AN IMPROVEMENT IN CUTTING HAY, STRAW, AND OTHER FIBROUS ARTICLES AND SUBSTANCES
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to James Lamb Hancock, of Neath, in the County of
Glamorgan, Medical Practitioner, for the Invention of "AN IMPROVEMENT
IN CUTTING HAY, STRAW, AND OTHER FIBROUS ARTICLES AND SUBSTANCES."
Scaled the 4th August 1854, and dated the 9th June 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Lamb Hancock at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
9th June 1854.
I, JAMES LAMB HANCOCK, of Neath, in the County of Glamorgan, Medical
Practitioner, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN CUTTING HAY, STRAW, AND OTHER FIBROUS ARTICLES AND SUBSTANCES," to
be as follows:-
Heretofore in chaff cutting and such like machines it has been usual to
place and combine the trough or apparatus containing the hay, straw, or
substances to be cut at right angles to the cutters, and so that the cut is at
right angles to the feed. Now, my improvement consists of the combination
of the trough or apparatus containing the fibrous substances with the other
parts of the machines, so as to bring it in an oblique direction in respect to
the cutters or cutting apparatus of the machinery, by which the feed of the
substances will be inclined to the cutters, and not at right angles thereto, as
heretofore.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Lamb Hancock in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 9th December 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JAMES
LAMB HANCOCK, formerly of Neath, in the County of Glamorgan, Medical
Practitioner, now of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Ninth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Lamb Hancock, Her special licence that I, the said James Lamb
Hancock, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said James Lamb Hancock, my 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 "AN IMPROVE-
MENT IN CUTTING HAY, STRAW, AND OTHER FIBROUS ARTICLES AND SUBSTANCES,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said James Lamb Hancock, by
an instrument in writing under my hand 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 James Lamb Hancock, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):-
Heretofore in chaff cutting and such like machines it has been usual to
place and combine the trough or apparatus containing the hay, straw, or
substances to be cut at right angles to the cutters, and so that the cut is at
right angles to the feed. Now, my improvement consists of the combination
of the trough or apparatus (containing the fibrous substances) with the other
parts of the machine, so as to bring it in an oblique direction in respect to the
cutters or cutting apparatus of the machinery, by which the feed of the
substances will be inclined to the cutters, and not at right angles thereto, as
heretofore.

page_text: Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, I will proceed to describe
the manner of performing the same. The construction of chaff-cutting
machines being well understood, it will not be necessary-to describe the same
here; and although they differ in respect to the form of knives or cutters used,
and the means of driving the same, each essentially consists of a trough, a
pair of feed rollers, a mouth-piece, and a cutter, or cutters. The front of the
mouth-piece and the axes of the feed rollers being in parallel planes and at
right angles to the sides of the trough, hence the straws or stalks or substances
are moved parallel to the sides of the trough, and consequently come with
their ends forward through the mouth-piece at right angles to the front face
thereof; the succession of cuts is consequently made at right angles to the
feed. Now, I have found that less power is required when a chaff-cutting
machine is so arranged as to make an oblique cut across the straws or
stems or substances; and my Invention consists of constructing a chaff-cutting
machine, with the, trough in-an- oblique direction, in respect to the cutting
apparatus of the machine, and I prefer the angle shown in the Drawing, but
this may be varied. The feeding rollers work as 'heretofore. The front of
as the cutters are set at,
the mouth-piece is at the same angle to the trough
hence the straws and stalks or stems or other matters will be protruded
beyond the mouth-piece, but not as heretofore at right angles thereto. The
cutters I prefer to use are those with convex edges, and fixed on the spokes
or arms of a wheel; but other arrangements of cutters may be employed, so
long as they make what are called drawing or angular cuts; and I cause the
cut to commence with the upper angle of the protruded straw, where the
front of the mouth-piece is nearest the rollers, and to finish at the lower angle
of the protruding straw, where the front of the mouth-piece is most distant
from the rollers. It is desirable that each quantity of straw or stalks or
stems or other matters should not have liberty materially to expand after it
leaves the pinch of the rollers, for which purpose the upper and under sides of
the mouth-piece are made of a triangular form, so as to produce an enclosed
passage between the rollers and the front of the mouth-piece, the opening into
the back end of the mouth-piece nearest the rollers being, as heretofore,
somewhat larger than the opening out of the front end of the mouth-piece.
Figure 1 shows a plan (and Figure 2 shows a front view of the cutters) of so
much of a chaff-cutting machine, arranged according to my Invention, as will
enable a workınan readily to carry out my improvement. a is the wheel with
the cutters b, b. The axis of this wheel by the pinion c gives motion to the
wheel d, which gives motion to the feed rollers, as shown. The arrangement
of the parts may, however, be varied.

page_text: Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
'performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to any
of the parts separately; but what I claim is, the combining the parts of a
machine for cutting hay, straw, and other fibrous articles and substances,
in such manner that the trough or apparatus containing the matters to be
cut shall be in an oblique direction to that of the cut of the cutting apparatus
of the machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said James Lamb Hancock, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Ninth day of December, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
JAMES LAMB HANCOCK. (L8.)