AN IMPROVED STONE BREAKING MACHINE
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Alexander Browne at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 27th May 1876. A communication from
abroad by Messieurs Knight, Farinaux, and Dutemple, of Lille, in the French
Republic.
ALEXANDER BROWNE, of the Firm of Brownc and Company, Patent Agents, of 5,
Southampton Buildings, Holborn, in the County of Middlesex. "AN IMPROVED
STONE BREAKING MACHINE." A communication from abroad by Messieurs Knight,
Farinaux, and Dutemple, of Lille, in the French Republic.
This Invention consists in constructing a machine suitable for breaking stones,
and the principal feature of novelty and improvement in such said machines consists
in arranging and combining together side by side a series of separate strong levers
operating like shears to cut or split the pieces of stone that are to be broken instead
of employing hammers or other known means and instruments for effecting that
object.
The following is the construction of the above mentioned improved machine :—In
a suitable framing I arrange side by side two sets of levers, one set being placed
opposite to the other set, each side being inclined so as to present a wide opening at
top to receive the pieces of stone and a narrow opeuing at bottom. Each set of levers
is mounted on a separate horizontal axle which passes through holes of corresponding
size made in each of the aforesaid separate levers of each series or set. The said
axles forming the axes of motion of the said levers. The upper and lower ends of
each of the said levers is formed taper on its opposite edges, the said taper edges
constituting cutting edges operating like shears employed to cut metal. The afore-
said levers are corrugated on those parts of their edges which are between the plain
tapered parts or cutting edges for securely holding the pieces of stone while they
are being broken. The manner of operating the aforesaid series and sets of lovers
for breaking the stone is as follows:-Upon two strong horizontal shafts a long piece
of metal as a tube is fixed, the said tube having cams or projections forined on its
surface, each cam corresponding to its respective lever at the back edge thereof and
bottom ends of the said levers; rotatory motion is imparted to the aforesaid shafts
and cams by a system of toothed gearing driven by any convenient and suitable
means.
The operations of a machine thus constructed are as follows:-The pieces of stone
to be broken being placed in a hopper at top of the machine fall between the inner-
most corrugated edges of the two sets of levers aforesaid, and as the cams are caused

page_text: to rotate the lower ends of the opposite sets and series of levers will be forcibly
pressed and approach each other and effect the breaking or splitting of the
stone that is between the corrugated edges of the several levers before mentioned,
after which the pieces of stone thus broken will fall down and be caught between
the plain cutting edges of the several levers and thus be finally cut and finished as
desired. And I would here remark that an important feature in this Invention
consists, fir-tly, in combining in one machine the operations of two separate machines
and, secondly, by making each of the aforesaid levers with four separate cutting
edges when one cutting edge is worn by turning each of the said levers upside down
or the back edge to the front four new cutting edges may be brought into use,
thus effecting great economy in the cost of machines of this description, as also
economizing power and space, and more effectually breaking the stone than has
heretofore been accomplished by machines otherwise constructed.