IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SLICING CUCUMBERS AND OTHER VEGETABLES FOR CULINARY PUR POSTS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Wilkins, Engineer, and William Fisk,
Ironfounder, both of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR SLICING
CUCUMBERS AND OTHER VEGETABLES FOR CULINARY PUR POSTS"
Sealed the 3rd December 1869, and dated the 4th June 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Wilkins and
William Fisk at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 4th June 1869.
We, THOMAS WILKINS, Engineer, and WILLIAM FISK, Ironfounder,
both of Ipswich, in the County of Suffolk, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
SLICING CUCUMBERS AND OTHER VEGETABLES FOR CULINARY PURPOSES," to be as
follows:-
In carrying out our Invention we mount a circular disc on a vertical
axis turning in bearings in a tripod or other suitable stand which may be

page_text: secured to a table or other support by screws or otherwise. Upon the
axis of the disc is keyed a pinion gearing with a spur driving wheel
mounted on the stand and furnished with a winch handle for operating
the same. The disc is provided with three or more adjustable knives
mounted radially in slots or apertures formed therein. A fixed hopper
or receptacle is carried on the stand above and towards one side of the
disc in which are placed the cucumbers or other vegetables to be sliced
so as to rest upon the revolving disc, the knives of which successively
cut off slices of the thickness desired. These slices pass through the
slots or apertures in the disc on to a dish or plate placed beneath it for
receiving them. The cutting knives are secured to the disc in an inclined
position by means of screws passing through the slots in said knives
so as to permit of their cutting edges, which rise through the slots and
project from the surface of the disc, being adjusted to cut slices of any
thickness desired. The vegetables rest upon the disc by their own
gravity, or pressure may be applied by hand or otherwise to keep them
close down thereon.
In cutting up some vegetables, such as onions, I prefer to apply a
close fitting cover to the receptacle to prevent the pungent odor liberated
in cutting up ascending into the eyes of the operator. Through this
cover we may pass a rod if necessary to keep the vegetables close down
upon the disc.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Wilkins and William Fisk in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 4th December 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, THOMAS
WILKINS, Engineer, and WILLIAM FISK, Ironfounder, both of Ipswich,
in the County of Suffolk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourth day of June, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-second
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Thomas Wilkins and William Fisk, Her special

page_text: licence that we, the said Thomas Wilkins and William Fisk, our execu-
tors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Thomas:
Wilkins and William Fisk, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
SLICING CUCUMBERS AND OTHER VEGETABLES FOR CULINARY PURPOSES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Thomas Wilkins and
William Fisk, our exccutors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 we, the said Thomas Wilkins and William Fisk,
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, reference being had to the Sheet of
Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
In carrying out our Invention we mount a circular disc on a vertical
axis turning in bearings on a tripod or other suitable stand which may
be secured to a table or other support by screws or otherwise. Upon the
axis of the disc is keyed a pinion gearing with a spur driving wheel
mounted on the stand and furnished with a winch handle for operating
the same. The disc is provided with one or more adjustable knives
mounted radially in slots or apertures formed therein. A fixed hopper
or receptacle is carried on the stand, above and towards one side of the
disc, in which are placed the cucumbers or other vegetables to be sliced
so as to rest upon the revolving disc, the knives of which successively
cut off slices of the thickness desired. These slices pass through the
slots or apertures in the disc on to a dish or plate placed beneath it for
receiving them. The cutting knives are secured to the disc in an
inclined position by means of screws passing through the slots in said

page_text: Figure 1 shows a plan, and Figure 2 a sectional elevation on line 1, 2,
Figure 1, of our improved apparatus for slicing vegetables.
A is a horizontal disc carried on a vertical axis mounted to rotate in
a stand B.
On the upper end of the vertical axis is keyed a pinion C
with which gears a spur driving wheel D mounted on a fixed axis on
stand B and furnished with a suitable winch handle. E, E, are
adjustable knives mounted radially in disc A and passing in an inclined
direction through slots F formed therein. These kives E are secured in
position by screws 6 passing through slots in the knives so that their
cutting edges may be caused to project more or less above the surface
of diso A according to the thickness of the slices required. G is an open
receptacle carried on stand B for holding the cucumber or other vegetable
to be sliced which rests on the surface of the disc by its own gravity, as
shown, or pressure may be applied thereto by hand or otherwise if required.
The disc A being rotated by means of the gearing before described the
knife or knives will successively cut off slices of the desired thickness,
which slices pass through the slots F into a dish or plate placed beneath
disc A for their reception as shown.
Having described the nature of our Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we declare that what we claim as our Invention to
be protected by the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the
construction and arrangement of parts constituting the improved
apparatus for slicing vegetables for culinary purposes herein-before

page_text: described and represented in the Drawings annexed or any mere modi-
fication thereof,
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Wilkins, for myself and on
behalf of the said William Fisk, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twenty-third day of November, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
THOMAS WILKINS. (L.S.)