IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CURVED AND IRREGULAR FORMS
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Archibald Douglas Brown and James Wotherspoon
Brown, both of Bristol, in the County of Gloucester, Wholesale
Cabinet Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CURVED AND IRREGULAR FORMS,"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Archibald Douglas
Brown and James Wotherspoon Brown at the Office of the Com
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 27th January 1870.
•
We, ARCHIBALD DOUGLAS BROWN and JAMES WOTHERSPOON BROWN,
both of Bristol, in the County of Gloucester, Wholesale Cabinet Manu-
facturers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CURVED AND
"IMPROVEMENTS
IRREGULAR FORMS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
self-acting machinery or apparatus for cutting curved and irregular
forms from timber by the aid of a band saw, and consists in the com-
bination of a traversing table and a fixed table, the outer edge of the

page_text: traversing table being shaped to correspond to the line of cut, whatever
that may be. The upper or traversing table is secured to a rack which
also corresponds to the curve of the cut to be made. This rack and
upper table are moved along by means of a spur pinion projecting
slightly above the surface of the lower or fixed table and mounted on a
shaft which is driven by a screw and worm wheel. The guiding of the
fraversing table along the proper course is effected by means of four
bolts fixed into and standing up from the surface of the lower or fixed
table, the heads of such bolts entering guide grooves or channels secured
to or formed on the under side of the upper table. The timber to be cut
is carried upon the upper table, a screw being employed for moving the
timber laterally at the termination of each cut preparatory to a fresh cut
being made. The hand saw works through the fixed table, and may be
carried on two or more actuating pullies driven by steam or other power.
In order to prevent any shaking of the traversing table when a con-
siderable length of cut is required it is proposed to employ a guide pin
which is fixed at or near the back end of the top table and works in a
guide groove in the top of the fixed table.
.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Archibald Douglas Brown and James Wotherspoon
Brown in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th July 1870.
'
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, WC, ARCHIBALD
DOUGLAS BROWN and JAMES WOTHERSPOON BROWN, both of Bristol,
in the County of Gloucester, Wholesale Cabinet Manufacturers, send
greeting.
2
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Archibald Douglas Brown and James Wotherspoon 3
Brown, Her special license, that we, the said Archibald Douglas Brown
and James Wotherspoon Brown, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said Archibald Douglas Brown and
James Wotherspoon Brown, our executors, administrators, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at 3

page_text: all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and law-
fully 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 OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING
› CURVED AND IRREGULAR FORMS;" upon the condition (amongst others) that
we, the said Archibald Douglas Brown and James Wotherspoon Brown,
our executors or administrators, by an instrument. in writing under our
hands and seals, or under the hands and seals of one of us, should: par-
ticularly describo 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said James Wotherspoon Brown, on
behalf of myself and the said Archibald Douglas Brown, do hereby
declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what. manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the Drawings
hereunto,annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thercon, that is
to say
•
This Invention relates to a peculiar construction and arrangement of
self-acting machinery or apparatus for cutting curved and irregular forms
from: tinibor by the aid of a band saw, and consists in the combination
of a traversing or inoveable table and a fixed table, the outer eilge of
the traversing table being shaped to correspond to the line of cut,
whatever that may be. The upper or traversing table has a rack secured
to its under surface, which also corresponds to the curve of the cut to be
made: This rack and upper table are moved along, by means of a spu̟r.
pinion projecting slightly above the surface of the lower: or: fixed table
and mounted in a short shaft which is driven by a screw and worm
wheel. The guiding of the traversing, table along the proper course is
effected by means of four studs or bolts.fixed into and standing up from the
surface of the lower or fixed table, tho-heads of such studs or bolts entering
guide grooves or channels formed in the under side of the upper table.
The timber to be cut is carried upon, the upper table, a screwz, being
employed for moving the timber laterally at. the termination of cach cut
preparatory, to a fresh cut being made. The band saw works througli or
past the edge of: the fixed table; and may be carried on two or more
actuating pullies-driven by steam or other power. In order to prevent
"

page_text: any shaking of the moveable or traversing table when a considerable
length of cut is required it is proposed to employ a guide pin which is
fixed at or near the back end of the top table and works in a guide
groove in the top of the fixed table,
And in order that our said Invention may be fully understood we shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose
shall refer to the several Figures on the annexed Sheets of Drawings, the
same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts in all the
Figures.
Figure 1 of our Drawings represents a sectional elevation of our
improved machine for cutting any given irregular curved form, which
machine by a slight modification readily accomplished may be usefully
employed as a cross cutting machine; Figure 2 is a plan corresponding
to Figure 1, with the fixed and traversing table removed to show tho
actuating gearing. The rest of the Figures are details on an enlarged
scale which will be herein-after fully referred to.
A is the main framing, which is here shown as composed of wood, but
we prefer to make it of metal. This framing is sufficintly large to admit
of the machine being used either for cross cutting or for cutting irregular
forms, as will be herein-after explained, When used for cutting irregular
forms a fixed table B is placed upon the top of the frame A, and secured
in position by suitable bolts. In contact with or only just clear of the
front edge of this table works the band saw C which we strain over threo
pullies D, D', D", the pulley D" being sufficiently distant from the
pullies D and D' to allow ample space for the timber when cross cutting.
D is the main driving pulley, which is mounted on a driving shaft E
fitted with the ordinary fast and loose driving pullics F. It is obvious
that an ordinary jigger saw may be employed in this machine in licu of
a band saw, but we prefer to use the band saw as being more expeditious
in its work. The saw band pullies may be clothed with india-rubber lo
afford an elastic or yielding bed for the saw band. The saw band is
tightened up by means of a screw spindle G resting on a spring U
(Figure 3) in the frame I, which affords a sufficient yield when straining
the saw.
The screw spindle G works through a nut in the slide K which
carries the bearings supporting the spindle of the upper saw pulley D'.
Through the surface of the fixed table project the teeth of a spur wheel L
which actuates the moveable table as herein-after explained. M is
another toothed wheel, which is also shown as projecting through the

page_text: fixed table, but it is not necessary that it should project, as it does not
operate upon the moveable table; its use will be explained hereafter.
a, a, are four T headed guide studs fixed in the upper surface of the
fixed table (see Figures 4 and 5), and N is a curved guide groove into
which a guiding stud or pin 6 on the under side of the moveable table O
travels. The four guide studs a enter the two T shaped guide grooves c, c,
made in the under side of the moveable table O, shown in detail top
plan at Figure 6, in transverse section at Figure 7, and in under side
plan at Figure 8. These guide grooves are situate one on each side of
the curved rack d. This rack and the guide grooves c, c, as well as the
front edge of the moveable table Q must correspond in shape to the
particular curved line of cut to be made. The moveable table O is to bo
so adjusted upon the fixed table B as that the toothed wheel L will
gear into the curved rack d, and the guide pins a, a, will cuter the
grooves c, c, two pins being in each groove. The guide stud or pin b
morcover on the moveable table should enter the guide groove or slot N
in the top of the fixed table. The picce of timber to be cut is held
in a clamp P, which is adjustable along a straight groove Q in the
top of the moveable table O by means of the screw spindle K, which
enables the work to be set up for each fresh cut. On starting the
machine the moveable table with the wood clamped down upon it is
caused to travel in a curve corresponding to that to be cut, such curve
being produced by the fact of the actuating pinion L gearing into the
curved rack d assisted by the guide pins a and b and guide groove C
and N. After each cut the clamp carrying the wood is moved forward by
turning the screw spindle R, the moveable table having been previously
run back again to its starting point by hand through the intervention of
suitable gearing, which along with the self-acting gearing for traversing
the moveable table we will now proceed to describe.
On the spindle S of the spur wheel L is keyed also the spur wheel M,
and into this latter gears a worm wheel T actuated by a worm U on the
shaft V. That end of this shaft which carries the worm works in a
vertically sliding bearing, which is raised or lowered as required by a
lover handle or other convenient contrivance for the purpose of throwing
the worm in or out of gear with the worm wheel T. The worm shaft V
carries at its opposite end a grooved cono pulley W, which derives motion
from a corresponding cone X (through the band Y) fast on an inter-

page_text: mediate shaft.Z. This-shaft-carries-a-pulley e which is driven slowly-by
a belt f passing round. the main driving shaft E of the machine. It
will thus be seen that the feed. motion of the moveable table O is self-
acting. When however the. said. table has to be run back again the
worm U is lowered. so as to be out of gear with its worm wheel T,
which is then free to be rotated. by means of the spindle and small
mitre wheels h, h', the latter h¹ being fast on the shaft T of the worm
wheel T. A spur pinion is fitted on to the end of the shaft T¹ for tho
purpose of actuating another table which is substituted for the fixed and
moveable tables before referred to when the machine is required for cross :
cutting only, such other table being fitted with guide rails working in
the guide grooves k, k, in the main framing, and being also provided
with a straight rack on the under side for the pinion i to gear into. The
cross. cutting table is made in two halves or parts so as to admit the saw
between them, after which the two halves or parts are bolted together,
leaving a slit of sufficient width for the saw to act freely in. In order to
cause this table to travel in the proper direction when cross cutting it
will be necessary to drive the small wheel or pinion i in the opposite
direction; this may be accomplished by simply crossing either the straps
or the band Y. When it is desired: to cut curves to a bevil the work
must be presented to the saw at the proper angle or inclination, for
which purpose in lieu of using a horizontal fixed table we employ a
table which is inclined to the angle or bevil required, and we make the
teeth of the actuating spur wheel L'also slightly bevilled to correspond
to the angle or slope of the table. When cutting curved work forming 2
- segments of a true circle then the moveable table O turns upon a centro
or pivot in the fixed table, such centre or pivot being adjustable in the
moveable tablo so as to ensure both the outside and inside curves being
concentric and the work being of equal width throughout.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of our a
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or
carried into effect, we would observe in conclusion that what we consider
to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to
us by the hercin-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The cutting of irregular and other curved forms by means of a 3
band or other saw in combination with a fixed and a moveablo table, the
moveable table being provided with a curved rack of the contour of

page_text: the curve to be cut, and guided or not as required by suitable guide
grooves and studs, the whole being arranged and operating substantially
in the manner herein-before described.
Second. The combination of an adjustable clamp or work holder with
the moveable table, as and for the purpose herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Wotherspoon Brown, on
behalf of myself and the said Archibald Douglas Brown, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of July
One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
JAMES WOTHERSPOON BROWN. (L.s.)