IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SAWING OR CUTTING WOOD
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Walker McCarter, of the Foyle Street Saw
Mills, Londonderry, in the County of Londonderry, Ireland, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SAWING OR CUTTING
WOOD."
Sealed the 29th August 1863, and dated the 14th March 1863.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Walker McCarter
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th March 1863.
I, JOHN WALKER MCCARTER, of the Foyle Street Saw Mills, Londonderry,
in the County of Londonderry, Ireland, do hereby declare the nature of my
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SAWING OR CUTTING
WOOD," to be as follows:-
This Invention comprises improvements applicable to machinery for sawing
wood, and more or less to other wood-cutting machinery.
A first portion of the Invention relates to an improved silent feed motion,
the principal part of which is a disc fixed on a shaft in gear with the shafts of
the rollers by which the wood is fed or caused to travel through the machine;
this disc is acted upon by a double or forked lever or pair of shears centred on
the disc shaft, with its arms one on each side of the disc, and made to
reciprocate by an eccentric or other convenient means, the eccentric rod being
jointed to a block, which can be adjusted by a screw or otherwise on the lever
or shears, so as to alter the extent of the vibrating stroke and the consequent

page_text: rate of feed. The disc has formed in its faces, at directly opposite parts, two
concentric grooves, and in the insides of the lever arms or shears cross grooves
are formed, so as to face the portions of the disc grooves crossed by the shears.
The grooves in the shears are slightly tapered, deepening upwardly, and there
are inserted in them two wedges shaped to fit the disc grooves, which grooves
are, by preference, semicircular in cross section, whilst the shear grooves are,
by preference, rectangular in cross section. When the shear piece or double
lever is lifted, the action of the wedges causes it to take a firm grip of the disc
and thereby turn it, whilst the wedges free themselves as the shear piece
returns downwards, and the disc is not drawn back. At the same time, to
prevent the disc from moving back or slipping, a second pair of wedges are
held in a stationary block or blocks in such a way as to free themselves when
the disc moves forward, the wedges being, by preference, kept in contact with
the disc grooves by springs, to insure their acting and gripping the disc should
it tend to move in the opposite direction. Springs may in like manner be
applied to the shear wedges.
A second portion of the Invention relates to improved rollers for carrying,
moving, and guiding the wood through the machine, these rollers being so
contrived as to dispense with the fence, side rollers, weights, and springs
hitherto employed. Each roller is made in two pieces, one having a square
flange and the other a slightly bevilled or coned flange. The square flange
part is firmly keyed upon the shaft, whilst the other part is fitted to work
loosely on a feather, and the two parts are pressed together by a spring on the
shaft, which spring can be adjusted by means of a screw inside the shaft and
acting by means of a cross key and ring. The flanges keep the wood firmly
in position, whilst the springs allow of the rollers adapting themselves to
inequalities in the thickness or width of the wood. To increase the grip on
the wood the lower rollers are fluted or toothed. Upper rollers to bear on the
top of the wood may be used of the same kind, but the parts of each of these
rollers may be held together by spiral springs in the parts of the rollers them-
selves, instead of there being a single spring on a spindle. To prevent sawdust
from getting in between the parts of the rollers, grooves facing each other are
turned in the inside faces, and rings are fitted into the grooves so as to cover
the intermediate space and exclude dust.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Walker McCarter in the Great Seal Patent Offico
on the 12th September 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
WALKER MCCARTER, of the Foyle Street Saw Mills, Londonderry, in the
County of Londonderry, Ireland, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-sixth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Walker McCarter, Her special licence, that I, the said
John Walker M°Carter, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Walker McCarter, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SAWING OR CUTTING WOOD,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Walker M*Carter,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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 John Walker McCarter, 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 in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention comprises improvements applicable to machinery for
sawing wood, and more or less to other wood-cutting machinery.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing the
same may be properly understood, I have hereunto appended a Sheet of
explanatory Drawings, to be herein-after referred to, and representing the
application of a modification of my improved arrangements to a sawing
machine.
Figures 1 and 2 are side and front elevations, Figure 3 is a horizontal

page_text: section of a part of the machine, and Figures 4, 5, and 6 are enlarged views
of details. The same reference numerals mark the same parts in all the
Figures.
As the present Invention does not relate to the saws with their frames and
guides, these are not shown in the Drawings, whilst the framing and driving
gear of the machine are represented merely to show as clearly as possible the
manner of applying my improved arrangements. The framing consists of two.
side frames 1, 2, bolted down to a sole plate 3, and connected by a rectangular
top frame 5, and by cross bars 6. The main shaft 7 is placed in a low
position in independent bearings 8, 9, one 8 being within the side frame i
whilst a crank 10 on the inner end of the shaft serves to drive the saw frame.
The wood is fed through the machine by the action of lower rollers 11, on
two parallel horizontal shafts 12, which have bearings in the side frames 1, 2,
and project through one side frame 1, to receive outside thereof the spur
wheels 13, by means of which they are driven, being actuated by a central
pinion 14 on a short shaft 15, which turns in bearings in the side frame 1 and
in a bracket 16, attached to the side frame by strong stud bolts.
A first portion of my said Invention relates to an improved silent feed
motion, the principal part of which is a disc 17, fixed on the shaft 15, herein-
before mentioned as driving the feed roller shafts 12. This disc 17 is acted
upon by a double or forked lever or pair of shears 18, centred on the disc
shaft 15 with its arms 19, one on each side of the disc 17, and made to
reciprocate by an eccentric 20 on the main shaft 7 (or it may be by other con-
venient means). The eccentric rod 21 is jointed to a block 22, fitted upon
the outer parts of the lever arms 19, and capable of being adjusted longi-
tudinally thereon by a screw spindle 23, so as to alter the extent of the
vibrating stroke of the lever and the consequent rate of feed. The disc 17 has
formed in its faces, at directly opposite parts, two concentric grooves a, and
in the insides of the lever arms 19 cross grooves are formed so as to face the
portions of the disc grooves a crossed by the shears. The grooves a in the disc 17
are, by preference, semicircular, whilst those in the shears 19 are, by preference,
rectangular. The grooves in the shears are slightly tapered, deepening
upwardly, and there are inserted in them two wedges, b, shaped to fit the disc
grooves and shear grooves, and shown detached and enlarged in Figure 4.
When the shear piece or double lever 18, 19, is lifted by the action of the
eccentric, the wedges 6 cause it to take a firm grip of the disc 17 and
thereby turn it, whilst as the shear piece 18, 19, returns downwards, the
wedges free themselves and do not draw the disc back. The wedges bare
prevented from jumping out by pins screwed through the sides of the levers 19,

page_text: and entering slots formed in the backs of the wedges, the slots allowing a
limited but sufficient movement of the wedges. To prevent the disc 17 from
moving back or slipping, a second pair of wedges shown in Figure 5 are held
in stationary blocks 24, in such a way as to free themselves when the disc 17
moves forward, these wedges being kept in contact with the disc grooves by
springs applied to their ends, to insure their acting and gripping the disc
should it tend to move in the opposite direction. Springs may also be applied
to the shear wedges, if found desirable.
A second portion of my said Invention relates to improved rollers for
carrying, moving, and guiding the wood through the machine, these rollers
being so contrived as to dispense with the fence, side rollers, weights,.and
springs hitherto employed. Each lower feeding roller 11 is made in two
pieces, one, 25, with a square flange, and the other, 26, with a slightly
bevilled or coned flange. The square flange part 25 is firmly keyed on the
shaft 12, and acts as a stationary fence, whilst the other part 26 is fitted to
work loosely on a feather, and is pressed towards the square flange part 25 by
a helical steel spring 27 on the shaft. The spring 27 can be adjusted by
means of a screw 28 inside the shaft 12, and acting by means of a cross key
and ring. The flanges of the rollers keep the wood firmly in position, whilst
the springs allow them to adapt themselves to inequalities in the thickness or
width of the wood. To increase the grip on the wood the lower rollers 11
are fluted or toothed. Upper rollers to bear on the top of the wood may be
used of the same kind as the lower rollers 11, but as the upper rollers 29 are
not driven they can be mounted on comparatively small spindles 30, so that the
modified construction represented in Figure 6 can be adopted. This Figure 6
is an enlarged section of one of the upper rollers 29, the parts of which are
held together by spiral springs 31, in a manner that will be easily understood
from the Figure, the springs being in recesses formed in one part of the roller
and acting on bolts attached to the other part. To prevent sawdust from
getting in between the parts of the rollers, both lower and upper, 11 and 29,
grooves facing each other are turned in the inside faces of the parts, and
rings 32 are fitted into the grooves, so as to cover the intermediate space and
exclude dust. As the upper rollers 29 have no driving action, but simply a
guiding and holding-down action, they are not grooved or fluted like the lower
rollers, but are turned smooth. The upper rollers 29 are held by means of
their spindles 30 upon blocks 33, fitted to slide in vertical slots in the side
frames 1, 2, being adjusted in height by screw spindles 34, tapped through the
blocks 33. The screw spindles 34 bave bevil wheels on their upper ends in
gear with bevil wheels on horizontal spindles 35, fitted with hand wheels 36.

page_text: The spindles 35 are not continuous across the machine, being connected by a
loose coupling in the middle whereby to support each other, and the pulleys 29
at each side of the machine can be adjusted independently.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner in
which the same is or may be performed, I have to state that I do not restrict
myself to the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I
believe to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent, is,-
1. The combining or arranging of the parts of feed motious in machinery
for sawing or cutting wood, substantially as herein-before described.
2. The constructing and arranging of feeding and pressing or guiding rollers
in machinery for sawing or cutting wood, substantially as herein-before
described.
set
]
In witness whereof, I, the said John Walker McCarter, have hereunto
hand and seal, this Ninth day of September, in the year of our 1
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three.
my
JNO. W. MCCARTER. (L.s.)