AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING AND SPLITTING WOOD AND OTHER SUBSTANCES TO WHICH THE MACHINE IS AP- PLICABLE
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Conway, of Morton Hampstead, in the County
of Devon, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING AND
SPLITTING WOOD AND OTHER SUBSTANCES TO WHICH THE MACHINE IS AP-
PLICABLE"
Sealed the 25th October 1878, and dated the 26th April 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Conway at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th April 1878.
"AN
CHARLES CONWAY, of Morton Hampstead, in the County of Devon.
IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING AND SPLITTING WOOD AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
TO WHICH THE MACHINE IS APPLICABLE."
I mount upon a standard, bearing, or bed plate a lever or bar free to vibrate
round the top of the said standard or bearing, as on a pivot or axis; the said lever
or bar is armed at one or both extremities thereof with a segment containing a series
of knives or cutters inserted therein, and projecting from the face thereof. The said
knives or cutters are in number, and are so spaced apart on the face or periphery of
the said segment or segments as to be proportionate to the number of pieces, and
the thickness into which the wood (or other material under treatment to which the
machine is applicable) is to be cut up.
The segment or segments before named has or have fitted to the same at one or
both extremities thereof the knife or knivos (placed at right angles to the first-
named knives or cutters) for cutting off the pieces of wood subdivided or cut by the
first-named series of knives or cutters.
For the purpose of working the machine I dispose or arrange a shaft, carried in
supports, at a suitable distance from the before-mentioned vibrating lever or bar.
The said shaft has mounted upon it a pair of fast and loose driving pulleys, and a fly
wheel is keyed on the centre of the said shaft for steadying the machine when in
motion. Upon each extremity of the shaft last mentioned is keyed an eccentric or disc
with stud pin in the same (or the said shaft may be formed with cranks at each
end), to which stud pins (or to the crank pins) connecting rods are fitted, the other

page_text: ends of the said connecting rods being attached to pins, studs, or gudgeons in the pre-
vously-named vibrating lever or bar, so that on motion being communicated to the
driving pulleys of the machine the vibrating lover or bar with its segment or seg-
ments is or are caused to have a given amount of vibrating or reciprocating travel
or "stroke " proportionate to the amount of eccentricity in the before-mentioned
discs, or in the throw of the cranks; and the cutting of the wood or other substance
under treatment is effected with great facility and rapidity, owing to the command
of leverage, and the resultant, reciprocating, alternating, or vibrating action of the
machine, as before described.
The wood or other material to be cut and split is kept up to the face of the
cutting knives by the following arrangement of mechanism or suitable equivalent
therefor, that is to say, with the object of making the "feed" self-acting
When the segment or segments has or have just cleared the "feed" (or supply)
box a stud or studs takes or take into a ratchet bar in connection with the rollers
of the feed box, and in such manner as to bring the wood or other material to be
cut and split up to the knives on the reverse stroke or travel of the said first-
named lever or bar, and vice versa, as long as the machine is at work.
The pieces of wood or other materials when detached fall through an opening in
one or both ends of the seginent or segments (accordingly as the machine is either
single or double acting).
The machine, according to my Invention, is especially adapted for being. worked
by power, but it may also be worked by hand.
It may be arranged also so as to work either in a horizontal, vertical, or other
suitable position.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Charles Conway in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 26th October
" AN
1878.
CHARLES CONWAY, of Morton Hampstead, in the County of Devon.
IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING AND SPLITTING WOOD AND OTHER SIMILAR SUB⚫
STANCES TO WHICH THE MACHINE IS APPLICABLE."
My Invention relates to an improved apparatus, by means of which wood (as also
other similar substances) may be rapidly and economically cut up ready for use as
fire-wood, and for other purposes, in the manner herein-after described, and as
illustrated in the accompanying Sheet of Drawings, that is to say:-
In carrying out my said Invention I mount upon a standard A attached to a
suitable base plate B a lever or bar C, free to vibrate round the top of the said
standard A.
.
The lever or bar C has at one or both extremities thereof a segment D, containing
a series of knives or cutters d, inserted therein and projecting therefrom; the said
knives or cutters d are in number, and are so spaced apart or arranged on the face
of the said segment or segments D as to be proportionate to the number of pieces,
and the thickness of the same, into which the wood or other material under treat-
ment is to be cut up.
The segment or segments D has or have fitted to the same at one or both
extremities the knife or knives e for cutting off the pieces of wood or other material
when subdivided or cut by the first-named knives or cutters d, and to which the
knife or knives e are placed at right angles.
For the purpose of working the machine I dispose or arrange, as shewn, a shaft
E carried in supports f; the said shaft E has mounted upon it a pair of fast and
loose driving pulleys F, F, and a fly wheel G is keyed on the centre of the said
shaft E for steadying the apparatus when in motion. One or each extremity of the
shaft E has keyed upon it an eccentric H with stud or pin g in the same.
A con-
necting rod I is at one end adapted to the said stud or pin g, and at the other end
is adapted to the vibrating lever or bar, as shewn, so that on motion being imparted
to the driving pullies F, F, the vibrating lever or bar C with its segment or seg-
ments is caused to have a given amount of vibrating or reciprocating travel or
"stroke" proportionate to the amount of eccentricity in the disc or discs (or eccen-
trics) H; and the cutting of the wood or other material under treatment is effected
with great facility and rapidity, owing to the command of leverage, and the
resultant reciprocating, alternating, or vibrating action of the apparatus, as before
described.
Various arrangements of self-acting feeding contrivances may be adapted to my
said apparatus for the purpose of keeping the wood up to the surface of the cutting
knives. One of such arrangements I have shewn in the accompanying Drawing,
without claiming for the same to form an essential part of my said Invention,
that is to say, when the segment D with its knives or cutters has just cleared the
feed or supply box K a stud attached to the said segment D takes into a ratchet
bar in connection with the feed rollers of the feed box, and in such manner as to
bring the wood up to the knives or cutters on the reverse stroke or travel of the said
lever or bar C, and vice versa, as long as the apparatus is kept at work.
The knives or cutters & may either be lancet-shaped fixed blades in the segment
or segments D; or instead thereof the said knives may take the form of circular
disc cutters, as shewn in the detached views, Figures 4 and 5.
The mode of disposing the knives or cutters d may either be as shewn in the
views, Figures 1 and 2, or as shewn in the detached view, Figure 3.
The cutting-off knife or knives e are fitted, as shewn, to the segment or segments
D (Figure 1), with the addition of a spring, to ensure the pieces of wood or other
material divided by the knives or cutters d, being cut off by the knives e on the

page_text: return or reverse stroke of the segment or segments D; the said cutting-off
knives e being so fixed in the segment or segments D as to ensure the wood being
split, and so that the said knives e can follow the grain of the wood, and thus
causing no waste.
Instead of the lever C and segment D being arranged to work as shewn in
Figure 1 in the accompanying Drawing, the same may be arranged to work within
suitable guides and framing in a vertical position; or, otherwise, the knives may
be arranged in a suitable segment, and be worked in a horizontal or vertical
position.
Having now described and illustrated my said Invention, I wish it to be under-
stood that what I claim is, the arrangement of vibrating or reciprocating lever or
bar, and segment or segments, with knives in the latter, as herein described, and for
the purposes herein set forth."
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Conway, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
CHA³. CONWAY. (L.B.)