CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN AN ENGINE FOR CUTTING HAY AND STRAW INTO CHAFF, AND FOR CUTTING OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1808

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
FRANCIS SNOWDEN, of Oxford Street, in the Parish of Saint George, Hanover
Square, and County of Middlesex, Engine Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of His United Kingdom of Great
Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the Fourth day of
February, in the forty-eighth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the
said William Francis Snowden, my exors, admors, and assigns, His especial
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said William Francis
Snowden, my exors, admors, and assigns, during the term of years therein
mentioned, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of
"CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN AN ENGINE FOR CUTTING HAY AND STRAW INTO
CHAFF, AND FOR CUTTING OTHER ARTICLES;" in which said Letters Patent there
is contained a proviso obliging me, the said William Francis Snowden, by
an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, to cause a particular
description of the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of
Chancery within four 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
William Francis Snowden, do hereby declare that my said Invention consists.
of the two following particulars:-

page_text: 1st, a new, more simple, and better mode of bringing the straw and other
articles to the knife.
2d, a new mode of compressing the article when the knife is cutting it.
But I design in the most clear manner to express that my Invention does
not extend to or comprize a machine altogether on an entire new principle, as
I use sundry parts in my machine which have existed before the date of my
Patent in old machines; but I do hereby describe and explain my said
Invention in manner following, that is to say:-
1st, instead of the straw sliding forward on the bottom of the box, as in old
machines, the box in my machine, by a sliding motion on the frame B, Fig. 5,
in the Drawings hereunto annexed, and with the assistance of the frame or
weight c, Fig. 2, brings the straw and other articles forward with it to be cut,
and whilst the knife is cutting the straw or other articles a retrograde motion
is given to the box by the projecting part 6 of the lever a, Fig. 4, acting
against the regulating nut f, Fig. 6, by which the cut is regulated to any
length required, and so on alternately; whilst the knife is rising nearly to the
top, the straw or other articles comes forward with the box, and whilst the
knife is cutting the compresser (9), Fig. 2, acts upon the straw and other
articles so as to prevent them from going backwards with the box (A). See
Fig. 5. The forward motion of the box is produced by the action of the
lever (a), when the knife-rises, which causes the frame or weight (c), Fig. 3,
to act against the two pieces (e, e) fastened for that purpose to the inside of
the box (A); Fig. 6.
2d, the compresser (9), by a more simple contrivance, presses the articles
with less labour than was ever known before, and acts upon the .articles that
are to be cut with nearly the same degree of pressure, whatever be their
thickness, and which is done in the following manner: The lever (a) acts on
a pin in the frame of the compresser (9), as described in Figs. 3 and 4. At
the inner end of the lever (a) is the frame or weight (c), with the roller (d).
At the other end is the connecting rod (i), by-which the motion of the back
to which the knife is fixed is communicated to the lever (a), so that the weight
of the roller (d), and its frame or weight (c), at the inner part of the lever (a),
and also the weight of the back (1); knife (h), connecting rod (i), at the other
end of the lever (a), and also the weight of the lever (a), act as a weight or
pressure on the article whilst the knife is cutting it; 'and the roller. (d), and its
frame er weight (c), at the inner part of the lever (a),-when the back (1) to
which the knife is fixed rises, act as a counterpoise for them till the roller (d)
meets the article that is in the box. The lever (a) then changes its fulcrum to
the roller (d), which causes the compresser to rise, to admit of the article
coming forward to be cut.

page_text: My machine may be worked either by a lever, as described in Figs. 1 and 2,
or with a fly-wheel crank and connecting rod, as in Fig. 7. Fig. 8 is the
lever detached.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Francis Snowden, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Second day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eight.
WILLIAM FRANCIS SNOWDEN. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Second day of June, in the
year of our Lord 1808, the aforesaid William Francis Snowden 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 Third day of June, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and eight.