AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING SUGAR CANE
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ferdinand Kohn, of 6, Robert Street, Adelphi,
London, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR
CUTTING SUGAR CANE."-A communication from abroad by Frederick
James Vivian Minchin, of Aska, Madras Presidency, East India.
Sealed the 21st May 1867, and dated the 4th December 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ferdinand Kohn at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
December 1866.
I, FERDINAND KOHN, of 6, Robert Street, Adelphi, London, Engineer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED MACHINE
FOR CUTTING SUGAR CANE," a communication made to me from abroad by
Frederick James Vivian Minchin, of Aska, Madras Presidency, East India,
to be as follows:-
This machine has for its object the production of small prismatical slices
from sugar cane for the purpose of extraction by the diffusion process,
patented by William Edward Gedge on the 27th day of February 1866,

page_text: No. 594, as a communication from Frederick James Vivian Minchin, of
Aska, Madras Presidency, East India.
The machine consists of a revolving disc carrying a number of knives, which
in their rotation pass a fixed knife or cutter, and cut the cane introduced
between the fixed and the revolving cutters into slices of suitable size. In order
to obtain small slices of a prismatical form the revolving cutters are shaped so
as to form a series of rectangular steps of equal width and depth. Each step is
sharpened in such a manner as to present two cutting edges placed at right angles
to each other on its face. The wole series of cutting edges will thereby have
the appearance shewn by the following sketch
. L LLL___.
A knife of this description will produce a clean sharp cut, both in slicing off
thin discs of cane, and also in simultaneously cross-cutting these discs into
slices of a prismatic shape. The cane is fed into the machine by a hopper
formed with clean flat sides, with its bottom placed at an angle of 65 to 75
degrees, inclined to the horizontal level. The cane will by its own weight
slide down the inclined plane, or will be pushed down and present itself to the
action of the knives at a suitable angle.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Ferdinand Kohn in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd May 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FERDINAND
KOHN, of 6, Robert Street, Adelphi, London,. Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the
year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said Ferdinand Kohn, Her special licence that I, the said Ferdinand
Kohn, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Ferdinand Kohn, 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 FOR CUTTING SUGAR CANE," a communication made to
me from abroad by Frederick James Vivian Minchin, of Aska, Madras

page_text: Presidency, East India, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Ferdinand Kohn, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and 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 Ferdinand Kohn, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
The machine has for its object the production of small prismatical slices
from sugar cane for the purpose of extraction by the diffusion process
patented by William Edward Gedge on the 27th February 1866, as a
communication from abroad by Frederick James Vivian Minchin, of Aska,
Madras Presidency, India.
The machine consists of a revolving disc carrying a number of knives, which
in their rotation pass a fixed knife or cutter, and cut the cane introduced
between the fixed and the revolving cutters into slices of a prismatical form.
The revolving cutters are shaped so as to form a series of rectangular steps of
equal width and depth. Each step is sharpened so as to present two cutting
edges placed at right angles to each other. The whole series of cutting edges will
thereby have the appearance shewn in the following sketch | _ |_ .L.
A knife of this description will produce a clean sharp cut, both in slicing off
thin discs of cane, and also in simultaneously cross-cutting the discs into slices
of a prismatic shape. The cane is fed into the machine by an inclined hopper
formed with clean flat sides, with its bottom placed at an angle of 65 or 75
degrees to the horizontal level. The cane will by its own weight slide down
the inclined plane, or be pushed down and present itself to the action of the
knives at a suitable angle.
In order that this Invention may be better understood I have represented
the machine by the annexed Drawings.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the machine, showing the rotating disc with its
stepped cutters (a, a, a), and Fig. 2 a section representing the inclined
hopper (6) and the fixed knife (c).
I do not restrict or confine myself to the precise details of the arrangement
shewn in the Drawings; but I claim the general arrangement of this machine as
before described, and its application to the purpose nained above, and to similar

page_text: purposes, such as cutting soft materials into prismatic slices by means of
revolving cutters of the nature described above.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ferdinand Kohn, have hereunto set my
day of May, in the year of our
hand and seal, this
FERDINAND KOHN. (Ls.)