IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CUTTING, GRINDING, AND POLISHING
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Carter Ramsden at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th February 1880.
JOHN CARTER RAMSDEN, of "Bilton Garth," in the Parish of Hampsthwaite,
in the County of York. "IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CUTTING, GRINDING, AND
POLISHING."
This Invention has for its object the construction of rollers and apparatus
connected therewith in such a manner that the periphery thereof shall be covered
with innumerable cutting edges and spaces or recesses capable of holding and
retaining a cutting or grinding material, so that any substance presented thereto
under proper conditions will be either ground, polished, cleaned, or crushed in
accordance with the nature of the operation required. The method by which I
obtain the cutting edge is somewhat as follows:-I take steel rods or wire of a
suitable strength and of square, triangular, or of any other sectional form that will
present cutting edges when twisted longitudinally. I then form the twisted rods,
wire, or wires into helical coils, and interlac them into each other and hold them
in position by means of locking pins. I thus produce a flexible metal fabric,
possessing innumerable cutting edges, and the coils which form the fabric must
be interlaced, one having a left, and the other a right hand twist or helix. With
this fabric I cover suitable rollers, which will be found of much utility for a variety
of purposes, and amongst others I will enumerate the following:-
First. For the grinding of card teeth used in the manipulation of animal and
vegetable fibres. In this case I purpose to place a roller or series of rollers
clothed with this fabric (either all of one fineness or of different degrees of finenesscs)
in suitable bearings, and cause them to revolve at a great speed. These rollers
are continually fed or supplied with a grinding material, such as emery in powder,
or its equivalent, and with water, or oil, or fat, or some suitable substitute. The
interstices in the face of the fabrics and betwixt the twist of the wire forming the
fabric will become filled up with the emery paste or other grinding material, and
the cards to be operated upon are caused to pass over the rollers with a slight
pressure, and are drawn in a contrary direction to what the rollers are revolving,
the consequence of which will be that three sides of each tooth in the cards will
be ground away, thus forming tapored points thereon, a great and long desirod
desideratum.
Second. These rollers will be found of great utility in cleaning spun fibres from
lunins. In this case I purpose to pass the threads over and under a pair of rollers,

page_text: or a series of rollers clothed with the metallic fabric, and caused them to revolve
at a great speed and in a contrary direction to what the threads are passing. In
this case there is no grinding material requisite; the cutting edges caused by the
twisting of the wire will rub or cut off all lumps and leave the yarn smoothe.
When it is desirable to polish yarns, such as cords, sewing threads, and others of a
similar nature, these rollers will prove of great utility, inasmuch as the threads will
be polished in their round state, and not flattened to the same degree as when
polished with plain rollers. When used for this purpose a series of rollers are
employed; the first or any other of the series may be used to coat the yarn with
size or polishing matter by simply immersing the lower half of the roller in a trough
containing such substance; others of the said rollers can be constructed hollow and
heated internally with steam or heaters, or the heat could be applied externally,
and with this principle and a proper arrangement of rollers and parts yarns of any
description can be cleaned, sized, dried, and polished.
Third. The method here described for coating rollers with a fabric constructed of
twisted steel presenting innumerable cutting edges will be found of much
advantage for splitting, crushing, and grinding the different kinds of cereals, such
as beans, peas, wheat, and all seeds of a vegetable nature, and a variety of other
substancos. When used for splitting or crushing I place rollers clothed with the
metallic fabric referred to, and with the faces thereof set at a distance from
each other, according to the nature and bulk of the seed to be operated upon;
these rollers will travel at the same speed, and all seeds fed therein will be cut up
and crushed by the action of the innumerable cutting edges on the surface theroof.
When one roller is caused to revolve at a greater speed than the other, both a
crushing and a grinding effect is produced, and by a proper arrangement of rollers
in tiers, one pair above another, the first or highest pair can be used to split or
crush the grain into small pieces; the next pair, by reason of one roller being made
to revolve at a greater speed than its fellow, will tear or grind and so further reduce
the small pieces; and the next, by reason of one of the rollers being made to
revolve at a considerably greater speed than its fellow, and both being clothed with
finer cutting edges, and their surfaces placed nearer each other, will grind the
crushed or broken grain into flour; or for this purpose rollers constructed upon
this principle can have the interstices of the fabric filled with a composition that
will set into a hard coherent mass, and present a grinding surface similar in effect
to the porcelain rollers now used for this purpose. Amongst other compositions I
may mention the following, or some modification thereof, for effecting the desired
result, vis. If powdered pumice stone or sharp sand in the proportion of eight parts
to one part of carbonato of lead be mixed together with a soluble silicate, and the
fabric on the rollers tilled and coated with the paste, a very hard and coherent
surface will be obtained with good grinding properties. Other methods of utilizing
the advantages to be obtained from the cutting edges of the twisted angular wire
can for some purposes be used; for example, instead of the wires being formed into
helical coils and interlaced, as before described, it may be wound on to rods and
there remain, and the surface of a roller may be covered with these rods placed close
to each other or at suitable distances, and held in position by suitable means; and
this method (where it can be used) will possess the following advantage, i.e. —
When the cutting edge of one part is worn the rods may be slightly turned and a
new cutting surface presented, and in some cases it might be found useful to merely
wind the twisted wire around a plain roller and fasten the ends. Where the
twisted rods forming cutting edges are of sufficient strength they may be secured
longitudinally along the periphery of the roller, in some cases grooves being found
for the reception of the twisted rods. It will be obvious that to enable the steel
wire or rods to be twisted and coiled the metal must be in a soft state, and when
the twisted fabric is simply to be used as a means for. carrying and retaining the
grinding material (as when operating upon card teeth) then the softness of the
metal is not of much consequence; but when the effect is to be produced by or with
the cutting edges of the angular wire or rods, then it will bo obvious that the
:

page_text: harder and sharper these edges are and the better will be the effect produced, hence
I purpose to harden the fabric after it is placed upon the roller. This process may
be accomplished by placing the roller in a suitable furnace, and causing it to
revolve until the fabric is sufficiently hot that it will become hard when subjected
to the usual cooling influences. By preference the nature of the heat to be employed
for heating the fabric is that described in the Specification of Letters Patent
granted me for "Operating upon Iron and Steel Wire," bearing date the 2nd
day of April 1879, No. 1315, simply because such heat as is there generated is most
intense, and under perfect command, and free from all noxious gases, sulphur, or
smoke; and the fabric will be less likely to scale or burn than it would with a coal
fire.