IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CONTINUOUS PAPER INTO SHEETS AND PILING OR DISPOSING OF THE SAME EITHER OPEN OR FOLDED."
Year: 1880

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henry Martyn Nicholls, of 13, Grove Place, Brompton,
in the County of Middlesex, Engineer, for an Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CONTINUOUS PAPER INTO SHEETS AND PILING OR
DISPOSING OF THE SAME EITHER OPEN OR FOLDED."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Martyn Nicholls at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 12th April 1880.
HENRY MARTYN NICHOLLS, of 13, Grove Place, Brompton, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CONTINUOUS
PAPER INTO SHEETS AND PILING OR DISPOSING OF THE SAME EITHER OPEN OR
FOLDED."
In the Specification of a Patent (No. 2534, A.D. 1878,) granted to mo 1
described an apparatus in which a current of air is employed to carry forward the
front of a web of paper into a suitable enclosed space, and which current of air,
after the required portion of the web has been so advanced and then severed from
the web, is employed to lay or pile the said portion or sheet on a suitable table.
The said current of air is there described as supplied partly above and partly
below the web of paper, the current being divided by the web. When the required
portion of the web has passed the knife, described in the said Specification, the
knife severs it from the web, and grippers, therein also described, are employed to
lower the end of the severed portion or sheet next the knife on to the table. The
current of air now passing over the sheet presses it down on the table or piles it.
My present improvement consists in supplying the current of air underneath the
web of paper only, while above the table the under surface of an endless flexiblo
band (or series of bands) runs continually in the direction the web travels. The
air current by its expansion presses the front of the web upwards against the said
running band or bands, and so carries it out over the table. The grippers on the
required portion of paper having been severed from the web, lower the back end of
the sheet on the table, and the air current now passing between the band or bands
and the sheet separates them and presses the sheet down on the table or piles it.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Henry Martyn Nicholls in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 11th
October 1880.
HENRY MARTYN NICHOLLS, of 13, Grove Place, Brompton, in the County of
Middlesex, Engineer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING CONTINUOUS
PAPER INTO SHEETS AND PILING OR DISPOSING OF THE SAME EITHER OPEN OR
FOLDED."
In-the Specification of a Patent granted to me, bearing date the 25th of June
1878, No. 2534, 1 described an apparatus in which a current of air is employed..to
carry forward the front of a web of paper into a suitable enclosed space, and which
current of air after the required portion of the web has been so advanced and then
severed from the web is employed to lay or pile the said portion or sheet on a
suitable table.
The said current of air is thero described as supplied partly above and partly
below the web of paper, the current being divided by the web.
When the required portion of the web has passed the knife, described in the
Specification of the said former Patent, the knife severs it from the web, and
grippers, therein also described, are employed to lower the end of the severed portion
or sheet next the knife onto the table. The current of air now passing over the
sheet presses-it-down-on-tho-table. or piles it.
My present improvement consists in supplying the current of air underneath the-
web of paper only, while above the table the under surface of an endless flexible
band or series of bands (forming a travelling surface) runs continually in the
direction the web travels.
The air current by its expansion presses the front of the web upwards against
the said running band or bands, and so carries it outwards over the table. The
grippers on the required portion of paper having been severed from the web, lower
the back end of the sheet, or that next the knife, on the table, and the air current
now pussing between the hand or bands and the sheet separates them and presses
the sheet down on the table or piles it.
Having thus stated the nature of the said Invention I will now proceed to
describe particularly in what manner the same is to be performed, aided by the
accompanying Drawings, in which are represented my present improvements
applied to parts of the said former annaratus
Figure 1 represents a side elevation, partly in section, of the improved apparatus
when employed to pile sheets of paper open; Figure 2, a front view of the same.
Arrows are employed to shew the direction of motion.
Similar letters of reference indicate similar parts in both views.
The present improvements are effected by the use of a band or series of bands
forming a surface i, which is kept continually moving in the same direction as the
web of paper at a suitable distance above the table g¹ or surface on which the
sheets are to be piled. This running surface, marked (1), I prefer, as stated, to form
of a series of endless bands placed side by side. They are passed round the rollers
2 and 3, and are kept in motion by the motion given to the roller 2, the spindle 4
of which may be conveniently driven by an endless band 5 which is passed round
the V pulleys 6 and 7, the latter of which receives the motion of the spindle of the
roller C. The band 5 is for convenience "crossed" so as to give the bands above
the pile their required direction of motion.
The air issuing from the blowing nozzle F by its expansion presses the upper
surface of the web of paper for the time under operation against the under

page_text: surface of the bands (1), and so it is carried forward over the table g'. When the
required length of the web of paper has passed the knife L the grippers, which are
more fully described in my said former Specification of Patent herein referred to,
close on it. The knife L now descending further cuts off the required length or
sheet, and the grippers lower the tail end of the sheet, or that end next the knife,
on the pile, which then allows of the air blast passing over the sheet, thereby
separating it from the bands (1) and flattening it on the pile or table g¹.
I will now proceed to describe the improvements brought about in the apparatus
by the novel arrangements I have thus described. The web of paper, particularly
at high speed, passes outwards over the pile with greater steadiness. No endless
vertical running bands, one at each side of the pile, to guide the web out with
lateral correctness are required. No blowing fan, pipe, or nozzle is required above
the web where it passes from behind the knife L out over the pile, which involved
a contracted passage way through which the web had to pass, and which involved
danger to the action of the machinery at high speeds; and further, the roller or
rollers D, if more than one is required, can without inconvenience be moved into
any position it or they may be required to occupy in order to run the web out-
wards over the pile, and the said roller or rollers may be brought as near to the
knife L as may be desired; and the improvements also facilitate the removal of
sheets of the cut paper in mass.
I prefer to employ as stated a series of parallel bands running close together, but
so long as thero is a continuous moving surface running at or above the speed of
the web of paper the desired result will be attained. The said running surface 1
supported above the table or pile is also applicablo when the apparatus is employed
in conjunction with the folding apparatus described in the said former Specification,
the first step in the folding process being the laying of the sheet or sheets to be
folded open on the table.
Having thus described the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I wish it to be understood that I do not confine myself to
the exact details herein described..
But what I claim as of my Invention is the employment of a continuous moving
surface acting in conjunction with a current of air and a table or receiving surface
suitable for piling or disposing of sheets of paper cut by suitable cutting apparatus,
which current of air causes the front of a web (or webs) of paper to adhere to the
said moving surface, and so carries it outwards over the pile or table, and which
current of air, when grippers have lowered the tail end of the sheet or sheets on
the table or receiving surface, passes over the sheet or sheets and separates it from
the moving surface, and then operates to flatten it on the table or pile or receiving
surface, substantially as described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henry Martyn Nicholls, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty.
H. L. NICHOLLS. (L.S.)
M.