AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CLIPPING AND SHEARING HORSES, SHEEP, AND ALL OTHER ANIMALS, WITH ONE OR WITH BOTH HANDS, AND BY MECHANICAL POWER
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Henry Simons and
Alfred Martin at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 28th April 1875.
WC, RICHARD HENRY SIMONS and ALFRED MARTIN, both of Bentham
Road, South Hackney, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Tool
Makers and Engineers, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "AN IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CLIPPING AND SHEARING HORSES,
SHEEP, AND ALL OTHER ANIMALS, WITH ONE OR WITH BOTH HANDS, AND BY
MECHANICAL POWER," to be as follows:-
We dispense with many unnecessary parts that are now used in the
manufacture of clipping machines, and we actuate the cutting blades
with more even and rapid power of motion, and to work more smoothly
by arranging the whole of the working parts upon hardened steel; and
in order to keep them at all times upon the cut we have additional teeth
in the upper cutting plate, which in lieu of being shaped as an arch or a
concave plate we make a steel plate that will rest evenly upon the lower
cutting plate so as to leave two flat inner surfaces, the teeth in the top
plate having a firm bearing at the roots of the teeth of the lower plate

page_text: which will prevent their falling or working into the lower teeth and
becoming rounded or injuring their cutting edges, by which arrangement
they are more easily sharpened and repaired, which is found to be a
difficult operation in the case to most if not all the clippers at present
in use.
The said plates will be held in their places by two, three, or more
screws passing through the bottom and screwing the lower and upper
cutting plates into a steel springing bar, upon which screws we place
check nuts to prevent them becoming loose. By this arrangement the
work will be more evenly and easily performed, because there are less
frictional parts than in any of the present made clippers, and as the
whole of the bearings and wearing parts of these clippers will be upon
hardened steel the operator will have greater facilities for oiling all the
lubricating parts, and as the edges are chamfered off they leave no mark
upon the animal. After the operation to give to-and-fro motion to the
upper cutting plate we employ a round pin at the end of the upper lever
which enters through a round hole in the moveable plate, and acts
through a sliding block to the bottom lever; and when the machine is
required for the use of one hand only, we use a tumbler motion upon the
bottom lever and unite the fixed handle to the cover plate, to which is
attached a scissors-like bow for the thumb, and the opposite handle is so
arranged and bent outwards as not to permit the hand to slip off when
the operator is at work; and attached to both handles there is a spring
springing from each side with a centre circle, which when compressed
by the user contracts and expands at the will of the operator, and for the
sheep clippers we use especially a flat, long, and hollowed or fluted tooth,
and which tooth is equally applicable for the purpose of clipping horses
or other animals; and for driving the upper cutting plate at a much
greater speed we arrange a mechanical motion attached to the handle
with a spur wheel, having a pinion shaft so as to gain speed upon a fly
wheel and an endless screw working an exentric, which arrangement
can be worked by a handle or an additional wheel or otherwise.