A MACHINE FOR COMBINING THE OPERATIONS OF COMPRESSING AND CUTTING TOBACCO DURING THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Legg, Millwright and Engineer, of 11, Ashby
Street, Clerkenwell, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"A MACHINE FOR COMBINING THE OPERATIONS OF COMPRESSING AND CUTTING
TOBACCO DURING THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE."
Sealed the 31st May 1859, and dated the 4th December 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Legg at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
December 1858.
I, ROBERT LEGG, of 11, Ashby Street, Clerkenwell, in the County of
Middlesex, Millwright and Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "A MACHINE FOR COMBINING THE OPERATIONS OF COMPRESSING AND
CUTTING TOBBACCO DURING THE PROCESS OF MANUFACTURE," to be as follows (that is.
to say):
My Invention has for its object the compressing and cutting of shag.
tobbacco during the process of manufacture in a more perfect and expeditious.
manner than by the machinary at present in use, consists in the mechanical.
construction and arrangement of a machine or "engine," by which the tobbacco.
leaves are drawn from a feeding trough or box, and are compressed and cut
and delivered into a receptacle placed for that purpose; to effect which object I
mount a large roller or wheel, the broad. periphery of which is formed of wood,.
in suitable carriage frames, the upper parts of which frames serve as guides to

page_text: the sliding blocks, which carry two or more smaller rollers and a metal mouth-
piece, which I cause to slide downwards by means of a weight or spring and
levers, thereby pressing the tobbacco on to the larger roller. I cause all the
rollers to revolve slowly and with intermittant motion, corresponding with
the upstrokes of the knife arm, which imparts the said motion to the rollers
through the medium of a catch and ratchet wheel and a worm and toothed
wheels; the tobbacco is thus drawn forward and exposed to the action of the
knife, which, driven by steam or other motive power, descends on to the large
wooden surfaced roller and cuts the tobbacco (in a similar manner to that of
the knife in present use, descending on the flat "cutting board"), my large
wooden surfaced roller forming what may be called an endless cutting board
or block, on which is cut the endless cake which is formed continuously. from
the leaves laid in the feeding trough or box which is open to the rollers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,' filed
by the said Robert Legg in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 3rd
June 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL.COME, I, ROBERT
LEGG, Millwright and Engineer, of 11, Ashby Street, Clerkenwell, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters.
Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-second year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Legg, Her special licence that I; the said Robert Legg, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
Legg, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agréé
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
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "A MACHINE' FOR COMBINING THE
OPERATIONS OF COMPRESSING AND CUTTING TOBACCO DURING THE PROCESS OF MANU-
FACTURE," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Robert
Legg, 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

page_text: Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Legg, 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 (that is to say):-
My Invention, which has for its object the compressing and cutting of shag
"tobacco during the process of manufacture in a more perfect and expeditious
manner and with much less deterioration of the manufactured article than by the
methods and machinary bitherto employed, consists in the mechanical con-
struction and arrangement of a machine or "engine," by which the tobacco leaf
(after the damping process, when that is employed,) is received into a feeding
trough or box, from which it is drawn forward and submitted to a yielding
pressure by and between rollers which convey it to the mouthpiece, where it
is submitted to the action of the knife.
But in order that this mis said Invention may be the more fully understood,
'I now proceed to describe it by the aid of the accompanying Drawings,
reference being had to the letters and figures thereon marked (that is
to say):-
Fig. 1 represents a top or plan view of my 'machine for combining the
operations of compressing and cutting tobacco, with the connecting rod and a
part of the knife back removed,' and with the knife back, boss, shaft, and
bearings, and 'adjusting screw shown in section; Fig. 2, a side elevation, with
part of the knife back shaft; one of its bearings, and one end of adjusting
screw shown in section; Fig. 3; a front elevation, with the front of the carriage
frames removed, and the large wooden surfaced roller and its bearings shown
in section; Fig. 4, a. longitudinal vertical section through the dotted line in
Fig. 1. In each Figure the same letters of reference denote similar corre-
sponding parts.
A, A, base plate; B, B, B, carriage frames or standards bolted to base
plate; C, C, large drum or roller, with wooden surface blocks b, b, b, on
which the tobacco is pressed "and cut; D, D, small upper or compressing
rollers; E, E, and F, F, levers and links through which the weight W acts on
the vertical sliding blocks G, G, the' said blocks carrying the compressing
rollers D, D, and the mouthpiece or "cutting plate" fi f, f, and sliding
vertically'in dovetail spaces in the standards; H, driving pulley to be connected
by a band with steam engine or other motive power; I; fly wheel; J, crank
shaft; K, connecting rod; L, knife; M, knife back or arm to which the
knife is made fast; -N, horizontal hollow shaft made fast in the boss of 'the

page_text: knife back, and turning freely in bearings a, a; O, tangent screw or worm;
P, P, large worm wheel; Q, main shaft, on which is made fast the large
Toller C, C, and the large worm wheel P, P; R,,small worm wheel geering into
-the top side of the worm O, and giving motion to the compressing rollers D, D,
through S, a spindle, with a flexible connection at e, with the roller D;
9, 9, 9, a train of toothed pinions by which the rollers D, D, are made to
revolve in the same direction and simultaneously; T, a lever made fast on the
hollow shaft of the knife arm-and vibrating with it, and imparting intermittant
motion through U, a pall, to V, a ratchet' wheel made fast on the spindle of the
--worm O; W, compressing weight, composed of any convenient number of separate
"plates suspended by hooks to the levers E, E; the number of the said plates
may be varied to produce the different degrees of pressure required by the
different varieties of tobacco manufactured; X; a hand wheel and axle with
schains for raising the weight W and the rollers D, D, for any temporary
purpose; Y, feeding trough or box; Z, a shute which takes the cut tobacco from
,the large roller, and delivers it into any convenient receptacle; c, c, a long screw
passing through the hollow shaft of the knife back, for the purpose of "plating"
For adjusting the knife to the mouthpiece or "cutting plate" f, f; d, d,
horizontal stretching bars with bolt ends and nuts for bracing together the
top of carriage frames; h, knife back carriage bolted to standards; i, bracket
carriage for worm and ratchet spindle and for outter end of S.
Having now fully described the nature of this my said Invention, and the
imanner in which the same is to be performed, I would have it understood
;that I do not claim any particular originality in that part of the mechanism
which gives action to the knife; for I am aware that very similar mechanism is
in use in the old cutting engines; and I would moreover have it clearly under-
stood that I do not intend to confine myself to the precise details herein-
-before described, as the same may be varied without departing from the
general principle of this my said Invention, as any other number of compressing
.rollers; may be used; or they may each be carried by separate blocks instead of
¡one block' being made to carry the corresponding ends of all the top rollers, as
shown in my Drawing; but that which I do claim as new and of my said
Invention is the application of a yielding pressure to the tobacco leaf in a
machine for combining the operations of compressing and cutting tobacco, and
the use of a revolving cutting block, represented by my large wooden surfaced
roller, by which the recognised nescesity. of a bottom for the. knife is
provided for, and continuity of action made simple at the same time, and the
general construction and arrangement of the machinary in the manner and for
the purposes herein-before set forth and described; and my Invention also

page_text: refers to and embraces any combination for the same purpose which may
include the use of either a yielding pressure or a revolving cutting block, or
both of them.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Legg, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Second day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-nine.
ROBERT LEGG. (L.S.)