IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING. CORKS, BUNGS, GUN-WADS, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES
Year: 1864

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by the said William Davies, George Cate,
and William Cate, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition and Declaration, on the 5th May 1864, pursuant to the
9th Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
DAVIES and GEORGE CATE, Engineers, and WILLIAM CATE, Publisher, all of
No. 7, Quality Court,. Chancery Lane, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS, we are in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR CUTTING. CORKS, BUNGS, GUN-WADS, AND OTHER SIMILAR ARTICLES,"
and have petitioned Her Majesty to grant unto us, our executors, administra-
tors and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made
solemn Declaration that we are the true and first Inventors thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said William Davies, George Cate, and
William Cate, do hereby declare that the following Complete Specification
under our hands and seals, fully describes and ascertains the nature of the said
Invention; and in what manner the same is to be performed, in and by the
following statement, reference being had to the Drawing hereunto annexed,
and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say) :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for cutting
corks, bungs, gun-wads, and other similar articles. For this purpose we employ

page_text: a straight knife attached to a bar, which bar is moved to and fro in guides which
are capable of adjustment as herein-after described.
In order to give revolution to the "cork blank," "square," or "quarter," we
make use of the following apparatus :--Mounted at one end of the machine is
a long roller, in or upon which is formed a right and left handed groove, each
of these grooves makes half a turn in the whole length of the roller. A pro-
jection attached to a slide takes into these grooves, and the bar to which the
knife is fixed is attached to this slide, so that by moving the bar in one direc-
tion the roller is caused to make half a revolution on its axis, and by moving
the bar in the opposite direction the roller is caused to complete its revolution.
The cork "blank," "square," or "quarter" is held between two discs (having
points on their surfaces,) one of which is capable of being slid to and fro for
the purpose of admitting different sizes of cork, "square" or "quarter." The
guides which carry the bar to which the knife is fixed are adjusted by set
screws and clamp nuts, this admits of any size of cork being cut, and also of
cutting them to any amount of taper. In order to keep the knife sharp, and
also to guide it during its operation, we use small emery rollers mounted in

page_text: gives motion to the shaft f, which carries at its other end a small disc g, having
points on one of its surfaces; h is a square shaft, mounted and capable of sliding
in small brackets, which are also capable of adjustment, as shewn in Fig. 2,
carried by the bed plate of the machine, on the end of this shaft, and capable
of revolving is the disc h', similar to the disc g. When it is desired to cut
oval or "shouldered," corks, these discs are of an oval form. The shaft h
is slid to and fro by the lever i, which moves on a centre at i', one end of this
lever is furnished with a handle, and at the other is formed a fork which em-
braces a pin on the shaft h. The piece of corkwood to be cut into a cork
suitable for stopping a bottle or other vessel, or for being used as a gun-wad,
is held securely between the two discs g and h¹ by the lever i which takes
into one of the teeth of the rack k; l, is a gauge attached in front of the knife for
the purpose of setting the cork blank truly in position. When it is desired to
cut a cork, bung, or gun-wad with this machine, the piece of wood cork is first
secured between the discs g and h¹, with one of its sides against the gauge 1,
and another side against the knife, the knife is then moved forwards and
drawn back quickly, in so doing by reason of the projection d* on the slide d
taking into the grooves formed in the roller, it (the roller) is caused to make a
complete revolution on its axis, and so impart a corresponding movement to
the shaft f and cork blank, by which means a cylinder of cork will be produced.
In order that the corks produced may be taper from end to end, the knife
is fixed at a greater or less angle to the cork blank depending on the amount
of taper desired to be given to the cork, bung, or gun-wad, for this purpose
the guides c, c', in which the bar b carrying the knife moves, are capable of
adjustment by means of the set screws m, m³, and the clamping nuts n, n',
this means of adjustment also enables the machine to cut various sizes of corks,
bung, or gun-wads, by moving the knife nearer to or further from. the centre
of the shaft f. In order to keep the knife sharp during the working of the
machine, I apply circular sharpening rollers of emery or other suitable sharp-
ening material placed in various parts of the stroke of the knife, as shown by
the red circles in Fig. 2, these rollers are to be capable of adjustment in the
same manner as the guides c, c¹. In some cases we apply a small fly wheel o,
mounted at the end of the shaft f as shown.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention and the manner of per-
forming the same, I would have it understood, that what we claim is,-
First, the application of a roller having grooves or projections on its surface
to cork cutting machines for the purpose of giving rotary motion to the cork
blank, "square," or "quarter," as herein-before described.

page_text: And, second, the general arrangement of machinery for cutting corks, bungs,
and gun-wads as herein described.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Davies, George Cate, and
William Cate, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Second day
of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
siete four
WILLIAM DAVIES. (L.S.)
GEORGE CATE.
(L.S.)
WILLIAM CATE.
(L.S.)
WILLIAM DAVIES. (L.S.)
GEORGE CATE.
(L.S.)
WILLIAM CATE.
(L.S.)