IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OR SLICING TIMBER, MORE ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE FOR CUTTING LATHS FOR BUILDING PURPOSES, TOBACCO, OR ANY FIBROUS SUBSTANCE
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Brown, of Stockton-upon-Tees, in the County
of Durham, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
CUTTING OR SLICING TIMBER, MORE ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE FOR CUTTING
Sealed the 16th November 1866, and dated the 19th May 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Brown at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th
May 1866.
I, JOHN BROWN, of Stockton-upon-Tees, in the County of Durham, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OR SLICING TIMBER, MORE ESPECIALLY APPLICABLE FOR
CUTTING LATHS FOR BUILDING PURPOSES, TOBACCO, OR ANY FIBROUS SUBSTANCE," to
be as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in machinery used for the
purpose of cutting or slicing timber, tobacco, or other substances, and consists
in giving lateral as well as upward and downward movements in combination
to blades or knives used for cutting or slicing. I make a frame or table of
wood or other material, and at any suitable distance apart I fix in bearings on

page_text: the said frame two or moro rocking shafts or cranks; to these rocking shafts
or cranks I attach a frame of cast iron or any other metal, and to this frame
I fix a long steel blade or knife. Above or below the frame to which the
blade is fixed I place a driving shaft in suitable bearings with fly wheel or
belt pulley for turning the same. On the said driving shaft I fix an eccentric
or crank to which I attach a connecting rod, the said connecting rod being
also attached to the frame to which the blade or knife is fixed, then by
turning the driving shaft motion is given to the blade or knife laterally as well
as upwards or downwards by means of the eccentric or crank. The material
to be cut or sliced I place between feed or friction rollers fixed alongside of
the blade or knife, motion being given to the feed rollers by means of an
eccentric cam or crank fixed on the driving shaft connected with suitable
rods; the substance being cut is thus brought forward under the cutting blade
or knife.
Although I have only described a single machine with one cutting blade
any number of blades may be used worked by eccentrics, or cranks and rocking
shafts, as herein described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Brown in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 17th
November 1866.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BROWN, of Stockton-upon-Tees, in the County of Durham, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the twenty-ninth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Brown, Her special licence that I, the said John Brown,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
John Brown, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING OR SLICING TIMBER, MORE ESPECIALLY
APPLICABLE FOR CUTTING LATHS FOR BUILDING PURPOSES, TOBACCO, OR ANY FIBROUS

page_text: SUBSTANCE, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John
Brown, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, 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 I, the said John Brown, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement, viz. :-
This Invention relates to certain improvements in machinery used for the
purpose of cutting or slicing timber, tobacco, or any other substances, and
consists in giving lateral as well as upward and downward movements in
combination to blades or knives used for cutting or slicing. I make a frame
or table of wood or other material, and at any suitable distance apart I fix
in bearings on the said frame two or more rocking shafts or cranks; to these
rocking shafts or cranks I attach a frame of cast iron or any other metal, and
to this frame I fix a long steel blade or knife. Above or below the frame to
which the blade is fixed I place a driving shaft in suitable bearings with
fly wheel or belt pulley for turning the same. On the said driving shaft I
fix an eccentric or crank, to which I attach a connecting rod, the said
connecting rod being also attached to the frame to which the blade or knife
is fixed, then by turning the driving shaft motion is given to the blado or
knife laterally as well as upwards or downwards by means of the eccentric or
crank. The material to be cut or sliced I place between feed or friction
rollers fixed alongside of the blade or knife, motion being given to the feed
rollers by means of an eccentric, camb, or crank fixed on the driving shaft
connected with suitable rods; the substance being cut is thus brought forward
under the cutting blade or knife.
Although I have only described a single machine with one cutting blade,
any number of blades may be used worked by eccentrics or cranks and
rocking shafts, as herein described.
$
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood I shall
now proceed to describe the several illustrative Figures upon the explanatory
Sheet of Drawings, which I have hereunto appended for the purpose of
shewing certain modifications under which my improvements may be
judiciously carried out into practice.

page_text: Figure 1 represents a side elevation, Figure 2 an end elevation, and
Figure 3 a plan of my improved machine. The letters on the several
parts of each representation correspond throughout to the several parts
described.
Figures 1, 2, and 8, a is the table on which the material to be cut or sliced
is placed; b, b, are rocking levers to which the cutting blade frames c, c, are
attached; d is the steel-cutting blade; e is the driving shaft through which
motion is given to the machine; f is the eccentric connected to the frames c, c,
of the cutting blade d, by means of the connecting rod 9; h is the feed roller
on the upper side of the table a; h', h³, h³, h, h³, friction rollers on the lower
or under side of the table a; i is an angular-shaped catch fixed on the upper
side of the cutting blade franics c, c; k is a toothed wheel fixed on the feed
roller h, whilst the lever is free to revolve on the feed roller; m is a catch
fitting into the teeth of the wheel k, the position and length of the lever
being so arranged that when the cutting blade frames c, c, are raised for the
downward stroke the angular shaped catch i strikes the lever 1, thereby
moving the toothed wheel k, and consequently the feed roller / any regulated
distance, thus drawing the material being cut underneath the cutting blade d
for each descending stroke, the material passing through between the feed
roller and friction rollers h¹, h', h³, h³, h'; by this arrangement the feed
motion is worked by the same eccentric which gives motion to the cutting
blade d; n, n, n, are pieces of timber placed endwise immediately beneath
the cutting blade d, supported by the longitudinal pieco p and the adjusting
bolts o, o, o; the utility of the pieces of timber n, n, n, is to preserve the
sharpness of the cutting blade, and at the same time afford a solid basis for
the blade to cut against; r, r, are guides in which the bearings q, q, of the
feed roller hare placed; shews a spring which is placed on the top of each
bearing of the feed roller in order to press the roller firmly upon the
material being cut.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used and carried
into effect, I may observe that I do not confine myself to the precise details
or arrangements which I have had occasion to refer to or describe, as many
variations may be made without departure from the principles or main features
of my Invention; but what I consider as novel and original, and therefore
claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent is, the general arrangement and construction of machinery for
the purpose of cutting wood into laths in combination with incchanism for

page_text: feeding as well as protecting the edge of the cutting blade, as bercin described
and delineated in Figures 1, 2, and 3 of the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Brown, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this First day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-six.
Witness,
W. HUNTER.
JOHN BROWN. (LS.)