IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OUT MILITARY, NAVAL, AND POLICE UNIFORMS, AND OTHER CLOTHING
Year: 1858

page_text: application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Donald Nicoll at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th March
1858.
I, DONALD NICOLL, of 114, Regent Street, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OUT MILITARY, NAVAL, AND POLICE UNIFORMS, AND OTHER
CLOTHING," to be as follows:-
My Invention has reference to cutting out regimentals for the army, uniforms
for the navy and police, and other clothing required in large quantities to
fixed patterns or standards, by means of the improved machinery herein-after
described. In order to execute contracts for army and other clothing required
for a great number of men with expedition and accuracy it is essential that
the cloth should be cut by machinery, the ordinary mode of cutting with
shears being too slow and troublesome.
The machinery now in use for cutting out such garments are costly, and
mostly require the attendance of skilled workmen, whereas the machine herein-
after described may be readily put into operation by steam, hydraulic, or other
power, or worked by hand without the attention of any skilled artisan. Before
placing the cloth in the cutting machine it must be arranged in lengths or
folds to suit the garment to be made. This is effected by means of an instru-
ment constructed in the following manner :-A rod, bar, or stick of metal or

page_text: wood is pointed or hooked at both ends, and fixed in the centre on an axis in
such a manner as to permit of being easily moved up and down. By this
means the cloth may be folded in suitable lengths and to the required thickness.
The cutter consists of a frame of wrought or malleable iron fashioned to the
form of any required garment, and so constructed as to admit of the insertion
between the edges of the lower surface of cutters or knives of well-tempered steel
secured therein by means of screws or otherwise. The frame gives the form, and
the blade cuts out the cloth to the extent of its diameter on the application of
pressure. The points of junction are made to meet so closely that the blade
or knife, although divided, acts as well as if it were one continuous piece, and
this arrangement admits of an easy adjustment of the blades, and of their
replacement when worn, and also of being curved to any shape, and it is of
course more economical to make blades in short than in long pieces. Instead
of using a hollowed frame, however, the blades may be attached to a solid
plate of metal, similar in appearance to the paper patterns used by tailors.
The blades should be attached to the edges by screws or other suitable means,
and to the extent of the depth of these blades will the folds of cloth be cut
when pressure is applied. There are so many ways of applying pressure to
these cutters that it is superfluous to enter into any description thereof, but
one mode is to place the cloth to be cut on a moveable table or platform, and
when the cutters is placed on the cloth to raise it, so as to bring it into
contact with another table or platform, to which pressure is to be applied,
when the cloth will be cut or punched through to the required shape; the cut
made is clean and sharp, and with adequate power as many as eighty or one
hundred thicknesses or folds may be cut through at one stroke, the action in
this respect being similar to that of a punching machine on metal. The garments
having been cut out by machinery may be stitched or sewn together by the
sewing machines; and by the employment of these two mechanical arrange-
ments clothing for a whole army may be made in a few days, while by manual
labour the same work could hardly be done in as many months. Among
other advantages of the cutting machine, perhaps, not the least is, that in
large establishments where many persons are employed to cut out cloth, the
substitution of this machine tends to diminish the loss of cloth from the
dishonesty of such persons.