IMPROVEMENTS IN SHAPING MACHINES FOR CURVILINEAR SURFACES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Mackenzie, of Arundel Square, Islington,
County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN SHAPING MACHINES FOR CURVILINEAR SURFACES."
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said James Mackenzie at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration
on the 29th January 1863, pursuant to the 9th Section of the Patent
Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
MACKENZIE, of Arundel Square, Islington, County of Middlesex, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SHAPING MACHINES FOR CURVILINEAR SURFACES," and have petitioned Her
Majesty to grant unto me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, Her
Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn declaration that I
am the true and first Inventor thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Mackenzie, do hereby declare
that the following Complete Specification under my hand and seal, fully
describes and ascertains the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner

page_text: the same is to be performed, in and by the following statement, that is to
say :-
My machine has the bed and frame of an ordinary planing, boring, or
shaping machine, the traversing motion of the saddle and that of the bed being
produced in the usual way; the cutter block is mounted upon an axle or
spindle, and is either forged with it or keyed on to it, and the cutters are fixed
to it in the customary manner. By means of bevel gearing connected with
the cutter block and its axle, I am enabled to give them an angular motion
in a vertical plane, thus enabling me to shape or form curvilinear or bevel
surfaces.
I produce this angular motion in the following manner:-The spindle and
cutter block (say of an ordinary boring machine) are attached to a frame,
which, by means of a toothed quadrant upon it, working in an endless screw, I
form so that it can turn upon an axis which is in a line with the shaft which
carries the driving wheel. It will thus be seen that the spindle and cutter
block may move round a complete circle, without the "gear" communicating
motion to them being at all interfered with; hence, by a continued regular or
by a continued varying motion being given to the quadrant, a surface of any
degree of bevel may be formed upon a substance passing under the cutters.
The vertical and horizontal motion of the spindle and the cutter block I obtain
in the usual manner either by hand or by change wheels.
In order more clearly to illustrate the nature of my Invention, and shew
how it is constructed and acts, I have to this Specification appended the
accompanying Drawings, which is intended to illustrate the general principle
of construction which I adopt in making my machine, and also the alterations
which are required in order to convert an ordinary planing, boring, or
shaping machine into one possessing the peculiarities of my Invention, that is,
the method of obtaining the angular motion of the cutter and its spindle by
means of the bevel gearing, and the segmental toothed arc with endless
screw.

page_text: portions of a modern planing, shaping, or boring machine; the bed and the
frame are of the ordinary form and driven in the usual manner; the horizontal
traverse of the saddle containing the cutter, axle, and block is obtained by the
well-known arrangement of the screw M, and the vertical elevation or depres-
sion by means of the bevel gear N and the screw O, no portions of which are
new or form part of my Invention.
It will be seen that the cutter axle a has a bevel wheel d fixed upon it
which works in a corresponding wheel e, fixed upon the driving axle f, (see
Figure 2). It will be evident from this that if the cutter block with its axle
can be moved in a vertical plane round a centre coincident with the central axis
of the driving shaft, the motion given to it by the bevel gear will be uninter-
rupted even although the cutter axle with its block and frame should make a
whole revolution as the bevel gearing retains its adjustment, the wheel d simply
travelling round the wheel e. It will be equally evident that with this rotation
of the cutter block, its position with any substance moving in a horizontal
plane (for example the plate R) would according to its angular motion form
a corresponding bevel surface.
In order to obtain this rotation of the cutter axle and its block b and
cutters c, it will be seen that by means of the stops or supports g, g, the whole
is attached to and supported by the circular saddle h, h, which in its turn is
supported by and turns within the grooves i, i, by means of the guides m, m,
the whole turning freely round the driving axle f. I give motion to the
circular saddle piece h, h, by means of the toothed n, formed or fixed upon its
periphery, which is acted upon by the endless screw (Figure 1, p), which is
put in motion by means of the small wheel q.
If all the surface to be formed upon the plate is an irregularly curved one,
the workman by the motion of the screw turns the saddle h, h, which increases
or diminishes the angularity of the cutter axle with its block and cutters, so as
to adjust it to the curve which is first marked out on the side of the plate to
be operated upon. If the surface to be formed is a regular curve, then the
saddle piece may be set so as to have a regularly increasing or diminishing
angularity, that is, so that the cutter axle may travel from right to left,
according to any regulated velocity. This may be effected by change wheels
properly adjusted.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and how the same is
constructed and acts, I wish it understood that what I claim and desire secured
to me by the before in part recited Letters Patent, is, the method and means
I adopt of giving to the spindle or axle of the cutting instrument, in shaping,

page_text: planing, or boring machines an angular motion in combination with its proper
vertical or horizontal motion, by means of bevel gearing, and through the
Invention of the endless screw and toothed arc segment, substantially as here-
within described and more fully illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Mackenzie, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of January, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-three.
JAMES MACKENZIE. (L.S.)