IMPROVEMENTS IN SHEARS OR CLIPS FOR SHEARING OR CLIPPING SHEEP
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Léon Bouttier, Mechanician, and Mathurin Jean
Baptiste Coubault, Merchant, of Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23, at
Paris, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN SHEARS OR CLIPS FOR
SHEARING OR CLIPPING SHEEP."
Sealed the 12th May 1874, and dated the 2nd December 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Léon Bouttier and
Mathurin Jean Baptiste Couhault at the Office of the Com-
missioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 2nd December
1873.
We, LÉON BOUTTIER, Mechanician, and MATHURIN JEAN BAPTISTE
COUHAULT, Merchant, of Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23, at Paris, do.
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
SHEARS OR CLIPS FOR SHEARING OR CLIPPING SHEEP," to be as follows:-
For clipping sheep use is generally made of a tool which resembles
pincers armed with scissor-like blades. The work of this tool is very
imperfect even when in practised hands; it takes off but very little

page_text: wool at a time, and if it be badly directed in the fleece it produces
excoriations on the skin of the animal. These are the inconveniences
which are obviated by the improved shears or clippers which form the
object of our present application for Letters Patent.
Our Invention consists essentially in the method of action of two
combs with long teeth superposed in order to cut the wool by a
sliding action, and actuated by means of two handles connected by
a spring.
The main comb has four teeth and is solidly fixed to a flat part
of its handle. The other comb is provided only with three teeth,
and is adapted, by the aid of a forked plate and a pressure screw,
to bear upon the flattened end of one of the branches of the spring
which has its other branch screwed to the handle of the main comb.
The handle of the other comb is pivoted at one part into the main
comb, and also on the movable branch of the spring, so that it act
as a lever to draw both the movable comb and its pressure plate.
The intervention of the nipper spring fulfils several offices; on the
one hand it enables, by exerting a force upon the movable comb, the
latter to cut in its backward as well as in its forward movement;
or on the other hand it produces the desired pressure of the combs
one against the other by the effort of tension, which is obtained by a
previous pressure on the branches.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Léon Bouttier and Mathurin Jean Baptiste
Couhault in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 2nd June 1874.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, LÉON
BOUTTIER, Mechanician, and MATHURIN JEAN BAPTISTE COUHAULT,
Merchant, of Boulevard de Strasbourg, 23, at Paris, send greeting.
°
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of December, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the
thirty-seventh year of Her reign,, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Léon Bouttier and Mathurin

page_text: Jean Baptiste Couhault, Her special licence that we, the said Léon
Bouttier and Mathurin Jean Baptiste Couhault, our executors, admini-
strators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Léon Bouttier and
Mathurin Jean Baptiste Couhault, our 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 SHEARS OR CLIPS
FOR SHEARING OR CLIPPING SHEEP," upon the condition (amongst others)
that we, the said Léon Bouttier and Mathurin Jean Baptiste Couhault,
or one of us, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our, or one of our, 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 we, the said Léon Bouttier and Mathurin
Jean Baptiste Coubault, do hereby declare the nature of our 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, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that
is to say:-
For clipping sheep use is generally made of a tool which resembles
pincers armed with scissor-like blades. The work of this tool is very
imperfect even when in practised hands; it takes off but very little
wool at a time, and if it be badly directed in the fleece it produces
excoriations on the skin of the animal. These are the inconveniences
which are obviated by the improved shears or clippers which form- the
object of our present Invention.
Our Invention consists essentially in the method of action of two
combs with long teeth superposed in order to cut the wool by a
sliding action, and actuated by means of two handles connected by
a spring.
The main comb has preferably four teeth, and is rigidly fixed to a
flat part of its handle. The other comb is provided only (preferably)

page_text: The spring (shown separately at Figure 3) is formed with two
unequal branches M and N. The shorter one, M, is applied against
the part e of the handle C to which it is affixed by two screws m, m.
The other branch, N, is at its end twisted to form a flat part n which
rests upon the equally flat end h of the handle D. This flat part is
pierced with three holes, the first of which is screw threaded.
The movable comb B in the form of a trident (see Figure 4) has
its solid part 6 pierced with a hole g', and slightly raised by stamping.
This raising corresponds to the hollow produced by a lowering of the
solid part a of the main comb. It follows from this arrangement that
whilst the combs are in perfect contact at their teeth their inner edges
are separated and allow an interval sufficiently wide to receive the flat
extremities of the spring and lever handle D.
The pressure plate G, shown separately at Figure 5, is composed of
three fingers which are intended to press upon the three teeth of the
movable comb; the back part of this plate is pierced with a hole r
for the passage of the pressure screw T, and it is terminated by a
little bent hook g intended to be introduced into the hole o' of the
part n of the spring.
The putting together of the pieces of these shears is effected in the
following manner :-The short branch of the spring is screwed upon
the handle C, as shown in Figure 3, which represents the angular
deviation of the two branches of the spring. The end of the handle D
is united by the pivot ; to the movable comb, and by the pivot k to
the flat part of the spring, which is limited in its course by the abut-
ment screw implanted in the fixed comb A screwed to its handle C.
This being accomplished the movable comb B is put into position by
laying its teeth exactly in the 3 teeth to the right of the fixed comb.
The pressure plate G is then applied upon the movable comb B, taking
care to engage the pointed edge of the finger at the middle into a little
hole made for the purpose in the corresponding tooth of the movable
comb. There only remains then to place the pressure screw T into
position, and this is done by passing its shank through the holes g¹ and r
into the screw-threaded hole o.
It will be understood that the screw takes its support from the part
of the enring attached to the handle Dand in consequenc from LL

page_text: herein-before described and as shown in Figure 6 of the accompanying
Drawings.
In witness whereof, we, the said Léon Bouttier and Mathurin
Jean Baptiste Couhault, have hereunto set our hands and seals,
this Nineteenth day of May One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-four.
Witness,
LÉON BOUTTIER.
(L.S.)
M. J. B. COUHAULT. (L.S.)
CH. ARMENGAUD,
Civil Engineer,
23, Boulevard de Strasbourg,
Paris.