AN IMPROVED CUTTING AND SLICING MACHINE
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALEXANDER
SHAIRг, of the Patent Office, 166, Fleet Street, in the City of London, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Seventh day of October,
(One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Alexander Shairp, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, Her special licence, full
power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said Alexander Shairp, my
exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alexander Shairp,
my exors, adiiors, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the Islands of Jersey,
Guernsey, Alderney, Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and
Plantations abroad, the Invention of "AN IMPROVED CUTTING AND SLICING
MACHINE," communicated to me from abroad; in which said Letters Patent is
contained a proviso that I, the said Alexander Shairp, shall cause a par-
ticular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under my hand and
seal, to be inrolled in Her Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six
calendar months next and iminediately 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 said proviso, I, the said
Alexander Shairp, hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, are fully described and ascertained
in and by the present Specification thereof, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say :-
The said Invention consists of an improved arrangement of machinery for
cutting straw and vegetables in the preparation of food for cattle. The main
feature of the improved arrangement is in the employment of discoidal cutters
mounted at intervals upon a shaft, and whose edges run in grooves in a cylinder
placed parallel to that shaft, and the division of the straw is effected by
bringing it lengthwise between the cutters and cylinder as they revolve together,
by which means the straw is cut into a number of lengths or pieces equal to
the number of the cutters. The method of cutting straw which has been
heretofore usually adopted consists in feeding the ends of a bundle upon a
series of knives, either acting as shears, having a vibratory movement, or
revolving, attached to the arms of a fly wheel, whereas in this machine the
straw is so fed that it falls parallel to the cutter shaft, and is simultaneously
divided throughout its entire length.
Figure 1 of the Drawings is a transverse vertical section, and Figure 2 a
front view of so much of a cutting and slicing machine constructed according
to the Invention as will enable me to describe the improvements therein.
a, a, are a series of disc cutters, of which there may be any convenient number,
composed of saw steel and sharpened on their edges. These disc cutters are
mounted on a square shaft, and are kept at the required distance apart by the
washers b, b, the thickness of which determines the fineness to which the straw
is to be cut. c is a cylinder, composed of wood or other suitable material,
which is placed parallel to the shaft of the cutters b, b; a number of bevil
grooves e, e, are formed around the periphery of this cylinder, there being a
groove to each of the cutters b, b; and the cylinder is mounted at such a
distance from the cutter shaft that the cutters work into the grooves, as shewn.
Between the grooves are hooked teeth i, i, which are disposed in rows around
the periphery of the cylinder c in each space between the grooves. These
teeth are for the purpose of seizing the straw as it is presented to the cutters
and carrying it round so as to force it to pass between the cutters and the
grooves of the cylinder c. f is a rake to keep the straw from clogging the
machine. A prong or tooth of this rake comes nearly in contact with each of
the washers b, b, and thus keeps the spaces between the cutting dises always
clear. 9, 9, are prongs or teeth working in the grooves e, e, of the cylinder c
for a similar purpose; h is a roller loosely suspended in guides by its journals,

page_text: the use of which is to press upon the straw and keep it from flying up as it
approaches the cutters; is the feed trough which is inclined sufficiently to
cause the straw placed on it to slide down and be projected upon the cutters.
The arrows indicate the direction in which the roller h, cylinder c, and cutter
shaft and cutters b, b, revolve. The cylinder e and the cutter shaft with its
cutters are geared together in such manner that there shall be three revolutions
of the latter to one of the former. In operating with this machine the straw
is placed upon the feed trough k, which must be of sufficient width to allow
it to lie at length across it. The straw then slides down the trough until it
reaches the feeding hooks i, i, which seize it and carry it round under the
cutters, in passing which it is severed into short lengths, and is deposited on
the opposite side of the machine thoroughly cut or chopped up. All kinds
of vegetables may in like manner be cut up for feed in fine or coarse slices,
according to the number of cutters employed and their distance apart upon
the cutter shaft.
And having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim is, the
improved cutting and slicing machine represented in the Drawings and herein-
before described, that is to say, in so far as regards the employment therein of
the cutting discs a, a, in combination with the grooved cylinder c, the holding
fingers or teeth i, i, the clearing rakes or prongs f and g, and the pressing
roller h, all as before exemplified and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alexander Shairp, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Seventh day of Aprit, in the year of our Lord