Year: 1888

page_text: Date of Application, 24th Jan., 1888
Complete Specification Left, 12th Oct., 1888
Complete Specification Accepted, 30th Nov., 1888
EDWARD CORY, FREDERICK WILLIAM REYNOLDS & GEORGE WADSWORTH CRAGG
CATFORD, Acorn Works,,Edward Street Blackfriars Road London, Engineers, do
hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
We construct circular saw benches to travel on rails so that instead of moving, the
log, piece of timber, or other material to be sawn, we lay or fix the log on a suitable
platform and make the bench move at the proper rate for the circular saw to cut
through the material. The circular saw may be driven by a belt or other suitable
means If by a belt, we drive from a pulley at one end of the travel of the bench
and pass the belt under a loose pulley on the sawbench, over the sawspindle pulley,
and again under a second loose pulley on the sawbench, the belt then passes to the
end of the travel of the sawbench, round a loose pulley and back again to the driving.
pulley. By this arrangement the saw spindle can be driven whilst the bench is in
any position on the rails, and the belt remains at the same tension-To move the
bench on the rails and regulate its rate of travel we drive from the saw spindle by
means of change wheels or suitable gearing to one or more pinions put into gear by
levers or other means with a rack running the length of the travel of the sawbench,
or we make the bench travel by means of a screw and nut or any other suitable
mechanical appliance. The bench may be made to travel forwards or backwards on
the rails or stopped at any point by a straight and a cross belt from the main shaft to
the countershaft which drives the sawspindle, suitable forked striking gear being
arranged for shifting the belts on to the forward or backward pulley or on to a loose
one if it is required to stop the bench.
The bench may be made to run on the rails on rollers or wheels or may be made
simply to slide along them.

page_text: We EDWARD CORY, FREDERICK WILLIAM REYNOLDS and GEORGE WADSWORTH
CRAGG CATFORD all of Acorn Works, Edward Street, Blackfriars Road, London,
Engineers 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 :-
The object of our invention is principally to effect the sawing of circular or square
logs of timber with greater ease and economy of space than heretofore.
Previously the circular sawing of large timber has been done with the Rack Bench,
by which the log is placed on a travelling table, driven by a rack and pinion, in such
a manner that the log passes the circular saw and is cut thereby.
In carrying out our invention we avoid fixing the log on an unsteady travelling
table by fixing it on the solid ground,' and allowing so much of it to project over the
edge of the sawpit as is required to be cut. We then travel the circular saw through
the log, the bench which carries the saw moving instead of the log as in the old plan,
by which means we obtain great steadiness of the log and consequently a clean cut,
and we also save considerable shop room, as it requires nearly double the space to
travel the log by the old plan, instead of fixing the log and travelling the saw bench
as in our invention.
Tails either
The bench we employ for carrying the circular saw is made to travel on
by sliding, or rolling on suitable wheels, in such a manner that its upper surface is
slightly below the surface of the floor of the mill on which the log is fixed. The
circular saw is placed on one side of the bench, and is made to work as near as
possible to the edge of the saw pit. The saw can be made to cut through the log in
both its forward & backward motion on the rails, (if preferred), or in the forward
motion only.
The saw may be worked by an endless belt driven by a countershaft at one end
of "the rails and passing round a loose pulley at the other end. On its passage it
also passes over the pulley which drives the sawspindle and is made to embrace it
by a loose pulley on either side, which work on pins attached to the saw bench. The
belt from the countershaft, therefore, passes under the loose pulley, over the saw
spindle pulley and again under the second loose pulley, from thence to the end of the
travel, round the loose pulley at the end, and back again to the countershaft; by this
arrangement the saw spindle is driven, whilst the bench is. in any position on the
rails, and if the upper side of the belt be level, it will remain equally tight for any
position of the bench.
The movement of the bench on the rails is by preference effected' by suitable
gearing from the sawspindle to a rack on the rails, or by an endless screw working
in a nut on the sawbench. Suitable change wheels, or other well known apparatus
for altering speed, can be attached for varying the rate of cutting to suit the
thickness of the log. We also arrange a swinging lever; carrying two different
pinions, so that when one is put in gear the. bench will travel at the required rate
of feed, and when the other is in gear the bench may be run to its place with a
quicker motion. The lever can also be so arranged that, when both pinions are out
of gear; the feed motion of the bench is entirely stopped.
We prefer also to drive the countershaft from the main shaft with both a straight
or open belt and a crossed belt, -moxing on, loose pulleys on the countershaft so

page_text: that with suitable forked striking gear either belt can be shifted on to a fixed
pulley on the countershaft between the two loose ones. By this arrangement the
bench can be driven backwards and forwards on the rails. This striking gear can
either be worked by hand, or automatically, by making the bench move a lever
when it reaches either end of the required travel, or by other suitable means.
The annexed drawing shows an adaptation of this invention. Fig. 1 is an elevation
and Fig. 2 a plan of a travelling circular sawbench. The corresponding letters on
each figure refer to the same parts. A is the moving sawbench carrying the saw-
spindle and circular saw B. The bench moves on the parallel rails C. C. and is
driven by an endless belt D from the countershafts E. This belt passes under the
loose pulley F, over the saw spindle pulley G, again under the loose pulley H, from
thence to the end of the travel, round the loose pulley I and back again to the
countershaft. The saw spindle is, by this means, driven whilst the bench is in any
position on the rails. The feed motion, for making the bench travel on the rails, is
effected by gearing from a worm on the sawspindle which drives the wheels J. K
and L, carried on a rocking tee shaped lever, of which the centre is the axle of the
wheel K. This rocking lever is moved by the screw M. On the same spindles
carrying the wheels J & L are two pinions either of which may be put into gear by
the rocking lever with a rack on one of the rails C. Thus, if ♬ is in gear, the bench
may have a quick motion to bring it up to its place on the rails. If both J & L
are out of gear the bench remains still, though the saw may all the time be moving,
and if L is in gear, the bench may be made to travel at the required rate for
cutting. By making the spindle carrying L to slide in the lever, the wheels K & L
may be changed for larger or smaller ones, by which means the bench may be made
to travel at different speeds for cutting logs of different thickness. The log, it will be
observed, is stationary, fixed on the solid ground, and projecting so much over the
saw pit as is required to be cut off. The countershaft E has a fast pulley N, with a
loose pulley O. O. on either side of it. A straight and a cross belt P & Q drive this
countershaft from the main shaft, and by means of a suitable forked striking gear,
taking hold of the two belts, one of them can be shifted on to the fixed pulley N,
whilst the other is on the loose pulley, by which means the bench travels either
forwards or backwards on the rails, or if both belts are on the loose pulleys the bench
is stopped altogether. A rod from the striking gear may be carried the whole length
of the travel of the bench so that a man can work it from any position; or the bench
may be made to automatically stop or reverse its motion by touching projecting pins
on this rod at each end of its travel.
Having now particularly described & ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, we declare that what we
claim is;
1st. A circular saw bench made to travel on rails for cutting stationary logs of
timber, substantially as described.
2nd. The means of driving the saw spindle of the moving bench by an endless
band or belt as herein described.
3rd. The rocking lever arm, carrying two or more differently speeded pinions,
which can alternately be put in gear, for varying the rate of travel of the bench on
the rails, substantially as described.