Ar IMPROVED FUR, CUTTING MACHINE
Year: 1834

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERIC
PLANT, of Bread Street Hill, in the City of London, Fur Cutter, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Thirteenth day of January, in the fourth year of His
reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Frederic Plant, His especial licence that I, the said Frederic Plant,
my exors, adiiors, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Frederic Plant,
my exors, adiiors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times during the term of years therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England,
Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "Ar
IMPROVED FUR, CUTTING MACHINE;" in which said Letters Patent is contained
a proviso obliging ine, the said Frederic Plant, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, particularly to describe and ascertain the nature of
iny said Invention, and in what manner. the same is to be performed, and to
cause the same to be enrolled in His said Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within two calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference being thereunto
bad, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Frederic Plant, do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention to consist

page_text: Figure 1 is a side clevation of my said improved fur cutting machine with
a portion of the fly wheel removed, in order to expose to view those parts
which would otherwise be concealed by it; and it may be as well here to
state, with reference to the colors used in the Drawings, that the parts colored
black are stationary, those colored blue the parts which communicate the
motion from the foot upon the treadle to the knife, which is colored pink,
and those colored yellow the parts which communicate the motion from the
fly wheel axle to the rollers. It should also be observed that similar letters are
used to denote similar parts in all the Figures. But to resume the description
of Figure 1. A, A, A, is the frame of the machine. W, the axis of the treadle.
d, the treadle. c, c, e, the driving wheel. f, the pulley for the same on the
fly wheel shaft. 9, the driving band, the arrows shewing the direction of its
motion. F, F, the fly wheel. h is an excentric fixed on the fly wheel shaft,
and i is an excentric rim moved by it. J is a stirrup connected to the rim i,
and having a shaft or excentric rod 1, with a ball k at the end of it, to form a
kind of universal joint, by working in the open band or cup m.
It will be
sufficient here to state that this excentric and rod give the required motion to
the blade or knife c, as will be hereafter more particularly explained.
denote the line of the bed of canvass or endless web, on which the skin and fur
when cut is supported.,, are the two rollers of the said endless web, and
the line which it takes in its passage through the machine from one of these
rollers to the other will be more particularly described hereafter. n is part of
the crank movement which gives motion to tho knife. S, S, S, S, are the four
carrying or drawing rollers which draw the skin up to the knife from the
endless web to have the fur cut off. The passage of the skin through these

page_text: rollers will also be more particularly described hereafter. The wheel shewn
by dotted lines, as between the upper and lower back rollers, is a connecting
wheel, to impart motion from the upper to the lower roller, and it will be
seen that the two upper rollers gear into each other, and the two lower rollers
do the same.
B, D, is a cross or T bar, the part D being attached to the
short arm I of the crank y, y, I, so that when the weight x is hung on to the
long arm y, y, of the crank the part B of the T bar is drawn up against the
front roller, and presses them against the back rollers sufficiently to give the
required nip to the skin. C has been before described to be the blade or
knife, and p is a steel plate, which I call a scraper, under the knife, acted
upon by a spring, to be described hereafter, which constantly presses the
scraper against the skin, thus keeping down the fur for the knife to act
upon it.
Figure 2 represents those parts which could not be well exhibited by the
last Figure. a is the endless web, which, it well be seen, passes between the
two lower drawing rollers S, S, passing under the one and over the other, and
this is found sufficient to give its required movement. The skin lies with the
fur downwards at a, and is drawn up through the upper rollers in the direction
shewn at T, the knife acting upon it at K, where it is supported by the bed L,
which is adjusted by the screw M to keep the skin sufficiently forward towards
the knife. H is a mere guide to throw the skin when cut down upon the
receiving shaft G, which is placed. below II for that purpose.
P is a screw
to hold the knife C steady on its bed S; and R is the screw which adjusts the
protrusion of the knife to the proper distance towards the bed L.
Figure 3 represents the opposite side of the machine to Figure 1, and
shews the ratch wheel or taking-up movement. t is a ketch, driven by a
crank pin on the pinion v, which pinion works in the toothed wheel U x,
which is on the shaft of the fly wheel. By this means at every cut of the
knife the catch t drives the ratch plate w one tooth round, Y being the
ordinary spring catch or stop to regulate the distance with more precision.
Now it is evident that the crank movement here described as that which gives
the proper action to the knife will cause it first to approach and then to recede
from the skin at every stroke, and it is only necessary here to state that the
ratch or taking-up movement should be so adjusted as to draw up the skin at
the moment that the knife has receded from it. On the ratch plate it will be
observed that there is a series of holes larger than and within those made for
the spring catch Y to act in, and those form a part of my said Invention, and
are for a purpose now to be described. It is extremely useful and convenient to
be able, when adjusting the skin in the rollers S, S, S, S, to be able to turn

page_text: the rollors without reference to the catches
or Y, or the taking-up action of
the ratch plate W, and to obtain this object I allow the axis of the forward
top roller to pass through and project beyond the ratch plate W, and then
affix a lever arm Q, F, and handle 6 upon it, in manner better shewn in the
next Figure. This arm is furnished with a pin at Q, which goes into the
larger holes in the ratch plate W, and turns on a centre at N, while the end
F of the arm is acted upon by a spring underneath it, and this spring, keeping
up the end F, of course presses the end Q down, and keeps the pin at that
end in the holes, and in this position the rollers are in fact one with the ratch
plate, and move with it; but when it is required to enter or adjust the skin
between the rollers, if the handle 6 be pressed against the spring in towards
the ratch plate, the pin at the other end of the arm will rise out of the holes,
and the arm being turned round will turn the rollers without affecting the
taking-up movement in any way.
Figure 4 is a front view of the machine; this view shews the action of the
arm F, Q, much more clearly than the last Figure. q, q, is the long two-
armed spring which presses the scraper p against the skin, as before
described.
Figure 5 is a plan of the machine, or bird's-eye view of it. R, R, are the
screws which adjust the cutting edge of the knife to the skin, and P, P, are
the screws which hold it firmly on its bed. The socket m and crank arm n
are of course one piece, turning on the fixed centre at a 1, while a 2 is the
fixed centre of the opposite and corresponding arm n, and E, E, are two pivot
joints to admit of the alternating lateral motion of the knife.
Now, whereas having of necessity described many parts of this machine
which are old, and which, though perhaps some of them appear here in some-
what of a new shape to accommodate my improvements, are not in fact new
in principle, I hereby declare that I only claim as that which constitutes my
machine an improved machine the following items, that is to say:-
First, the giving, by means of machinery, a lateral reciprocating motion to
the knife blado, as herein-before described.
Secondly, the stationary position of the bed L. or, as it is commonly called,
the gate which supports the skin against the action of the knife.
Thirdly, the spring 9, 9, acting upon the blade, or what I call the scraper p.
And, fourthly, the mode herein-before described, by which the rollers may
be turned by means of the arm F, Q, without affecting the action of the ratch
wheel or take-up movement.
And, such my Invention being, to the best of my knowledge and belief,
entirely new, and never before used within that part of His said Majesty's

page_text: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland called England, His said
Dominion of Wales, or Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, I do hereby declare
this to be my Specification of the same, and that I do verily believe this my
said Specification doth comply in all respects fully, and without reserve or
disguise, with the proviso in the said herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent contained, wherefore I do hereby claim to maintain exclusive right
and privilege to my said Invention.