AN IMPROVED MACHINE POR CUTTING LUMP Sugar
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Gibson, of Stamford, in the County of
Lincoln, Engineer, for the Invention of “AN IMPROVED MACHINE POR
CUTTING LUMP Sugar."
Scaled the 12th November 1872, and dated the 25th June 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Gibson at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th June 1872..
I, THOMAS GIBSON, of Stamford, in the County of Lincoln, Engineer,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
MACHINE FOR CUTTING LUMP SUGAR," to be as follows:-
The object of this Invention is to obtain a simple and efficient. sugar
cutting machine.
To this end I provide a hollow pillar, which carries all the working
parts of the machine, and serves to support the tray for the sugar, and
also the sieve and dust box. The base of the pillar is, by preference,
open at its sides, and to it is fitted a treadle for actuating the moving

page_text: cutters. Within the pillar is mounted a crank shaft, which receives
motion from the treadle through a pendent rod coupled to the treadle by
a ball and socket joint. Cast with or bolted to the top of the pillar is a
double bracket piece, to which are fitted two horizontal steel blades or
cutters, and projecting up through the middle of this bracket extension
of the pillar is a rod carrying a cross head, which is intended to receive
the moveable blades or cutters. An up-and-down motion is given to this
rod and its cross head by means of the crank shaft before mentioned,
which actuates the same through a coupling rod; and to ensure that the
knives of the cross head shall work parallel to the fixed knives the cross
head rod is fitted with a guide pin, which enters and slides in a vertical
groove in the pillar.
To enable the crank shaft to get over its dead points, and to provide
the requisite momentum for bringing the knives into efficient action, it
...
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Gibson in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 24th December 1872..
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
GIBSON, of Stamford, in the County of Lincoln, Engineer, send greeting.
'WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the thirty-
sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Gibson, Her special licence
that I, the said Thomas Gibson, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Gibson, 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 *"AN IMPROVED
MACHINE POR CUTTING LUMP SUGAR," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Thomas Gibson, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and

page_text: 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 within six
calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters
Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Gibson, 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 Drawing hercunto
annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thercon (that is to
say) :—
The object of this Invention is to obtain a simple and efficient direct-
action sugar cutting machine.
To this end I provide a hollow pillar, which carries all the working
parts of the machine, and serves to support the tray for the sugar, and
also the sieve and dust box. To the open base of this pillar is fitted a
treadle for actuating the moving cutters through the intervention of a
crank axlc and connecting rods contained within the pillar. Cast with
or bolted to the top of the pillar is a double bracket piece, to which are
fitted two horizontal steel blades or cutters, and projecting up through
the middle of this bracket extension of the pillar is a rod carrying a
cross head, which is intended to receive the moveable blades or cutters.
An up-and-down motion is given to this rod and its cross head by
means of the crank axle and connecting rods before mentioned.
.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of my
improved machine; Fig. 2 is a vertical section of the machine, taken at
right angles to Fig. 1; and Fig. 3 is a vertical section, taken at right
angles to Fig. 2.
a is a hollow pillar cast with or fitted to an open base. Bolted to
the top of this pillar is a double bracket piece b, which is made hollow
and tubular at its centre to form a guide for a vertical rod c.. This
bracket piece carries a pair of fixed cutters b², 62, which work in con-
junction with a pair of moveable cutters c¹, c², carried by a cross_head c³
on the rod c, and cut up the lump sugar presented to their action..
Surrounding the bracket piece b, and made fast to the pillar-a, is a
tray d for receiving the sugar which is intended to.be cut up. Within
the tray d is a shute ₫, which receives the lumps as they fall from the

page_text: cutters 6³, c², and deliver them on to an inclined sieve e forming the top
of a dust box e', which is pendent from the tray d. A reciprocating
motion is given to the cutters c², c³, through the rod c by means of the
treadle, which is pivotted to the base of the pillar. Connected to this
treadle by means of a ball-and-socket joint is a rod f', which depends
from a crank arm g on a horizontal axle g', which has its bearings in a
sleeve casting bolted to the side of the pillar a. Jointed to this crank
arm g, but further from the centre of motion than the joint of the treadle
rod, is a connecting rod g², which is jointed to the lower end of the
rod c, and serves to transmit from the treadle a reciprocating motion to
the rode and its cutters. By providing distinct crank pins for the
rods f¹and g², as described, I give the rod which carries the cross head c³
a greater lift than that of the foot on the treadle, and thereby render the
working of the treadle easy to the operator, while at the same time the
lift of the cutters is made sufficient for receiving between the cutting
edges the largest pieces of lump sugar that are likely to be brought
under the action of the machine.
To ensure that the knives of the cross head shall work parallel to the
fixed knives the rod c is fitted with two guide arms c*, which slide in
vertical grooves formed in the pillar to receive them.
To enable the crank axle g' to get over its dead points and to provide
the requisite momentum for bringing the knives into efficient action the
axle is fitted with a fly wheel h; it may also be fitted with band pulleys
as at i, to allow of the machine being driven by power. The blades b³, c³,
it will be seen, are furnished with transverse cutting edges, which will
give a cross cut to the lump of sugar presented to their action, and as
these blades are situate immediately above the shute the pieces as
they fall from these blades will be discharged by the shute on to the
inclined screen e, down which they will slide into any suitable receiver.
The dust and small particles resulting from the cutting operation will
fall through the sieve and enter the dust box e'..
In working with this machine the attendant first presents the loaf
sugar to the cutters b¹, c¹, which reduce it to slices. These slices are
then presented to the cutters b, c, which cut it longitudinally and
transversely, and thus reduce it into pieces approaching more or less the
form of cubes.
It will be understood that the degree of uniformity of the size of the
nincos will donond as hourtofon on the chill of the numbe

page_text: Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "An Improved
Machine for Cutting Lump Sugar," 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, the arrangement of parts
above described constituting a direct-action sugar cutting machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Gibson, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Twenty-first day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy-two.