IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING OR GETTING COAL AND OTHER SUBSTANCES IN MINES OR QUARRIES.
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Stuart Norris, of Kenyon, near Man-
chester, in the County of Lancaster, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING OR GETTING COAL AND
OTHER SUBSTANCES IN MINES OR QUARRIES.
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PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Stuart Norris
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 9th January 1874.
I, RICHARD STUART NORRIS, of Kenyon, near Manchester, in the
County of Lancaster, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING OR GETTING COAL
AND OTHER SUBSTANCES IN MINES OR QUARRIES," to be as follows:-
:-
This Invention has for its object a simple, efficient, and inexpensive
machine or apparatus for cutting or forming in coal seams and elsewhere
the grooves, slots, or recesses necessary to enable the masses of coal or
other substance to be displaced or broken away, and my improvements
are more especially designed to produce a portable machine capable of

page_text: being worked by manual power, so as to facilitate what is technically
known in mining as "gallery work "or" straite work," but my improved
machinery may also be advantageously used for "pillar work"
quarrying.
or
According to my Invention I use or employ rotating cutters, so
constructed, arranged, and combined, geared, or connected together in
rows, sets, or series, as at a single operation to cut or form in the coal or
other substance to be operated upon a groove, oblong recess, or continuous
slot as long as the row of cutters measuring in a line, cutting the axes
of the whole of the cutters at right angles to such axes.
My improved rotating cutters are compound cutters, each composed
of a foreward or preliminary cutter (or cutters) in conjunction with rear-
ward or finishing cutters, somewhat inclined and so arranged that the
coal or other substance between the holes formed by the foreward or
preliminary cutters is removed by the rearward or finishing cutters as
the compound cutters advance. These improved compound cutters are
arranged in a row (or rows), the number of cutters in a row depending
upon the length of the groove, recess, or slot to be cut at a single
operation. Each compound cutter is keyed or fixed upon the end of a
suitable shaft, furnished by preference with a screw, spiral, or equivalent
device for withdrawing the pieces of coal or substance removed by the
advancing cutters, and provided also with a spring to allow for and
indicate any obstruction any of the cutters may meet with by coming
into contact during their forward progress with any excessively hard
substances.
The shafts carrying the cutters as described work in bearings in a
suitable carriage or travelling frame, and are provided with toothed
wheels or pinions keyed on to them, so that the shafts rotate with the
pinions, but may move endwise independently thereof. These pinions
and shafts are rotated, and the carriage or travelling frame is simul-
taneously moved forward towards the coal or substance to be cut by
other wheels or pinions on a long screw actuated through gearing from a
suitable handle or hand wheel carried by a quadrant adjustable to any
angle, so as to facilitate working near the sides of a gallery.
My improved machinery may be readily arranged to work horizontally,
vertically or at any required angle.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Stuart Norris in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 8th July 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, RICHARD
STUART NORRIS, of Kenyon, near Manchester, in the County of Lancaster,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of January, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Richard Stuart Norris, Her special
license that I, the said Richard Stuart Norris, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Richard Stuart
Norris, 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 MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING OR GETTING COAL AND
OTHER SUBSTANCES IN MINES OR QUARRIES," upon the condition (amongst
others), that I, the said Richard Stuart Norris, my executors or adminis-
trators, 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 Richard Stuart Norris, 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, and the Drawings therein referred to
(that is to say) :-
This Invention has for its object a simple, efficient, and inexpensive
machine or apparatus for cutting or forming in coal seams and elsewhere
the grooves, slots, or recesses necessary to enable the masses of coal or
other substance to be displaced or broken away, and my improvements

page_text: "
"
are more especially designed to produce a portable machine capable of
being worked by manual power, so as to facilitate what is technically
known in mining as
gallery work " or straite work," but my improved
machinery may also be advantageously used for "pillar work" or
quarrying.
According to my Invention I use or employ rotating cutters, so
constructed, arranged, and combined, geared, or connected together in
rows, sets, or series as at a single operation to cut or form in the coal or
other substance to be operated upon a groove, oblong recess, or continuous
slot as long as the row of cutters measuring in a line, cutting the axes
of the whole of the cutters at right angles to such axes.
My improved rotating cutters are compound cutters, each composed
of a foreward or preliminary cutter (or cutters) in conjunction with rear-
ward or finishing cutters, somewhat inclined and so arrranged that the
coal or other substance between the holes formed by the foreward or
preliminary cutters is removed by the rearward or finishing cutters as
the compound cutters advance. These improved compound cutters are
arranged in a row (or rows), the number of cutters in a row depending
upon the length of the groove, recess, or slot to be cut at a single
operation. Each compound cutter is keyed or fixed upon the end of a
suitable shaft, furnished by preference with a screw, spiral, or equivalent
device, for withdrawing the pieces of coal or substance removed by the
advancing cutters.
The shafts carrying the cutters as described work in bearings in a
suitable carriage or travelling frame, and are provided with toothed
wheels or pinions keyed on to them, so that the shafts rotate with the
pinions. These pinions and shafts are rotated, and the carriage or
travelling frame is simultaneously moved forward towards the coal or
substance to be cut by other wheels or pinions on a long screw actuated
through gearing from a suitable handle or hand wheel carried by a
quadrant adjustable to any angle, so as to facilitate working near the
sides of a gallery.
My improved machinery may be readily arranged to work horizontally,
vertically, or at any required angle.
Such being the nature of my Invention, I proceed to describe the
manner of carrying it into practical effect, reference being had to the

page_text: accompanying Sheet of Drawings, in which Fig. 1 is a longitudinal
vertical sectional elevation of a machine embodying my improvements;
Fig. 2 is a plan of the same; Fig. 3 is an end elevation shewing the
quadrant; Fig. 4 is an elevation of the base plate at the cutter end;
Fig. 5 is a transverse section on the line a, b, of Fig. 2.
Fig. 6 is an end view of the foreward end of one of my improved
compound cutters drawn half size; Fig. 7 is a side elevation of the said
compound cutter; and Fig. 8 is a side elevation at right angles to Fig. 7,
shewing one of the rearward or finishing cutters and its boss or centre
piece, together with foreward drill.
a is a cast-iron bed plate, formed with standards b and c, and having
bolted to it an intermediate standard d, sufficiently far from the
standard c to admit of the necessary travel of a carriage e. The carriage e
is formed with standards f, g, and h. i is a shaft, formed for a part of
its length with a screw thread, as shewn, and running in bearings in the
standards c and d. This shaft has keyed upon it a toothed wheel k,
which is geared through an intermediate pinio with a pinion 7, the
pinions and working on studs m*, m, carried by a quadrant n,
having its axis on the shaft i. The pinion is formed with an elongated
boss, on to which is keyed or fastened a wheel o actuated by hand or
otherwise. The standard f of the carriage carries a nut pinion p formed
with a female thread corresponding to the male thread of the shaft i..
is a doubly flanged smooth bored clutch pinion working freely on the
shaft i, which also carries a clutch box q', capable of independent endwise
movement upon the shaft, but keyed or feathered, so as to rotate with it.
This clutch box is moved in and out of gear with the clutch pinion q by
a lever q having its fulcrum at qs. r are the cutter shafts supported in
bearings in the standards f, g, and h of the carriage. On each cutter
shaft is fixed a collar ¹, between which and a stud 7 held by nuts in
the standard / are ordinary tail pins ³ to keep the cutters forward, but
with as little friction as possible.
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On each cutter shaft r, between the standards f, g, is a slotted tube,
sleeve, or boss 8, formed or provided with two pinions 81, 82; 8¹ having
twenty-four teeth, and 88 twenty-one teeth in the machine illustrated.
The larger pinion s¹ gears with the clutch pinion q having thirty-four
teeth, and the smaller pinion & with twenty-one teeth gears with the

page_text: nut pinion p. The end of each shaft is formed with a screwed part,
on to which is screwed a boss t formed with two dovetail-shaped recesses,
into which are slid the two steel rearward or finishing cutters t³, which
are arranged at an angle with the longitudinal axis of the boss, as shewn
in Figs. 1 and 2.
In order to keep the drills equidistant I provide a spectacle piece v
encircling each, and placed so as to be kept in position between the
bossest and the ends of the screws or spirals 7. The front end of each
shaft is also bored and screwed for a short distance to receive the
foreward or preliminary guide cutter t¹. The screw threads are to be so
directed that the strain upon the cutters when at work shall tend to
tighten or screw up the boss t and the foreward or preliminary cutter t¹.
Behind each compound cutter its shaft is formed for a part of its length
with a spiral thread r³, for withdrawing the pieces of coal or substance
removed by the advancing cutters.
In Figs. 1 and 2 the clutch box q¹ is shewn in gear with the flanged
pinion q, so that assuming the foreward or preliminary cutter 1 to be
brought into position against the face of the coal or substance to be cut,
on the wheel o being rotated by hand or other power it will through the
pinions and *, wheel k, shaft i, pinion q, and two inner pinions si
actuate the two inner shafts r, and each of the inner pinions s¹ will
actuate the other pinions s¹ at its outer side, so that all the shafts r will
be caused to rotate simultaneously, and as the screwed portion of the
shaft i rotates in the nut pinion p it will move the carriage e with the
shafts and cutters gradually forward so as to feed the cutters to their
work, the too rapid forward movement of the carriage being prevented
by the rotation of the nut pinion p in the same direction as the shaft i
(but at a somewhat slower speed) by the pinions 83. This action continues
until the cutters have slotted the coal to the required depth, whereupon
by reversing the lever q³ the clutch is thrown out of gear, and the
carriage e is brought back to its original position by rotating the shaft i
in the contrary direction, the nut pinion p being prevented from rotating
by the pinions 8².

page_text: To renew the foreward and rearward cutters in case of injury I back
the drills out of the holes, and then by means of a slight tap with a
hammer the rearward cutters can be easily removed, and the foreward
cutters unscrewed.
It is obvious that the form of the cutters may be modified to suit
circumstances, without departing from the principle of my Invention,
and that the carriage e may be arranged for a greater or less number of
cutters than shewn in the Drawings.
For making the side cuts the machine can (without deviating in the
slightest from the aforesaid arrangement) be by means of blocks or any
other suitable appliance raised or lowered against the exterior of a hollow
upright support, in which is an adjustable screw bearing against the roof
of the mine, and then fixed at any altitude requisite for drilling the
varying thicknesses of seams.
It will be evident that machinery as described may be driven by
apparatus worked by means of compressed air or steam.
Having described my said Invention of "Improvements in Machine
or Apparatus for Cutting or Getting Coal and other Substances in Mines
or Quarries," and having explained the manner of carrying the same
into practical effect, I hereby declare what I consider to be novel and
original and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent to be,-
First. The use or employment in machines or apparatus for cutting or
getting coal and other substances in mines or quarries of foreward or
preliminary cutters, in conjunction with rearward or finishing cutters,
and the arranging and operating such cutters in rows, sets, or series, so
that the coal or other substance between the holes formed by the foreward
or preliminary cutters is removed by the rearward or finishing cutters,
thereby forming an oblong recess or slot in the coal or other substance
at a single operation, substantially as described.
Secondly. The use or employment of the quadrant n, in combination
with the stud m, wheel o, pinions ₹ and k*, wheel k, and shaft i, all
arranged and operating together so as to be capable of adjustment to
facilitate working near the sides of a gallery, substantially as described
and shewn.

page_text: Lastly. The general construction and arrangement of parts constituting
a machine for cutting or getting coal and other substances in mines or
quarries, substantially as herein-before described and illustrated.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Stuart Norris, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Third day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four.