CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS? UPON MACHINES FOR CUTTING, CROPPING, OR SHEARING WOOL OR FUR FROM SKINS; ALSO FOR CROPPING OR SHEARING WOOLLEN, SILK, COTTON, OR OTHER CLOTHS AND VELVETS, OR ANY OTHER FABRIC OR FABRICS THEREOF RESPECTIVELY, WHETHER MADE* OR COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF WOOL, SILK, COTTON, OR OTHER MATERIALS: OF WHICH CLOTH OR VELVET IS MADE, OR OF ANY MIXTURE OR MIXTURES THEREOF RESPECTIVELY; AND ALBO FOR THE PURPOSE OF SHAVING PELTS: OR SKINS
Year: 1823

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN!
BAINBRIDGE, of Bread Street, Cheapside, in the City of London, Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom'
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster,
the Thirty-first day of July, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-three, in
the fourth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said John.
Bainbridge, my exors, adññors, and assigns, His special licence, full power,-
sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Bainbridge, my exors,
admiors, and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should.
and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England and Wales
and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies:
and Plantations abroad, an Invention communicated to me by a Foreigner:
resident in the United States of North America, of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS?
UPON MACHINES FOR CUTTING, CROPPING, OR SHEARING WOOL OR FUR FROM SKINS;
ALSO FOR CROPPING OR SHEARING WOOLLEN, SILK, COTTON, OR OTHER CLOTHS AND
VELVETS, OR ANY OTHER FABRIC OR FABRICS THEREOF RESPECTIVELY, WHETHER MADE*
OR COMPOSED ENTIRELY OF WOOL, SILK, COTTON, OR OTHER MATERIALS: OF WHICH CLOTH
OR VELVET IS MADE, OR OF ANY MIXTURE OR MIXTURES THEREOF RESPECTIVELY; AND
ALBO FOR THE PURPOSE OF SHAVING PELTS: OR SKINS;" in which said Lettersi

page_text: Patent is contained a proviso that if I, the said John Bainbridge, shall
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be enrolled in His Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the said Letters Patent,
and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, shall utterly
cease, determine, and become void, as in and by the same, relation being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Bainbridge, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the following
description thereof, that is to say:-
"The improvements in the machinery to be employed for the purposes above
mentioned consist chiefly in the adaptation of a pair of saw blades, in the place
of the usual cutting knives or cutting cylinders heretofore used in shearing and
cropping machinery. These saws are placed in such situations and actuated
by such means that their respective teeth act as a series of small shears or
scissars, the lower blade thereof taking hold of and keeping up small portions
of the pile, fur, or wool of the material submitted to its operation, and which is
cut off at every lateral movement of the upper blade or cutter, and this upper
blade is moved by means of a tappit, cam, or zigzag wheel acting in a notched
part of its frame.
The mode of actuating this machinery, and its particular construction (as far
as will be necessary to explain the present Invention and its operation) is
shewn in the several Figures of the Drawing hereto annexed, and by a refer-
ence thereto, and to the following description, it will be perfectly understood by
every competent mechanic.
Fig. 1 is a front view of the machine, part of the standards being cut in
sections. Fig. 2 is a top view looking down upon the machine, the respective
letters referring to the same parts in the different Figures. a, a, and b, b, are
two long cylindrical rollers, between which the skins or cloth are passed to be
shorn, the skin or cloth being distended and held tight cither by rollers or
other convenient means. On the top of the upper roller a the saws or cutting
blades c, c, are made to press, which will be best seen in the section, Fig. 3.
The cutting blades are two saws having sharp teeth, about one eighth of an
inch long, formed with bevel edges on their cutting sides, as shewn by the
different views of parts of the saws in Figure 4, the lower blade being firmly

page_text: fixed on its carriage, and the upper one sliding laterally upon it; the two
blades are set at a small angle to each other, as shewn in Fig. 3, and held in
that position by a series of small screw bolts passing through small slots in
the upper blade, as seen best in Fig. 2, by which means the bevel edges of
the saws act smoothly against each other. There is a provision for raising the
back part of the blades (when necessary), and thereby bringing their edges into
closer contact by means of a wedge-formed bar e, which is adjustable by screws.
The operation of the machine is as follows:-A skin, or piece of cloth, or
any other fabric intended to be shorn or shaved, being introduced between the
rollers a and b, and the edges of the cutters c, c, let down upon the skin or cloth
resting on the upper roller, as seen in the section, Fig. 3, a rototory motion is
given to the rollers by means of the winch or handle f. This rototory motion
is proposed to be communicated from the shaft off to the rollers through the
train of wheels, as shewn in Figs. 1 and 2. (This particular combination of
wheels, however, is not claimed as part of the Invention.) The large toothed
wheel 9 actuates a pinion on the shaft i, carrying the fly-wheel k, and also
the tappit or zigzag wheel 7 (shewn detached in Fig. 5). A bevel or mitre
wheel m (also on this shaft) actuates another mitre wheel n, on the vertical
shaft of which is an endless screw o, which turns the tooth'd wheel P, and this
wheel, by means of the pinion 9 on its shaft actuates the other tooth'd
wheels r and s, the latter of which is upon the axle of the roller b. By these
means the roller b is made to revolve, and being geared to the upper roller a
by means of the tooth'd wheels t and u, they both revolve inwards - together.
Thus the cloth or skin is progressively drawn under the cutters, which are
actuated by the following means:-The back edge of the upper cutter is
strengthened by a bar w, which is elongated through the frame of the machine
as at x, Fig. 2. In this elongated part of the bar w, at a, a notch is formed,
in which the edge of the tappit or zigzag wheel works, and y is a small
slider, adjustable by a screw, for the purpose of making this notch wider or
narrower, and thereby increasing or diminishing the action or stroke of the.
upper cutter at pleasure. Thus it will be seen as the zigzag wheel revolves,
that the bar w, a, to which the upper blade of the cutters is attached, will be
made alternately to slide backwards and forwards in a latteral direction, follow-
ing the undulating surfaces of the tappit or zigzag wheel l. The under cutter
(which is stationary, and firmly fixed on its carriage) is to be placed on the
upper roller (a), with its teeth inclining upwards at a small angle (as seen in
Figure 3), and should project about the one twenty-fourth part of an inch
beyond the edge of the upper cutter. By these means the fur or pile on the
skins or cloth (in its passage over the upper roller) (a) is met by the teeth of

page_text: the under cutter,, and thereupon. raised and. kept up whilst the short latteral
movements of the upper cntter, by means of the zigzag, wheel,, cuts off' such
fur or pile from the surface of the skin or cloth in its passage over the rollers,.
as before mentioned. The frame: on which the under cutter is secured is
adjusted by two screws. z, z,. Figs. 1 and 2, one at each end; by turning those
screws. the under cutter is removed. either to the right or left. as occasion may
require. The upper surface of the under cutter and the under surface of the
upper cutter. should be perfectly smooth, and when placed on the frame their
teeth: must be directly over each other when the machine is worked. The
motion. or. stroke of the upper cutter is to be confined within the breadth of 1
one tooth (or the distance there is from. the points of one tooth to another), so.
that the first. tooth of the upper cutter. will pass to the outer edge of the seconil.
tooth in the: under cutter,, and no further, and so back. again in its retrograde:
motion. The cutters must not press too hard on each other; if they do, they'
will not cut,, and' if their edges are occasionally oil'd the teeth will retain their.
keeness longer than when worked dry.
I have lierein described so much of the machinery, as I conceive to be suffi-
cient to render its construction and operation perfectly evident; liut I wish it
to be undersood that I do not claim all the parts herein exhibited, either indi-
vidually or collectively,, as the Invention consists simply in the peculiar kind of
cutters. described above; and the mode of communicating. the lateral alternating:
motion to the upper cutter by the zigzag wheel, so as to effect the operation
of cutting.
In witness whereof, I have hereto set my hand and seal, this Thirty-first
day of January. One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four.