AN IMPROVED CUTTING AND SPLITTING MACHINE."
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Jeffery, of Dorking, in the County of Surrey,
for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED CUTTING AND SPLITTING MACHINE."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Jeffery at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th June 1878.
THOMAS JEFFERY, of Dorking, in the County of Surrey. "AN IMPROVED
CUTTING AND SPLITTING MACHINE,"
My Invention consists in the employment of the following apparatus or suitable
mechanical equivalents therefor, that is to say:-Upon a bearing in a suitable
pedestal or standard I suspend in the manner of a pendulum a bar, having at the
lower end a segmental portion, on the face whereof is arranged the series of knives
or cutters inserted therein and projecting therefrom.
The said knives are, in number, and are so spaced apart, as to be proportionate to
the number of pieces and the thickness of the same, into which the wood or other
material under treatment is to be cut, and which said material is fed up to the
knives or cutters at right angles thereto, and in the same plane as the cutting-off
knife or knives, which are fitted at one or both ends of the segment previously
named.
For the purpose of giving the necessary vibrating or reciprocating motion to the
before-mentioned cutter bar and segment, I dispose or arrange a shaft carried in
supports at a suitable distance from the before-mentioned cutter bar and segment,
having upon the same the necessary driving pullies and a disc or a crank, to the stud
or pin of which said disc or crank is adapted a connecting rod, attached at the other
end to the previously-described pendulous lever, carrying the segment with cutters,
so that on the driving shaft being worked the pendulous cutter bar and segment has
a reciprocating or vibrating movement imparted to it, the amount of its travel or
"stroke" being proportionate to the eccentricity of the disc or the throw of the
crank.
With the object of keeping the wood or other material continuously fed up to the
utting apparatus before described, and of causing the said "feed" to be self-acting,

page_text: I adapt to the driving shaft of the machine an arrangement of rods and levers which
take into and work in connection with the serrated rollers of the feed box. The
pieces of wood or pieces of other material when detached fall through an opening at
one end, or openings at both ends of the cutter seginent, and passing through an
opening in the framing are carried away from the machine.
The whole apparatus is mounted upon or carried on a suitable base or bed
plate.
According to another modification of my said Invention, instead of mounting the
cutter bar or lever as before described, I dispose or arrange the same so as to work
(in either a vertical, horizontal, or other convenient position) upon a pivot in a
standard or pedestal, and impart to the same a certain amount of play or travel
through the intervention of a connecting rod and crank or other suitable mechanical
equivalent therefor; and I prefer in this latter arrangement to fix the knives or
cutters on the top and the two sides of the segmental portion at the end of the
vibrating lever. or bar, the said segment containing the cutters being formed as a
hollow box, open at the bottom, so that the pieces of wood when detached fall
through the said hollow box and are carried away from the machine.
In this last-described modification of the apparatus, according to my said
Invention, when mounted to work between two vertical standards, the knives
or cutters would be so arranged on a cutter box open at both ends as to allow the
detached pieces of wood or other material to fall out at the bottom thereof.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Thomas Jeffery in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th
September 1878.
THOMAS JEFFERY, of Dorking, in the County of Surrey. "AN IMPROVED
CUTTING AND SPLITTING MACHINE."
In carrying out my said Invention I suspend from a bearing at the top of a
pedestal or standard a rod or bar, having at the lower end a segmental portion, on
the face whereof is arranged a series of knives or cutters inserted therein and pro-
jecting therefrom.
The said knives or cutters are in number, and are so spaced apart as to be pro-
portionate to the number of pieces and the thickness of the same, into which the
wood or other material under treatment is to be cut, and which said material is fed
up to the knives or cutters in the manner herein-after described and shewn.
The said segmental portion containing the knives or cutters, before referred to,
has also fitted in a vertical position at one or both ends thereof a cutting-off knife
for detaching the several pieces of wood which have already been cut in the opposite
plane by the first-named knives or cutters:
For the purpose of actuating the cutting apparatus I dispose or arrange a shaft
carried in supports on the top of the operating table, at the further or driving end
thereof, and having at one end the necessary driving pullies, and at the other end a
fly wheel, to the disc portion of which, or it may be to a crank, is adapted a rod,
which is connected at the other end to the segmental portion, before referred to,
containing the knives or cutters, and free to work between two segmental guide

page_text: pieces secured to the lower part of the vertical support or standard attached to the
top of the operating table, so that on the driving shaft being worked the pendulous
bar or rod and the before-mentioned segmental part at the end thereof have a
reciprocating or vibrating movement imparted thereto, the amount of travel or stroke
being proportionate to the eccentricity of the disc or the throw of the crank..
With the object of keeping the wood or other material continuously fed up to the
cutting apparatus before described, and of causing the same to be self-acting, I
adapt to the driving shaft of the machine an arrangement of an eccentric rod with
levers and other details for operating the feeding portion of the apparatus, all as
herein-after fully described and shewn. The pieces of wood or other material when
detached fall through an opening at one or both ends of the cutter segment clear of
the machine.
The cutter segment may otherwise be formed as a box, open at the bottom and
two ends, so that the pieces of wood when detached fall through the same clear of
the machine, the knives being fixed on the top and two sides of the segmental box;
the rod or bar to which the latter is attached may be arranged to work between
two vertical standards, or may work in a horizontal or other convenient portion.
For the purpose of illustrating my said Invention I have appended the accom-
panying Sheet of Drawings, in the several views of which the same letters of
reference are employed to denote like or corresponding parts.
Figure 1 is an elevational view of the apparatus taken on the delivery side
thereof (line x, y), and Figure 2 is a plan view (partly in horizontal section at the
driving end).
A is the operating table or base; B is the standard having the pendulous bar C
suspended from and free to vibrate upon a bearing a in the top of the standard or
support B, which latter is formed as the upper part of a casting, of which the lower
part b is arranged as a bridged or arched portion, to which are adapted the other
parts of the apparatus to be herein-after described, the said bridged or arched
portion being bolted to the table A. D is the segmental portion before described,
carrying the series of knives or cutters and secured to C; the segmental portion D
works between the guide pieces c, c.
The series of knives or cutters in D are indicated by the Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7,
and they are shewn in detail with the mode of their attachment and adjustment in
the detailed views, Figures 3 and 4.
d is the cutting-off blade; E is the connecting rod between D and the disc F of
the fly wheel G, keyed on the shaft H, carried in bearings e, e, on the top of the
operating table A at the driving end, and having also thereupon the driving
pullies ff. For the purpose of effecting the feeding of the wood to the cutters K
is an eccentric on the shaft H, connected by the rod k to the lever L which carries
a pawl l, taking into the ratchet wheel M on the vertical spindle N, on which is
also attached the series of serrated feeding rollers P. On the opposite side of the
feed box S is another spindle N¹ with a series of serrated feeding rollers P¹. The
R is a lever
spindles N, N¹, have keyed upon them the spur wheels Q, Q¹,
with weight r, by means of which the feed rollers P₁ are pressed into contact
with the wood while being fed up through the feed box S to be cut and split up.
Although I have only shewn one cutting-off blade d, there may be two of such, one
at each end of D.
I may also in some cases, with a view to increase the utility of the machine,
adapt to the table A an arrangement for "cross cutting" or sawing up the wood
into blocks or pieces of the requisite size ready for feeding up to the cutting portion
of the apparatus.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner of
carrying out the same, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself
to the exact details herein described and shewn, as these may be modified or varied
without departing from the main or essential features of my said Invention as herein-
before described and set forth, but what I claim is, the arrangement of cutting and
splitting apparatus with the knives arranged as shewn, so that there shall not be

page_text: more than two knives in the wood at one time combined with the self-acting feed,
all substantially as herein described and shewn, or any- mere mechanical equivalent
therefor.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Jeffery, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Tenth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
THOMAS JEFFERY. (L.S.)