IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING WOOD, AND PARTLY APPLICABLE TO HAND BRACES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Hill, Contractor, and Alexander Morton
Strathern, Engineer, both of Coatbridge, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain; for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR CUTTING WOOD, AND PARTLY APPLICABLE TO HAND BRACES."
Sealed the 28th March 1871, and dated the 29th September 1870..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Hill and
Alexander Morton Strathern at the Office of the Commis-
sioners of Patents, with their Petition, on the 29th September
1870.
We, JOHN HILL, Contractor, and ALEXANDER MORTON STRATHERN,
Engineer, both of Coatbridge, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING WOOD, AND PARTLY APPLICABLE TO HAND BRACES," to
be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention has principally for its object to cheapen the preparation
of wood for certain purposes, and to economise labor, and comprises

page_text: '
amongst other things an arrangement of parts for feeding the wood
through the machine, which is also advantageously applicable in the
construction of hand braces.
The Invention consists, in the first place, in combining parts in one
machine in such a way that wood in a form, such as is known as
battens," may be sawn into boards or sarking" and at the same
time have the necessary reversed half-check rebates formed on the two
edges of every board instead of the sarking boards having to be sub-
sequently passed singly through a separate machine to receive the
rebates.
In a modification of machine embodying the improvements, but of
which the details may be varied, a pair of side frames or cheeks are
formed or fixed upon the framing in advance of the saws, which saws
may be either reciprocatory or rotatory. The cheeks are fitted with
bearings for nine transverse horizontal spindles for acting on the boards
of two battens which move along on edge on the opposite sides of a
central fence or guide. Three of the spindles pass completely across
under the two sets of boards, the centre one being fitted with sets of
suitably shaped cutters for forming the rebates on the lower edges of
the boards, whilst the outer ones serve for supporting and guiding the
boards. Three spindles extending only partly across are similarly
arranged above one set of boards and the remaining three above the other
set of boards, the middle one of each set carrying the rebate cutters.
Each upper set of three spindles is carried in one block pressed down by
springs and arranged so as to cant a little and accommodate itself to
boards which may happen to taper in width. The boards are kept
separate and guided laterally by thin vertical plates either stationary or
fixed as flanges on the guide rollers. The cutter spindles are driven by
belts in any convenient way, and motion is imparted to the most advanced
supporting and guide rollers to continue the feeding of the wood after
the back end leaves the feed rollers of the sawing details, and until the
rebating is quite completed.
By another modification the frames with the rotatory rebate cutters
are arranged at the entering end of the machine so that the rebate
grooves are cut in the battens before these are sawn into boards, and
in this case of course vertical separating guide plates will not be
required.

page_text: In the improved arrangement of parts for actuating the feed rollers a
pulley having angular grooves is keyed on the spindle of ouc of the
rollers and on a pin fixed to a boss or disc loose on the spindle there
is jointed a lever; the outer end of which is connected by a rod to a
revolving crank eccentric, or to any convenient reciprocating part of
the machine. The inner cud of the lever is formed with eccentrically
disposed ridges, counterparts of the pulley grooves, and when the lever
is pulled in one direction it engages with and turns the pulley whilst it
frees itself on moving back, thus acting like a ratchet wheel and catch.
When arranged as a hand brace the lever becomes the handle by which
the brace is worked, and the pin on which the lever is set is fixed in a
box enclosing the grooved pulley, such pulley being formed with a
central socket to receive the drill or other tool.
When the saws of the machine are of the rotatory kind a continuous
feed motion is adopted, the requisite slow speed being derived from the
rapidly revolving saw spindle by means of a double pinion on a crank or
eccentric pin, one part of such pinion rolling round a fixed toothed
wheel and the other gearing with another toothed wheel with a slightly
different number of teeth.
O SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Hill and Alexander Morton Strathern
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th March 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
HILL, Contractor, and ALEXANDER MORTON STRATHERN, Engineer,
5 both of Coatbridge, in the County of Lanark, North Britain, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the
0 thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said John Hill and Alexander
Morton Strathern, Her special licence that we, the said John Hill
and Alexander Morton Strathern, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said John Hill and Alexander Morton

page_text: Strathern, 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 "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING WOOD, AND PARTLY APPLICABLE TO HAND
BRACES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said John
Hill and Alexander Morton Strathern, our executors
trators, by an instrument in writing under 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 inmediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
or adminis-
* NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Hill and Alexander Morton
Strathern, 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 in writing, reference
being had to the accompanying Drawings, that is to say :-
Our said Invention has principally for its object to cheapen the
preparation of wood for certain purposes and to economise labor, and
comprises amongst other things an arrangement of parts for feeding
the wood through the machine which is also advantageously applicable
in the construction of hand braces.
Our Invention consists, in the first place, in combining parts in one
machine in such a way that wood in a form such as is known as
'battens "
may be sawn into boards or "sarking," and at the same
time have the necessary reversed half check rebates formed on the two
edges of every board, instead of the sarking boards having to be sub-
sequently passed singly through a separate machine to receive the
rebates. These improvements are applicable either with reciprocating
or with rotating saws.
In our improved arrangement of parts for actuating the feed rollers
of the machine with reciprocating saws a pulley having angular grooves
is acted upon by a correspondingly shaped lever or piece set eccentrically
on a pin so as to grip the pulley when drawn in one direction, but

page_text: freeing itself when moved back. When arranged as a hand brace the
lever becomes the handle by which the brace is worked, and the pin
on which the lever is set is fixed in a box encircling the grooved pulley,
such pulley being formed with a central socket to receive the drill or
other tool.
Our Invention also comprises a continuous feed motion of a direct
and simple kind for sawing machines with rotating saws.
And in order that our said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood we hereunto append two Sheets
of explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to and representing
wood-sawing machinery and hand braces as made with our improvements.
In these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the
same or like parts wherever they are repeated.
Figures 1 and 2 on Sheet 1 of the Drawings are elevations as at right
angles to each other of a machine with vertically reciprocating saws as
fitted with our improvements, and Figure 3 is an elevation of a part
of the side not shown in Figure 1.
As our improvements consist principally of additions to the ordinary
sawing machines it will be unnecessary for us to minutely describe the
well-known parts, the more so as these will be easily recognised. and
understood from the Drawings.
In applying our improvements to machines of the kind shown in
Figures 1, 2, 3, a pair of side frames or checks 1 are fixed upon the
frame beams 2 in advance of the saws (not shown), that is, so that the
wood passes between such cheeks after being sawn. The cheeks 1 are
fitted with bearings for nine transverse horizontal spindles 5, 6, 6, 7, 8, 8,
9, 10, 10, for acting on the boards of two battens 3, which move along
on edge on the opposite sides of a central fence or guide 4. Three 5, 6, 6,
of the spindles partly indicated by dotted lines in Figure 1 pass com-
pletely across under the two sets of boards 3, the centre one 5 being
fitted with sets of suitably shaped cutters for forming the rebates on the
lower edges of the boards whilst the outer ones 6 are provided with
rollers 12 for supporting and guiding the boards. Three spindles 7, 8, 8,
extending only partly across, are similarly arranged above one set of
boards, 3, and the remaining three, 9, 10, 10, above the other set of
boards, the middle one, 7, 9, of each set carrying the cutters for making

page_text: the rebates in the upper edges of the boards. Each upper set of three
spindles is carried in one block pressed down by a spring 11, with screw
adjustment, and arranged so as to cant a little and accommodate itself
to boards which may happen to taper in width. In a similar way,
instead of the outer spindles 6, 6, below the boards being continued
across the machine, as herein-before described, there may be separate
spindles projecting only partly across from each side and independent
of each other, so that each pair being carried in its own block may cant
to suit the under edges of its own boards without affecting the other
spindles. The middle or cutter spindle 5 will, however, in that case
be still continued quite across. The boards 3 after being sawn are kept
separate and guided laterally by thin vertical plates either stationary
or fixed as flanges, as shown, on the guide rollers 12. The cutter
spindles, 5, 7, 9, are driven by belts 13, 14, in a manner that will be
easily understood from the Drawing, or in any other convenient way.
Pulleys 15 carried by weighted levers 16 are applied to keep the
belts always tight, and still allow the upper spindles 7, 9, to rise and
fall in accommodating themselves to inequalities in the breadth of the
boards.
By another modification the frames 1, with the rotatory rebate
cutters are arranged at the entering end of the machinc, so that the
rebate grooves are cut in the battens before these are sawn into boards;
and in this case of course vertical separating guide plates will not be
required.
In our improved arrangement of parts for actuating the feed rollers
17, indicated by dotted lines in Figures 1 and 3, a pulley 18, having
angular grooves on its periphery is mounted on a stud and has formed
on or fixed to it a pinion which gears with spur wheels on the spindles
of the rollers 17, as indicated by red circles in Figure 3. A box-like
ring 19 is fitted to run loosely on the sides or edges of the periphery
of the pulley 18, and is formed at one part with lugs, across which
there is a pin 20, having centred on it a lever or piece 21, the outer
end of which is connected by a rod 22 to an adjustable lever 23 on a
rocking shaft 24, actuated from a revolving crank or eccentric, or to
any convenient reciprocating part of the machine. The inner end of
the lever 21 is formed with eccentrically disposed ridges, counterparts
of the pulley grooves; and when the rod 22 is pulled in one direction

page_text: the pulley is gripped between the ring 19 and the lever 21, and is
turned, whilst the parts free themselves and do not act when the rod 22
is moved back, the combination thus acting like a ratchet wheel and
catch, excepting that the stroke can be adjusted infinitesimally and is
not restricted by the size of ratchet teeth. A piece 25 formed like
the inner part of the lever 21 is set loosely on a stud in such a position
as to tend to fall into gripping contact with the pulley 18 and prevent
the pulley from moving back when the ring 19 does, whilst the forward
movement of the pulley tends to lift the piece 25 so as to free itself.
The lever 21 is set upon an eccentric part formed on the pin 20, and
this pin can be turned by means of a handle 26 so as when required
to lift the lever clear of the pulley rim, whilst a spring may be applied
to the handle 26 to hold the lever in its working position with a
yielding pressure instead of the parts being quite rigid.
Figures 4 and 5, on Sheet 2 of the Drawings, are a plan and a sec-
tional side view of a hand brace, as made with parts like those of the
feed motion last herein-before described, as indicated by the corresponding
reference numerals. The grooved pulley 18 is held in a box formed
by a pair of lugged rings 19, to which is jointed the lever 21 forming
the handle of the brace. The pin 20 is in this case made eccentric
to allow of adjustment for wear, as on loosening the pinching screw
nuts 27, by which it is secured, its eccentric part can be turned so as to
bring the lever 21 and pulley 18 nearer together.
Figures 6 and 7 show a modification, in which a single lugged ring 19
is fitted between two grooved pulleys 18, the lever 21 being forked to
correspond.
Figures 8 and 9 show a modification like that represented in Figures 4
and 5, excepting that the wedge-shaped surfaces of the pulley 18 and
lever 21 are reversed or transposed. It will be obvious that similar
modifications may be made in the parts of the feed motion shown in
Figure 3.
Figures 10 and 11 are elevations at right angles to each other of a
machine with circular saws, as fitted with our improved rebating details,
carried in this example in a single strong frame or standard 1, but
essentially the same as those herein-before described with reference to
Figures 1 and 2.
The feed motion is, however, different, being con-
tinuous, whilst the requisite slow speed is derived from the rapidly

page_text: revolving saw spindle 28, by means of direct simple differential gearing
shown enlarged in Figures 12 and 13. A spindle 29 having on it stepped
pulleys to receive a driving belt 30, has formed on it an eccentric 31,
which revolves in a box 32 fixed to the framing, and which has loose
upon it two toothed wheels 33, 34, formed in one piece. One 33 of
these wheels gears with stationary teeth formed round the inside of the
box 32, and the other 34 gears with an internally toothed wheel 35
fixed on the end of the shaft 36 of the winding barrel 37. Figure 12
is a face view with the box 32 removed, but with its teeth indicated
by blue lines; and, with the several numbers of teeth proportioned as
there shown, or similarly in any other suitable manner the desired
reduction of speed is very conveniently attained.
It will be obvious that by simply varying the numbers of the saws
(either reciprocating or rotating), and by arranging suitable cutters on
the spindles 5, 6, or 7, and guide plates on the rollers 12, battens or
other forms of wood may be simultaneously sawn and grooved, shaped,
or dressed on their edges, so as to serve for various purposes. Thus, for
example, posts may be produced in this way, their bottom sides being
dressed or equalised by cutters acting completely across, whilst grooves
may be formed in the middles of their upper sides, or wood may be
sawn into "joisting," and have both top and bottom edges dressed and
the corners chamfered or bevilled either at the top or bottom, or both.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is or may be performed, we have to state that we do
not restrict ourselves to the precise details herein described or delineated,
and that we do not claim to have invented any of the parts taken
separately, but that what we believe to be novel and original and claim
as the Invention secured to us by the hercin-before in part recited
Letters Patent is,-
1. The combining of parts in one machine so that wood may be sawn
into separate boards or pieces, and at the same time have rebates,
grooves, or other shapes cut upon such separate pieces, substantially
in the manner herein-before described.
2. The combining of parts to form feed motions for reciprocatory
sawing machines, or to form hand braces, substantially in the improved a
modes herein-before described with reference to Figures 3 to 9 of the
accompanying Drawings.

page_text: 3. The combining of differential gearing with the other parts to form a
continuous feed motion for circular saw machines, substantially in the
manner herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Hill and Alexander Morton
Strathern, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-
seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-one.
▸ Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
JOHN HILL.
(L.S.)
A. MORTON STRATHERN. (L.S.)