IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR SHEARING SHEEP AND CLIPPING HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Patrick Adie, of Pall Mall, in the County of
Middlesex, Mathematical Instrument Maker, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR SHEARING SHEEP AND
CLIPPING HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS."
Sealed the 25th September 1868, and dated the 27th March 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Patrick Adie at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 27th March 1868.
I, PATRICK ADIE, of Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex,
Mathematical Instrument Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR SHEARING
SHEEP AND CLIPPING HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS," to be as follows:-
For this purpose I employ the following arrangements :-
First, two discs revolving in opposite directions with a number of
shear points radiating in a direction slightly beyond the centre of the
discs, these to be either solid, that is, in one piece with the plates or
discs, or put on separately, and in the top disc especially. I intend that
cach shall have a spring portion between its cutting part and its point.

page_text: also, and having the upper teeth spring as before, one cutting edge shall
thus rest only on its antagonist cutting edge when cutting either to
the right or left against the teeth of the under plate.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Patrick Adie in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 26th September 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, PATRICK
ADIE, of Pall Mall, in the County of Middlesex, Mathematical Instru-
ment Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Patrick Adie, Her special licence
that I, the said Patrick Adie, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others, as I, the said Patrick Adie, 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, excrcise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR SHEARING SHEEP AND CLIPPING HORSES AND OTHER
ANIMALS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Patrick
Adie, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Patrick Adie, 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 in writing, and on reference to the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings, that is to say :-

page_text: For this purpose I employ the following arrangements :-Firstly, two
discs revolving in opposite directions with a number of shear points
arranged radially and projecting slightly beyond the edges of the discs,
the said points being either made solid or of one piece with the discs,
or separately fixed thereto, and in the upper disc (or in both if preferred)
there is a spring portion between the cutting part and its point of
.attachment to the solid portion of the disc. The discs are made to
revolve partly by the pressure of the wool against the outsides of the
teeth, and assisted by a ratchet and spring, or by a rack and pinion,
or in some cases where the top one only is wanted to rotate, this may be
done by means of a small winch or handle on the upper side, or by a
pulley and band; and in general when the top disc only is wanted to
rotate it will not be necessary to make the lower plate a complete circle,
as in that case a segment or are will answer the purpose equally well.
The spaces between the shear points (which are the same number or a
multiple of the same number in both plates) and the length of these
'points will vary according to the purposes for which the apparatus is
intended to be used; for shearing purposes these will vary from six
inches to half an inch in length, and from two inches and a half to one
quarter of an inch in pitch, and for clipping from about one inch to
one eighth of an inch in length, and from one half to one sixteenth of an
inch in pitch.
Another arrangement, which I propose to apply to both of the above-
mentioned uses, is a number of shear points as before arranged along
and standing out from the cutting face, which is either straight or
curved, but in this case only a lateral motion is given to the plates
which is to be produced by the hand, the return motion being given by
means of a spring or otherwise. The teeth may vary in length and pitch
as before, the spring portion in each of the shear points keeping them
individually together (as in a pair of scissors), whilst the plates are kept
in working contact by means of one or more screws working in slots in
the top plate, and pressing it down to the bottom plate either with or
without the intervention of a spring or friction rollers, or by the screw in
the centre only. I am thus able to employ a number of scissor points
all working together, and as each cutting edge is made to rest only
on its antagonistic one, and as it presses on it with the spring of its
stem, the cut of each is made independent of the other, and as in the
above-described arrangements I make them cut in one direction only,

page_text: I am able to avail myself of the form usually given to scissor or shear
points in preference to flat surfaces rubbing against each other. I
also further intend to apply the advantages of the shear or scissor
form to a number of blades or points made to cut both ways by a
reciprocating action, and arranged along a straight or curved face; this
I propose to do by making each of the blades (on both the upper and
under plate) hollow on the antagonistic faces, and by making the spaces
between the teeth at their bases equal to the breadth of the teeth them-
selves, and having the upper blades sprung as before, so that each cutting
edge rests only on its antagonistic cutting edge when cutting either to
the right or left against the blades or teeth of the under plate.
Such being the nature and object of my said Invention for "Improve-
ments in Means and Apparatus for Shearing Sheep and Clipping Horses
and other Animals," I will now proceed to describe more in detail the
manner in which the same is to be or may be performed or carried into
practical effect, and in order that the same may be distinctly understood
I have annexed hereunto a Sheet of Drawings illustrative thereof, and
have marked the same with figures and letters of reference corresponding
with those in the following explanation thereof, that is to say: -
In the annexed Drawing Figures 1 and 2 represent external and
internal views of the revolving cutting discs detached, a, a, being the
radial shear points, which may be either made solid or of one piece
with the discs, as shewn in the Drawing, or they may be made sepa-
rately and fixed thereto. These cutting discs may be mounted in any
convenient form of frame or holder, and be caused to revolve either
intermittently or continuously by any suitable well-known mechanism,
as before described. It will be seen on reference to Figure 3, which is
a sectional view of the cutters, that the cutting blades or shear points
have a slight spring inwards like the blades of a pair of scissors, which
when their faces are pressed together will keep their cutting edges
always in close contact at their point of meeting.
Figure 4 is a face view, and Figure 5 a side view of the shearing
apparatus when arranged so that only one cutting disc rotates. a, a, is
a rotating cutting disc similar to that shewn in Figures 1, 2, and 3, and
above described; b, b, is the back plate, part of which forms an arc or
segment of a circle equal to that of the disc a, a, and having a series of
corresponding cutting teeth or shear points projecting from it. To this
back plate is affixed a handle c, c, by means of which the apparatus is

page_text: held. To the upper face of the rotating disc a, a, is affixed a ratchet
wheel, and two spring ratchets are attached to the inside of the box d, d,
to which also a lever or handle e, e, is fixed; the back plate b, b, rotating
disc a, a, and box d, d, are all held together by the central stud or
pin ff; the handles c, c, and e; e, are forced asunder by the spring g, g.
It will be evident that whenever the handle e, e, is pressed towards the
handle c, c, the spring ratchets in the box d, d, acting on the ratchet
wheel will cause the disc a, a, to perform a portion of a revolution in
the direction of the arrow, and thus a cutting action will be produced.
On releasing the handle e, e, the spring g, g, will come into action
forcing the handles asunder, during which time the spring ratchets will
overrun the teeth of the ratchet wheel and produce no back action on
the rotating cutting disc a, a, and hence by working the handles c and e
like those of a pair of ordinary shears an intermittent rotary motion
in the direction of the arrow will be imparted to the cutting disc a, a.
If a continuous rotary motion should be desired the ratchet motion and
lever may be dispensed with, and a grooved pulley and clastic driving
band be substituted, as shewn at Figure 6.
Figures 7, 8, and 9 illustrate the arrangement of the apparatus,
wherein the cutting blades or points are arranged along a straight or
slightly curved surface, and cut in both directions by means of a
reciprocating or rectilinear action. The front plate a, a, and the back
plate b, b, are each provided with a set of shear points or blades, the
width of the spaces between the same being equal to the breadth of the
shear points themselves at their bases. The blades are made with two
cutting edges and slightly hollow on their working faces, and those of
the upper plate a, a, are made with a slight spring inwards, as before
described. The front plate a, a, is provided with slots working on guide
screws or bolts c, c, which screws or bolts also serve to hold a spring d, d,
which presses the working faces of the blades together. (This
spring d, d, is also applicable with advantage to shearing or clipping
apparatus made according to the Specification of former Letters Patent
granted to me, and bearing date Thirtieth October One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-six, No. 2796.) The rear edge *, *, of the front plate
works against the bent part of the back plate b, b, as seen in Figure 9,
and also assists in keeping the cutting points in close contact. The
front plate a, a, is moved to and fro over the back plate b, b, by means
of the lever e, e, working in a slot in the front plate, the back action

page_text: being given by a spring f, f. The throw or traverse of the front
plate a, a, is equal to the full pitch of the teeth, that is, the distance
from the centre of one blade to that of the next one, so that each tooth
in its movement passes over the whole space and back again, and thus
the blades cut in both directions. Figure 7 shews the apparatus at
half stroke, the blades being just about to commence the cut in
the direction of the arrow; as the front plate a, a, returns by the action
of the spring ff, the opposite sides of the blades perform the cut.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention
for "Improvements in Means and Apparatus for Shearing Sheep and
Clipping Horses and other Animals," together with the manner in
which the same is to be or may be performed or carried into practical
effect, I would remark in conclusion that I claim as my Invention,-
Firstly. The employment or use for such purposes of a pair of disc
cutters with projecting teeth or blades, and revolving intermittently
or continuously in opposite directions, the said teeth or blades being
formed with a spring portion (like scissor blades), as herein-before
described.
Secondly. The employment or use of a similar disc cutter revolving
as before in combination with a segmental fixed back plate, with similar
teeth or blades.
And, thirdly. The employment or use of straight or segmental
plates with similar teeth or blades, having two cutting edges, and
worked with an oscillating or reciprocating motion, all substantially as
bercin-before described and illustrated by the Drawings annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said Patrick Adie, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
Witness,
GEORGE DAVIES,
Patent Agent,
1, Serle St., Lincoln's Inn.
PATRICK ADIE. (L.S.)