cut
from end to end by the unintermitted action of the saws, and requiring, during
the operation, little or no attendance. Fig. 1 shews this arrangement of
sawing machinery. adjusted also for cutting regular curves, being ares of
circles. This result is obtained by setting the bearing rollers c at the different
heights to suit the curve in which the piece of timber is to be severed, which.
I am enabled to do by furnishing the bearings with two or more steps suitably
shaped to receive the journals of the rollers. As the two central rollers require
no elevation; their bearings are not provided with steps, but the bearings of
the other rollers are so constructed as to admit of the rollers being set either
in the same horizontal plane or at different heights, proportional-in-each-
roller to the square of its distance to the saws, which proportion causes them
to be all tangent to an arc of a circle.
The table d, being made flexible or yielding, will (by reason of its own
weight and that of the log which it carries) be caused to take the form of the
said arc of circle in which the log requires to be operated upon.
It will now be understood, that as the log is advanced to the saws, it will

page_text: move in a curve parallel to that of the table d, and consequently parallel
curved cuts will be made in the log from end to end thereof. When, however,.
the log is to be sawn straight, the bearing rollers are set at a common level,
and the log moves in a straight line under the action of the saw blades..
Fig. 4 shews in longitudinal elevation another mode of adjusting to their.
respective heights the rollers which carry and guide the flexible bed supporting.
the log. Instead of adjusting the rollers singly and by hand, as in the
arrangement just described, I mount the rollers c in pairs of adjustable
sockets h, (see Fig. 4*) which slide in vertical parallel guides made in the
blocks b. In these sliding sockets. threaded lugs are formed to receive severally
a vertical screw shaft.i, which has its bearing in the guide block. These
screw shafts are all geared through bevil gearing k and from a single-
horizontal driving shaft m: To cause the raising or lowering of the. rollers to
take place in the above-mentioned proportion of the squares of their.distance
to the saws, the pitches of the screws and ratios of gearing 'pinions are
separately and simply proportionate to the said distance; when, therefore,
rotary motion is given to the driving shaft m, each roller, and that portion of
bed which it carries, will be set to the required position. If the work intended
to be performed. in a saw mill does not include curve sawing, and requires,.
moreover, a high degree of accuracy, the adjustable rollers are to be dispensed
with; and the flexible bed or table might be superseded by a rigid bed of cast.
iron, moving accurately on slides, as in a common planing machine for working
metals.
This new mode of sawing wood with equal facility in regular curved as well.
as in straight cuts can also be applied to vertical saw mills. In this application
the usual longitudinal frame carrying the log will be required to bend laterally
to form the curve in a horizontal instead of a vertical plane. Instead of fixed
rollers or guides to support the frame, I use a pair of rails, which are capable
of sliding laterally on the floor, and these I secure together by jointed con-
necting rods to preserve their distance.
The two longitudinal sleepers composing the carrying frame being flanged,
and also having a sufficient amount of latéral flexibility, will follow the line of
rails which support it; and these rails are set to any required curve (being
the arc of a circle) by an arrangement of bevil wheels and screws, similar
to that shewn at Fig. 4, pressing laterally against the rails and working
simultaneously.
In Sheet II of the Drawings, I have shewn a novel mode of mounting saw
frames, whereby I am enabled to reduce the amount of power necessary to
perform mechanical sawing, and at the same time diminish the wear of the

page_text: saws and of the whole machine, also the labour and expense consequent on
their maintenance in good order. These advantages I attain by giving the
saw blades a curvilinear or rocking motion, similar to that imparted by the
pit sawyers; and for this purpose I connect the saw frame at its opposite ends
with rocking frames, both situated on the side of the frame corresponding to
the back of the saws, and the fixed centres of motion of which are set nearer
together than their points of junction with the saw frame.
Fig. 5 is a longitudinal sectional elevation of this arrangement of sawing
machinery, it being arranged for siding timber and making vertical cuts;
Fig. 6 is a plan view, and Fig. 7 is a front elevation of the same.
a is a
saw frame, jointed at its opposite ends to rocking frames b, c; the former of
which has its fulcrum at 6' in the standards d, and the latter its fulcrum at c'
in the same standards. The saw frame is jointed at its lower end to a con-
necting rod e, which receives a reciprocating motion from a crank wheel f
(Fig. 7), and communicates that motion to the saw frame. It will be seen
that the centres on which the frames b and c respectively rock are closer
together than their points of attachment with the saw frame a; when therefore
a reciprocating motion is imparted to the saw frame, the cutting edges of
the saw blades, instead of moving in a right line (as is common in sawing
machinery) will make a curvilinear cut, as indicated by the red line x, x,
(Fig. 5), similar to that imparted by pit sawyers. If, as a further improve-
ment in mechanical sawing, it is required that the blades shall recede some-
what from the wood in moving upwards (as in hand-sawing), to avoid the
friction and wear which their untimely contact will occasion, this movement I
obtain by making the connection of one of the rocking frames with a point of
the connecting rod or rods near the end. Fig. 8 shews this modification,
wherein the frame c, instead of being connected directly, as before, to the saw
frame a, is jointed to the connecting rod or rods e at the point e. By this
arrangement, the pin or pins forming the connection between the saw frame
and connecting rod will, when the machinery is in action, describe the Figure
shewn by the red lines *, *, and cause the saw blades to advance towards the
wood when they are making their down stroke, and recede therefrom when
rising to-begin-a-fresh-stroke. My-improved mode of mounting saw frames I
propose to apply to vertical and horizontal sawing machinery generally.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improved Machinery
for Sawing Wood," and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect,
I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent
I claim,-
First, the mode herein described of securing the timber to its traversing

page_text: frame, whether flexible or rigid, whereby all change or shifting of the fixtures
until the sawing operation is completed is dispensed with.
Second, the employment of a flexible adjustable carrying frame or table, or
any mere modification thereof, for presenting the timber to the saw blades, in
the manner and for the purpose above described.
And, lastly, I claim the mode of mounting saw frames, as herein described,
whereby I am enabled to assimilate the cut of mechanical sawing to that of
hand sawing, and obtain the advantages consequent thereon.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Benjamin Normand, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
C. B. NORMAND. (L.S.)