Improvements in Scissors or Shears for Pruning Vines and for other Agricultural or Horticultural Purposes.
Year: 1891

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd July, 1891-Accepted, 29th Aug., 1891
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Scissors or Shears for Pruning Vines and for other
Agricultural or Horticultural Purposes.
A communication from abroad by APOLINAR KRIALES, of Gerona, in the
Kingdom of Spain, Military Officer.
I, WILLIAM PHILLIPS THOMPSON, F.C.S., M.I.M.E., of the Agency for
Foreign Patent Solicitors 6, Lord Street Liverpool, and 6, Bank Street,
Manchester, both in the County of Lancaster and 323, High Holborn in the
County of Middlesex, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
Scissors hitherto employed for pruning vines consist of a steel leaf and a cutting
blade pivoted together by a screw, that serves as an axis, the leaf remaining at
the left and the cutting blade to the right. Scissors or pruning shears thus formed
make a deviation between their two component parts on pruning, leaving a
knottiness or unevenness in the surface of the pruned branch or vine shoot and
often leaving fissures in the very place where they are most to be feared, viz., in
the heart, through which every atmospheric element prevails unfavourably to the
great detriment of the growing and life of the plant.
If the pruned surface be left with the greatest possible evenness, this damage to
the plant might be avoided.
To attain this object a double blade is employed, joined at its superior end, and,
when the scissors are operated, the steel leaf becomes confined in the space between
the double blade.
The invention is best described by aid of the accompanying drawing in which a
perspective view of the scissors is shown. In this drawing, A is the double blade,
B the single blade or leaf. These are pivoted together at C. A stud D may be
provided, if desired, for limiting the movement of the blades. E is a spring for
opening the blades automatically, this may be provided or not as desired.
In using the improved scissors or shears, farmers have found the pruned surfaces
to be completely even and smooth and without any fissures or borders.
The invention has been therefore fully tested by farmers and above all by
cultivators of vines, and, whenever the invention has been put in practice, a perfect
pruning has been demonstrated beyond any doubt. Moreover, the plants do not
run any risk from the effects of weather, which have hitherto been detrimental
immediately after an operation so important and hazardous as pruning has taken
place and which is done in the winter months, when the state of the atmosphere is
very rigorous.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, as communicated to me by
my foreign correspondent, I declare that what I claim is :-
1. The improvement in scissors or shears for pruning vines and other agricultural
or horticultural purposes, which consists in forming them with a double blade A,
and a single blade or leaf of thin steel pivoted to, and operating in conjunction
with, the said double blade substantially as described.
2. The general combined arrangement and construction of parts, substantially as
described and shown on the accompanying drawing.
Dated thin 09nd dow of Tul 1901