THE METHOD OF MAKING CERTAIN MACHINERY FOR NEW AND IMPROVED METHODS OF SPLITTING HIDES, AND SHAVING OR SPLITTING LEATHER
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
C. DYER, of Boston, State of Massachussetts, one of the United States, late
residing in the City of Westminster, but now residing in Gray's Inn, London,
Merchant, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of
March, in the fifty-first year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said
Joseph C. Dyer, my exors, adñiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Joseph C. Dyer, my exors,
adiñiors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, an Invention communicated to me by a certain
foreigner residing abroad, of "THE METHOD OF MAKING CERTAIN MACHINERY
FOR NEW AND IMPROVED METHODS OF SPLITTING HIDES, AND SHAVING OR SPLITTING
LEATHER;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, that if
I, the said Joseph C. Dyer, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to bo
enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Joseph C. Dyer, do hereby declare that the said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is to be performed, are described and ascertained in and by
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following description thereof (that is
to say):
The method of making my said machinery consists in adapting it under two
several constructions to the different sizes, thickness, and kinds of skins or
leather, so that the same may be used and applied to the said improved method
of splitting hides and shaving leather, which construction of machines I will
now proceed to describe separately.
The machine which I shall consider as of the first construction is delineated
in the annexed Drawings by the Figures 1, 2, 3, and 4; this machine is more
particularly calculated to split or shave hard leather, such as ox hides, &c.
(after they have been tanned), but it will serve to split raw hides also.
In the Drawing, Fig. 1 represents a direct view of the front side of the
machine; Fig. 2, an end view; Fig. 3 is a section, supposing the machine to
be cut in two crosswise of the knife; and Fig. 4 is a horizontal view of the
machine. The same letters indicate the the same parts in all these Figures.
A, A, denote the end supports or framework, and B, B, plank or timber
forming the principal bed or supports of the machine; C is a pressing or
smoothing roller, which is hung on its pivots in the uprights d, d, so as to
revolve over the press table D; E, E, denote a strong metalic cramp, which
is hung so as to turn freely on its pivots in the upright end supports f, f; this
cramp is pressed upwards by the action of the springs 9, 9, against its pivots,
and by the screws h, h, it is forced downwards. The letters h, k, k, k, k,
represent five springs, which serve to support at their forward ends and to
confine in its place the metallic presser, as denoted at i, i, and which is secured
on the said springs by the adjusting screws at n, n, n, n, n; these springs aro
secured by the screws 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, at their back end to the plank B, and their
pressure upwards is regulated by screws, as at m, or by any other fit and
convenient means. The number of these springs should be varied, and their
strength regulated according to the different sizes of the machines and the kind
of work for which they are intended. The presser i, i, must be made smooth
on its upper side, and its forward edge should be made accurately streight, and
placed so as to lie parallel to the edge of the knife, it being calculated to press
the skin upwards against the lower edge of the cramp E, E, and with that
edge to form a cramp or guage to hold the skin and directed it in its proper
place to the edge of the knife to be split.
All the parts of this contrivance for pressing the skins upwards are more

page_text: distinctly seen in Figs. 3 and 4, in the latter of which Figures the cramp E, E.
is represented as broken off at each end and the middle left out. In order
to exhibit the said springs and pressers more clearly, the knife is designated
at r, r, and the screws at s serve to secure it in its place on the bed B. The
roller II serves to draw the leather through the machine against the edge of
the knife in the act of shaving; this roller is furnished with a removable
piece, extending through it lengthwise between the hoops at e, e, which piece
is made to open by means of the said hoops or otherwise, and close down
again on the edge of the skin, so as to confine it whilst it is wound thereon by
the revolution of the said roller. To shave or split with this machine, the
cramp e, e, should be turned up and the roller C raised up out of the way,
then the leather should have its forward end placed under the removable part
of and fastened to the roller II, as aforesaid. From this roller the leather
must be carried back, and spread out and evenly disposed, so that it be made
to lie on and successively pass over the knife r, ", the presser or guage i, i,
and the press table D, and thence extending back over the springs and the
main bed B; the roller C is then brought down and made to pass gently on
the leather by means of the wedges at O, O, (or otherwise so as to flatten
and smooth the same as it passes through under the said roller. The
cramp e, e, is next turned down, so that the angle on its lower edge or under
side do meet and press on the leather just over where it reposes on the forward
edge of the guage i, i, and a very little back of the edge of the knife.
the said cramp is arrested by the, stops or screws P, P, which prevent it from
approaching the edge of the knife as the leather is drawn through under it.
In this situation the said cramp should be pressed down by the screws h, h, so
as to force the guage i, i, with the leather on it down a little below the edge
of the knife, and which will consequently place a portion of the thickness of the
leather also below the edge of the knife; and in setting down the cramp care
must be always taken to leave between the top or edge of the knifo and the
bottom of the said cramp a space just equal to the thickness to which it is
intended to reduce the leather, and when thus placed and adjusted, if the
roller II is made to turn on its axis the hide or leather will be drawn
forward and wound thereon, and at the same time as it passes the edge of
the knife it will be split or shaved, and a part thereof will pass downwards
and come out underneath, whilst the other or upper part proceeds right
onward and is wound round the said roller, and when the leather has
thus passed through the machine, and one end or portion thereof being split
or shaved, it is to be again placed in the machine with its cads reversed,
and the other end or portion is then to be split or shaved in like manner.
Here

page_text: R, S, T, represent the wheelwork with which motion is given to the roller H.
It is, however, necessary further to state, that in the use and application of my
afore-described machine I do not always confine myself to the particular
method of splitting and shaving therewith as above set forth; but that when
the same may be thought preferable or necessary to carry the said Invention
or any part thereof into effect, I do employ cramps or instruments constructed
with long jaws, made to open and shut, so as to form cramps or pincers, having
suitable handles or connecting machinery, and with these the forward edge of
the skin or leather is seized and drawn through the machine in the act of
splitting, as aforesaid, by means of any adequate power or first mover applied
thereto, instead of using the first-described method of drawing the skin
through; and in this case the roller H, and wheelwork as connected there-
with, and before described for that purpose, may of course be dispensed
with. And whenever it is desired that both sides or lamina of the skins after
being split should remain the same or nearly the same size, viz., of the full
size of the skin, or nearly so, the last described metho should have the
preference to that of the attaching the skins to the roller, as first described,
for the distance between the edge of the knife and the connexion of the skin
on the said drawing roller is such as to require that the skin should be so
placed in the machines as that the splitting or shaving will commence near
the middle thereof, which, as before stated, will render it necessary to reverse
the ends of the skins when the said roller is employed, and therefore require
two operations of the machine to each skin before it is compleated, and at the
same time one side of the said skin or leather which shall have been so split or
shaved will necessarily be cut or divided into two pieces or shavings of nearly
equal length or size, but this inconvenience will be remedied, and the said
shavings that are cut off will be left nearly the whole size of the skins when
they are placed in the machine with their forward ends or edges, but just
enough forward of the edge of the knife to allow the cramp, as aforesaid, or
any other suitable & convenient instrument or contrivance to take hold of
and draw them successively through the machine. The dark lines, as seen in
the section Fig. 3, at a, a, indicates the passage of the leather through the
machine in the act of splitting or shaving.
2ndly, to elucidate the second construction of my said machinery, it is
necessary to premise that the same is an improvement on, or a small deviation
from, the structure of a machine for a new and improved method of splitting
hides and shaving leather, for which a Patent was granted, June the 19th, 1810,
which Patent has been transferred to me, and the Specification thereof en-
rolled on the Sixteenth of August, One thousand eight hundred and ten,

page_text: reference must therefore be had to the Drawings and description of the original
machine, as specified in the said Patent, in order the better to comprehend the
nature of the said improvement, which having been made and communicated
to me, subsequently to the completion of the former Patent, is here to be
specified as a part of and belonging to the present Invention. The variations
which constitute the said improvement in the machine were made by the same
Inventor to remedy some defects that the original machine was found to possess
in certain descriptions of work. I shall therefore transcribe the said commu-
nication nearly in the words in which it was made to me, by which, the nature
and objects of this improved machine will be clearly understood; but it will be
perceived that as the original machine is therein constantly aluded to, the
Specification of the said Patent (above cited) must also be read and had in
view. The machines constructed with two forcing cylinders, according to the
former Patent, operate extremely well and answer every purpose when the
kind of work to be done will admit the said cylinders to be made of cast iron,
as with that metal I find about three and an half inches in diameter will
render them sufficiently stiff and strong to perform the office of forcing.
intended; but to split leather that is intended to be left white when dressed or
to be finished with any delicate colour, those parts of the machine that come
in contact with the leather in the act of splitting, especially the forcing
cylinders, should be made of "bell metal," or a hard composition of copper
and tin, say, about 78 parts of the former and 22 parts of the latter, as the
iron cylinders would be subject to stain and injure the colour of the leather.
to be so finished; but these bell metal cylinders are somewhat more liable to
spring and give way in the act of forcing the skins against the knife to be
split than those of iron. Provided they are made of the same size, and if
their diameter should be much encreased to strengthen them, their enlarged
size would render it necessary to reduce the thickness of the knife propor-
tionably, which for splitting some kinds of skins would have it too thin to
stand and perform well; I have, therefore, altered the construction of my
machine so as to adapt it for splitting the above kinds of leather, wherein
I employ only one forcing cylinder, which is of bell metal or composition,
as above; and in the situation of, and as a substitute for, the other cylinder,.
generally the lower one, I do place and employ a bar or bed, which is made
to extend parallel to the said cylinder, and the same must be made large
enough to prevent its springing, and it may be cither wholly or only the upper.
or curved side of bell metal, and by this means the diameter of the said
composition roller may be sufficiently encreased to prevent it also from.
springing (say, to about five inches diameter), and at the same time there will

page_text: be space enough left in the angle between the said cylinder and bed to apply
a knife therein of the requisite thickness and strength. This forcing cylinder
must be fluted or grooved, the same as those described for the original machine,
but the bed, which is stationary when in its place, must be made quite smooth
on the upper curved or ogec formed next to the cylinder.
The skins to be split with this machine should, in preference, be in the pelt,
but it will also serve to split leather that has been tanned, and in either case
they are to be introduced between the said bar or bed and the cylinder, and
pressed down and held firmly there by the latter, and as the sd cylinder is
them made to revolve, its fluted surface will take hold of the skin, which it
will cause to slide over the smooth surface of the said bed and force it against
the edge of the knife, where it will undergo the act of splitting, the same as in
the machine described in the former Patent. But to prevent injury to the
skins from the impression of the flutes of the said cylinder, I construct the
sd machine in some instances (and especially for splitting thin skins, so as to
employ two cylindrical pieces of cloth or endless webbs, wove without a scam,
and made to enclose or go round each respectively, the said forcing cylinder,
& the sd bar or bed, & to extend the whole length thereof, so that the skins
will not come in contact with the sd flutes of the cylinder or the sd bed, but
instead thereof they will be pressed on each side by the immediate contact of
the sd webbs, and in the use of these webbs they must be fitted to revolve,
each respectively over a woodden roller likewise, which rollers are made of
hard wood, about seven inches diameter, and covered with woollen cloth to
prevent the said webbs from slipping over them, and they must be hung so as
to revolve one over and the other underneath, and in a parallel direction to
the said bed & forcing cylinder, and being hung with suitable adjustments
the said rollers serve to keep the said webbs smooth and to give to them the
requisite degree of tension as they revolve, and are made to pass or traverse
through the machine. The lower roller is connected by wheelwork with one
end of the forcing cylinder, whereby motion is given to the lower webb, and its
direction and speed are made to correspond with that of the upper webb,
which is carried through by the sd forcing cylinder. A section of this
improved machine is given at Fig. 5 in the Drawings, wherein the forcing.
cylinder is denoted at A, part of the knife at B, the sd curved bar or bed at C,
the wood rollers at D & D, the cloths or endless webbs at f, f, & g, g, and the
frame and end supports at E & F, F.
And, lastly, I do declare that the other particulars of the structure of my
said machinery & of the form and dimensions thereof, as well as of the fit
and proper materials, are capable of being varied according to the size and

page_text: nature of the work intended to be done, but that the same particulars are
such as any competent workman in machinery of this nature will find no
difficulty in providing for, in constructing the same; and more especially that
the sizes of the hides or skins intended to be split or shaved will determine
the size of the cylinder and knives as to the length thereof, and the other
parts may be made to correspond without referring to any particular scale in
the Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph C. Dyer, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eleven.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-fifth day of September,
in the year of our Lord 1811, the aforesaid Joseph C. Dyer came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eleven.