IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY TO SUPERSEDE HAND LABOUR IN THE OPERATION OF FILING
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Cottrill, of Studley, in the County of Warwick,
Needle Maker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY TO
SUPERSEDE HAND LABOUR IN THE OPERATION OF FILING."
Sealed the 5th December 1856, and dated the 24th September 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Cottrill at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
24th September 1856.
I, JAMES COTTRILL, of Studley, in the County of Warwick, Needle Maker,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY TO SUPERSEDE HAND LABOUR IN THE OPERATION OF FILING," to be as
follows, that is to say:-
The machine consists of proper frame standards and a bed plate, similar to
those used in a lathe. Parallel to the sides of the frame are two guide rods,
upon
which are cast eyes to receive the ends of a crank shaft. To the bow
of this crank is attached a connecting rod, terminating in a slide which holds
the file, and which works by the action of the crank up and down the guide
rods, before named.
The driving gear is hung on one end of the crank rod and a fly wheel on
the other end. The guide rods are connected together at either end by
transverse rods, and have suitable vertical and horizontal regulating screws
to adjust them to any desired point. The work to be filed is placed under the

page_text: bed of the machine, either in a pair of stationary clams, or in the jaws of a
vice or other instrument, mounted on another slide, and capable of being
shifted at will by means of a rack and pinion, or its equivalent.
By means of the eyes cast as before named on the guide rods, and which
will admit of those rods turning upon the crank shaft, I am enabled to take
hold of the rods at the fore end, and raise them, together with the connecting
rod and slide on which the file is fixed, completely off the work under operation,
and by weighting these rods in any suitable manner I can give the file any
amount of pressure upon the work. To balance the guide rods when thrown
up out of the way of the work, I provide either a strong spring or suflicient
weights at the tail end of the machine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Cottrill in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
23rd March 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
COTTRILL, of Studley, in the County of Warwick, Needle Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Ier heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said James Cottrill, Her special licence that I, the said James Cottrill, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said James
Cottrill, 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
yend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY TO
SUPERSEDE HAND LABOUR IN THE OPERATION OF FILING," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said James Cottrill, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Cottrill, 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
The object of my Invention is to dispense with human labour in all the
more laborious operations of reducing the bulk of articles of metal by means
of filing, in cases in which it may be desirable to form or finish articles having
one or more surfaces, and which may be either plane, taper, or cylindrical, if
required; and my Invention consists in so combining and arranging into a
machine certain mechanical appliances, or their equivalents, as to produce
a powerful substitute for the human arm, and one that will also work invaribly
in a given plane instead of following the arc described by manual operation.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Sheet A is a side elevation of the machine; Sheet B, an end elevation ;
Sheet C, Figure 1, a plan of the traversing bed upon which the work under
operation is placed. Sheet C, Figure 2, a plan of the counterpoise at the tail
end of the machine. (A) is a table or frame, upon which are bolted plummer
blocks (B), Sheet B), carrying the shaft (C), upon which on one side is hung a
fly wheel (D), and upon the opposite side the fast and loose pulleys (E and F,)
by which the machine is driven or thrown out of gear as may be required by
shifting the driving band. The rods (G, G,) and cross heads (H) constitute a
frame, which is hung loose upon the shaft (C) by means of the eyes (I), which
form parts of the rods (G), and through which eyes the shaft (C) passes. The
crank (K) is formed on the centre of the shaft (C), and if it be required to
vary the stroke of the file; as for some description of work, it may be I cut a
a slot in each of the arms of the crank, by which I am enabled to mount the
end of the connecting rod (L) at any portion of the length of the crank, and
consequently to vary the length of the stroke given by the file. (M) is the file
of the form I use for plane work, secured to a sliding frame (N) by pins and
nuts passing through the slots (0), and fixed on both sides, The head of
the connecting rod (L) is pinned as at (P) to the top of the file frame (N),
working the file frame (N) with the file (M) up and down the rods (G) to
the extent of the stroke regulated by the crank. The inner edges of the rods
5 (G) are bevilled to fit grooves of the same form
frame (N), and thus the constant and accurate working of the file in one
given plane is ensured. The handles (Q) are for the purpose of enabling
the operator instantaneously to throw the whole of the upper part of the
cut in the sides of the file

page_text: machine off the work into the position seen in (Sheet B,) and in dotted lines
(Sheet A). In doing this the cross rod (II) at the tail of the machine comes
in contact with and is engaged by a counterpoise, seen at (R), Figure 2,
Sheet C,) which counterpoise may be simply a short rod pinned as at (R)
to the frame, and governed by a spring of sufficient strength to enable it to
balance the weight it has to encounter when the upper part of the machine
is thrown back, and thus to keep this portion of the apparatus suspended out
of the way of the operator whilst he may be engaged in shifting or arranging
the position of the work. The work or article under operation rests upon a
traversing slide (S) Sheet A), seen better in the detached plan, Figure 1,
Sheet C, in which (a) is a plate of metal, upon which the jaws (b, 6), similar
to those of a vice, are opened or closed by screws, or other suitable means, as
at (c), the jaws working either upon a pin in a slot, as shewn, or upon fillets
and grooves. (d) shews the piece of work under operation firmly held in
between these jaws or clams; the bed plate (a) is worked to and fro across the
machine upon the rods (e) by means of the winch handle (f) and screw (g),
which screw works through screw boxes on the under side of the plate (a), or
by attaching any suitable change motion to the screw (9). The power
to work the screw may be obtained from the driving power of the machine.
In Sheet A) the traverse of the file upon the work is indicated by the dotted
Enes parallel to the frame of the machine, provision being made for the raising
or lowering the traversing plate by means of the screws (h). (i, i,) are two
spring plungers in connection with a Salter's balance (k); the rods (G, G,)
Leating upon the heads of these plungers, the balance (k) will indicate the
amount of pressure upon the work. The pressure can be regulated by the
adjusting block (1), which slides up and down upon a pin (m) fixed to
the frame, and by the screw (n) in the head of this block the block can be
raised to the necessary point, so that the cross head (H) resting upon this block,
the work is relieved of more than the requisite pressure of the file. Thus far
the machine is arranged for the ordinary operation of filing; but in the opera-
tion of draw filing I mount the file transversely instead of longitudinally upon
the file frame. In other respects no deviation would be necessary. For filing
cylindrical articles I of course suit the form of my file to the work I have to
reduce, and if this be of a taper form from end to end the article must be
so mounted on its bed that the file may still travel on a horizontal plane,
which will be done by raising one side of the bed out of that plane. In some
cases I propose to employ two files, working in conjunction, a roughing file
and a finishing file, the finishing file being mounted a trifle deeper than the
rough one, and to work in the rear of the roughing file. I find that okt files

page_text: after they have been thrown by in the ordinary workshop, will, by being used
with my machine, afford considerably more work, consequently I obtain great
economy by being enabled to use them.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, I wish it to be clearly understood that I do
not confine myself to these precise details, nor to any of the parts of the
machine taken separately. But that whch I claim, and desire to have secured
to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is, the arrangement
and combination of the several mechanical appliances herein described and
shewn in Drawings, or the equivalents thereof, forming machinery to supersede
band labour in the operation of filing, as herein more fully set forth and
specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Cottrill, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Seventeenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.
JAMES (L.S.) COTTRILL.