IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN SPLITTING OR SKIVING LEATHER
Year: 1883

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Henry Stevens of Leicester in the County of
Leicester, for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS
EMPLOYED IN SPLITTING OR SKIVING LEATHER
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Henry Stevens at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 23rd October 1883.
WILLIAM HENRY STEVENS of Leicester in the County of Leicester IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS EMPLOYED IN SPLITTING OR SKIVING LEATHER
The Invention relates to improvements in means or apparatus employed in
splitting or skiving leather for toe caps, stiffeners and for other purposes where the
leather requires to be skived around all or part of its edges and where it is required
to leave a portion of the leather of the original substance thereof or of any desired
thickness.
For this purpose I employ a pair of feed rollers the distance between which is
capable of adjustment according to the substance of the leather under treatment, a
knife is adjusted with its edge just in advance of the space between the rollers in a
similar manner to an ordinary leather splitting machine; in order however to
adapt the machine to the purposes of my invention I sink a recess in the lower
roller which recess I make of the exterior form or thereabouts of the toe cap or
other piece of leather to be skived or split and of varying depths according to the
varying thickness required in the piece of leather under treatment.
I also indicate on the lower roller the exact shape of the leather under treatment
in order to ensure its correct adjustment.
In some cases it may be desirable to form the lower roller of larger diameter
than the other in order to afford space thereon for the treatment of comparatively
large pieces of leather, or the recess to receive the leather may be formed in a flat
plate passed between a pair of rollers or caused to travel on a bed under a pressure
roller.

page_text: in splitting or skiving pieces of leather of other forms for the same or other
purposes. This recess b₁ as shown in the drawings is made with a central or
nearly central flat portion from which the depth decreases until the recess terminates
on a level with the surface of the roller; around this recess b' I indicate the exact
shape of the leather under treatment in any convenient manner, that which I have
found to answer and which is represented in the Drawings consists of a piece of
thin wire b' which may be either round or flat and which is partially sunk into the
roller b.
On the upper roller a I affix a piece of metal or other suitable material a' which
has a rise thereon of the shape of that portion of the article under treatment which
is required to be left of the original substance of the leather and such piece a¹ is
chamfered down from the said rise to its outer edge where it terminates on a level
or nearly so with the surface of the roller a.
In Figure 1 a piece of leather d to form a toe cap is represented between the
rollers Qu b. and as having passed half way through showing the two parts of the
same as they would be separated by the knife c.
Although I have represented my Invention as applied to the feed rollers of a
leather splitting machine it is in the same manner applicable to the feed rollers of a
skiving machine.
Having thus described the nature of my said invention and the mode in which I
carry the same into effect I would have it understood that what I claim is :-The
improvements in means or apparatus employed in splitting or skiving leather
substantially as herein shown and described and for the purpose stated.
In witness whereof I the said William Henry Stevens have hereunto set my
hand and seal this Twenty Second day of April in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eighty four.
W. H. STEVENS (L.S.)