CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR PLANEING OR CUTTING METALS
Year: 1838

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ROBERTS, of Manchester, in the County of Lancaster, Machine Maker, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Eighteenth day of December, One thousand eight hundred and
thirty-eight, in the second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said John Roberts, Her especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John
Roberts, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and such others as I, the
said John Roberts, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times during the term of
years herein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed,
my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
PLANEING OR CUTTING METALS;" in which Letters Patent is contained a pro-
viso, that I, the said John Roberts, shall cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be enrolled 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the proviso, I, the said John
Roberts, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the Drawings hereto annexed, and the following
explanation thereof, that is to say :—
My improvements in machinery or apparatus for planeing and cutting
metals consist in the application of a simple contrivance to the ordinary
planeing engine, by which the work under operation may receive the rough
cut and also the finishing cut at one operation of the machine, without any
removal or alteration of the cutting tools after they have been once set or
adjusted to their work. Another object of my improvements in planeing
machines.is that one of the cutting tools shall be at work and the other at rest
at every traverse of the table, so that the cutting or planeing operation shall
not cease from the commencement to the close of the work, but be performed
successively in both directions as the table upon which the work is placed
passes to and fro. These improvements are effected by placing two tools in the
same tool socket or carrier, and having their cutting edges placed in opposite
directions to each other, that is, the one cutting tool must stand to give the
first or rough cut, and oppose the passage of the work in the one direction of
the table, and the other tool must stand to give the second or finishing cut as
the table passes in the returning or reverse direction; and as by the ordinary
traverse of the cross or tool slide, the finishing tool will be brought to work or
cut upon that exact portion of the work which has just received the rough
cut, it will thus be evident that the one or the other of the cutting tools is
always in action, and the work may be finished or receive a rough and smooth
cut without any alteration in the machinery after it has been once set to its
work. Although from the extreme simplicity of this contrivance, it may
hardly be necessary to explain the Invention by any further illustration, yet,
in order that the application of my improvements to ordinary planeing
machinery may be perfectly evident, I have shewn in the Drawing attached
to these Presents such views of an ordinary planeing engine of small
dimensions, and represented my improvements as attached thereto (being
the parts shaded with colour), and also the same in detail, and upon an
enlarged scale is a separate Figure.
Figure 1 is a front elevation; Figure 2, a side elevation; and Figure 3, a
plan a horizontal view of a planeing machine with my improvements attached.
a, a, is the bed of the engine, upon the vedges of which the table b, b,
traverses to and fro; the uprights or standards c, c, carry the cross slide d, d,
upon which the tool slide or carrier e, e, is traversed as usual; upon this slide

page_text: or carrier my improved tool box or socket f, with its cutting tools g, 'g, are
mounted, and vibrate slightly to and fro at the end of each cut upon the
centre pins g*, in order to prevent the first cutting tool dragging upon the
work, while the second tool is performing the return cut, and which tool is
also set or held to its work by such motion, and released from the cutting
position in its turn. It will be perceived that the machine is put in motion
by means of the driving strap being passed around the pulley.h, which is fast
upon the boss of the pinion i, and running loosely upon the shaft j, thus
driving the bevil wheel k and rack pinion upon the transverse shaft m, which
pinion taking into the rack n, fast upon the under side of the table b, thus
drives the table with the work to be planed in one direction over the bed, and
submits the work to the operation of the first cutting or roughing tool g', and
after that cut has been completed, the horizontal stop rod o, which is acteil
upon by the stops on the table in the usual manner, having a rack of teeth
formed upon its under side taking into the pinion p, fixed upon the end of the
small transverse shaft 7, causes the pinion r, at its other end, to actuate the
rack upon the vertical stop rod s, and thus, by means of the double system of
levers and catches t, t, traverse the tool carrier upon the cross slide as
required; and at the same time, by means of the stops u, u, and elbow lever v,
mortice plate w, and rod x, vibrate or swivel the tool carrier upon its centres g*,
and thus set the second cutting tool to its work at the same time that it
releases the first tool from the cut as the table returns upon the driving strap
being passed over the loose pulley y, upon the pulley z, which being fast upon
the shaft j, will, by means of the bevil pinion I, also fast upon this shaft, drive
the bevil wheel k, pinion 1, shaft m, rack n, and table b, in the reverse
direction in order that the work may receive a second or finishing cut from
the tool g³, instead of returning idle, as in ordinary planeing engines. I have
also attached a small contrivance, but which may, of course, be varied as
circumstances require, for the downward feeding of the cutting tools in vertical
planeing, which is done by the plate w being furnished with two small lugs 2,
into which are inserted small pins, projecting from the bottom of a box 3,
containing a ratchet wheel, furnished with two clicks set at opposite points in
the circumference of the wheel, in order to drive the screwed shaft 4, and thus
cause the tool carrier to perform a descending or ascending motion. Figure 4
is a detailed sectional view of my improvements detached.
Having now particularly described my improvements in the machinery or
apparatus for planeing or cutting metals, and the manner in which the same
is to be performed, I desire it to be understood that although I have described
in this my Specification, and shewn in the Drawings attached, many parts

page_text: common to such machinery, and hitherto in ordinary use, yet such has only
been done for the sake of assisting the explanation of my Invention; but I
claim as my Invention the use or employment of one or more cutting tools,
with two or more cutting edges, to be used in planeing machines, in the
manner and for the purposes above particularly described.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Roberts, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Seventeenth day of June, in the year of our Lord One