IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MARKING OR CUTTING WOVEN FABRICS INTO LENGTHS SUCH AS ARE REQUIRED FOR MAKING SACKS
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Mitchell, junior, and George Thomson
Graham, both of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, North
Britain, Manufacturers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR MARKING OR CUTTING WOVEN FABRICS INTO LENGTHS
SUCH AS ARE REQUIRED FOR MAKING SACKS."
Sealed the 24th July 1868, and dated the 31st January 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Mitchell and
George Thomson Graham at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 31st January 1868.
We, JOHN MITCHELL, junior, and GEORGE THOMSON GRAHAM, both
of Dundee, in the County of Forfar, North Britain, Manufacturers,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR MARKING OR CUTTING WOVEN FABRICS INTO LENGTHS
SUCH AS ARE REQUIRED FOR MAKING SACKS," to be as follows, that is to
say:
This Invention relates to improved apparatus by means of which
time and labor may be saved and increased accuracy be secured
in cutting up woven fabrics into lengths for various purposes, such

page_text: for example as the making of sacks. The improved apparatus
comprises a roller or other convenient appliance for drawing or
moving the fabric through the apparatus, driven by any suitable
gearing which also drives or acts in concert with a cam, crank, or
equivalent appliance arranged to cause a marking or cutting instrument
to act periodically on the fabric. With such details there is by
preference combined any convenient counting mechanism which can be
arranged to stop the machine or to sound an alarm on a certain number
of lengths being marked or cut, or merely to record the number of
lengths marked or cut. The fabric may be cut completely across
at each stroke, or the lengths may be merely marked by notches
being cut into the selvedges, or the lengths may be marked by the
application of a black or other suitable substance without being cut
or notched. The details of the apparatus may be variously modified,
but in one convenient arrangement a single knife is fixed in a block
which can slide in suitable guides, being raised by a revolving cam
which lets it fall at regular intervals. In falling the knife encounters
and cuts the fabric which is passing below either round a roller or
over a table. The fabric may move on continuously or the gearing
driving it may be arranged by well known means to make it pause
whilst the knife is cutting it. The motion of the cam shaft relatively
to that of the drawing roller or rollers can be varied by means of
change wheels or otherwise so that the apparatus can be set or adjusted
for marking or cutting any required length. Any suitable known
arrangement may be adopted for the counting mechanism; and if
this is made to act on details for stopping the machine it will be
arranged to give a comparatively slow motion to a disc or wheel in
which a pin will be adjusted in a position corresponding to the
required number of lengths. This pin on coming round to a certain
position will press a catch so as to release the spring lever that throws
the driving belt upon the loose pulley and the machine will be thereby
stopped. Various kinds of cutting or marking instruments may be
used and there may be more than one in the same machine; such
instruments may also act by weights or springs or by the positive
pulling or pushing action of the driving shaft.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said John Mitchell and George Thomson Graham
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 30th July 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, JOHN
MITCHELL, junior, and GEORGE THOMSON GRAILAM, both of Dundee, in
the County of Forfar, North Britain, Manufacturers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of January, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto us, the said John Mitchell, junior,
and George Thomson Graham, Her special licence that wc, the said
John Mitchell, junior, and George Thomson Graham, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said John
Mitchell, junior, and George Thomson Graham, 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 Island, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR MARKING OR CUTTING WOVEN FABRICS INTO LENGTHS SUCH
AS ARE REQUIRED FOR MAKING SACKS," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said John Mitchell, junior, and George Thomson
Graham, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly 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 John Mitchell, junior, and
George Thomson Graham, 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 in writing, reference being had to
the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say :-
Our said Invention relates to improved
2.

page_text: suitable
which time and labor may be saved and increased accuracy be
secured in cutting up woven fabrics into lengths for various purposes,
such for example as the making of sacks. Our improved apparatus
comprises a roller or other convenient appliance for drawing or
moving the fabric through the apparatus driven by any
gearing, which also drives or acts in concert with a cam, crank,
or equivalent appliance arranged to cause a marking or cutting
With such details we
instrument to act periodically on the fabric.
prefer to combine any convenient counting mechanism which can
be arranged to stop the machine or to sound an alarm on a certain
number of lengths being marked or cut, or merely to record the
number of lengths marked or cut.
And in order that our said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, we have hereunto appended
a Sheet of explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and
representing a convenient arrangement of apparatus as constructed
with a modification of our improved appliances.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the machine, and Figure 2 is a
longitudinal vertical section. The machine is made with two vertical
cast-iron side frames 1, which are connected by tie rods and otherwise.
The main or measuring roller 2 is carried on a horizontal transverse
shaft at the upper part of the machine and towards the front (or
right hand in the Figures). This measuring roller 2 is actuated by
mcans of a spur wheel on its spindle on the outside of the further
frame; there gearing with this spur wheel, which is indicated by a
red circle, a pinion similarly indicated and which is fast on the
first motion shaft 3, having on it a frictional clutch pulley 4 to
receive a driving belt from a shaft overhead. Behind the measuring
roller 2 there is a table 5, on which the fabric to be marked or cut may
be laid if in loose folds. If the fabric is on a roller as at 6, the roller
is placed in bearings provided for it at the back of the machine, and
the fabric, shown by a blue line in the Drawing, passes thence over
a guide roller 7 and under a second guide roller 8 to the measuring
roller 2. The fabric is held in contact with the measuring roller 2
by two riding rollers 9, 9, which are made to act with the necessary
pressure by rubber or other springs or by weights. On the front
side of the measuring roller 2 the fabric passes down in front of
an inclined rail 10, which is fixed across the machine, and which

page_text: is formed with a horizontal slit for the knife 11 to enter into when
cutting the fabric. The knife 11 is fixed to a horizontal bar or
holder 12 carried by two swords or arms 13 that are centred on a
transverse horizontal spindle 14 below. The swords 13 of the knife
holder are connected by links 15 to swords or arms 16 centred on
an inner spindle 17 fixed across the middle of the machine on the
same level as the outer spindle 14. The inner swords 16 carry
antifriction rollers 18, which are acted upon by cams 19 on a
transverse horizontal shaft 20, and the knife is thereby periodically
drawn inwards. The measuring roller 2 revolves at a continuous
uniform rate, but the fabric is prevented from accumulating upon
the knife whilst the cut is taking place by a keeper bar 21 which
moves inwards and nips the fabric against the fixed rail 10 just as
the knife is about to cut. The keeper bar 21 is made with a
horizontal slit, through which the knife passes, and by which it is
guided, and the keeper bar is carried by arms or swords 22 centred
on the front spindle 14 and connected by links 23 to arms or swords 24
centred on the inner spindle 17. Antifriction rollers 25 on the arms 24
are acted upon by cams 26 on the shaft 20, so as to draw the keeper
bar inwards at the proper times. After each action the keeper
bar 21 and knife 11 return outwards by the action of gravitation
on the parts connected to them. The cam shaft 20 is driven from
the shaft of the measuring roller 2 at a speed corresponding to
the lengths to be cut by means of a train of three wheels, indicated
by red circles, and the intermediate one of which is carried on a stud
by a bracket 27, which can be adjusted to allow of the wheels being
changed when a change is wanted in the length of fabric to be
cut. For the purpose of counting the lengths as cut a ratchet
wheel 28 is mounted on a stud fixed to the framing, and is acted
on by a pawl 29 carried by one of the vibrating arms 16, by which
it is turned a tooth for each cut. A pin 30 is fixed in the ratchet
wheel 28, and the wheel being set in a suitable position at starting
this pin acts on a trigger 31 when the required number of cuts
have been made and causes the trigger to let go a rod 32, which
being acted upon by a powerful spring throws the driving clutch
out of gear by means of a lever 33, and thereby stops the machine.
The knife we prefer to use (when cutting completely across the
fabric) is made with its edge serrated or having projecting points,
which may be variously pitched according to the fineness or coarseness

page_text: of the fabric to be operated upon. Instead of the fabric being cut
completely across it may be merely marked by notches being cut into
the selvedges; or the lengths may be marked by the application of
a black or other suitable substance without being cut or notched,
but the work will obviously be more completely and economically
performed when the fabric is cut quite across, as by the arrangement
shown in the Drawing and herein-before described.
The knife may be arranged to cut when descending or being moved
by the action of gravity or of springs, but a positive movement for
the cut such as is hercin-before described is preferable.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, we have to state that
we do not restrict ourselves to the precise details herein described
or delineated, but that what we believe to be novel and original
and claim as the Invention secured to us by the herein-before in part
recited Letters Patent is, the marking or cutting of woven fabrics
into lengths such as are required for making sacks by improved
apparatus, substantially such as is herein-before described.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Mitchell, junior, and
George Thomson Graham, have hereunto set our hands and
scals, this Twenty-eighth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight.
JNO. MITCHELL, JR.
(L.S.)
GEORGE THOMSON GRAHAM. (L.S.)