IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING METALLIC PLATES."
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Dawes, of Kingston Grove, Leeds, in
the County of York; Engineer, and Henry Percy Holt, of Royal
Insurance Buildings, Leeds, in the County of York, Civil Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING
METALLIC PLATES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Dawes and
Henry Percy Holt at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 15th May 1874.
We, WILLIAM DAWES, of Kingston Grove, Leeds, in the County of
York, Engineer, and HENRY PERCY HOLT, of Royal Insurance Buildings,
Leeds, in the County of York, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING.
METALLIC PLATES," to be as follows:-
4
The object of this Invention is to cut or sever such plates as are
used by boiler and tank makers, bridge and ship builders, and others,

page_text: without the " buckling" which is caused by the shears hitherto
employed.
We make use of any convenient arrangement or construction of
machine wherein, we can obtain a steady and powerful reciprocating
motion, having the convenient and required travel similar to or after the
manner of the present punching or sheering machines.
The tools we use for the above purpose are constructed as follows:-
The stationary die in some cases consists in a block of steel having a
long oblong hole or opening (say 6 inches long by 3" wide) and of the
requisite thickness for strength firmly fixed upon the bed of the
machine; into and working thro' this die we fit an oblong blade which
reciprocates with the moving. part of the machine in the ordinary
manner, and in some cases stepped longitudinally, and in others having
a straight longitudinally levelled or played end, the longest of which
does not leave the die but constitutes a sort of middle or dividing blade,
having the effect of giving two clean sheared edges to the plates, and
throwing the buckle, which has hitherto been inseparable from one of
the plates cutirely into the middle portion or scrap which is displaced
by the central blade.
In some cases the die is composed of three or more parts, the two
outside ones constituting the blades with their cutting edges inwards;
these may be clamped, secured, and adjusted on the bed in any con-
venient manner, set apart by means of packings or otherwise and held
up by set screws or bolts at the proper width or distance, just to clear the
middle reciprocating blade, constituting in effect a double or double
sided shearing machine with one moveable or central cutting blade.
SPECIFICATION filed in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters
Patent, and of an Order of the Lord Chancellor, by the said
William Dawes and Henry Percy Holt in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 19th November 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM 3
DAWES, of Kingston Grove, Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer,
and HENRY PERCY. HOLT, of Royal Insurance Buildings, Leeds, in the
County of York, Civil Engineer, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her.
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of May, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said William Dawes and Henry
Percy Holt, Her special licence that we, the said William Dawes
and Henry Percy Holt, our executors,, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as we, the said William Dawes and Henry Percy
Holt, our executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there.
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an In-
vention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING METALLIC PLATES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William Dawes
and Henry Percy Holt, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our, 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 on or before
the Twentieth day of November, One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-four.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Dawes and Henry
Percy Holt, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :—
The object of this Invention is to cut or sever such plates as are used
by boiler and tank makers, bridge and ship builders, and others, without
the buckling which is caused by shearing in or by the machines hitherto
employed.
We make use of any convenient arrangement or construction of
machine wherein we can obtain a steady and powerful reciprocating
motion having the convenient and required travel, similar to or after the
manner of the present punching and shearing machine.
.
The tools we use for the above purpose are constructed as follows:
The stationary die in some cases consists in a block of steel having a
long oblong hole or opening (say in some cases about 6. inches long
.
C

page_text: by wide, according to thickness of plates to be severed) and of the
requisite thickness for strength, firmly fixed upon the bed of the
machine; into and working through this die we fit an oblong blade.
which reciprocates with the moving part of the machine, in some cases
stepped longitudinally, and in others having a straight, longitudinally
bevelled, or splayed end, the longest of which does not leave the die but
constitutes a sort of middle or dividing blade, having the effect of giving.
two clean sheared edges to the plates, and throwing the buckle which
has hitherto been inseperable from one of the plates entirely into the
middle portion or scrap, which is displaced by the central blade.
In some cases the die is composed of three or more parts, the two
outside ones constituting the blades with their cutting edges inwards ;`
these may be clamped, secured, and adjusted on the bed in any con-
vénient manner, set apart by means of packing or otherwise; and held
up by set screws or bolts at the proper width, just to clear the middle
reciprocating. blade, constituting in effect a double or double-sided"
shearing machine with one moveable or central cutting blade.
In some cases, more especially for light plates or sheets we find it
convenient to use revolving cutters in lieu of the stationary and
reciprocating blades or cutters, the centre one displacing the scrap and
causing it to receive the buckle instead of one of the plates, in precisely
the same manner as the before named cutters.
In some cases we arrange the machine in such a manner that the
central blade or cutter is actuated from below or underneath the fixed.
blades, the power being communicated through the channel formed by
the removal of the scrap, thereby dispensing with all overhead machinery
or framing which limits the size of the plate that can be cut.
In order that the [nature of our Invention be clearly understood
we append the accompanying Drawings or illustrations, wherein (Figs. 1,
2, and 3) a, a, are the fixed blades, cutters, or die; B, B, the central
moving or reciprocating cutter or blade'; 'c, c, reciprocating part of
machine.
In Figs. 4 and 5, a, a, are the double blades or circular die; B, B, the
single or central blade for forcing out buckled scrap; c, c, rotary
motors.
Having now described; particularly ascertained, and set forth the
nature of our said Invention, and the manner in which the same is

page_text: or may be used or carried into effect, we wish it to be understood that
we do not confine or restrict ourselves to the precise details which
we have shewn, described, or referred to, as many modifications and
variations may be made therefrom without deviating from the principals
or main features of the said Invention, but what we consider to be
novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
us by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the use and
application of cutters, blades, or dies for shearing or severing metallic-
plates, so constructed that the buckle or bending which has hitherto
been unseperable or unavoidable in the plates shall be transferred or
given to a displaced portion or scrap taken out (by the before-named
cutters or blades) between the two plates, instead of to the plates
themselves thereby severed, thus preventing them from being buckled.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Dawes and Henry
Percy Holt, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Eleventh
day of November, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and seventy-four.
WILLIAM DAWES.
(L.S.)
Witness,
JOHN PAYNE,
Apperley Bridge.
HENRY PERCY HOLT. (L.S.)