CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY GIVING MOTION TO THE CUTTER PLATE OF INSTRUMENTS EMPLOYED FOR CLIPPING OR SHEARING HORSES, SHEEP, OR OTHER ANIMALS."
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Clark at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 30th July 1877.
WILLIAM CLARK, of 232, Oxford Street, in the County of Middlesex. "CERTAIN
IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR AUTOMATICALLY GIVING MOTION TO THE CUTTER
PLATE OF INSTRUMENTS EMPLOYED FOR CLIPPING OR SHEARING HORSES, SHEEP, OR
OTHER ANIMALS."
The Invention relates to improvements in that class of clipping or shearing
instrument in which a cutter plate, provided with a number of cutting teeth sliding
to and fro over a comb or under plate is employed for clipping or shearing hair or
wool from the backs of horses or other animals, and is designed for the purpose of
providing such instruments with a self-contained automatic motive power which
will give a rapid action to the cutter plate, thereby enabling the operator to devote
his attention solely to the guiding of the instrument over the surface of the skin
whilst the machine is at work.
The Invention consists, first, in placing within the handle of the instrument an
arrangement of clockwork mechanism, which is in connection with the lever actuating
the to-and-fro motion of the cutter plate, the connection with such plate and train
of wheels receiving motion from a wound-up spring, being obtained through the
medium of a crank, disc, cam, eccentric, or other equivalent, and to which a stop
action is applied whereby the operator by a pressure of his hand is enabled to
regulate the speed, and stop or start the instrument at pleasure.
A second arrangement of apparatus for giving a rapid to-and-fro action to the
cutter plate I obtain through the medium of electricity. According to this arrange-
ment I pass through the handle of the instrument insulated copper wires which
terminate at one end in the armature of a magnet, a portion of the cutter plate itself
forming the magnet, the whole being covered in with a shield plate. The con-
ducting insulated wires are connected with the poles of a battery which for the
matter of convenience may be placed at any distance from the instrument, freedom
of movement to the instrument when in the hand of the operator being obtained
by allowing the conducting wires to be sufficiently slack between the battery and
instrument, the "break and "make contact being obtained through the
medium of any well-known arrangement of apparatus now employed for that
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page_text: purpose; thus, when the battery is at work and the circuit closed, a rapid to-and-
fro action will be given to the cutter plate, the curved edges or teeth of which will
rapidly sever or cut the hair or wool from the skin of the animal with which they
are brought into contact.
Lastly. My improvements relate to an arrangement of portable mechanism for
driving horse-clipping or sheep-shearing instruments, and consists in providing a
standard or upright (which is easily fixed to the ground) with gearing, which will
drive a spindle placed either in a horizontal or vertical position, to one end of
which a coupling is attached, forming a ready connection between the driving
power and the instrument to be driven through the medium of rotating or other
driving cords or bands.