IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR REDUCING, PLANING, SMOOTHING, FACING, OR OTHERWISE WORKING AND MANUFACTURING SLATE, SLATE SLABS, AND OTHER STONE AND MATERIALS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwyn John Jeffery Dixon, of Deanfield Works,
Bangor, North Wales, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR REDUCING, PLANING, SMOOTHING, FACING, OR OTHERWISE
WORKING AND MANUFACTURING SLATE, SLATE SLABS, AND OTHER STONE AND
MATERIALS."
Sealed the 25th September 1868, and dated the 26th March 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwyn John Jeffery
Dixon at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,, with his
Petition, on the 26th March 1868.
I, EDWYN JOHN JEFFERY DIXON, of Deanfield Works, Bangor, North
Wales, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR REDUCING, PLANING, SMOOTHING, FACING,
OR OTHERWISE WORKING AND MANUFACTURING SLATE, SLATE SLABS, AND OTHER
STONE AND MATERIALS," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in a novel way of arranging and fixing the
cutting tools and of presenting the slate or other material to be operated
upon to their cutting edges in such a manner and position that the

page_text: The
two principal surfaces of the material may be reduced, planed, smoothed,
faced, or otherwise worked at one and the same time and rendered of
a desired thickness by the same operation. Upon an iron bed plate
or plates or other solid foundation a number of strong brackets are
fixed at right angles to the said bed plates as to their perpendicular, but
at such other angles across them as shall be found in practice to be
most desirable. This arrangement is made right and left, so that
the brackets on the one hand are fixed exactly opposite to and at
the same angles as those on the other. Against these brackets steel
cutting tools are fixed in such a manner that they can be nicely
regulated with screws so as to place their cutting edges nearer to or
further apart from one another. In using the machine the tools are
adjusted so that the space or opening between each pair thereof
becomes less in the second pair than in the first, again less in the
third pair, so again in the fourth, fifth, sixth, or as many pairs of
brackets with their cutting tools as may be found necessary.
slate or other material to be operated upon is placed on its edge and
pushed through this series of cutting tools by an arrangement of
machinery herein-after described, the first pair reducing its inequalitics
a little on each side, the next pair a little more, and so on as it moves
along past the cutting tools, until in passing through the last pair
it is reduced in thickness to the distance their cutting edges have
been set apart from each other and the slate or other material is finished.
The arrangement of the "pusher" and of the apparatus by which the
slate or other material is held in a proper position to enter the series
of cutting tools already described is as follows:-Two plates of iron or
other suitable material, and of the size of the largest slate or mass of
material which it is intended to reduce and plane, are placed on their
edges upon a proper bed fixed at the end of the foundation bed with
its brackets and cutting tools already described. These plates are
fixed upon transverse slides which are provided with right and left
hand screws, which screws are worked simultaneously by mitre wheels
at each corner so as to recede or advance the surfaces of the two
plates, the one from the other or to the other as desired, in a direction
perfectly parallel to a centre line accurately drawn through the series
of cutting tools and between the face plates which are to be expanded
by means of their screws, èqually from the centre line. The slate or
other material is then placed on its edge between the plates, which
are screwed against it sufficiently tight to hold it in its proper position

page_text: with regard to its own centre and perpendicular, and also to that of
the series of cutting tools, but not enough to prevent its being pushed
forward through the plates which are to act only as supports and
guides. Behind this arrangement lengthways is the plate "pusher"
which passes between the pair of face plates already described, and
being pressed forward by steam, hydraulic, or other power against
the end of the slate or other material, drives the same into the series
of cutting tools which operate thereon one after another in regular
rotation. By a return motion this "pusher" plate makes room for
another mass of slate or other material, and the operation is repeated
continuously, one piece or slab forcing the other out of the series of
cutting tools by the power behind it, and each coming out through
the arrangement described with both its surfaces perfectly finished.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Edwyn John Jeffery Dixon in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 26th September 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWYN.
JOHN JEFFERY DIXON, of Deanfield Works, Bangor, North Wales,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of March, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Edwyn John Jeffery Dixon, Her
special licence that I, the said Edwyn John Jeffery Dixon, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Edwyn John
Jeffery Dixon, 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 United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR REDUCING, PLANING,
SMOOTHING, FACING, OR OTHERWISE WORKING AND MANUFACTURING SLATE, SEATE
SLABS, AND OTHER STONE AND MATERIALS," upon the condition
upon the condition (amongst

page_text: others) that I, the said Edwyn John Jeffery Dixon, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, 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 Edwyn John Jeffery Dixon, do
hereby declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement, that is to say -
My said Invention consists in a novel mode of arranging and fixing
the cutting tools and of presenting the slate or other material to be
operated upon to their cutting edges in such a manner and position
that the two principal surfaces of the material may be reduced, planed,
smoothed, faced, or otherwise worked at one and the same time and
rendered of a desired thickness by the same operation. Upon an iron
bed plate or plates or other solid foundation a number of strong brackets
are fixed at right angles to the said bed plate or plates as to their
perpendicular, but at such other angles across them as shall be found
in practice to be most desirable, and as will be readily apparent to
persons conversant with such operations. This arrangement is made
right and left, so that the brackets on the one hand are fixed exactly
opposite to and at the same angles as those on the other. Against
these brackets steel cutting tools are fixed in such a manner that they
can be nicely regulated with screws so as to place their cutting edges
nearer to or further apart from each other. In using the machine
the tools are adjusted so that the space or opening between the cutting
edges of each pair thereof becomes less in the second pair than in the
first, again less in the third pair, so again in the fourth, fifth, sixth,
or as many pairs of brackets with their cutting tools as may be found
necessary. The slate or other material to be operated upon is placed
on its edge and pushed through this series of cutting tools by an
arrangement of machinery herein-after described, the first pair reducing
its inequalities a little on each side, the next pair a little more, and
so on as it moves along past the cutting tools, until in passing through.
the last pair it is reduced to the thickness corresponding to the distance
their cutting edges have been set apart from each other and the slate

page_text: or other material is finished. The materials are fed while rough into
one end of the machine and come out finished at the other end, one
forcing the other through by means of a "pusher" at the end where
the first pair of cutting tools have their edges farthest apart from
each other. The arrangements of the "pusher" and the apparatus
by which the slate or other material-is-held in a proper position to
enter the series of cutting tools as already described is as follows:-
Two plates of iron or other suitable material and of the size of the
largest slate or mass of material which it is intended to reduce and
plane are placed on their edges upon a proper bed fixed at the end
of the foundation bed with its brackets and cutting tools already
described. These plates are fixed upon transverse slides, which are
provided with right and left handed screws, which screws are worked
simultaneously by mitre wheels at each corner so as to recede or
advance the surfaces of the two plates the one from the other or to
the other asdesired in a direction perfectly parallel to a centre line
accurately drawn through the series of cutting tools and between the
face plates, which are to be expanded by means of their screws equally
from the centre line. The slate or other material is then placed on
its edge between the plates, which are screwed against it sufficiently
tightly to hold it in its proper position with regard to its own centre
and perpendicular and also to that of the series of cutting tools, but not
enough to prevent its being pushed forward through the plates which
are to act only as supports and guides. Behind this arrangement
longitudinally to the machine is the plate "pusher
which passes
between the pair of face plates already described, and being pressed
forward by steam, hydraulic, or other power against the end of the
slate or other material drives the same into the series of cutting tools
which operate thereon one pair after another in regular rotation. By
a return motion the "pusher" plate makes room for another mass of
slate or other material, and the operation is repeated continuously, one
piece or slab forcing the other out of the series of cutting tools by
the power exerted behind it, and each coming out through the arrange-
ment herein-before described with both its surfaces perfectly finished.
"
Having thus declared and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which it is to be performed, I would observe
in conclusion that what I consider novel and original and therefore
claim as constituting the Invention secured to me by the said herein-

page_text: before in part recited Letters Patent is, the combination and arrangement
of parts and mechanism as and for the purposes herein-before described
and set forth, or any mere modifications thereof.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwyn Jolin Jeffery Dixon, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fourth day of
September, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-eight.