IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING WOOD."
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Samuel William Worssam, of King's Road, Chelsea,
in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING WOOD."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Samuel William Worssam
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
2nd November 1861.
I, SAMUEL WILLIAM WORSSAM, of King's Road, Chelsea, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING WOOD," to be as follows:-
My Invention of improvements in machinery for cutting wood relates to
sawing machinery for cutting logs or large baulks of timber both longitudinally
and transversely. In the sawing machine for cutting up the log longitudinally,
the log is placed on a travelling platform, which is actuated by gearing, so as
to bring the timber up to the saws, or the log may be fed forward by means of
feed rollers, without the use of the travelling platform. The saws are attached
to the crossheads of a vibrating framing, to which an up-and-down motion is
given by means of a connecting rod and crank driven by any prime mover, but

page_text: the saws (of which there may be one, two, or more, as may be required) are
arranged outside of the main standards of the machine, so that the log may be
moved up laterally to the saws when the cuts have been finished. By this
arrangement a large log may be cut or sliced up in a frame or machine of
moderate dimensions, whereas if the log were placed within or between the
side standards, a machine of considerable width would be required to take a
large log. The working or vibrating frame is actuated by means of a crank
on the main shaft, the end bearing of which is placed within the working
frame. The rotary motion of the crank is by means of a single connecting
rod, which connects it to the crossheads of the working frame, converted into
the up-and-down motion required for sawing the timber, as in ordinary reci-
procating saw frames.
In order to render the machine portable and to dispense with the heavy
counterbalance weights on the fly wheel, two air or vacuum cylinders are em-
ployed and placed within the working frame, one on each side of the crank
shaft, and the pistons of these cylinders are connected by means of their piston
rod to the bottom crosshead of the working frame.
-
For cross-cutting logs of timber I propose to employ two circular saws
working one above the other in the same plane. The log to be operated upon
is secured in any convenient manner upon a suitable stationary bed, and the
rotary saws being' mounted in bearings in a moveable frame are brought up to
their work, and the topmost saw will cut through one half of the log, while the
lower saw will cut through the other half in the same line or plane. By this
means at one operation and with circular saws of moderate dimensions I am
enabled to cut logs or balks of timber of considerable depth or thickness. In
order to keep the saws steady I propose, in addition to the usual longitudinal
packed guides, to employ other guides, which will also support the saw before
it enters the wood. These additional guides. are mounted on hinges or joints,
so that they may yield or fold down in a vertical direction when they come
against the timber. The two saws are driven by one wide band, which passes
over the driving rigger, and suitable tightening and guide pullies, all of which
are mounted in bearings in the moveable frames.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Samuel William Worssain in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 2nd May 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, SAMUEL
WILLIAM WORSSAN, of King's Road, Chelsea, in the County of Middlesex,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Second day of November, on the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Samuel William Worssam, Her special license that I, the said Samuel
William Worssam, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
I, the said Samuel William Worssam, 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 "In-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING WOOD," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Samuel William Worssam, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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 Samuel William Worssam, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement; reference being bad to the Drawings hereuuto annexed,.
and the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
My Invention of "improvements in machinery for cutting wood. relates to
sawing machinery for cutting logs or large baulks of timber both longitudinally
and transversely.
The first part of the Invention relates to the machine for cutting up the
timber longitudinally, and the second part of the Invention relates to the
machine for cutting up logs or timber transversely.
In the sawing machine for cutting up the log longitudinally, and which is
shewn in Sheet I, and II. of the accompanying Drawings, the log is placed

page_text: on a travelling platform, which is actuated by gearing, so as to bring the
timber up to the saws, or the log may be fed forward by means of feed rollers,
without the use of the travelling platform. The saws are attached to the cross-
heads of a vibrating framing, to which an up-and-down motion is given by
means of a connecting rod and crank, driven by any prime mover, but the
saws (of which there may be one, two, or more, as may be required) are
arranged to work outside of the main standards of the machine, so that the log
may be moved up laterally to the saws when the cuts have been finished.
Fig. 1, Sheet I., is a side elevation of the machine for sawing logs longitu-
dinally, constructed according to my improvements; Fig. 2 is an end elevation
of the same; and Fig. 3, Sheet II., is a plan view.
The horizontal part of the stationary framing is seen at a, a, a, a, and on
this stationary part there are placed at convenient distances apart several
rollers b, b, b, for supporting 'the travelling bed c, c, c', on which the log to
be operated upon is placed. It will be seen on referring to Fig. 2, that this
travelling bed is divided into two parts, of which the longitudinal bars c, c, are
connected together by metal transomes or cross pieces c*. The other longitu-
dinal bar c¹ travels with the other bars c, c, but is not connected therewith, and
serves to support the wooden cross pieces c², which assist in supporting the log.
As the log advances against the saws d, d, the wooden transomes or cross
pieces c² are removed to allow the saws to pass.
a¹, a¹, a¹, 'a', are upright standards firmly bolted to the horizontal framing a, a,
and serving as guides to the vertical side pieces e, e, of the saw frame. The
saws d, d, are mounted in the ordinary manner in the top and bottom cross-
heads e, e¹, which complete the saw frame, and to which an up-and-down
motion is communicated by the crank f, at one end of the main driving shaft g,
through the intervention of the connecting rod f¹. The end bearings g¹ of the
shaft g are placed within the standards of the working frame, and by placing.
the saws d, d, outside of the stationary framing, as shewn in Fig. 2 of the
Drawing, a large log may be cut or sliced up in a frame or machine of mode-
rate dimensions, whereas if the log were-placed within the frame or between
the side standards a¹, a', a machine of considerable width would be required to
take a large log.
In order to render the machine portable and to dispense with the heavy
counterbalance weights on the fly wheel, two air or vacuum cylinders h, h, pro-
vided with suitable valves at top are employed, and placed within the working
frame a¹, a¹. It will be seen on referring to Fig. 3, that an air or vacuum
cylinder is placed on each side of the crank shaft, and the pistons of these

page_text: cylinders are connected by means of their piston rods h¹, h¹, to the bottom
crosshead d¹ of the working frame, so that when the pistons in the air cylinders
are drawn down they will be working against a vacuum.
The feed motion of the log up to the saws is effected by racks and pinions,
or in any other convenient manner; but as this forms no part of the present
Invention it will not be necessary to give any detailed explanation thereof.
The machine for cross-cutting logs of timber, as shewn in Sheet III., Fig. 4,
is a side elevation of the machine, and Fig. 5 a plan view of the same. Two
circular saws k, k, are employed, one working above the other in the same ver-
tical plane. The log to be operated upon is secured in any convenient manner
upon a suitable stationary bed l, and is kept steady while being operated upon
by being held against the upright fixed post m. The rotary saws k are mounted
in bearings in a moveable frame n, n, and are brought up to their work by
moving forward the frame n, n. The topmost saw will cut through one half of
the log, while the lower saw will cut through the other half in the same ver-
tical line or plane. By this means, at one operation, and with circular saws of
moderate dimensions, I am enabled to cut across logs or baulks of timber of
considerable depth or thickness.
In order to keep the saws steady I propose, in addition to the usual longi-
tudinal packed guides o, o, to employ other guides p, p, which will also support
the saws before they enter the wood. The additional guides p, p, are mounted
on hinges, so that they may yield or fold down in a vertical direction when
they come against the timber. The two saws are driven by one wide band q, q,
which passes over a large driving rigger r on the main shaft, and also round
suitable tightening and guide pullies s, s', all of which are mounted in bearings
in the moveable frame. The bearings of the tightening pullies s are adjustable
and are provided with a regulating screw t, for screwing up the bearings when
the driving band gets slack. The machine is driven by a band u, which is
actuated by a pulley v, mounted in bearings in the lever arm w below.
The travelling frame n is actuated by racks and pinions, as shewn in the
Drawing, and as the driving pulley vis mounted in swing bearings in the lever
arm w, which is weighted, the driving band will always be kept at the proper
tension, whatever may be the position of the travelling saw frame.
Having now described my Invention of "improvements in machinery for
cutting wood, and having explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect, I claim as the Invention secured to me by Letters Patent as aforesaid,
the general arrangement of parts shewn in Sheet I. of the Drawings for cut-
ting timber longitudinally; I claim particularly placing the saws outside the

page_text: side standards of the machine, so that a log may be brought up to the saws
with greater facility than heretofore.
In reference to the machine for cross-cutting timber, as shewn in Sheet III.,
I claim arranging the circular saws, one above the other in the same vertical
plane, and placing them in suitable bearings outside the main framing, for
the purpose of cross-cutting timber or logs; I also claim the use of the addi-
tional guides p, p, for assisting in supporting or steadying the saws before
entering the wood.
In witness whereof, I, the said Samuel William Worssam, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Second day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
SAMUEL WILLIAM WORSSAM. (L.S.)
66, Chancery Lane.