IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PLANING SLATE
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Browne Jordan, of New Cross, in
the County of Kent, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PLANING SLATE."
Sealed the 5th July 1853, and dated the 24th February 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Browne
Jordan at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 24th February 1853.
I, THOMAS BROWNE JORDAN, of New Cross, in the County of Kent,"
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PLANING SLATE" to be as follows:-
Across an ordinary planing machine I fix a bridge with two sets of
cutters; the first set are of the kind known as grooving tools, while the
next set are plane cutters. The slate is placed on the bed at one end
of the machine, and as it passes under the oed. is. first grooved by the.
grooving tools, and then planed down by the second set of cutters, and
comes out at the other end of the machine with a smooth and even:
surface. The cutters are regulated according to the depth of surface>

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Browne Jordan, in the Great Seal
Patent Office, on the 24th August 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
THOMAS BROWNE JORDAN, of New Cross, in the County of Kent,
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Browne Jordan, Her special
licence that I, the said Thomas Browne Jordan, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Browne
Jordan, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR PLANING SLATE," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Browne Jordan,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, should par-
ticularly 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 Thomas Browne Jordan, 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 thereof, reference being had to the
drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:

page_text: My Invention consists in combining in the same machine two or
more sets of cutters or tools of different characters, which act in succes-
sion on the plate or slab of slate to be planed, and, produce thereon a
smooth and even surface whilst passing once only through the machine.
I generally employ two sets of tools, the first set being composed of
grooving cutters of the ordinary construction, and the second set planing
cutters, which are also of the construction commonly used; and I
regulate the depth to which these cutters are to work by means of a
screw or other contrivance, which is arranged so as to act on the frame
in which the said cutters are mounted.
•
Figure 1, of the drawings annexed is a plan; Figure 2, a side eleva-
tion; and Figure 3, an end view of a slate-planing machine, having the
working tools arranged according to my Invention. a, b, c, d, is the
foundation or bed plate furnished with rollers e, f, g, h, i, j, on each
side, on which the moving table a', a', is-supported and travels; the top
surfaces of these rollers are adjusted to the same horizontal plane, and
the bottom surfaces of the rails k, l, which are cast underneath the
moving table, are planed truly. parallel to the top of the table; the outer
sides of these rails are also planed to suit the distance between the
guide surfaces m; n, of the bed plate, so as to prevent any lateral
motion of the moving table, and at the same time admit of its having
perfect freedom of motion in a longitudinal direction. The traversing
movement of the table is obtained by a screw, as shewn, or by a rack
and pinion, or other equivalent arrangement. 0, p, q, r, is the slab
of slate being planed. This is operated on by the tools 1, 2, 3, 4, &c.,
which I call grooving tools, and by the plane irons A, B, C, D, both
sets of tools being mounted in the same bridge. F, which is capable of
sliding up and down, between the standards F, F, when acted on. as
herein-after explained. The grooving tools in front of the bridge form
a series of grooves over the entire width of the rough slab, the extreme
depth of all the grooves corresponding to the same horizontal plane by
previous adjustment of the tools. The cutting edges of the plane irons
are adjusted also to the same horizontal plane, but so as to cut a little
deeper than the grooving tools, and thus remove all traces of the grooves,.
and at the same time clear away the parts between them, leaving a

page_text: perfect planed surface at one cut. The tool bridge F, is raised and.
lowered between the standards F, F, by the screws o, o; which work
through nuts tapped in the bridge, and are turned by the bevil wheels
P, p, mounted on the shaft q, which is set in motion' by the hand 'wheel
E. By this means the machine can be adjusted for planing slabs of
different thicknesses, but when it is employed on one particular thick-
ness the bridge is clamped to the standards by the screws s, s, and the
tools have no movement whatever until that thickness of work is com-
pleted, or until they require sharpening. It will readily be seen that
according to these arrangements the operation of slate planing can be
performed with much greater despatch and certainty than by the usual
methods adopted; all movement of the cutters during a course of work
being avoided, and each slab finished on one side at a single stroke of
the machine, while the power requisite to produce this effect can be
readily obtained, a large proportion of the resisting force of the material
being destroyed by the grooving of its surface.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I claim
is the employment in slate-planing machinery of two or more sets of
cutters brought into action successively on the material under operation,
so as to complete a planed surface at one stroke of the machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Browne Jordan, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-third day of
August, One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
THOMAS BROWNE JORDAN. (L.S.)