IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SPLITTING LEATHER OR SKINS
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Edward Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR SPLITTING LEATHER OR
SKINS." A communication.
Sealed the 25th June 1858, and dated the 27th April 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Edward Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
27th April 1858.
I, WILLIAM EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane,
in the County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer; do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY POR SPLITTING LEATHER OR
SKINS," to be as follows
The leather or skin to be split or divided is wound upon a shaft or roller to
which is adapted a break; whereby the motion of the shaft or roller, and
consequently the feed or supply of the leather or skin to the cutting instru-
ment is regulated.
The cutting instrument consists of an endless band of metal having a sharp
cutting edge; this band passes round, and is driven by pullies, which are
actuated by toothed or other gearing in any convenient manner. In order to
ensure the accurate operation of the cutting instrument, it is made to travel
in a horizontal guide extending the whole width of the skin or leather to be
Price Sd1

page_text: operated upon. The guide is provided also internally with an adjustable back
piece, against which the cutting band bears, and is supported so as to resist
the pressure of the advancing skin or leather. The cutting band is also
further supported at other parts of its course by grooved pullies or wheels,
which receive the forward edge and prevent it from riding forward. In order
to hold the skin or leather firmly, it is passed between holding rolls, the upper
one of which is of small diameter, and is supported from above by another
roller, which prevents it from yielding to the upward pressure of the leather
or skin beneath. The skin or leather is supported beneath by another roller
which is divided into rings.or sections strung loosely upon a shaft of somewhat
smaller diameter than the internal diameter of the rings. By this means the
rings are capable of moving separately in a vertical direction on their shaft.
This sectional roll is supported from beneath by an elastic roll covered by
preference, with vulcanized india-rubber. It will now be understood, that
when any extra thickness of skin or leather comes between the rolls, the
rings or some of them of the sectional roll will be made to imbed themselves
in the elastic or yielding surface of the elastic supporting roll,but immediately
the pressure is withdrawn the rings will assume their original position.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Edward Newton in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th October 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
EDWARD NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the County
of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-seventh day of April, in the year of our
Lord 1858, in the twenty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said William Edward Newton,
Her special liceuse that I, the said William Edward Newton, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Edward
Newton, my executors, administrators, or 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 of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
SPLITTING LEATHER OR SKINS," being a communication from abroad, upon the

page_text: condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Edward Newton, by an
instrument in writing under my haud and seal, 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 Edward Newton, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the saine is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-
Fig. 1 is a plan of the machine; Fig. 2, a front elevation; Fig. 3, a section
upon the line A, A, of Fig. 1; Figs. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8, details to be referred
to hereafter.
The machine is of that class in which the leather is split by an endless
revolving belt knife B, which runs upou two short pulleys or carrying wheels
C, C. These wheels have each a flange a upon one side, against which the
rear of the knife B rests. The wheel C¹ carries upon its shaft I a gear D,
which engages with a pinion E upon the driving shaft G, by which means the
belt knife is driven, any suitable power being applied to the shaft G for the
purpose. That the cutting edge of the revolving knife may run in an exact
and unvarying line without alteration, either inavertical or horizontaldirection,
it is held firmly in a guide which extends the whole length of the cutting
portion of the machine, and is constructed as seen in Fig. 5, which is an
enlarged section through the same and the parts immediatelyadjacent thereto.
al is the lower plate of the guide upon which the knife rests; it extends
nearly out to the cutting edge, and is chamferred off at a to permit the free
passage of the split. Upon the plate a¹ and immediately back of the knife
is the back plate c, which serves to preserve the cutting edge in the required
position horizontally, and to resist the pressure of the knife when the leather
is thrown upon it. The back plate is adjusted in position by the screws d, of
which there is a suitable number along its whole length; & is the upper plate
of the guide, which is secured to the lower plate by screws/passing through
slots in the back plate c. The back plate is of steel, and is very slightly
thicker than the knife, or it may be of the same thickness, and be raised
slightly by the introduction of a thickness of paper between it and either the
top or bottom plate of the guide. The knife is thus, while it is allowed to
traverse freely in a longitudinal direction, deprived of all motion either verti-
cally or away from the leather, the pressure of the leather keeping it back

page_text: firmly against the back plate as the cutting proceeds. To counteract any
tendency of the knite to work forward upon the pullies C, C, and also to
keep it firmly and constantly against the underneath rest K immediately in
the vicinity of the grinding knives, the following device is employed:―g,
Fig. 2, are rolls supported by brackets secured to the frame of the machine;
these rolls bear against the knife, and hold it steadily back in place, and in
order that it may not injure its cutting edge, they are constructed as seen
(enlarged) in Fig. 4 in two parts, 1 and 2, and have a dovetailed groove i
around their periphery, which is of a width at the extreme circumference
just sufficient to admit the edge of the knife, but not as wide as the knife
plate itself. In case of any wear of the edges of the groove, so as to cause the
knife to enter too far into it, it is simply necessary to loosen the nut h, and
take a small shaving off of the interior surface of either part 1 or 2. The
knife is kept constantly sharp by revolving sharpeners or emery wheels O,
one above and the other below it; these wheels are revolved uninter-
ruptedly by bands from a pulley M upon a shaft P, the other end of
which carries a bevel wheel that engages with a similar wheel N upon
the driving shaft G. These sharpeners are to be fitted with suitable screws
to elevate or depress them, and are to be so arranged that they may be
inclined as required to give the desired bevel to the edge of the knife. H is
the gauge roll, upon
the prolongation of which is the gear 5 (Figs. 1 and 6),
which engages with a gear 4 npon a stud z; to the gear 4 is secured
another gear 3, which engages with an intermediate gear 2, which in turn is
driven by a gear 1 upon a shaft S. This shaft carries at its opposite extremity
the gear 6, which engages with a gear 7 upon a short shaft W, upon the
opposite end of which is a bevel gear y, which engages with a similar bevel
gear m upon the shaft I, and thus as the shaft G is revolved, the gauge roll
is driven through the parts E, D, m, y, 7, 6, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
For the successful operation of the machine it is quite important that the
gauge roll be of small diameter; and in order that such roll may not spring,
I place over it another metal roll R, which bears upon it all, or nearly all, of
its length, and serves to stiffen it and prevent it from springing or yielding.
Immediately beneath the gauge roll is another roll formed of sections or
rings r, strung upon a rod or shaft, the holes in the rings being considerably
larger than the shaft which carries them. Upon the front side of the machine
this roll rests against the chamfered edge of the front plate U, and upon the
opposite side upon a bar Q, by which any rearward motion of the rings is
prevented. The upward motion of the rings is also limited beyond a certain
point by the front plate U; they may however descend lower, or be forced

page_text: down beneath the position which they occupy in the Drawings as the thickness
of the leather increases. Beneath the sectional ring roll is an elastic roll of
india-rubber F, which serves to force up the sectional rings to accord with
the varying thickness of the leather. When the india-rubber roll is placed
immediately beneath the sectional roll it is found, as in the Diagram Fig 8,
that the sections embed themselves in the elastic roll when the machine is in
operation, and the india-rubber at s drags down the sections, which again
snap back with force, and an irregular cut is the consequence; to remedy this
the india-rubber roll is placed to one side of the position represented in
Fig. 8 (as seen in Figs. 3 and 5), by which the before-mentioned difficulty is
avoided. That the india-rubber roll may be caused to press with the required
force upon the sectional roll, it is hung in levers T, which are pivoted at d¹,
and connected by the rods k to eccentrics upon the shaft R¹, and thus by
turning this shaft more or less by its hand lever w, the india-rubber roll is
thrown up or drawn down as required. The gauge roll and its stiffening roll
are hung in journals in a frame V, which is adjusted in position and held
rigidly in place by bolts p and nuts c.
The leather to be split is wound upon a shaft Z, as seen in Fig. 5. This
shaft carries a brake or friction pulley X, over which passes a cord or brake
strap q, one end of which is fastened to the frame at w, and the other to a
treddle at t. The leather is entered between the gauge roll and sectional
roll, and by the revolution of the former is drawn against the edge of the
knife; the flanks of hide are however fuller than the back, and these conse.
quently hang back, and are not drawn through the machine so rapidly as the
straighter portions: to remedy this difficulty, the progress of the hide is
retarded by placing the foot upon the treddle t, until the flanks have been
drawn through even with the back.
Having now set forth the nature of this Invention, and explained the
manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that
under the above-recited Letters Patent I claim,-
1st, the combination of the sectional roll with the india-rubber roll for
the purpose of sustaining the leather, and pressing it uniformly up to the
gauge roll.
2nd, I claim setting the india-rubber roll to one side of the vertical as
described, for the purpose set forth.
3rd, I claim the employment of a small gauge roll in combination with an
additional roll above it, for the purpose specified.
4th, I claim the knife guide, consisting essentially of the lower, back, and
upper plate, operating as set forth, for the purpose specified.

page_text: 5th, I claim the grooved rolls g, operating as described, to retain the endless
knife in place, as set forth.
6th, I claim controlling the progress of the leather through the machine by
means of a brake operating in the manner substantially as set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Edward Newton, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Twenty-seventh day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
J. W. MOFFATT,
66, Chancery Lane.
W. E. NEWTON. (L.g.)