Improvements in or relating to Smoothing or Dressing Slates, and in Apparatus therefor.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 29th May, 1894
Complete Specification Left. 28th Mar., 1895-Accepted, 4th May, 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Smoothing or Dressing Slates, and
in Apparatus therefor.
1, OWEN JONES OWEN of Newborough Slate Mills, Blaenau Festiniog in the
County of Merioneth, Writing Slate Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention to be as follows:
Writing or school slates have hitherto been smoothed on cast iron turntables
revolving at a speed of about eighty revolutions a minute with feuces across the
table, against which the slates are placed with weights on the top, and sand and
water are allowed to run on the turntable, thus smoothing them. The slates are
however not split in uniform thickness at the quarries and cannot be split uniformly,
and there are no arrangements on the turntable to smooth them into uniforin
thickness, so that it has been necessary to make three or four different sized
grooves in the slate frames to take in the different thicknesses, and not only this
but many single slates are not uniform in thickness throughout, one side being
thinner than the other, or one end of the slate being thinner than the other end,
making it impossible to frame the slate well, and hence many of the slates that are
sold are loose in the frame, either at one side or one end, or both, this being due
to the slate being uneven in thickness.
Now my invention has for its object to avoid these defects and enable the slates
to be made a uniform thickness throughout.
In carrying my invention into effect, the plan I prefer is to provide a traversing
table with fences across for carrying the slates to be faced to a uniform thickness,
also three or any suitable number of fluted rollers, cutters or their equivalent
revolving at a suitable speed above the slates and means for raising or lowering
the table or cutters so that any required depth of cut can be made by the
latter.
The mode of action is as follows-
The slates to be cut are placed upon the traversing table and held there in any
suitable manner. The table is then moved along by hand or by power as the
nature of the work demands, so that the faces of the slates are worked upon by the
cutters while water drips or runs from above, the machine being previously adjusted
to regulate the depth of cut required. The result is that the slates will be faced to
a uniform thickness throughout and this without entailing the employment of
sand.
I have described one way in which my invention may be carried into effect, but
it is obvious that various alterations may be made in the machine without departing
from the principle of my invention. Thus the table might for example be
stationary and the cutters or fluted rollers caused to travel over the faces of the
slates, also double cutters might be mounted in movable saddles and adapted to
face each side of the slate simultaneously, these saddles being adjustable so as to
regulate the depth of cut and gauge the thickness of the slate between the cutters.
Moreover emery or sandstone might be used applied in the form of rollers or
otherwise to give the slates a nice smooth finish.
Dated this 28th day of May 1894.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, Nottingham, and London,
Patent Agents.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or relating to Smoothing or Dressing Slates, and
in Apparatus therefor.
I, OWEN JONES OWEN, of Newborough Slate Mills, Blaenau Festiniog in the
County of Merioneth, Writing Slate Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Writing or school slates have hitherto been smoothed on cast iron turn tables
revolving at a speed of about eighty revolutions a minute. These turn tables have
fences fixed across them, against which the slates held down by weights are placed.
Sand and water are allowed to run on the turn table and thus the slates are
smootbed. As the slates are not and cannot be split uniformly in thickness, and
there are no arrangements on the turn table to smooth into a uniform thickness it
has been necessary to make three or four different sized grooves in the slate frames
to take in the different thicknesses. Not only is this the case, but many single
slates are not uniformn in thickness throughout, one side, end or corner, being
thinner than the other. In these cases it is impossible to frame the slate well, at
any rate with machine made frames as one part of such unevenly split slate must
necessarily be loose in the groove.
Now my invention has for its object to avoid these defects, and enable the slates
to be made a uniform thickness throughout.
My apparatus is best described by aid of the accompanying drawings, in
which-
Figure 1 is a side elevation partly in section, of the invention, and
Figure 2 a plan view showing only part of the mechanism.
In these, A is the driving shaft, B driving pulleys, C secondary pulley, Da
countershaft carrying a pulley C¹ belted to pulley C. This countershaft carries a
worm M gearing into worm wheel N. This worm wheel runs loose on its shaft
and is fixed at n to a spider frame or carrier O supported on the three cutters I I I
hereafter described, and running loose on its centre shaft and held down by the
bearing wheels or rollers S. E is the bed plate of the machine which is fixed and
is carried on the base frame or cone, R. In bearings in this cone is the shaft F
driven by gearing F from shaft A. On this shaft is keyed an internally geare
wheel G into which gears three pinions H. These, by means of bevel gear J,
drive the three cutting rollers 1. Each of these cutting rollers, and also the shaft
of pinions H are carried in bearings in the movable frame or saddle K. This
frame is in turn carried rigidly on a shaft K in bearings in the spider O, and its
exact height is regulated by set screws L, or if desirable, especially where different
thicknesses of slate have frequently to be cut, this can be regulated by a hand
wheel or other convenient regulating mechanism. Q, Q, Q, are three standards
fixed in the bed plate E, and carry the race P against which press the rollers S.
T is a rough slate placed on the bed plate E, and U a fixed fence holding the said
slate. There can be any number of these fences, and an equivalent number of
arms to the spider O, and of course an equivalent number of cutters I and their
accompanying mechanism.
The mode of action is as follows:-
Three or more slates are placed in position against three or more guards U,
only one shown in the drawing, and the cutters I are regulated to the right position
by means of set screws L, and the machine is set going. The worm M gradually
turns the feed wheel N round, and with it the spider O, and its accompanying
mechanism. The cutters I by this means gradually traverse the length of the
slates T. In the meantime the gearing F causes the shaft F to revolve with vastly
greater speed than the wheel N, and spider O. The crown wheel G aforesaid

page_text: in turn revolves the pinions H and again multiplies the speed, which pinions in
turn rotate the cutters. When the cutters have gone the length of the slate, the
three slates are removed and others placed in position by the attendant, and the
cutter which attacked the slate in the first position now attacks the one placed in
the next position, and so on. The other side of the first set of slates is planed in
another machine in which the cutters are located rather lower. When the cutters
are in motion, in addition to their weight holding them down, they are also held
down and obliged to cut by the rollers S traversing on the race P. It is obvious
that it is a complete matter of detail whether the table or the spider O revolve
relative to the other. It is quite sufficient there should be a relative motion, and
I may hold the spider O absolutely rigid, and cause the table to revolve, in such
case the worm and wheel M and N will be placed in or below the table or con-
nected therewith instead of with the spider. Since filing my Provisional
Specification however, I have come to the conclusions that it is more convenient to
revolve the spider instead of revolving the circular bed plate. I however reserve
to myself the right of revolving either while the other remains stationary, or,
though I see no advantage in it, of revolving both in opposite directions, the
principle of my invention requiring that there should be this slow motion of the
one relative to the other, while a much quicker motion rotates the fluted cutters.
It is obvious also that if desirable the race P could be brought further inward, and
the roller S or its equivalent mechanism bear up against it immediately over the
centre of the fluted cutter I, but while this at first sight would appear to be
mechanically more correct, it is op
ments as shown. In some cases to structural defects, and I prefer the arrange-
use one of these machines alongside one of the
ordinary construction, the ordinary machine smooths one side of the slate, and the
slate is then placed smooth side downwards in my patent machine. I may however
run two of the machines together, the first one smooths the one side, the second the
other. This avoids all trouble of regulating the height of the rollers I, as the one
machine is regulated to allow for a greater thickness than the other, and thus each
side can have a sufficient amount planed off it to form two perfectly smooth
surfaces. I do not of course limit myself to making the cutters I of metal, as it is
obvious they may be formed of sandstone, emery or of any substance which will
cut or plane the slates.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The process of smoothing or dressing slates, which consists in planing the
rough slates with a slow relative motion under rapidly revolving fluted rollers or
other cutters, substantially as described.
2. The improvement in apparatus for manufacturing school slates which consists
in a bed plate carrying the slates, a top frame or spider carrying rapidly revolving
fluted rollers or cutters, and the two so arranged with driving mechanism that the
one has a slow motion relative to the other, and thus the cutters are caused while
revolving rapidly to slowly traverse a little above the surface of the bed
plate.
3. The arrangement of movable saddles or frames K adjustable in height and
carrying the fluted rollers, in combination with a bed plate below the said saddles
baving a motion relatively to the bed plate substantially as described.
4. The apparatus for smoothing or dressing slates substantially as herein
described and illustrated.
WM. P. THOMPSON & Co.,
Of Liverpool, Manchester, Birmingham, and London, Patent Agents.