IMPROVEMENTS IN' SAW MILLS
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Geeves, of 51, Thornhill-Square, Barnsbury,
in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN'
SAW MILLS.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Geeves. at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st: November 1866.
I, WILLIAM GEEVES, of 51, Thornhill Square, Barnsbury, in the County of
Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN SAW MILLS," to be as follows:-
This, Invention has for its object improvements in saw mills, and is
peculiarly applicable to the machinery described in the Specification of
Letters Patent granted to me, and dated the 17th day of May 1860 (No. 1226).
According to the arrangement therein described the wood to be cut is fed up
to the saw or saws in the saw frame at intervals, and my present Invention
consists in arranging such description of saw mills that the feed may be
continuous, and the saws caused to cut in both directions by the two halves of
the teeth of each saw being formed or set in opposite directions; and together
with such arrangements rotary cutters are applied at the sides of the wood, so

page_text: that as it is caused to move continuously up to the saw frame by the quick
rotary motion of the cutters, the sides of the wood are "squared," "mached,"
"tongued," "rabbetted," or otherwise prepared according to the nature of
the rotary cutters which are for the time used in the mill; these operations
are performed before the wood is divided by the saw or saws in the saw
frame.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Geeves in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
1st May 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
GEEVES, of 51, Thornhill Square, Barnsbury, in the County of Middlesex,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth year of Her reign,.
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Geeves, Her special licence that I, the said William Geeves, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Geeves, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN SAW MILLS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William. Geeves, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature 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 William Geeves, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in saw mills, and is peculiarly
applicable to the machinery described in the Specification of Letters Patent

page_text: The lower roller of each pair of rollers has a continuous rotary motion im-
parted to it from the main axis c in the following manner :-On the axis of
the lower roller of each pair is a worm wheel f¹, into which a worm f' on the
shaft gears, on this shaft is a toothed wheel f, into which a pinion on a
short axis fe gears; on the axis fe are speed pullies f" to receive a driving
band, which also passes around one or other of the speed pullies c' on the
driving axis c; the speed pullies and f? allow of the speed at which the
wood is fed forwards to the cutters and saws being varied. If it be desired
to stop the feed rollers from feeding the wood forward the pinion on the
axis fo can be set free by moving a sliding clutch by the clutch lever o, the
pinion. will then cease to transmit motion to the feeding rollers. The axes of
the lower rollers are received in fixed-bearings. carried by the frame a; whilst
the axes of the upper rollers can rise and fall in guides on the frame. The
upper roller of each pair of rollers is caused to travel at the same surface
speed as the lower rollers by means of endless bands f passing around grooved
pullies on the axes both of the upper and lower rollers. I employ for this
purpose endless bands of vulcanized india-rubber in a state of tension, in order
that they may both serve to drive the upper rollers at the same surface speed
as the lower rollers, and also act to draw the upper rollers. downwards towards
the lower rollers, and so cause them to nip and hold firmly, the wood that is
passed between them. Each of the grooved pulleys f° has three grooves
formed around it, so that three endless bands may be employed at each end to
draw downwards the upper rollers, a tension equivalent to a weight of about
60 lbs. being by preference placed on each band. In order that the wood
which is passing between the rollers may be held up to and guided by the
fence 9, the axes of the feed rollers fare not by preference set exactly at
right angles to the fence, but are slightly inclined thereto, so that as the
rollers revolve they shall always have a tendency to move the wood passing
between them up towards the fence. As the wood is moved onwards by the
feed rollers its under side is first shaped by the cutter h, and afterwards its two
side surfaces are shaped by the cutters k, k.
In the Drawings the cutter holders only are shewn; in these holders
cutters of any desired form may be fixed, the axes carrying the cutter holders k
are carried by slides 1, 2, which. can be slidden to or from each other along
guides on the framing a by means of screws turned by hand wheels, the
position of the side cutters can thus be accurately adjusted. The axis of the
cutter his similarly carried by a slide which can be moved upwards or
downwards by a screw. The axes of the revolving cutters h and k are
driven from the main axis c in the following mauner:-From the pulley c³

page_text: on the driving axis an endless belt c is led to a pulley m' on the axis of a
roller m, and thus rotary motion is imparted to the roller, and from thence by
endless belts to pullies on the axes of the cutters h and k. After the wood
has been acted on by both cutters h and k it passes on to be divided by the
saw or saws in the saw frame d, and then passes away between the guards or
fences a fixed to the framing a. As the wood is being acted on by the
cutters h and k, and by the saw or saws in the saw frame, it is held down by
rollers n, n, carried by weighted levers, as shown, so that the wood is acted on
uniformly by the cutters and saw or saws. The saw frame is shown
separately at Figures 4 and 5, on Sheet 4, these views show the manner of
constructing the saw, the teeth along half of its length being cut in one
direction whilst the teeth on the other half of its length are cut in the opposite
direction. The manner of fixing a number of saws in the saw frame is clearly
seen in Figure 4, and is the same as that described in the Specification of a
Patent granted to me on the 17th day of May 1860 (No. 1226), so that it
is unnecessary now to describe it.
By combining a machine in the manner above described it will be seen that
the wood is first squared, matched, tongued, rabbetted, or otherwise prepared,
and is afterwards separated by the saw or saws of the saw frame, the saw or
saws also being formed with half of their teeth in one direction and the other
half in the opposite direction will cut when moving in both directions, and
thus I am enabled to employ a continuous feed motion for feeding forward
the wood.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Geeves, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
WILLIAM GEEVES. (L.B.)