AN IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING CODES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Hunter Campbell, of No. 1, King's
Arms Yard, Coleman Street, in the City of London, Esquire, for
the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING
CODES"
Sealed the 9th May 1854, and dated the 20th December 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James. Hunter
Campbell at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 20th December 1858.
I, JAMES HUNTER CAMPBELL, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "AN IMPROVEMENT IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING CORKS"
to be as follows:-
An improvement in Gilbee's patent machinery-for cutting cork of
any shape into corks, whereby squares of cork to be afterwards cut into
corks are supplied to the machine by a self-acting feeder, which feeder
is so worked by a cam attached to the driving wheel of the machine,
that as each square of cork is cut and removed by the machine another
square comes down the feeder, and is ready to be presented to the

page_text: knife when the proper time arrives, thus avoiding the possibility of
injuring the person employed to feed the machine, and at the same
time supplying the squares of cork to the machine more quickly and
certainly than can be done by hand.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said James Hunter Campbell in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 20th June 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JAMES HUNTER CAMPBELL, late of No. 1, King's Arms Yard, Coleman
Street, and now of No. 36, Aldersgate Street, in the City of London,
Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria,
by Her Royal Letters Patent, under the Great Seal of the United
Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twentieth day of December, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Hunter Campbell, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said James Hunter Campbell, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as I, the said James Hunter Campbell, my
executors, administrators, or assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise,
and vend, my Invention therein mentioned, of "AN IMPROVEMENT IN
MACHINERY FOR CUTTING CORKS," within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and the Isle of Man, in such
manner as to me, the said James Hunter Campbell, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should in my or our dis-
cretion seem meet; in which said Letters Patent is contained a proviso
for making void the same Letters Patent, in case I, the said James
Hunter Campbell, should not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be

page_text: performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and
cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal and Patent Office within
six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said James Hunter Campbell, do hereby declare that the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
are particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto
annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to
say-
My improvement in machinery for cutting corks consists in the con-
struction of a self-acting feeder, and its adaptation to machines of a
similar description to the machine known as "Gilbee's cork cutting
machine;" by which feeder, squares or pieces of cork to be afterwards
cut into corks are supplied to the machine. The feeder is worked by a
cam attached to the machine in such manner that as each square or
piece of cork is cut and removed by the machine, another square
or piece comes down the feeder into a position ready to be presented to
the holders of the machine at the proper time, previous to the nction of
the knife, thus avoiding the possibility of injuring the person employed
to feed the machine, and at the same time supplying the squares or
pieces of cork to the machine with greater rapidity and precision than
can be done by hand.
Having thus briefly set forth the object of my Invention, I will now
proceed to describe the same more in detail with the several parts
which constitute my improvement.
The feeder consists of the following parts, viz*:-
A trough or chanuel, in which the pieces of cork to be cut into corks
are placed, and down which they pass to another part of the feeder
called a carrier. The use of the carrier is to receive the lowermost
cork from the trough, and to carry it down to the holders in the cork
cutting machine, which clutch and hold it in readiness for the action
of the knife.

page_text: A hook is jointed on to the end of the carrier to prevent the corks
from slipping out, and the hook is kept in its place by means of a
spring.
The carrier is moved by means of sliding rods placed underneath the
bed of the trough, and which are acted upon by springs pressing them
downwards.
A lever is placed over the lower end of the trough in such a manner
as to impinge upon the piece of cork next to that resting on the
carrier, and so as to prevent the piece of cork impinged upon from
escaping when the carrier descends, to place between the holders the
piece of cork which is to be cut, and the return of the carrier liberates
the cork from the hold of the lever.
The movement of the carrier is regulated by a cam attached to the
boss of the driving wheel of the cork cutting machine, and acting upon
the carrier by rods and levers.
The feeder is bracketed to the framework of the cork cutting
machine.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Fig. 1 in the accompanying Drawings represents a front elevation of
a cork cutting inachine, with my improvement applied thereto; Fig. 2
is an end elevation of the same; and Fig. 3 is a transverse vertical
section taken through the centre of the feeder. Fig. 4 is a section;
and Fig. 5, a back view of the feeder, drawn upon an enlarged scale,
in order to shew the construction and arrangement of the several parts
more clearly.
a, Figures 1, 2, and 3, indicates the stationary framing of the cork
cutting machine, and to which framing is bolted the bracket b, that
supports the feeder; c is the trough or channel in which the pieces of
cork to be cut into corks are placed, and pass down to the carrier, as
shown in Fig. 8; d is the carrier; the lower or hooked part e being
jointed to the part d, as shown in the Drawing (Figures 3 and 4), and
being kept in the position shewn in Figures 3 and 4, by the spring e".
ff are rods connected at their lower ends with the part d, and moving
in a hollow space, y,, at the back of the bed of the feeder, as shewn

page_text: in Figures 3, 4, and 5. Around the rods are placed coiled springs f*,
(Figures 3, 4, and 5,) which rest at one end against the stationary cross
piece c, through which the rods f,f, slide, and at the other end
against the cross bar c, which connects the rods f.f. These springs
are for the purpose of forcing the carrier with the cork to be cut down
to the holders g, g, in the cork cutting machine, as shewn in Figures 1
and 8. h is an adjusting screw, whereby the extent of the upward
movement of the carrier may be regulated (Figures 4 and 5). .d,
(Figures 3 and 4) is a tooth projecting underneath the carrier, by which,
through the action of a lever (k), the upward movement of the carrier.
is effected. d, (Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4,) is a bar attached to the
carrier d, and shaped so as to pass from the upper part of the carrier
over or across the lower end of the trough when the carrier is brought
nearest to the trough, and which bar acts upon the lever 1, (Figures 1,
2, 3, and 4,) so as to prevent the lever r from impinging upon the cork
in the trough until the carrier descends with a piece of cork to the
holders, and so as upon the return of the carrier to release the piece
of cork upon which the lever r has impinged whilst the carrier was de-
scending. The lever (the upper end of which rests upon a cross piece
supported by two uprights, one attached to cach side of the trough) may
be made to impinge with its lower end on the piece of cork entirely by
its own weight, or by means of a small spring, as shewn in the Drawing,
Figure 4, or in any other manner that may be found convenient; and
-the mode of attaching the lever r to the trough may also be varied, so
long as it is made to confine the cork as the carrier descends, and leave
it free as the carrier returns. I is a lever which presses against the
tooth, projecting. from the carrier d, so as to resist the action of the
coiled springs, thereby maintaining the carrier in an clevated position
(as shown in Figures 1, 2, and 8, of the Drawing), when not required
to act. This lever is connected by means of the rods and lever l, m,
and n, with the lever o, which latter lever is in contact with the camp,
fixed to the boss of the driving wheel q, of the cork cutting machine
(Figures 1 and 2). This cam p, it will be seen, governs the action of
the carrier, by pressing the lever k against or removing it from the
tooth d. The position of the cam p is so arranged with reference to
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page_text: the cork cutting machine, that when the holders 9,9, are ready to
receive a piece of cork, the cam p, by its action upon the levers o, u, n,
and I, withdraws the lever k from the tooth do, and allows the carrier d
to be forced down by the springs ff*, (Figures 3, 4, and 5,) into the
position shewn by dots in Figure 3; the effect of which is to place the
cork i between the holders g, g, by which the cork is immediately seized
when the larger radius of the cam p will come round and force out the
lower end of the lever o, the upper end of which turns upon a pivot
fixed to the frame of the cork cutting machine, and which through the
agency of the rods and lovers n, m, l, k, (Figures 1 and 2,) will force
back the carrier into the position shewn in the Drawing; the hooked
part e, as the carrier returns, being caused to turn down and pass under
the piece of cork, which is then held firmly between the holders g, g.
Immediately the hook e has passed the cork and holders it is caused to
return into the position shewn in Figures 3 and 4, by incans of the
spring pressing against its under side, but which is not sufficiently
strong to resist the action of the lever k against the tooth do, when the
piece of cork is held firmly by the holders 9.g. It should be under-
stood that when the carrier advances to supply a cork to the machine,
the remaining corks in the channel c are prevented from moving down
by means of the lever r, (Figures 2, 3, and 4,) which, when the feeder
advances with the first cork, impinges upon the next, and thus prevents
them moving down until the return of the carrier, which, as it moves
back, raises the lever r, as shewn in the Drawing (Figures 3, 4), when
another cork will slide down upon the carrier, ready to be delivered
into the machine. I consider the materials of which the feeder is
made to be unimportant, but have found it convenient to use wood for
the bed of the trough, the rest being of metal.
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Having now described my Invention, and the manner in which tho
same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not
intend to confine myself to the precise arrangements herein shewIL
and described, as they may be varied without departing from the
nature and objects of my Invention; nor do I lay claim to the par-
ticular means by which the cam pis made to operate upon the tooth
and which may be varied according to circumstances. But that which

page_text: I claim, and desire to secure under the above in part recited Letters
Patent, is,-
The construction, arrangement, and adaptation to such cork cutting
machines as aforesaid, of a self-acting feeder of the nature above set
forth and described, regulated by means of a cam or other similar
mechanical contrivance connected with the cork cutting machine.
In witness whereof, 1, the said James Hunter Campbell, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twentieth day of June,
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
J. H. CAMPBELL. (L.B.)