IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAFF- CUTTING MACHINES, CERTAIN PARTS BEING APPLICABLE TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel Edwards, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster,
Agricultural Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAFF-
CUTTING MACHINES, CERTAIN PARTS BEING APPLICABLE TO OTHER SIMILAR
PURPOSES."
Sealed the 11th October 1878, and dated the 18th May 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel Edwards at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 18th May 1878.
"E
SAMUEL EDWARDS, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Agricultural Engineer.
IMPROVEMENTS IN CHLAFF-CUTTING MACHINES, CERTAIN PARTS BEING APPLICABLE
TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES."
My Invention relates, first, more particularly to that description of chaff-cutting
machines in which the machine is started, reversed, and has the length of cut
altered by means of one lever, as described in the Specification of Letters Patent
granted to Follows, Bate, and Edwards, dated October 7th, 1872, No. 2949, and it
consists in the application to such machines of a travelling apparatus or endless web
for the purpose of bringing forward the feed of hay, straw, or other material to the
feed rollers, starting & regulating of the speed being effected by the same lever
as operates the different motions of the other parts of the machine.
My Invention consists, secondly, in the application to chaff cutters of an improved
riddle or sieve having an adjustable mesh or openings, the size of which may
be increased or diminished, as desired. This riddle may be applied to other
purposes.
Thirdly. In the application to chaff cutters generally, when arranged for sifting,
elevating, and bagging, of a double shoot for the purpose of delivering the chaff from
the two mouths of the shoot alternately.
In carrying out the first part of my Invention I connect one of the rollers over
which the web is stretched (and by preference that one nearest the feed rollers) by

page_text: means of wheels with the shaft of the bottom feed, the speed of which being
regulated by the starting lever also controls that of the web.
In carrying out the second part of my Invention the bottom of the riddle or
sieve is composed of two sheets of perforated zinc or other suitable metal or
material, one of which sheets is arranged to slide under and close to the other, so
that the holes in the top plate may be either fully open, or partially or entirely
closed, as desired.
In carrying out the third part of my Invention the shoot is arranged with a
double discharge pipe, at the junction of which is fixed a lid or valve, which,
closing one mouth, leaves the other open, end vice versa. By this arrangement
bags are filled alternately at the opposite mouths, the full bag being removed while
the empty one is being filled, without the necessity of stopping the machine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Samuel Edwards in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 14th
November 1878.
SAMUEL EDWARDS, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Agricultural Engineer.
"IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAFF-CUTTING MACHINES, CERTAIN PARTS BEING APPLICABLE
TO OTHER SIMILAR PURPOSES."
My said Invention relates more particularly to that description of chaff-cutting
machines in which the machine is started, reversed, and has the length of cut
altered by means of one lever, as described in Specification to Letters Patent
granted to Follows, Bate, and Edwards, dated October Seventh, One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-two, No. 29-49, and it consists in the application to such
machines of a travelling apparatus or endless web for the purpose of bringing
forward the hay, straw, or other material to be cut to the feed rollers, starting
and regulating of the speed being effected by the same lever as operates the
different motions of the other parts of the machine.
And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now
proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose shall refer to
the several Figures on the annexed Sheets of Drawings, the same letters of reference
indicating corresponding parts in all the corresponding Figures.
Figure 1 of my Drawings represents a sectional elevation of a chaff-cutting
machine constructed according to iny said Invention, and Figure 2 is a view of the
under side of the machine, a portion being shewn in section for the purpose of more
clearly illustrating my said Invention.
A is the driving shaft of the machine mounted in bearings B on the framing C,
and fitted with fast and loose pulleys D, D', and the fly wheel E, to which the
cutting blades are fixed. On this shaft there are also mounted loosely two bevel
pinions F, F, provided with projections a, which gear in corresponding recesses
formed in a clutch G fitted to slide on a feather on the shaft A.
The pinions

page_text: F and F gear with a bevel wheel H fast on one end of a shaft I arranged at a right
anglo to the shaft A, from which it receives motion in one direction or the other by
causing one or other of the pinions F, F', as required, to gear with the clutch G.
The shaft I has mounted loosely thereon two spur pinions K, K', in gear with
and actuating by means of a clutch b two corresponding wheels L, L', fast on a
shaft M, which is mounted in bearings c on the under side of the bed or table of tho
machine.
On the outer end of the shaft M is keyed a spur wheel N in gear with a cor-
responding wheel O fast on the axle P of the lower feed roller Q, which axlo also
carries another spur wheel R in gear with a corresponding wheel R' on the axle P
of the top feed roller Q
The machine is started and stopped, the direction of motion reversed, and the
speed of the feed rollers altered by means of a single lever S, and which is con-
nected at its lower end to a bar or shaft carrying the clutch forks e, f, and is
mounted upon its fulcrum g, so as to be capable of being turned thereon in a direction
at right angles to as well as in the longitudinal direction of the shaft T, the foriner
motion being for the purpose of working the clutch G, so as to effect the starting,
reversing, and stopping of the machine, and the latter for actuating the clutch b for
the purpose of altering the speed of the feed rollers.
In order to admit of the speed of the feed rollers being varied the pinions K and
K' are made of different diameters, the pinion K' in the example given being less
than the pinion K, and made to gear with the spur wheel L, which is of greater
diameter than the wheel L gearing with the pinion K; thus by causing the clutch b to
gear with the pinion K¹, the feed rollers will be driven slower than when the clutch
is in gear with the pinion K.
The straw, hay, or other substance to be cut is automatically brought forward to
the feed rollers in the following manner:-I arrange in front of the feed rollers
QQ, an endless apron, creeper, or feeder U, mounted on rollers V, V', fitted in
bearings on the cliceks or sides W, which formn with the feeder a trough for the
reception of the material to be cut.
The roller V situate nearest the feed rollers is made hollow, and through it is
passed the bar or shaft T, herein-before referred to, for working the clutches G
and b. This roller has keyed on one end a spur wheel X in gear with a pinion Z
mounted on a carrier shaft Z', and actuated from a corresponding wheel Y koyed on
the axle P of the lower feed roller Q. It will thus be readily seen that all tho
different motions of the machine are controlled, and the automatic feeding effected,
by means of one and the same lever, whereby the operation of the machine is con
siderably simplified, whilst the liability to accident, as when feeding by hand, is
cutirely obviated.
It is found in some cases advantageous to use a sieve or riddle in combination
with my improved chaff-cutting machine, the same being arranged in an inclined
position beneath the feed rollers Q, Q', so as to receive the material as it is cut, and
sift it before it is finally delivered from the machine. This riddle may be composed of
two perforated zine or other metal plates placed one over the other, and fitted in a
frame as to admit of one of the plates being slid over the other under the action of a
screw or otherwise in order to contract more or less, as required, the openings in the
plates, which may be made of various sizes.
The riddle may have a rocking motion imparted to it from the machine by
means of gearing or otherwise.
It is obvious that the riddle is also applicable to other similar purposes.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the saine is or may be used or carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and original,
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is, first, the application and use to and in chaff-cutting
machines of a travelling apparatus or endless web for automatically bringing
forward to the feed rollers the material to be cut, the starting regulation of speed

page_text: and stopping of the said travelling apparatus or endless web, together with the
controlling of the motions of the other parts of the machine, being effected by the
aid of a single lever, substantially as herein-before described, and illustrated by my
Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel Edwards, have to this my Specifica-
tion set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first day of October, One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-eight.
SAMUEL EDWARDS. (L.S.)