A MACHINE FOR BORING OR PERFORATING STONES
Year: 1837

page_text: HUNTER'S SPECIFICATION.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
HUNTER, of Leysmill, near Arbroath, in the County of Forfar, Mechanic,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Thirteenth day of December, in the first year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said James
Hunter, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said James Hunter, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, or such others as I,
the said James Hunter, my exors, admors, 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, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
my Invention of "A MACHINE FOR BORING OR PERFORATING STONES;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said James Hunter,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Hunter, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly set forth
and explained in the two sets of Drawings marked No. 1 and No. 2 hereunto
annexed, and in the following description thereof (that is to say):-
The set of Drawings No. 1 represent my said invented machine as the
same is constructed for and applied to the purpose of boring holes in railway
blocks or sleepers, Figure 1 being a front elevation, Figure 2 an end eleva-
tion, and Figure 3 a ground plan and top section through the line A, B, of
Figures 1 and 2. The same letters are used to denote the same parts in each
of theso Figures. S, S, S, S, is the iron framework of the machine, con-
sisting of four uprights and cross connecting pieces. The top piece E is
composed of two flexible plates with two semicircular bends o, o, in the
middle of each, which plates are secured at their extremities to the tops of the
four standards, and brought together at the centre by the screws N', N', and N³,
so that by the approximation of the corresponding semicircular bends two
circular orifices are formed for the reception of the boring tools to be next
described; all as shewn in the top section, Figure 8. M', Figure 1, is an
auger of a spiral form, which, instead of having a centre bit like the common
auger, terminates in two broad-faced points. L' is a male screw into a socket,
in the lower end of which the head of the auger M' is inserted, and secured
there by a lateral bolt, pin, or screw; K' is a female screw or sheath, into
and through which the male screw L' works, which sheath is inserted in one
of the circular orifices formed as aforesaid in the centre of the top piece E, and
fixed there at any required height by the screws N', N³, and N³; R is a winch
that fits on to the square head of the screw L' by the application of manual
or other power, to which the screw L' and auger M' are set to work; M³, K³,
and L represent a second set of tools of the same description as M', K¹, and
L'; G is a railway truck or carriage with flanged wheels, for conveying the
stone block I, which is to be perforated under the boring tools; and H, H, the
racks on which it runs. According as the depth of perforation required may
vary, the sheaths K and K should before commencing work be proportion-
ably raised or lowered by means of the screws N', N, and No, or one or
other of them. When the screw and auger are made to revolve by means
of the power applied to the winch, the auger necessarily scoops out at each
revolution as great a depth of stone as is equal to the distance which the
screw descends, while the chips produced ascend through the spiral channel of
the auger, and are thrown off at top. As soon as one borer has done its pre-

page_text: scribed duty, the winch is removed from it and applied to the other; and
when two holes have been thus made, the tools may be removed, and the
block set free either by a reversed action of the winch, or by loosening the
screws N', N, and N³.
The set of Drawing marked No. 2 represents my said invented machine
as constructed for and applied to the purpose of forming recesses or seats in
blocks of stone for the reception of railway chairs, and hence called "the
chairing machine."
Figure 1 is a front elevation of this modification of the machine; Figure 2
an end elevation, and Figure 3 a ground plan and top section through the line
A, B, of Figures 1 and 2. A, B, C, D, is a framework, of the same description
as that before described, with this exception, that the top cross piece E is of
the form represented in the top section, Figure 8, being divided into two
branches towards the extremities. Z is a female screw or sheath inserted in
the centre of the top piece E, with broad shouldered pieces or ears e, e, so that
by passing the long tail of the bolts or pins z, z, down through the ears e, e,
the sheath Z, by the pins pressing against the sides of the cross piece E, is
kept stationary while the screw T, hereafter mentioned, is turned and descends.
T is a male screw, which works into and through the female screw Z, and has
a cross piece attached to its lower extremity, the two arms of which carry the
tools or chisels U, W and U, V; Y is another male screw of lesser diameter,
which works into and through a female threaded cavity in the centre of the
male screw T, T, by screwing which down upon the block in which the seat is
to be excavated, the latter is kept steady during the operation. The distances
between the chisels U, W, and U, V, respectively may be so adjusted (by pro-
portionably varying the length of the arms attached to the lower extremity of
the male screw T,) that recesses, or seats, or grooves of any of the breadths
commonly required may be readily excavated. The mode of operation is as
follows:-The block of stone being brought under the chairing tools, the centre
tool y is screwed down by means of the arms b, until the workman considers
he has obtained a sufficient strain or pressure on the block. The male screw
T is then set in motion by the arms a, a, the centre tool y remaining stationary
while the tools or chisels U, W, and U, V, traverse round it. When the
chisels U, W, and U, W, are considered to have penetrated deep enough into
the stone, the pins z, s, by which the sheath Z is secured to the top cross piece
E, are taken out and reversed, or the short tails or ends n, n, inserted in the
ears e, e, the long long tails or ends m, m, standing in an upright position, the
arms a, a, will, on being turned, press against them and carry round the

page_text: .
sheath Z, with the screws and tools connected therewith, but without at the
same time causing them to descend, there being no screw thread on the out-
side of the sheath Z. One, two, or three turns are now given to the screw T,
whereby the tools smooth the face of the chair seat. The presure of the
chissels U, W, and U, V, is then removed by turning the screws, which enables
the workman to reverse their action without the chance of their being broken.
The long tails of the pins, z, are then passed again through the ears e, e, and
the sheath Z, thereby once more secured to the top piece E, while the tools or
chisels are set anew to work. After the block has had its chair bed or seat
thus excavated, it is taken along the rails to the boring machine and bored,
so that there is a certainty of the holes being at right angles to the chair bed.
As the carriages or waggons too are all parallel to the charing machine, the
chair bed must also be parallel to the under side of the block. The tools with
which the screws T, T, and Y are armed, may be also acted upon separately by
means of the separate arms a and b, with which they are provided, and as
often as these tools require sharpening, the chisel pieces can be removed for
the purpose, being secured in sockets by the screws d, d. Separate repre-
sentations of these tools, and of the manner of using them, are given on a larger
scale in Figures 4, 5, and 6.
And having now described and explained the nature of my said invented
machine, and the manner of performing the same, as employed in two of the
more ordinary applications thereof, I declare that I do not claim any one of
the instruments, or parts of instruments herein-before described as in itself
new; but that I claim as new and of my invention the combination of the
power of the screw with an auger or chisels of the forms before described in
either of the modes represented in the two sets of Drawings hereunto annexed,
and before explained, marked No. 1 and No. 2, or in any other mode or modes
which shall be in principle and substantially the same. And I declare that
my said invented machine is applicable to the perforation, not only of railway
sleepers and chairs but of blocks of stone of all qualities and descriptions (ex-
cepting some of the very hardest, such as granite or porphyry,) and also of
composition stones, slates, and metals. And such my Invention being to tho
best of knowledge and belief entirely new and never before used within that
part of Ier said Majesty's United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
called England, Her said Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, I do hereby declare this to be my Specification of the same, and that I
do verily believe that this my said Specification doth comply in all repects fully
and without reserve or disguise with the proviso in the said herein-before in

page_text: part recited Letters Patent contained. Wherefore I do hereby claim to
maintain exclusive right and privilege to my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Hunter, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twelfth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thou-
sand eight hundred and thirty-eight.
JAMES (L.B.) HUNTER.
Signed, scaled, and delivered by the said
James Hunter, in the presence of
JOHN MACDONALD,
Of Arbroath, in the County of Forfar, Writer, & Deputy
A.
This is the Specification referred to in the affidavit of Thomas Wyllie
Webster, Esq. Sworn the 18th day of June 1838, before me,
N. W. SENIOR.
Thomas Wyllie Webster, of Palace Yard, Westminster, in the County of
Middlesex, Esquire, maketh oath and saith, that he is acquainted with the
manner and character of the handwriting of David Louson, Esquire, a
Justice of the Peace, residing at Arbroath, in the County of Forfar, within that
part of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called Scotland;
and this deponent further saith, that the name or signature "Da. Louson,"
with the addition of "J. P.," set, subscribed, and written upon or indorsed in
the margin of the Specification marked A, hereunto annexed, and dated the
Twelfth day of May last past, and purporting to be executed by James
Hunter, of Leysmill, near Arbroath, aforesaid, Mechanic, whereby it is stated
that the Specification was acknowleged by the said James Hunter before the
said David Louson, on the said Twelfth day of May, at Arbroath, aforesaid,
is of the proper handwriting of the said David Louson; and that the said

page_text: By Aff
thirty-eigh
ше,
N. W. SENIOR.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the oath of Thomas Wyllie
Webster, the Specification aforesaid was inrolled word for word, as above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Thirteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-eight.