AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING CHAFF, ROOTS, OR VEGETABLES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Edwin Whele, of Aston, near Birmingham, in the
County of Warwick, Engineer, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED
MACHINE FOR CUTTING CHAFF, ROOTS, OR VEGETABLES."
Sealed the 12th July 1864, and dated the 16th January 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Edwin Whele at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th January 1864.
I, EDWIN WHELE, of Aston, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick,
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN
IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING CHAFF, ROOTS, OR VEGETABLES," to be as
follows:-
My Invention relates to an improved machine for cutting chaff, roots, or vege-
tables, whereby the chaff or other matter to be cut is cut by a series or number
of small knives, cutters, or circular or eccentric saws, placed upon a revolving
shaft at intervals equal to the length of the chaff or other matter to be cut.
The shaft working in a trough or hopper, and feeding the machine lengthwise,
or in other words, placing the straw or matter to be cut lengthwise against
these cutters instead of endwise, as is practised with the machines now in use.
And for the better understanding of the construction and operation of my
Invention I will proceed to describe it more particularly. At the bottom of a
trough or hopper of suitable size is placed a revolving shaft of from one to
four feet long, or of any length that may be convenient, and upon or attached

page_text: to this shaft at intervals of about a quarter of an inch are placed circular
knives or saws of about two inches diameter, or eccentric knives or saws, or
cutters of any convenient form, and these may act in their motion against
opposite knives or cutters, or against a bed, or the side or bottom of the trough
or hopper. It will now be seen that if the straw or matter to be cut is placed
upon or against these cutters, and pressed against them by a lever or other
suitable means, that the straw or matter to be cut will be severed into lengths
agreeing with the distance the knives are placed as the cutters revolve or act
upon it. This motion may be given by a windlass or other suitable gear.
I do not confine myself to any particular form or size of machine; and I
hereby declere what I particularly claim as my Invention is, the arrangement
of knives, saws, or cutters upon a revolving or moveable shaft at intervals
equal to the length of the straw or other matter to be cut; and I claim the
feeding of the machine lengthwise, instead of end wise as is practised in the
machines now in use.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Edwin Whele in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th July 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDWIN
WHELE, of Aston, near Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth day of January, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-eighth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Edwin Whele, Her special licence that I, the
said Edwin Whele, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Edwin Whele, 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 "AN
IMPROVED MACHINE FOR CUTTING CHAFF, ROOTS, OR VEGETABLES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that I, the said Edwin Whele, my executors
or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their bands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature

page_text: 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 Edwin. Whele, 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:―
My Invention relating to an improved machine for cutting chaff, roots, or
vegetables, will be understood by the following description and explanation of
the Drawings hereunto annexed, in which the letters. of reference apply to
like parts throughout.
Fig. 1 is a plan of the machine and frame, and Fig. 2 an elevation of the
frame.
In Fig. 1, a is a frame made of timber of 3 in. square; this frame is about
3 feet long in the clear inside, and 18 ins. wide; b, are the legs; b also shows
the legs in Fig. 2 and a the top rail; c are stretchers bracing the legs and
frame together. In Fig. 1, d is an iron shaft, of 11 inh. square, working in
the chairs e, and which are bolted to the frame of the machine; and fis
a cog wheele keyed on this shaft and working in the cog wheele g placed on
shaft h, the size of these wheeles being so arranged as to give about three
revolutions to the shaft for one of the shaft d. At the end of the shaft d
is the fly wheele i, of about 3 feet diameter; j is the handle; k shows a
series of knives or feeders, fashioned like a saw, placed upon the shaft d.
Fig. 3 is a plan of one of these feeders, and Fig. 4 is a section; these are
4 in. in diameter and in. in thickness at the part k, and about in. less at
the place where it is shown to be set off, and in the center there is a square
hole equal to the size of the shaft d. It will now be seen that when a number
of these are strung upon the shaft, as shown at the line k, k, in Fig. 1, and
braced together by nuts at each end, that there will be a space or opening
between each feeder to the depth of about in., and in these openings the
knives or cutters 1 on the shaft h revolve. The shaft h is of like dimentions
to the shaft d, and the cutters e are of 4 in. diameter and made out of about
20 guage steele well tempered and ground to a fine edge. Fig. 5 shows one
of these cutters; these may be seperated and kept at a proper distance by
collars placed between each and braced together in like manner to the feeders
on the opposite shaft d. From this description it will be seen that if a suitable
hopper is placed at the top of the frame, inclosing the feeders and cutters,
extending the length of the machine, that when the straw or matter to be cut

page_text: is placed in this hopper lengthwise, as the cutters revolve between the feeders
the straw or matter to be cut will be severed at intervals equal to the distance
the cutters are placed from each other.
Fig. 6 shows another motion of this machine; here the wheeles f is not in
gear with the wheele g, but is connected with it by the wheele m, giving an
upward or reverse motion to the shaft h and the cutters 1; or, in Fig. 1, the
handle or fly wheele may be placed on the shaft h; or the shafts with their
respective cutters and feeders reversed; or the knives may be of larger dimen-
tions and a slower motion imparted to the shaft d and feeders k, and the
notches in the feeders may be deeper or farther apart.
Another form is shown by Fig. 9; here there is only one shaft, and the
feeders are formed and placed as described in Fig. 1, but they draw the straw
or matter to be cut down and press it against the edge of a series of knives s
which are fixed at intervals on the side of the hopper; these knives should be
curved and so formed and placed as to bring the matter to be cut, and which
is collected in the teeth of the feeders, in contact with as great a cutting
surface as possible. Fig. 11; here there is only one shaft, and it forms a
crank from end to end, and upon this a series of knives t are placed at
intervals of about in. apart; the bottom of these knives work in a guide u;
opposite to these are a corresponding set of knives or bars o forming part of
the side of the hopper, and against these the knives act in the motion imparted
to them by the crank shaft, thereby severing at intervals the matter to be cut.
Instead of the knives t there may be a series of saws acting upon opposite
knives.
Fig. 14 shows another arrangement of cutters adapted to Fig. 1; on one
shaft is placed a series of circular knives as described, and the opposite shaft
is cranked from end to end, and geared by suitable cog wheeles to the first. It
will now be seen by this Fig., where h represents the shaft with its circular
cutters, d the crank shaft, and A a series of feeders or knives connected with
or to the crank shaft by the rods B, that as the feeders or knives A force the
matter to be cut against the circular cutters it will be severed as before
described. Figs. 11 & 12 I consider most suitable for roots or vegetables, but
they would be best if they were saws instead of knives, and cross-cut knives
or teeth placed between each, as shown by the dotted lines.
Fig. 15, this machine is formed with rollers like those now in use.
C are
the rollers working in the frame D; E is a crank shaft upon which is the fly
wheele F; G is a knife working in guides and connected with the crank shaft
by rods H; I, I, are ratchet wheeles on the rollers C; J are forcing rods
acting on the ratchet wheeles; the knife G is placed close against the rollers C

page_text: and working between the face plate or bars k and the rollers. It will now be
seen by this Drawing and description that when the crank shaft is put in
motion the knife G will be moved up and down between the rollers and the
face plate or bars and the chaff cut, and that the rollers will be put in motion
at suitable intervals by the combined movement of the ratchet wheele and
rods. In this form an endless webb working on two rollers at the bottom of
the trough may be used instead of the rollers C, one roller being placed at
the mouth and the other at the opposite end, and the webb passed over them
and put in motion by a ratchet wheele on the roller at the mouth; and two
guillotine knives may be used driven by a double-cranked shaft, one knife
working up as the other works down; or instead of the guillotine knife, the
knives may be placed ou the wheele in the usual way, but working between
the face plate and rollers instead of the outside.
I do not confine myself to any particular form or size of machine, or to any
particular material, but have described what I consider most usefull, and I
hereby declare what I particulary claim as my Invention is, the arrangment
of a number of cutters and feeders as described in Figs. 1, 6, 9, 11, 12, and 14,
and in these Figs. I do not confine myself to the number and form of the
cutters, saws, and feeders, but I claim their arrangment whereby the straw
or matter to be cut is severed at seviral place at once, corresponding to the
distance the knives are placed apart, and I claim the feeding of the machine
by placing the straw or matter to be cut upon the cutters, or lengthwise
instead of endwise, as is now in use; and I claim the mode of cutting by fixed
knives and feeders as described by Figs. 9 & 11. And in Fig. 15 I do not
confine myself to the number of notches in the knife, but I claim the use of a
notched or slanting guillotine knife, and the placing of the knife to cut between
the rollers and face plate, and I claim the appropriation of an endless bottom
to the trough or box.
In witness whereof, I, the said Edwin Whele, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this 11th day of July, in the year of our Lord 1864.
EDWIN WHELE. (L.S.)