A MACHINE FOR SPLITTING HIDES, SKINS, PELTS, OR LEATHER, IN AN IMPROVED MANNER
Year: 1806

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
PARR, of Bermondsey New Road, in the County of Surry, Gentleman,
RICHARD BEVINGTON, of Gracechurch Street, in the City of London, Merchant,
and SAMUEL BEVINGTON, of Grange Road, Bermondsey, in the said County of
Surrey, Leather Dresser, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-sixth day of March, in the forty-sixth year of His
reign, did give and grant unto us, the said William Parr, Richard Bovington,
and Samuel Bevington, our executors, administrators, and assigns, His special
licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that we, tho said William Parr,
Richard Bevington, and Samuel Bevington, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, during the term of fourteen years therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend our Invention therein mentioned
and referred to, that is to say, "A MACHINE FOR SPLITTING HIDES, SKINS, PELTS,
OR LEATHER, IN AN IMPROVED MANNER," within that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, the Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to us, the said William
Parr, Richard Bevington, and Samuel Bevington, our executors, administrators,
or assigns, or to any of them, should seem meet, to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy
the said licence, powers, privileges, and advantages, therein granted unto us, the
said William Parr, Richard Bevington, and Samuel Bevington, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, for and during and unto the full end and term of

page_text: fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent next and immediately
ensuing, and fully to be complete and ended, according to the Statute in such
case made and provided; in which said Letters Patent there is, amongst other
things, contained a proviso that if we, the said William Parr, Richard
Bevington, and Samuel Bevington, or one of us, should not particularly
describe and ascertain the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under our hands
and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us, and cause the same to
be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery within four calendar months next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said
Letters Patent, and all all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby
granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and by
the said recited Letters Patent, reference being thereunto had, will more fully
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, we, the said
William Parr, Richard Bevington, and Samuel Bevington, do hereby declare
that our said Invention is described in manner following, that is to say:-
We do construct our machine by means of two parallel cylinders, one above
the other, driven by wheclwork or other suitable machinery, and with such
an adjustment of their distance from each other as to permit a skin to pass
and be carried fairly through the interval between them, with a considerable
holding or compression of the same, and at the same time we do present a
long knife with a straight edge to the skin in the direction of its thickness,
and in the very angle between the two cylinders, so as to meet the said skin
and all its parts as it comes forth, and thereby to slit or divide the same into
two pieces in the same manner as a card or other laminated substance might
be divided by the separation of the leaves or plates of which such card or
laminated substance might be composed; and we do place and secure our
said knife in the proper situation, so that its edge shall be duly disposed in
the angle between the said cylinders, by means of supporters above, beneath,
and on each side of the same, so as to admit of and to guide a motion of
the said knife backwards and forwards, in the direction or line of its own
edge, in order to facilitate the cutting; and the said supporters are so made
as to be exactly adjustable in their respective situations by means of screws
or otherwise, and at the places of motion the said supporters may (if thought.
needful) be made to terminate in rollers, in order to diminish the friction;
or otherwise we do support the said knife upon or by means of any of
the well-known sliders, or ares, or jointed gear, or other apparatus, which
are used in engines, where a right lined or (as it is called) parallel motion

page_text: is required to be produced and maintained. And, moreover, we do cause
the said back and forward motion to be produced in or communicated to our
said knife by means of crank work, or snail work, or wheels acting on each
other, or by any of the very numerous ways by which a back and forward motion
is commonly produced from a motion which is circular or direct. And in order
that the holding or compression of the skin between the said two cylinders
shall not be subject to any sensible variation in its effect upon those several
parts of the skin which may differ from each other in thickness, we
do construct our upper cylinder of a great number of circular plates
or pieces, about one quarter of an inch thick (more or less), and each plate
has a central hole, and when an axis is passed through the said hole, the
whole number of pieces will form a cylinder; but in order that the cylinder
so formed may yield and give way in its several parts to the thicker parts
of the skin, and may bear down upon the skin by a contrary deviation at
the places or parts where the said skin is or may be thinner, we do
make the said central hole somewhat larger in diameter than the axis;
and further, in order that all the parts of the said compound cylinder
may be equally carried round by the rotatory motion of the axis, we
do make an eccentric hole, alike situated in every part of the pieces,
and do fasten or secure two end pieces or plates upon the said axis so that
the said end pieces shall necessarily revolve along with the same; and in each
of the said end pieces we make an eccentric hole corresponding with the
holes of the intermediate plate, and do pass a rod or bar through all the
holes, which said rod, being carried round along with the end pieces, will
necessarily carry all the other pieces along with it; and because the said rod
is made smaller than the holes through which it passes, and the intermediate
plates are not closely held but are allowed a little play between the end pieces,
all the working parts of the said upper cylinder will be at liberty to accom-
modate themselves to the irregularities of the skin in its thickness, and the
pressure, being produced by the respective weights of the said plates or pieces,
will continue in all circumstances so nearly the same as to prevent any
irregularity from taking place in the work; and that portion of the skin after
slitting which was in contact with the lower cylinder, and is usually the grain
side, will come out nearly uniform in its thickness; and in order that the skin
may be carried through and slit, notwithstanding the opposition of the knife,
the edges or faces of the parts composing the upper cylinder, and if need be
the face of the lower cylinder, may be cross grooved or finely jagged, with a
punching tool, or made rough by any other suitable means.
And we do hereby farther declare, that although the general description

page_text: .
herein-before contained will sufficiently make known our said Invention, and
the manner of carrying the same into effect, we have nevertheless thought
it our duty further to elucidate the same by a Drawing in the margin hereof
of one of the engines or machines actually constructed and used by us.
In Figure 1, A represents tho-square end of an axis; to which the first
mover is applied, which first mover may be derived from the strength of
animals, the fall of water, the operation of steam, or any other natural power.
The said axis drives a train of wheels, the last of which, B, carries round
C, D, the axis of the upper cylinder, and another equal wheel driving B,
carries round the lower cylinder E. The upper cylinder F, F, is composed
of circular plates, and the form of one of these plates is shown in Figure 2.
H, H, represents a mettallic bar," which holds a supporter. I, the lower thin
part of which passes down between the plates and gives support beneath to
the axis, which might otherwise be bended by the weight of the plates. G
is the end of a rod or bar which passes through the eccentric holes of the
plates, but proceeds no fartlier than the plate on the same side of the picce I;
at which place it is received and supported by a stud or projection from the
axis, which carries that inner end round in the same manner as a secured
end plate would have done. A similar rod- is passed through the other half
of the cylinder, towards D; and secured in like manner by a stud on the same
side of I, towards D. K is a contrate wheel, a pinion on the axis of which
is in the direct train from A to B, the wheel merely communicating with a
pinion which carries an eccentric piece or snail L, LM, M, represents a strong
bar, which affords support to the knife N, N, N. -N, N, N, indicate the supporters
of the knife which is not represented in the machine, but is supposed to be
taken out and shown at O, O, P. At one end of the knife Q, Q, there is a
branched picce having a roller at each extremity of its curve, and when the
knife is in its place the eccentric piece L, L, occupies the space between
Q, Q, and by its action against them alternately (as it moves round) the knife
itself is drawn backwards and forwards through a short space in the line-O, O;
or the edge, which when in work lies in the angle between the cylinders.
The number of alternations of the knife, during the passing of the skin
through a given space, and the length of stroke, admits of considerable variation
without injuring the process. The work will go on very well when the
apparatus is so proportioned that the knife may give nine or ten strokes of
about two inches each while the skin passes through one inch. R, R,
represents that part of the skin which has not yet arrived at the cylinders.
S, S, S, S, S, S, S, represent a part which has been slit.
Lastly, we do declare, that the said engine may be made of such materials

page_text: as the judgment of any workman skilled in engine making may direct, but
that we have given the preference to copper and brass in such parts of the
engine as are like to come in contact with a wet skin, and have avoided iron
because more likely to produce marks or stains upon the skins.
In witness whereof, we, tho said William Parr, Richard Bevington, and
Samuel Bevington, have hereunto set our hands and scals, the Four-
teenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight
hundred and six.