CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON MACHINES FOR CUTTING SWEDISH AND OTHER TURNIPS, MANGEL WURZELL, AND OTHER ROOTS USED AS FOOD FOR SHEEP, HORNED CATTLE, AND OTHER ANIMALS
Year: 1834

page_text: TO ALL
GARDNER, of Banbury, in the County of Oxford, Ironmonger, send greeting.
WHEREAS His present most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth,
by His Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing
date at Westminster, the Twenty-fifth day of September, in the fifth year of
His reign, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said James Gardner, His especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said James Gardner, my exors, admors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said James Gardner, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON MACHINES
FOR CUTTING SWEDISH AND OTHER TURNIPS, MANGEL WURZELL, AND OTHER ROOTS
USED AS FOOD FOR SHEEP, HORNED CATTLE, AND OTHER ANIMALS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso, that I, the said James Gardner, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in His said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Gardner, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon,
that is to say:-
My Invention of certain improvements on machines for cutting turnips and
other roots used as food for sheep and other animals, consists in the construction
of a peculiar sort of rotary cutter, and its adaptation to a machine for cutting
turnips and other roots for feeding cattle. In the accompanying Drawings,
Figure 1 represents a machine in which the peculiar construction of rotary
cutter is shewn in operation, (the side of the box of the machine and also of
the feeding hopper being removed for the purpose of exhibiting the parts
within. Figure 2 is a top or horizontal view of the machine, by which the
construction of the rotary cutter will be more clearly perceived. This rotary
cutter is formed as a drum mounted upon an axle, parts of its periphery, as
a, a, and b, b, having different radii, in order to produce the recesses into
which the roots descend before they come under the operation of the knives.
Figure 3 represents in perspective the cast-iron part of the drum with its axle
before the knives are attached. The knives which are to be affixed to this
rotary drum are formed with two cutting edges at right angles to each other,
or nearly so. The sort of knife which I recommend is shewn detached from
the machine, and of its real size at Figure 4; and Figure 5 is a similarly
shaped knife for the opposite side of the drum. A series of knives like that
shewn at Figure 4 are to be affixed laterally to the steps of the drum at c, c, c,
in Figure 3, by screws or other means, and another series of knives, as Figure
5, are to be in like manner attached to the steps d, d, d, on the reverse side of
the drnm, these steps being made parallel to the sides of the drum and to each
other. The last knife of one of the series forming the middle knife must be
reversed, and aflixed to the middle plate of the drum. When the knives have
been thus secured, the curved plates b, b, are to be attached by bolts or screws
to the cast-iron part of the drum, in order to make up the open portions of the
drum, and form the larger radii of the periphery coincident with the curved
parts of the knives. The rotary cutter thus constructed would then appear as
shewn in perspective at Figure 6, and in revolving upon its axle would bring
the knives progressively into operation one after another, their upper cutting
edges being all coincident in the same cylindrical curve, and their radial
edges revolving in parallel circles at right angles to the axis of the drum. It

page_text: will now be perceived that when the turnips or other roots are introduced into
the hopper of the machine, as shewn in Figure 1, they will fall down upon
the periphery of the drum, which, receiving its rotary motion by means of a
winch applied to its axle, will cause the knives to be brought successively into
operation, and to cut the roots into strips or narrow pieces, which pieces or
strips will pass through the apertures behind the knives into the interior of the
drum, and will from thence fall through the shoot below on to the floor, or
into any vessel provided beneath to receive them. By the construction of the
knife shewn, and the mode of attaching it to the drum, I am enabled to
replace any one of the knives accidentally broken. But I sometimes construct
the knives bending plates of steel in the form shewn in perspective at
Figure 7, the cutting edges being placed in the same relative positions as
before described. When the plates are affixed to the cast-iron part of the
drum, the curved part of the plates form that portion of the periphery of the
drum marked in the former Figure.
I wish it to be understood that I do not intend to confine myself to any
precise number of cutters or knives to be affixed to a rotary drum, nor do I
at all times employ two sets of cutters, as shewn in the Figures referred to;
and though I have described the knives as placed in two series on opposite
sides of the middle plate of the drum, yet I do not confine myself to that
arrangement, as I sometimes place the knives in a diagonal range along the
drum from end to end, which would be illustrated by cutting the drum into
two parallel portions at right angles to its axis, in the dotted line shewn in
Figure 2.
Lastly, I wish it to be understood that I claim the adaptation of the par-
ticular form of knife with two cutting edges, shewn in the Drawing, and also
the placing of those knives in diagonal ranges, in the manner described, or any
other suitable construction of knives, the faces of the radial cutting edges of
An
which shall stand parallel to the ends of the drum and to each other.
example of the adaptation of a series of straight knives, so arranged in con-
junction with a diagonal cutting edge, is shewn in the Diagram, Figure 8.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Gardner, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fourth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-five.
JAMES (L.S.) GARDNER.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fourth day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1835, the aforesaid James Gardner came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above
written: And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the
tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Sixth day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and thirty-five.