IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING VEGETABLE AND OTHER SUBSTANCES
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Arthur Biddell, of Ipswich, Engineer,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING
VEGETABLE AND OTHER SUBSTANCES."
Sealed the 8th September 1858, and dated the 29th June 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Arthur
Biddell at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 29th June 1853.
I, GEORGE ARTHUR BIDDELL, of Ipswich, Engineer, do hereby declare
the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
CUTTING VEGETABLE AND OTHER SUBSTANCES" to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in forming the cutters of apparatus for
cutting vegetable and other substances from angular or shaped
bars of iron or steel, which may be rolled and cut into suitable lengths,
and arranged upon an axis in such manner that one edge of cach
bar or cutter will act as a cutting surface, and each of these bars or
cutters may be also so arranged that when any one of the edges
becomes blunt or injured the cutter can be readily taken out and the
cutting edge reversed, or, if required, another cutter substituted. These

page_text: cutters by reason of their form will be found to clear themselves very
freely of the substances which are being cut, on account of the spaces
between each cutter becoming wider and wider from the cutting edge.
The cutters may be also arranged without having spaces between them,
and so as to have a reciprocating instead of a rotatory motion.
Although I have described cutters made from bars of an angular or
form, other forms of bars may be substituted, so as to obtain a
similar result; for instance, a curved or shaped bar would produce
two cutting surfaces, which may be reversed by turning end for end.
D
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said George Arthur Biddell in the Great Seal Patent
Office, on the 23rd December 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, T,
GEORGE ARTHUR BIDDELL, of Ipswich, Engineer, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-ninth day of June, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three, in the
seventeenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, fer heirs and succes-
sors, give and grant unto me, the said George Arthur Biddell. Her
special licence that I, the said George Arthur Biddell, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as 1, the said George
Arthur Biddell, 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 law-
fully might make, uso, exercise, and vend, within the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of
Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING
VEGETABLE AND OTHER SUBSTANCES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that, the said George Arthur Biddell, 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

page_text: same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed in the
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and in-
mediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said George Arthur Biddell, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascer
tained in and by the following statement thereof (that is to say):
This Invention consists in forming the cutters of apparatus for
cutting vegetable and other substances from angular or V shaped
bars of iron or steel, which may be rolled and cut into suitable lengths,
and arranged upon an axis in such manner that one edge of each bar
or cutter will act as a cutting surface, and each of these bars or cutters
may be also so arranged that when any one of the edges becomes
blunt or injured the cutter can be readily taken out and the cutting
edge reversed, or, it required, another cutter substituted. These cutters
by reason of their form will be found to clear themselves very freely
of the substances which are being cut, on account of the spaces
between each cutter becoming wider and wider from the cutting edge.
The cutters may be also arranged without having spaces between them,
anil so as to have a reciprocating instead of a rotatory motion.
Although I have described cutters made from bars of an angular or
form, other forms of bars may be substituted, so as to obtain a
similar result; for instance, a curved or D shaped bar would produce
two cutting surfaces, which may be reversed by turning end for end.
Having described the nature of my Invention, I will now describe
the accompanying Drawing, which represents my Invention in its
most approved form and arrangement as applied to cutting beans and
other pulse for cattle, and it will well illustrate the principles of my
Invention.
The Drawing is full size, and only such parts are omitted as are
common to such machines, and such as are unnecessary for illustrating
the action and principles of the machine.
The same letters in each Figure refer to the same parts of the
machine.

page_text: Figure 1, represents a front elevation of the machine.
Figure 2, is a plan with the wooden hopper. and the iron cap to
which the hopper is attached removed.
Figure 8, is a section at right angles to the axis of the machine.
A, is a cast iron frame having four bolt holes, one at each corner, by
which it is to be fastened to any suitable frame or bracket by screws or
bolts. This frame A, has two bearings in which the spindle B. revolves.
Upon the spindle B, are fixed two cast iron heads C, in which are
made triangular holes through the entire thickness of the heads, and at
regular distances apart, quite round the circle, as shown in Figure 9.
These holes receive the ends of the triangular cutters D, which are
retained in their places by screwing upon each cast head C, a ring E,
by means of the screws F; G, is a cast iron abutment plate having
two gudgeons, which rest upon two projecting lugs cast upon the frame
A, these lugs project so far as nearly to touch the cast heads C, and
thus serve as keeps for the stuff to be cut; H, is a screw tapped into
the boss of the frame A. by which the abutment plate is regulated so
as to clear the cutting edges as they revolve past the edge of the
abutment plate. The spindle 1. is kept in its bearings by means of the
cap of cast iron I. which is held down to the cast frame A, by means
of the four bolts and nuts K, which bolts pass through the holes
marked L, in Figure 2. Upon the cap J, are cast two internal pro-
jections, which correspond to those cast upon the frame A; they are
shown by dotted lines in Figure 1. and one is shown and marked I, in
Figure 5; these projections keep the abutment plate in its place, and
they also serve to keep the substances to be ent from falling away side-
ways; M, is a wooden hopper fastened to the iron cap J, by means of
screws N; O, is a piece of wood fixed inside the hopper, so as to
prevent the substances to be cut from falling on the wrong side of the
cylinder formed by the cutters.
.
The action of the machine is as follows:-Beans or other suitable
substances being put into the hopper, and motion given to the cutters
by turning the spindle in the direction of the arrows shewn in Figure 3.
they will be cut by coming between the edges of the cutters and the
abutment plate. and the piece cut off will pass between two cutters into

page_text: the interior of the cylinders, and escape at each end of the same
through the spaces between the three arms of the ends, and fall down
into a trough or other receptacle.
.j
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I do
not confine myself to the precise form of the cutters or of the details
herein described. But what I claim is, the mode of constructing and
combining apparatus herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Arthur Biddell, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-
three
GEORGE ARTHUR BIDDELL. (L.S.)
Witness, THOMAS MARSHALL,
of Ipswich,
Accountant.