AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR SAWING, CUTTING, AND PLANING WOOD
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHARLES
HAMOND, of Milk Street, Cheapside, in the City of London, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the
Twenty-seventh day of June, in the fifty-first year of His reign, did give and
grant unto me, the said Charles Hamond, my executors, adñiors, and assigns,
His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said
Charles Hamond, my exors, adññiors, and assigns, during the term of fourteen
years therein expressed, should and might lawfully make, use, exercise, and
vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also
in all His Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "AN
IMPROVED MACHINE FOR SAWING, CUTTING, AND PLANING WOOD;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Charles Hamond,
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature of
my said Invention, and how the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within two calendar months after the
date of the said recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Charles Hamond, do hereby declare that my said Invention is described in
and by the annexed Plan, and in manner following (that is to say):-
In the first place I contrive a method of moving and guiding the wood
towards the saw in sawing machines, so that the saw kerf or kerves shall
be accurately parallel and of similar shape to one side of the wood, whatever
may be the irregularity of its form. This is accomplished in the following
manner: The wood is caused to pass between two cylinders or rollers, one
of which is stationary as to its axis, and the other pinches the wood by press-
ing it against that which is stationary, which pressing may be produced by
means of a spring or weight, one of these rollers, the stationary one prefer-
able) being turned during the descent of the saw by the power of the machine
acting immediately upon it, and the other only turned by the force of the
passing of the wood between the two; or, if thought proper, both being turned
by the immediate force of the machine acting upon them respectively, will, by
the friction or resistance of its surface or their surfaces (which had better be
cut or jagged for the purpose), communicate to the wood a progressive motion
towards the saw, and thereby cause it receive the cut from the saw. The
plane in which the saw lies being always the same, and consequently main-
taining throughout the same distance from the axis of the stationary roller,
it follows, that its kerf will also preserve the same distance from that surface
of the wood next the stationary roller, or, in other words, that that portion of
the wood which has passed between the saw and the fixed roller will be of
uniform thickness throughout its length, and that when a plurality of saws
are applied, they will produce all the divided portions or leaves of even thick-
ness throughout, except the one next the sliding roller, upon which all the
variation in the thickness of the wood will fall. This property of the
machine is particularly useful in the cutting of deals, for which the machine
is peculiarly fit.
Secondly, I contrive to tighten the saws by wedges or keys and gibs acting
in a direction parallel to the plane of the saw in the following way :- -Through
one of the horizontal sides of the saw frame (say the bottom) there is a per-
pendicular mortise, into which is nicely fitted a block of metal, fixed by a
screw or a key. In the top of this block are made one or more parallel and
perpendicular grooves or incisions, into which the bottoms of the saws are
received and fastened by a pin passing transversely through the whole. On
the top of each saw is attached, by means of a short pin, a metal strap, which
is filed very true, so that the sides may be accurately parallel to the surface
of the saw. These straps are of such a thickness as to keep the saws at

page_text: proper distances from each other, according to the thickness of the leaves
into which the wood is intended to be cut, or this may be done without any
variation in the thickness of the straps, by interposing between them pieces of
wood or metal. Near the upper part of each strap is a mortise or perforation,
passing edgewise and horizontally through it, in order to admit a wedge to
tighten the saw. The advantage of this mode of fixing and tightening the
saws in the frame consists in its affording the means of placing them closer
together than can be done by any of the methods hitherto adopted, and
thereby rendering practicable a greater number of divisions of the same piece
of timber.
Thirdly, I contrive to prevent the saws from bending, and so cutting out of
their proper course, by the application of guides, in the following manner (that
is to say) The saws are caused to slide through grooves or incisions in a
fixed and stationary piece of brass or other material, by means of which pro-
vision an opportunity is giving of using them thinner than would otherwise
be practicable, and thereby wasting less of the wood in sawdust.
Lastly, the saw frame may be furnished with more than one set of saws,
so as to act upon more than one piece of wood at a time.
Having thus described the more essential novelties of the machine, I shall
procced to explain the arrangement of them by reference to tho annexed
Drawings.
A, A, Figures 1, 2, 3, is a strong framing of iron, firmly attached to the
foundation. To it are affixed the frames B and C, which serve to contain
the bearings of the rollers E. These rollers have no motion but a rotativo
one. The two external ones F are supported at their bearings by the car-
riages G, which are connected by joints to the leaves H, whose centers are at
I. The weights K being attached by ropes passing over pullies to tho ends
of the leaves H, cause them to press the rollers F towards the rollers E.
The carriages G aro kept steady at top and bottom by grooves in the frames
B and C. The wood W is supported on the rollers L, and pressed or pinched
between the rollers F and E. M is a ratchet wheel which is connected with
the rollers E by means of the shaft N and bevel wheels O. This ratchet is
acted upon by the click P and crooked leaver Q, much the same as in other
sawing machines. R is the crank which moves the saw frame S by the con-
necting rod T. At the end of this crank is a pin U, which slides in the box
V, and by the action of the endless screw Y is set at any distance from the
centre of rotation. This pin is connected to the lever Q by an iron rod Z.
The saw frame is guided in the usual way by brasses at the four corners,
which slide in grooves in the uprights A. The piu U being placed in such a

page_text: situation with respect to the crank as to cause the arm of the lever Q, to
which it is attached, to descend at the same moment with the saw frame, it
is clear that, while the saws are descending, the wood will advance in conse-
quence of the action communicated to the rollers E and F by the pin U,
through the crooked lever, ratchet wheel, and bevel wheels. Thus, great
simplicity and compactness are obtained by the substituting this plan for the
sliding carriage ordinarily used to convey the wood towards the saw.
Figure 4 represents the mode of fixing the saws in the frame. A is a brass
block, which is held down in a morise in the saw frame by the screw B. In
the top of this block are made, at proper distances, any number of perpen-
dicular and parallel grooves or incisions, accurately true to the direction in
which the saws are to cut, and of such a width as just to admit the ends of
the saws which are inserted therein, and fixed by means of a pin passing
transversely through the whole. C is a flat strap or piece of metal slit
through part of its length, so as to receive the other end of the saw, to which
it is attached by a short pin. These straps being filed exceedingly flat and
true, are introduced through a mortise in the saw frame, and set together by
a thumb screw. Each saw is tightened by a wedge E passing through a
mortise in the upper part of the strap, and bearing upon the upper edges of
the mortise in the saw frame.
The only material part which now remains to be mentioned is the guide,
the form of which is immediately understood by inspection of Figures 5, 6,
and 7, where 1, 2, and 3 are the incisions or grooves in which the saws slide,
and A a bolt by which it is fastened to the carriage B, Figure 1. The same
thing may likewise, if necessary, be applied below the wood. Another mode
of accomplishing this is by interposing a fixed and stationary piece of metal
or other substance between each of the saws wide enough to fill up the space.
It may be proper to observe, that the rollers may be stopped and put in
motion at pleasure, without affecting the rest of the machine, by the interposi-
tion of clutch boxes, such as are in common use. It is not to be understood
that the success of this machine depends upon the materials of which it is
made, notwithstanding the name of such material, as applicable to any parti-
cular part, may have been mentioned in explanation during the course of the
above description.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Hamond, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Twenty-seventh day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and eleven.
C. (L.S.) HAMOND.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of August,
in the year of our Lord 1811, the aforesaid Charles Hamond came before
our said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Twenty-seventh day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and eleven.