IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CLIPPING HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION leſt by William Holland at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th
May 1871.
I, William Holland, of Pavilion Road, Chelsea, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CLIPPING HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved construction of apparatus to
be used for clipping or shearing horses and other animals, the object
being to actuate the cutting blades with rapidity and power while the
teeth of the guiding instrument hold the hair in position for clipping.
The improved apparatus dispenses with a direct right or left hand
lever operating on the cutters, and effects the requisite action by means
of an arrangement of teeth or cogs on the base of the cutter and on a
segmental rocking disc, by which means the rapid action and sharpness
of cut is effected without straining the hand of the operator.
I propose to construct the comb plate of the desired width and
number of teeth according to the purpose for which it may be used, and
to fix thereto a guiding handle. On the plate and at a short distance

page_text: from the bottom of the rows of teeth I form or cast or otherwise adjust
a transverse projecting tenon bar extending completely across the plate,
and parallel to the spring of the teeth. I then construct the cutting
knife bar, consisting of a corresponding series of sharp teeth cut or set
on a moveable sliding plate or bar, which is cut with a dovetail or tenon
groove to suit the projecting tenon on the guiding plate, and which
contains a slot parallel and over the groove so as to permit of the
sliding action of the cutter bar along the tenon slide. The cutter being
adjusted on the plate is held by the tenon and guided in a perfectly
constant action across the guiding comb; the two parts are then secured
by means of a compound screw pin passed through the guide plate, the
projecting tenon, and the slot of the cutters, then through a curved but
flattened spring passing on the cutter bar. Consequently this screw
pin is made with a square head and a square stem to fit the guide plate;
it then has a round stem to pass through the projecting-tenon, then a
square stem to hold the cutting plate, and finally it passes through the
spring, beyond and on which it is secured-by-one-or-two nuts turned on
its screw thread and by a washer, so that the spring may be tightened
or pressed down on the cutting plate in order to ensure a due bite or
friction between the moving and stationary teeth of the apparatus.
The next part of the Invention relates to the means of actuating the
cutting bar and blades. This motion is effected by forming on the
cutting bar (on the edge opposite the blades or teeth) a series or row of
cogs, in which a corresponding series of cogs are made to gear from a
quadrant or semicircular plate set on a fulcrum or pivot passing through
and set in the comb plate near the handle. This quadrant or semi-
circular toothed plate is provided with a handle or lever capable of being
grasped by the hand, and it is evident that the leverage thus afforded
in conjunction with the toothed gearing will enable the operator to clip
the hair of the horse or other animal with great ease and certainty. The
segmental teeth of the working handle gearing into the straight row of
teeth on the cutter plate will effect the to-and-fro motion of the cutters
on the surface of the comb with far greater power than can be accom-
plished by the direct lever action, and the adjusting spring will always
keep the blades in gear.