IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CERTAIN VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES
Year: 1841

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
TOWNSEND, of Sapcote Fields, in the Parish of Sapcote, in the County of
Leicester, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-ninth day of April, in the fourth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
George Townshend, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and autho-
rity, that I, the said George Townshend, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, and such others as I, the said George Townshend, my executors, adminis-
trators, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and in the
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CERTAIN VEGETABLE SUBSTANCES;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said George Townshend,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Townshend, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,'

page_text: and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):
My Invention is a novel or improved apparatus for cutting turnips or other
vegetable matters into small pieces for feeding sheep and other cattle, which
apparatus may be actuated by hand labour or other power, or may be so
adapted to a cart or other wheeled carriage that the progress of the carriage in
passing over the ground may be made the actuating agent to work the
machine, and at the same time cause a distribution of the cut pieces of turnip
or other vegetable matters over the surface of the field, in such order as may
be desirable for the cattle to pick up when feeding. In the accompanying
Drawing, Fig. 1 represents the cutting apparatus placed upon a wooden
frame or stand, as it would be constructed if to be worked by hand; Fig. 2 is
a horizontal or top view of the same; in the first Figure the apparatus
is shewn in section taken perpendicularly through about the middle of the
machine; in the second, the box or feeding hopper is removed in order to
represent the cutting apparatus below. Fig. 3 is a horizontal view of the
circular rotary plate which carries the knives; and Fig. 4 is a section of the
cutting apparatus, taken vertically, at a little distance in advance of the axis
of the circular plate in the position of the dotted line in Fig. 3; both these
Figures are drawn to a scale twice the size of Figs. 1 and 2. A wooden frame
a, a, supports the short perpendicular shaft b, upon which the horizontal
circular plate c is made fast. This plate c has two curved apertures cut
through it, as represented in Fig. 3, and in these apertures are placed series
of vertical knives d, d, d, which are set in frames, made fast to the under
surface of the circular plate by screws or otherwise. The form of each of these
knives is shown at d in Fig. 4, and also in the vertical section of the knife
frame, Fig. 5. To the upper surface of the circular plate two horizontal
knives e, e, are attached, as shewn in Figs. 1, 2, and 4. These knives are curved
and of a wedge form, and are fixed at their ends upon inclined planes, as
bearings, for the purpose of slightly elevating their cutting edges and extend-
ing them over the upper edges of the vertical knives, as seen in Figures 1 and 4.
Immediately over the circular rotary knife plate c there is affixed to the wood
frame a transverse bar f, f, with a similar bar 9 connected thereto at a
right angle to the former, which bars stand inclined at a considerable angle in
order to form recesses and stops, to receive the turnips and hold them while
they are acted upon by the rotary knives d, d, and e, e, These rotary knives
being affixed to the horizontal plate c, c, go round with it, the plate being

page_text: turned by a winch and axle h, carrying a bevil pinion i, which takes into a
bevel pinion k, on the short perpendicular shaft 6 that supports the plate c.
Over this apparatus is placed a hopper 1, 1, bearing upon the wood frame a, a,
the opening at the bottom of which hopper, for the delivery of the turnips or
other vegetable substances, is formed and regulated by moving shutters m, m.
The hopper being filled with turnips or other vegetable matters to be cut, the
shutters are to be partially drawn up so as to allow the turnips, &c. to fall.
through on to the rotary plate c in the space n, n, where, as the circular plate
revolves, the turnips or other materials to be cut are carried round and brought
under the inclined bars or stops f and g, by which the horizontal knives e, e,
are made to cut the materials into slices and to force those slices down against
the edges of the series of vertical knives d, d. By these means the slices are
cut into small pieces, and which small pieces fall through between the knives
into a receptacle below in a condition fit to be supplied to the cattle for food.
The second feature of my Invention, (viz') the means of actuating a machine
for cutting turnips and other vegetables by the progress of a wheeled carriage
over the ground, and at the same time distributing the cut pieces over the field
for feeding sheep and other cattle, is shewn in the following Figures:-Fig. 6
is a horizontal view of a cart with the cutting apparatus attached thereto;
Fig. 7 is an end elevation of the same; and Fig. 8, a side elevation; portions
of these Figures being drawn in section to shew the machinery more clearly.
The construction of the apparatus for cutting turnips and other vegetables
appended to the cart is exactly the same in all respects as that above described,
but instead of applying a winch to actuate its working parts, the same effect is
obtained by means of toothed gear connected with one of the running wheels
of the carriage. Affixed to the inner side of the cart wheel is a toothed rim or
concentric circle of teeth p, p, which may be made fast to the spokes or to the
nave. This circle of teeth take or gear into a pinion 7 on the driving axle h;
hence, as the cart passes over the ground, motion is given to the cutting
apparatus, and the same effect is produced as if actuated by hand, except that
as the cart moves onward, the pieces of the cut vegetables, instead of being
delivered into a receptacle below, are dropped through the circular plate
between the vertical knives and distributed over the ground. It has been
intimated that the quantity of turnips or other materials fed into the cutting
apparatus in a given time may be regulated by more or less opening the
moving doors or shutters m, m; but in thus adapting the apparatus to a cart
and dispensing with one side of the hopper, as shewn, it will be necessary to
tilt the body of the cart a little, in order that the turnips or other material may
roll down to the feeding apertures. This is done, when required, by means of

page_text: a winch and pinion 7, acting in a vertical rack s, seen appended to the front
part of the cart; and in order that the cutting apparatus so appended to the
.cart may remain inactive during the time that the cart is loading and being led
into the field, a clutch levert and rod u at the back part of the cart is applied
for the purpose of throwing the pinion ġ in or out of gear with the toothed
rim p, by sliding the pinion laterally upon the axle or shaft h. The advantages
of adapting a machine for cutting turnips and other vegetables to a cart
or other carriage are these:-The cutting apparatus being put out of gear,
the cart may be loaded and taken. to the field where the cattle are to be
fed, and then the cutting apparatus being put into gear, the turnips or other
materials will be cut and distributed as the cart passes over the field with
great regularity upon the ground wherever required, thereby saving the labor
of bringing the materials home to be cut, and then taking them to the field and
there distributing them by hand. .
Lastly, I desire it to be understood that I claim, under the above in part
recited Letters Patent, the construction or apparatus above described for
cutting. vegetables for the food of cattle, and also the means of actuating that
or any other modification of apparatus for cutting vegetable substances by the
progress of a carriage, and distributing the pieces so produced over the field,
as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Townshend, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and forty-one.
GEORGE (L.S.) TOWNSHEND.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Twenty-eighth day of 2
October in the year hove mentioned the