IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR MACHINERY FOR CUTTING TUBEIPS AND OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES AS FOOD FOR CATTLE
Year: 1850

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
PHILLIPS, of the City of Bristol, Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Third day of July, in the fourteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Charles Phillips, my exors, admors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Charles Phillips, my exors, adñors, 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, and vend, within
England and Wales and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS OR MACHINERY FOR CUTTING TUBEIPS AND
OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES AS FOOD FOR CATTLE;" in which said Letters Patent
is contained a proviso that I, the said Charles Phillips, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Phillips, do hereby declare the nature of. my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Drawing No. 1 has reference to two of my improvements, one of which is
an improvement in the construction of the knives of the machine, well known
as Gardner's turnip cutter, for which Letters Patent for England and Wales
were granted to James Gardner, of Banbury, in the county of Oxford, Iron-
monger, dated September the Twenty-fifth, in the year One thousand eight
hundred and thirty-four.
Figure 1 represents the revolving part of the machine which carries
the knives; the knives, as shewn in this Figure, being the same as have
hitherto been used. Figure 2 represents the same part of the machine, with
the knives made according to one mode, by which I effect this improvement.
Figure 3 represents a vertical section of that which is shewn in plan at
Figure 2, the section being transverse to the axis in the course of the line A, B,
on Figure 2. Figure 4 represents the same part of the machine, with the
knives made according to another node by which I effect this improvement.
In Figure 1 the edges of the knives, each of which is marked a, are made
at right angles with the course in which they move in Figures 2 and 3; these
edges, which are each marked i, are made obliquely forward from the course
in which they move; and in Figure 4 these edges, which are each marked o,
are made obliquely backward from the course in which they move. I omit to
letter the edges of the outside knives in Figures 2 and 3, because they are not
set obliquely, but my improvement will be sufficiently understood from those
edges which are set obliquely. My improvement consists in the oblique
position of the edges above referred to, by which means a keener and cleaner
cut is effected with less breaking out at the finish of the cut than is the case
with the square-edged knives, and therefore with less of the chippings and
irregular pieces that result from the knives breaking out at the finish of the
cut. This Drawing No. 1 also refers to another of my improvements, which
consists in fixing a plate of iron or other suitable material on that part of the
moving parts of turnip cutters in front of the knives on which the turnips
descend before each cut is made, and the depth of which below the knives
determines the thickness taken off the turnips at each cut. A plate of less
thickness than the height of the knives being thus fixed will diminish the
thickness of each slice by a quantity equal to its own thickness, or equal to the
height to which it is set above the parts on which the turnips would fall were
.

page_text: it absent; plates.of this kind may be variously fixed according to the configura-
tion of the turnip cutter to which they are applied; in some cases, a very con-
venient mode would be to regulate their elevation, and consequently the thick-
ness of the slices to be cut, by means of set screws from the under or back side
of the parts of the machine on which they are fixed, but in a machine of the
cylindrical figure of Gardner's, and with the knives ranging obliquely on the
cylinder, I would prefer having a seperate plate to determine each thickness
of slice required, and at the time of use the suitable plates to be put in to
give the thickness of slice required. These plates should be of the shape to
cover the space included in the lines A B, BC, CD, DE, and E A, in Figure 1,
Drawing 1; they should be bent to the curve of the cylinder, or to the curve
of a somewhat smaller cylinder, and may then easily be fixed down on the part
to which they are to be applied by a countersink headed screw at the point
marked e, in Figure 1, Drawing 1, the head of the screw being properly let
in below the surface of the plate. The use of these shifting plates, as I call
them, is to vary the thickness of the slices of turnip to suit different kinds
of cattle.
My next improvement is, imparting a rocking or oscillating motion to the
hopper of the machine, which may very conveniently be done by a crank on
the driving spindle, and a connecting rod connecting the crank with the hopper.
This improvement will, to a great extent, remedy the great inconvenience
commonly caused by the turnips becoming wedged up in the hopper. A crank
and connecting rod of the ordinary kind, with a suitable pivoting of the hopper
to admit of the required motion, are all that are absolutely necessary to this
improvement, and were this all I should consider further description unneces-
sary, but as there would be a liability to breakages from substances of various
kinds getting betwixt the hopper and the adjoining fixed parts of the machine,
I give a more minute description for the purpose of shewing an arrangement
of safety spring to prevent the liability to this kind of accident. In describing
this part of my Invention I shall shew it as applied to Gardner's turnip
cutter, at the same time remarking that it is equally applicable to most
other turnip cutters, but in doing this I shall not attempt to shew or
describe any parts of that machine that have no connexion with this
part of my Invention. Drawing No. 2 has reference to this part of iny
Invention. Figure 1 is an elevation of that side of the machine where I
place the crank connecting rod and other apparatus, by which the working
motion is imparted to the hopper. Figure 2 is a front elevation; A is the
front plate of the machine against which the turnips rest to be cut.
a is a
pivot which may be either part of the plate A, or fixed firmly in it. B is an
iron casting forming the front part of the hopper, and with a suitable eye or

page_text: hole resting on the pivot a of the front. plate; there is also at the back of the
machine a plate similar to the plate A, .having a similar and similarly
positioned pivot to the pivot a; on this back pivot rests an iron casting of
suitable shape to form and forming the back of the hepper, and at the lower
part of it an eye or hole bearing on the pivot of the back plate, similar to
the eye or hole in the casting B, which bears on the pivot a. On these two
pivots then the hopper rocks, the rocking motion being imparted by means of
the apparatus which I shall now describe.. c is a crank fitted on the end of
the main driving spindle, the centre of the spindle being indicated by the
letter e; d is the crank pin; f is a collar in which the crank pin turns, and
which, with the pivots g&, screwed into the lower part of the connecting
rod, and fitting into suitable holes in the collar f, form an universal joint by
which the crank and connecting rod are connected. The connecting rod is
composed of two principle parts, the lower part h, h, h, h, and the upper
part le, k, k; this upper part slides up and down in the lower part, but is
restrained by the spiral spring n from doing so, unless subjected to some con-
siderable force; this spiral spring is compressed into the lower part of the
connecting rod betwixt the studs i, i, i, & i, one of them of each side immo-
diately above the spring, and one on each side immediately below it, the upper
studs preventing the upper end of the spring from rising upwards, and the
lower ones preventing its lower end from going downwards; that is, these studs
restrain the expansion of the spring, but do not interfere with its further com-
pression. Now on the upper part of the connecting rod are two pins marked
o&o, one passing through it immediately above the spiral spring, the other
passing through it immediately below the spring, and these two pins pre-
vent the upper part of the connecting rod from sliding either up or down in
the lower part without, at the same time, compressing the spring, for which
considerable force will be required; these pins o & o, on both sides of the con-
necting rod, work betwixt the studs i, i, i, i, these studs being of such shape as
to prevent the upper part of the connecting rod from getting out of its place.
The upper part of the connecting rod, being attached to the hopper in a
manner that will be understood from the Drawing without further description,
imparts to the hopper an oscillating motion when the machine is turned,
unless some cause of resistance interposes betwixt the hopper and the body of
the machine, when the spiral spring is acted on and breakage is prevented;
the spiral spring should be sufficiently strong not to be compressed by the
mere weight of the substances lying in the hopper to be cut.
Having described the nature of my Invention, and the manner in which
the various improvements are to be performed, I will now state what I claim
as my Invention.:

page_text: First, I claim as my Invention the construction of a machine for cutting
turnips and other similar substances with knives, such as those described in
Drawing No. 1, and having the cutting edges placed obliquely with respect
to the course in which they move, as shewn in Figures 2, 3, and 4, in that
Drawing.
Secondly, I claim as my Invention the application of shifting plates to
turnip cutters in the manner herein described for the purpose of reducing
the thickness of the slices of turnip.
Thirdly, believing it to be entirely new, I claim as my Invention the
construction of a machine for cutting turnips, in which the hopper has an
oscillating motion on the fixed body of the machine.
Fourthly, should it at any time be discovered that an oscillating motion
of the kind last described is not new, I claim as my Invention the oscillation
being on a horizontal axis, whereby the turnips in the fixed part of tho
machine contribute in a great degree to displace those in the moving hopper.
Fifthly, I claim as my Invention the use of any kind of spring to prevent
breakage, acting in any way as the spring does described in Drawing No. 2.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Phillips, have hereunto set my
hand and scal, this Second day of January, in the year of our Lord