Machines for Cutting Up Meat and other Substances.
Year: 1888

page_text: Machines for Cutting Up Meat and other Substances.
1, HERMANN ALBRECHT, a citizen of the United States, residing in the City of
Philadelphia, County of Philadelphia, State of Pennsylvania, United States of
America, Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of my invention in MACHINES
FOR CUTTING UP MEAT AND OTHER SUBSTANCES, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement :-
My invention relates to and is an Improvement upon such a meat cutter as is shown
and described in United States Letters Patent No. 31,098, granted January 8, 1861,
to Purches Miles, which is a machine composed, essentially, of a conical shell having
a hopper at its larger and an outlet at its smaller end, and containing spiral grooves
formed by sharp edged projections cast with the shell, within which is fitted a rotary
cutter head provided with spiral knives, and in which, when the cutter head is rotated
there is a shearing action upon the substance to be cut due to the fact that the
rotating knives and ribs upon the case, constituting as they do two blades, are so set
as to form an acute angle with each other and in the rotation of the cutter head,
sweep past each other at such angle like the edges of a pair of shears, the edges as
they cross constantly cutting or shearing the meat as it passes from one rib to the
other, and the knives serving to discharge it through openings or perforations in a
plate at the smaller end of the shell after a preliminary cutting action has been
performed upon the meat before it reaches and is further cut at and discharged
through said perforated plate, the machine as an entirety being, in a word, intentionally
adapted to cut and actually, in consequence of the action of the spiral ribs in the
shell in conjunction with the spiral blades of the screw, cutting the meat before it
reaches the perforated plate, in its passage through which, however, it is as stated,
subjected to an additional cutting due to the action of the outer or smaller extremities
of the spiral blades of the cutter head in sweeping past the perforations.
My invention is, therefore, to be contradistinguished from another class of machines
employed for the same purpose, the main object of which, however, is to get rid of
preliminary cutting or chopping knives, and to rely for their cutting character
entirely upon a perforated plate at the outer end of the casing and a knife sweeping
the surface of such perforated plate, and in which machines the casing is provided

page_text: with longitudinal ribs and with a non-cutting forcing screw or piston, for imparting
direct pressure to a crude uncut substance fed into the hopper end of the machine
against the perforated plate without any action on the substance during its passage to
the plate except that for effecting the desired pressure, the aim being to dispense
with intervening choppers to cut the substance in transit.
Machines of this last named class have been judicially characterized as possessing a
"preliminary non-cutting characteristic," and by this characteristic are to be contra-
distinguished from machines of the first named class to which my improvement
relates in which there is preliminary cutting or cutting prior to the final cutting to
the ultimate sizes.
A cutter embodying my improvement is represented in the accompanying drawings
and hereinafter described, the particular subject matter claimed as novel being set
forth in the appended claiming clauses.
In the drawings,
Figure 1 is a side elevational view of a machine embodying my invention.
Figure 2 is a front or face elevational view of the same, sight being taken from the
left hand side of said figure 1.
Figures 3 and
are perspective views of the disk can and a portion of the crank.
Figure 5 is a front or face elevational view of the hopper and stand of the machine,
the conical shell being removed to expose the shell socket and the discharge opening
of the hopper.
Figure 6 is a rear elevational view of the machine.
Figure 7 is a central vertical longitudinal sectional elevation of the machine taken
on the dotted line - of figure 2, and sight being taken in the direction of the
arrows on the said line.
Figure 8 is à longitudinal sectional elevation through the conical shell of the
machine, taken on the dotted line y-y of figure 12, and sight being taken in the
direction of the arrows on said line.
Figure 9 is a side elevational view of the cutter head and its journal.
Figure 10 is a rear end view of the shaft of the cutter head.
Figure 11 is a top plan view, partly sectional, of the hopper and stand of the
machine.
Figure 12 is an inside view of the conical shell, looking toward its outer opening.
Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts.
In the drawings, A. represents à conical open ended shell. To the extent, preferably
of half its length from its outer opening inwardly to its inner, this conical shell is
provided with circumscribing series of perforations or delivery holes a of the character
set forth in United States Letters Patent No. 352,023, granted November 2, 1886, to
Oliver D. Woodruff, the perforations of the respective series being preferably
staggered or alternated in disposition.
At the larger end of and within the shell, and extending for such remaining portion
of its length as is not occupied by the perforations, there are, beyond the innermost
ring or series of perforations, spiral grooves e which are formed by spiral projections f
cast within the shell.
The projections taper in one direction, and are formed with abrupt cutting edges
which face away from said taper, as shown in figures 8 and 12. The cutting edges
of these projections complete the conical contour of the interior of the shell as an
entirety.
The shell is conveniently formed at its larger extremity with external screw threads a
by means of which the shell can be removably applied and secured to a threaded
socket cx formed in the front face of a stand c', of any preferred form and character,
which supports the machine and is the base of and preferably formed integral with a
hopper or feed opening C the discharge opening c of which feeds into the socket und
is preferably co-extensive with the entire upper portion thereof, as shown in figures 5
and 7.
The lower rear portion of said socket, as well as of the shell when applied is closed
by a web or back wall c" being a part of the casting of the stand.

page_text: The stand is also formed with a bearing 3 axial with respect to the socket c*, and,
therefore, with respect to the conical shell when applied, and opening through the
web or back wall c², as shown in figures 5 and 7.
The floor cor bottom of the hopper extends from the upper line of the web or
back wall 3 of the socket, with which it forms a cutting edge c', backwardly and
upwardly to the rear wall of the hopper, and is formed with a slight convexity or
curvature, sufficient to cause it to be closely swept by the lower edge of a vibrating
feed plate which moves backward and forward through an opening in the back wall
of the hopper proper, and is, conveniently, mounted upon a skeleton rocking
frame G, the lower onds, g, of which are hingedly applied to the base of the
stand.
The feed plate is conveniently formed with two sides, 7', an upper web q², and an
acting face, 3, the whole being preferably cast integral with the rocking frame G.
The acting face is preferably formed to embody a recess or concavity extending to
the rear of the plane of the front edge of the sides and top.
The lower edges of the feed plate are curved to correspond to the curvature of
the floor of the hopper, and the feed plate is of such length that it lies within
the opening in the rear of the hopper, no matter what its own position of forward
or backward oscillation may be.-an expedient of construction resorted to to prevent
escape of material from the hopper.
B is a rotary cutter head operating within the conical shell, to the interior of
which shell its peripheral cutting edge conforms, and formed of a single spiral
knife extending from a circumferential conical bearing disk at its extreme outer
end, which closes the outer opening of the shell, backward as far as the back wall c²
of the socket.
The rear end of the spiral knife which forms the cutter head B terminates in a
radial cutting heel 4*, right angular to the axis of the cutter head, which in the
rotation of said cutter head wipes the face of the back wall c² of the socket and acts
in co-operation with the upper cutting edge e' of said back wall as one of the blades
of a rotary shears of which said cutting edge is the other.
The peripheral cutting edge of the spiral knife runs with a gradually diminishing
pitch from this heel to the outer conical bearing disk in which it vanishes.
The cutter head B has a journal 2 at its inner end, which fits, rests, and revolves
in, the bearing formed in the stand e¹ at the larger end of the shell A.
The outer end of the cutter head, as stated, simply rests in the smaller end of the
shell. The journal 2 has a crank D) on its outer projecting extremity, and this crank,
which may be secured by the thumb screw d* is conveniently formed or provided with
a disk cam d which is engaged with a cam bearing * formed as a part of or applied
to the lower part of the rocking skeleton frame, with the result that when the crank
is turned the said frame and its connected feed plate are caused to vibrate. The cam
is, moreover, so timed or set with respect to the cutting heel of the cutter head, as
to occasion the completion of the forward movement of the feed plate just before said
heel sweeps past and performs its shearing function with respect to the cutting
edge of the back wall of the socket and shell. Other means than a crank may
of course be applied to drive the cutter head, and other devices than a cam for
vibrating the feed plate.
The conical shell is, conveniently, externally provided just in advance of its screw
threads a³ with an outwardly projecting circumferential flange a* which is provided
with a series of radial notches a' any one of which is adapted to be engaged by a
gravity notch pawl e pivoted, conveniently by means of the pivot pin a², between
ears formed on the front wall of the hopper. By this contrivance the shell,
after being screwed up to the desired position, can be locked in that position.
Having thus described the construction of a cutter embodying my improvements its
operation will be easily understood.
The meat, or other plastic yielding or other substance, to be cut, is fed into the
hopper, and, the crank disc-cam hopper feed plate and cutter head heel being in the
position represented in figure 1,-rotation is then imparted to the crank,
with

page_text: the result that a considerable portion of the total mass of meat is, first, by the
consequent forward movement of the feed plate forcibly fed into the conical shell just
at the instant that the cutting heel of the cutter head sweeps downwardly past the
cutting edge with which it co-operates to sever or cut off the mass so fed forward and
detach it from the mass remaining in the hopper, and is, as to said detached portion
thereafter, under the continuing rotation of the cutter head, first, during its passage
through the larger portion of the conical shell subjected to a constant and thorough
cutting or shearing action which serves to cut it up to different sizes large and small,
and is then, secondly, after being so cut up by the shearing action of the larger or
basal portion of the continuous spiral knife of the cutter head acting against the
cutting edges of the spiral projections, during its transit through the smaller portion
of the shell subjected to a still further cutting action consequent upon the sweeping
of the smaller portions of the spiral knife of the cutter head past the perforations in
the conical shell, into which perforations such cut up or divided pieces of the
meat are by the continued rotation of the cutter head in part forced, and through
which all of the meat is by the action of the cutter head eventually discharged in
small cut pieces.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare what I
claim is
1. The combination, in a machine for cutting up plastic or yielding substances, of
the following instrumentalities, namely first, a conical shell having within its larger
end spiral cutting ribs, and beyond said ribs perforations through its walls;-second,
a rotary cutter head formed as a continuous spiral knife the cutting edge of which
conforms to the interior of the shell and forms an acute angle with the ribs within
said shell-and, third, a hopper at or near the larger end of the shell, substantially as
and for the purposes set forth.
2. The combination, in a machine for cutting up plastic or yielding substances, of
the following instrumentalities, namely:-first. a conical shell having within its larger
end spiral cutting ribs, and beyond said ribs perforations through its wails; second, a
rotary cutter head formed as a continuous spiral knife, the cutting edge of which
conforms to the interior of the shell and formis an acute angle with the ribs within
said shell third, a hopper at or near the larger end of the shell; and, fourth, a
movable feed plate within said hopper, substantially as and for the purposes set
forth.
3. The combination, in a machine for cutting up plastic or yielding substances, of
the following instrumentalities, namely: first, a conical shell having within its
larger end spiral cutting ribs, and beyond said ribs perforations through its walls;
second, a rotary cutter head formed as a continuous spiral knife the cutting edge of
which conforms to the interior of the shell and forms an acute angle with the ribs
within said shell; third, a journal projecting from the larger end of said cutter head
fourth, a bearing for said journal beyond the larger end of the conical shell; and,
fifth, a hopper at or near the larger end of said shell substantially as and for the
purposes set forth.
;
4. The combination, in a machine for cutting up plastic or yielding substances,
of the following instrumentalities, namely:-first, a conical shell having within its
larger end spiral cutting ribs, and beyond said ribs perforations through its walls;
second, a rotary cutter head formed as a continuous spiral knife the cutting edge of
which conforms to the interior of the shell and forms an acute angle with the ribs
within said shell; third, a journal projecting from the larger end of said cutter head;
fourth, a bearing for said journal beyond the larger end of the conical shell; fifth, a
hopper at or near the larger end of the said shell; sixth, a vibratory feed plate applied
to said hopper; seventh, a cam upon the journal of the cutter head which occasions
the vibratory movement of the feed plate; and, eighth, means for rotating the journal
cutter head and cam, substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
5. The combination, in a machine for cutting up plastic or yielding substances, of

page_text: the following instrumentalities, namely:-first, a conical shell having within its
larger end spiral cutting ribs, and beyond said ribs perforations through its walls;
second, a rotary cutter head formed as a continuous spiral knife the cutting edge of
which conforms to the interior of the shell and forins an acute angle with the ribs
within said shell and which is provided with a radial cutting heel; and, third, a hopper
at or near the larger end of the shell the discharge opening of which is into said shell
across a cutting edge with which the cutting heel of the cutter head co-operates and
forms a shears; substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
6. The combination, in a machine for cutting up plastic or yielding substances, of
the following instrumentalities namely:-first, a conical shell having within its larger
end spiral cutting ribs, and beyond said ribs perforations through its walls; second, a
rotary cutter head formed as a continuous spiral knife the cutting edge of which
conforms to the interior of the shell and forms an acute angle with the ribs within said
shell and which is provided with a radial cutting heel; third, a hopper at or near the
larger end of the shell the discharge opening of which is into said shell across a
cutting edge with which the cutting heel of the cutter head co-operates and forms a
shears; fourth, a vibratory feed plate applied to said hopper; fifth, a cam upon the
journal of the cutter head, suitable means, essentially, for instance, such as set forth,
for occasioning the vibratory movement of the feed plate, and, sixth, means for
rotating the cutter head; substantially as and for the purposes set forth.
7. In combination, the hopper and stand, the conical shell adapted to be screwed
thereto and provided with a notched flange, and the gravity notch pawl, substantially
as and for the purposes set forth.
Dated this 4th day of September A.D. 1888