IMPROVEMENTS IN MORTICING MACHINES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Francis Robert Whitcombe Hedges, of High
Street, Bow, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MORTICING MACHINES."
Scaled the 19th July 1870, and dated the 1st February 1870.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Francis Robert Whit-
combe Hedges at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 1st February 1870.
in
I, FRANCIS ROBERT WHITCOMBE HEDGES, of High Street, Bow,
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MORTICING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in morticing machines.
In order that the workman may have ready control over the tool and
be able to regulate at pleasure the length of tho stroke I employ in order

page_text: to give motion to the tool bar or slide a lever turning on a centre at one
end and having a rocking motion communicated to it by means of-a-link
connecting it at or near its other end with a crank, which when the
machine is in use is kept continuously revolving. On the face of the
lever a slot curved by preference to an arc of a circle is formed, and a
stud connected with the tool bar or slide enters this slot, so that the tool
bar or slide receives from the lever a stroke corresponding to that of the
portion of the lever acting on its stud, and greater or less according as
this portion is further from or nearer to the centre. To regulate tho
stroke the centro-of-the-lever-is-shifted_nearer to _or_further from the
stud, and to admit of this motion the centre of the lever is carried, by
preference, by an arm: turning on the crankshaft, and-this -arm- -is-
connected with a treadle and counterpoise weight or spring, by which it
is moved in either direction, as may be required. This arrangement
allows of any number of strokes being made in cutting through a piece 1
of wood which in the judgment of the workman its thickness and
quality may render necessary.
SPECIFICATION-in-pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
'
filed by the said Francis Robert Whitcombe Hedges in the Great
Scal Patent Office on the 1st August-1870.---**
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS: SHALL COME, I, FRANCIS
ROBERT WHITCOMBE HEDGES, of High Street, Bow, in the County of
Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters, Patent, hearing date the First day of February, in the year a
of our Lord One thousand cight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
givo and grant unto me, the said Francis Robert Whitcombe Hedges,
Her special licence that I, the said Francis Robert Whitcombe Hedges,
my exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said a
Francis Robert Whitcombe Hedges, 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, exercise, and vend, within the
=

page_text: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MORTICING MACHINES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Francis Robert
Whitcombe Hedges, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
vention, 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 immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Francis Robert Whitcombe Hedges,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer-
tained in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in morticing machines,
and consists in the combination of mechanism by which motion is given
to the bar or slide.
The frame of the machine at its lower part carries an adjustable table-
on which the work is clamped, as is usual, and over the table the tool
bar or slide is mounted vertically in its guides. The driving axis with
belt pulleys upon it is mounted horizontally on the upper part of the
frame behind the tool bar or slide; it has at its end a crank, which by a
connecting rod gives a to-and-fro motion to one end of a curved and
slotted lever. The other end of the lever is supported from the driving
axis by a radius bar. These parts, viz., the curved lever, the connecting
rod, and the radius bar, are all contained in the space between the upper
and lower guides of the tool bar or slide, and they can by means of a
cord connected with a treadle be caused to turn in the space partly
around the driving axis. In the slot in the curved lever a pin is able to
traverse, and this pin is attached to the tool bar or slide. By moving
the slotted lever around the driving axis the pin is shifted along the
slot, and the amount of motion the cutter bar or slide receives varies
accordingly.

page_text: Figuro 1 is a front view, and Figure 2 a portion of a side view of a
morticing machine constructed according to my Invention.
a, 'a, is, the frame of the machine; is the ordinary table, moveable
vertically by the screw 6', and horizontally by the hand wheel b;s is b
a hand wheel for traversing the fence; and b another wheel for working
the clamp which holds the material to be operated ; .c is the tool bar or
slide,¨and d, d¹, its upper and lower guides. The bar or slide c is mado
in two parts, the lower of which is able to turn in its guide; it is con-
nected with the upper part by a pin formed at its end entering a socket: 1
and receiving at the bottom of the socket a ring e*, which is fixed on to
the end of the pin by a small key. **, c**, are two strong springs
fixed to the upper part of the bar or slide and pressing on flats on the
lower part, which is thus held with some force, but still so as not to
provent the lower part of the bar or slide being turned half round_when_]
it is desired to reverse the position of the tool to cut in the other
direction. The tool bar or slide for this purpose works with a groove
and feather through a bevilled pinion e-connected by a garter screw with
the top of the guide d'; this pinion when turned carries the lower end
of the tool bar or slide round with it, and it receives its motion from
another pinion f carried in a bracket or holder bolted to the guide d.
The pinion has a handle f¹ on its axis, by which it can be turned half
round. is the driving axis, and g³, g, fast and loose belt pulleys upon
it; is a crank at its end; h, a connecting rod passing from the crank
to a point at one end of the slotted lever i. It is not, however, essential
that the connection with the rod / should be at the end of the lever i;
it may be at a point intermediate of its extremities. k is a radius rod
supporting the other end of the lever i from the driving axis g; lis à
pin mounted in a block which is able to slide along the slot in the
lever i, and this pin enters a hole or socket formed for it in the tool bar
or slide c; m is a cord fixed to the right-hand end of the lever i; it
passes over pulleys, as is shown, and is connected at one end to the
treadlen, and at the other to a weight or spring, so that by depressing
the treadle the lever i is moved around the driving axis y so as to lift
the connecting rod h into a position to give motion to the tool bar or
slide more or less as may be desired. By the treadle the workman

page_text: regulates the distance the tool descends, and from the proportions of the
parts no injurious shock is transmitted to the treadles when the tool
enters the work.
What I claim is the construction of morticing machines substantially
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Francis Robert Whitcombe Hedges,
have hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-ninth day of
July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy