IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OR DRESSING STONE
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Ellicott Holmes, of Ruabon, North Wales,
for the Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OR DRESSING
STONE."
Sealed the 24th November 1868, and dated the 25th May 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Ellicott
Holmes at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 25th May 1868.
I, JOSEPH ELLICOTT HOLMES, of Ruabon, North Wales, do hereby.
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR
CUTTING OR DRESSING STONE," to be as follows:-
My Invention of improvements in machinery for cutting and dressing
stone relates to a novel mode of mounting and actuating the cutting
tools which are intended to act on and chip away the surface of the
stone which is placed on a bed below the cutting tool, which has a
double motion communicated to it, consisting, 1st, of the chipping
motion proper, which is effected by causing the cutter head to vibrate
on a centre; and, 2nd, a travelling or progressive motion over the
surface to be operated upon.

page_text: The cutting tools are made of round or square bar steel, the cutting
ends of which are formed either as chisels, punches, or picks. These
stools are fixed or secured in any convenient manner in a head or stock
attached to a horizontal shaft mounted in bearings, so that a rocking
motion may be given to it by means of a crank and connecting rod.
This rocking shaft, together with the gearing for actuating the same, is
adapted to a travelling frame, the upper end of which is supported by
and moves on longitudinal guides, and through a screw nut or block at
the lower part of the frame passes a long screw or screws to which an
intermittent rotary motion is given, so as to cause the cutter frame to
travel slowly along the machine. The crank of the driving gear causes
the cutter head to vibrate, and one of the cutters to strike against and
chip the surface of the stone, and thus dress it down to a flat or regular
surface. When the cutter has arrived at the end of the stone its action
may be reversed by detaching the connecting rod and turning over the
vibrating lever of the cutter head to the opposite side, then by reversing
the travelling gear the cutter will travel back again in the opposite
direction. It is preferable that the surface which is being operated
upon by the cutters should be placed in a vertical position, so that the
chippings and dust from the stone should at once fall away from the
tool. It will be obvious that the rocking shaft of the cutting tools
may be actuated in various ways or by different mechanical devices,
such, for instance, as by a crank or excentric and a connecting rod, or
by a toggle ioint.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 2
filed by the said Joseph Ellicott Holmes in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 25th November 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
ELLICOTT HOLMES, of Ruabon, North Wales, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her 3
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of May, 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 Joseph Ellicott Holmes, Her special
licence that I, the said Joseph Ellicott Holmes, my executors, 3

page_text: administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph
Ellicott Holmes, 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 "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OR DRESSING STONE," upon the con-
dition (amongst others) that I, the said Joseph Ellicott Holmes, 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 Joseph Ellicott Holmes, 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 :-
The machine or machinery which constitutes this Invention, and
which is intended as a substitute in whole or in part for hand labour
in dressing and shaping stone, is formed and constructed as explained
in my Provisional Specification, dated 25th May 1868, No. 1718, as
herein-after more particularly described and further illustrated upon the
accompanying Drawings (to which the following explanation applies), by
which description and illustrations the manner in which the said machine
or machinery is intended to operate may also be fully ascertained..
EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Drawing A.-Fig. 1 is a plan or horizontal view of one of the machines:
taken over all; Fig. 2 is a front elevation, and Fig. 3. an end elevation.
of the same machine, at A, Fig. 1; Figs. 4, 5, and 6 shew certain of the
details detached. The following reference applies to the entire Drawing,.
where the index letters appear.
A, A, A, A, represents the main frame, A being the bed plate or
table, which in this machine is fixed, and upon which the blocks of
stone to be dressed are placed, adjusted, and secured as required. B, B,
travelling arms in which the cutter stock or crosshead which carries
the chisels and tools is mounted; these arms are made to traverse the

page_text: frame A from end to end alternately, or from left to right, and vice versa,
by the screws C, C, working in gun metal nuts C₁ in the shoulders of
the said arms. D, D, excentric bearings or plummer blocks in which
the ends of the cutter stock or crosshead are centred; these bearings.
may be turned by a lever or levers, not shewn upon the Drawing, and
be fixed by the stop bolts d, which drop into holes in the projecting end
of the said eccentric. E, the crosshead in which the chisels, tools, or
cutters are fixed; e are the narrow chisels or picks, and f the tools or
dressers. I propose to make the narrow chisels or picks of bars of tempered
steel of an uniform section, and to set up the points as they wear away
in a die of suitable shape to give them a shoulder, as shewn at Fig. 5.
F, a lever fixed to the stock or crosshead for giving the cutting motion
to the chisels or tools. G, a crank'd shaft centred in the heads of the
travelling arms B, B, and by the mitre wheel H. I, a connecting rod
for transmitting motion from the crank G to the lever F. J, the main
shaft having a driving pulley k keyed thereon at one end, and a slotted
crank L also keyed thereon at the other end. M, a second mitre wheel
mounted upon a hollow shaft m. The main shaft J has a groove j cut
in it to receive a tongue or feather in the hollow shaft m, which is turned
by and traverses the main shaft from end to end as the arms B, B, are
moved backwards and forwards by the screws C, C. N, N, are chain wheels
keyed on to the ends of the screws C, C, and connected by the chain n.
O is a ratchet wheel, which may form an integral part of one of the
chain wheels or be fixed to the end of one of the screws. P, a lever
centred upon the ratchet wheel O, and fitted with a double or reversing
pawl adjustable for turning the screws C, C, from right to left and
vice versa according to the direction in which it is desired to work the
cutters when operating the machine. Q, a connecting rod or link for
giving a rocking motion to the lever P by the revolutions of the slotted
crank L. R, a perforated moveable head or clamping stretcher bar.
S, an adjusting clamping stock or standard. The moveable head R is
formed with a shoulder and crosshead, and the flange a of the main
frame A has notches cut or formed therein, into either of which
notches the crosshead of the stretcher bar R may be fixed; in this
crosshead (one or more of which may be employed) perforations are
formed, and in the bed plate A similar holes u or perforations are made,
the former to receive the head and the latter the foot w of the
clamping stock S. T, T, clamping screws for securing the stone
blocks in position upon the bed plate A when the machine is in use.

page_text: When operating this machine the stone is placed upon the table or
bed plate A' with the side to be dressed towards the cutters, and is fixed
in position by the clamps R and S and screws T and T', aided by struts
and wedges, if necessary, abutting against the end frames; the cutters
having been previously moved to one end X or Y, as the case may be,
and the cutter head or stock with the pointed or narrow chisels e set to
the required angle, by adjusting the coupling of the lever F and con-
necting rod I, and also for a greater or less depth of cut by adjusting the
position of the eccentric D; the power is applied through the pulley K
to the shaft J, and the required motions will be given to the whole of the
moving parts of the machine; and if the surface of the block is tolerably
quarry faced one cut of the narrow chisels c as the cutter arms traversc
the frame from X to Y, or vice versa, will suffice to reduce the surface
operated upon to a true and proper plain, when by taking out the draw
ping and reversing the position of the lever and cutter stock to that
shewn by the dotted lines (see Fig. 1) bring the broad chisels or tools f
to their working position, and causing the cutter arms to traverse the
frame the reverse way, or from Y to X, the surface of the stone will be
regularly and evenly tooled and finished, and thus the beds, joints, and
faces of blocks of stone may be shaped and dressed with truth and
rapidity.
In the machine, as shewn upon this Drawing, the bed plate A and
the centre stock E are at right angles to each other, and will therefore
produce rectangular surfaces. By inclining the bed plate or table more
or less to the cutters any required angle may be given to the surfaces.
It is obvious that when the machine is once set to the angle required
the work produced thereby upon any number of blocks will be perfectly
uniform as regards the angle of their surfaces one with another, while
the use of squares, bevels, and templates required for setting out, and the
time usually occupied in working marginal and cross drafts in hand
dressing, may be saved. The machine can be fitted with changing stocks
for working concave or convex surfaces, and by giving a rising and
falling motion to bed plate spiral or helical as well as plain surfaces can
be worked thereby. In cases where from the irregularities of the quarry
face or the nature of the finished work requires it, a second or third
cut can be given with the narrow or broad chisels without changing the
position of the lever F by raising the cutters clear of the block and
running the arms B back to their normal position, and then repeating

page_text: the operation with the chisels e or tools f, as the case may be; or the
cutter stock may be fitted with chisels or tools on both sides, and thus
repeat the cut of the narrow or broad cut in opposite directions. When
fixing the chisels or tools in the stocks care should be taken that their
points or edges should not advance in making their stroke or cut beyond
the point c¹ in the line a', 6', (see Fig. 5) passing vertically through the
centre of the journal E¹ of the stock; and the feed motion of the
screws C, C, should also be so arranged with regard to the position of
the crank G that the chisels and tools shall recede as the arms and stock
advance; this can be readily accomplished by fixing the crank L in the
required position on the shaft J before it is keyed fast thereon.
The dimensions of this machine will vary according to the nature
of the work for which it is intended; but for ordinary work a frame
and stock with three feet cut and about eight feet traverse motion is
the size which I deem sufficient.
Drawing B. This Drawing is intended to illustrate certain modifi-
cations in certain of the parts of the machine or machinery herein-
before described.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation of a machine the general details of which
are similar to that shewn on Drawing A. In this case however the
cutters operate in a vertical position; the power is applied at the
end A, so as to Icave the space between the standards a, a, open at
the end B for the blocks b to pass in and out between them; C is
the fixed bed plate upon which the block is readily fixed in position
and secured by the struts and wedges d, d. A sliding, rising and
falling, or tipping bed plate may be fitted.
Fig. 2 is also a side elevation of another modification of the machine
in which the cutter stock, which is formed and fitted and operated
by the transverse shaft as before described, is mounted in fixed arms
or standards e, while the block f is made to move; g is the fixed
bed plate; a sliding bed plate upon which the block is placed; the
sliding motion is communicated thereto by the toothed wheels i, i,
which take into rack . The wheels receive their motion from a
small spur wheel with which they are in gear, and which is keyed
on to the vertical shaft 7. To the top of this shaft a cavity wheel j
is fixed and turned by a single toothed or finger wheel. The tooth
or finger is to be set at such angle with the transverse shaft as to
only move the vertical shaft as the crank causes the cutter to

page_text: move backwards; when one dressing has been made from A to B,
the cutter can be reversed by taking out the draw pin and reversing
the position of the lever as before explained, and then, by reversing
the motion of the crank on the main shaft the cut can be made
from B to A, and so on vice versa.
Having thus explained the nature and object of my said Invention,
and illustrated and described the machine or machinery which I have
designed for carrying the same into effect in practice, I hereby further
declare that what I desire to secure by the before-mentioned in part
recited Letters Patent is, the machine or machinery herein so ex-
plained and described, and without restriction thereto I claim,-
First. The mode of forming and fitting the cutter stock and narrow
or broad chisels and tools.
And, secondly. The mode of operating the same by the crank and
lever mounted in fixed or sliding arms as shewn upon both Drawings.
Thirdly. The mode of reversing the motion of the screws C by the
slotted crank and double pawl shewn at Drawing A.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Ellicott Holmes, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of No-
vember, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-eight.