IMPROVEMENTS ZN MACHINERY POR CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD.
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Archibald Neill, of Bradford, in the County of
York, Builder and Contractor, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
ZN MACHINERY POR CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD.".
Sealed the 12th August 1870, and dated the 15th February 1870..
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Archibald Neill at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th February 1870.
I, ARCHIBALD NEILL, of Bradford, in the County of York, Builder and
Contractor, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
❝ IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD," to be as,
follows:-
This Invention for working on wood relates to machinery for
dressing, chipping, tongueing, rebating, grooving, panelling, and pro-
ducing mouldings and cuttings in timber, either continuous or
"stopped" (that is, ceasing to operate at intervals of distance in the
same piece of timber), and the said machinery consists of a travelling.
carriage, stage, or platform, on which the timber is to be fixed in the

page_text: required position, and is thus carried over or under or between suitably
formed revolving cutters, which cutters are so mounted in framework
and arranged that they may be removed from or into contact with the
timber at any required time or place by means of screws, levers, cams,
tappets or equivalent means, and provision is made for moving the
timber on the carriage into or out of contact with the cutters, or so as
to pass free from the cutters, and when necessary the timbers can be
moved in position on the carriage to and from the cutters, or free from
the cutters.
By this Invention any piece of timber may be operated upon as above
stated, and thereby facilitate the process and economisc labour in the
production of such work, more particularly in large beams for floors,
roofs, strong framing, and-other-timbers.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Archibald Neill in the Great Scal Patent Office on
the 15th August 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ARCHIBALD
NEILL, of Bradford, in the County of York, Builder and Contractor, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifteenth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight. hundred and seventy, in the thirty-
third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Archibald Neill, Her special licence
that I, the said Archibald Neill, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Archibald Neill, my 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 Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR CUTTING AND SHAPING WOOD," upon the condition (amongst'
others) that I, the said Archibald Neill, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the

page_text: 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 Scal Patent
Office within six calendar months next and immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Archibald Neill, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement and accompanying Sheet of Drawings (that is to
say) :-
This Invention for the working on wood relates to machinery for
dressing, chipping, tongueing, rebating, grooving, panelling, and pro-
ducing mouldings and cuttings in timber, either continuous or
stopped, that is, ceasing to operate at intervals of distances in the
same piece of timber, and the said machinery consists of a travelling
carriage, stage, or platform, on which the timber is to be fixed in the
required position, and is thus carried over or under or between suitably
formed revolving cutters, which cutters are so mounted in framework
and arranged that they may be removed from or into contact with the
timber at any required time or place by means of screws, levers, cams,
tappets, or equivalent means, and provision is made for moving the
timber on the carriage into or out of contact with the cutters, or so as
to pass free from the cutters, and when necessary the timber can be
moved in position on the carriage to and from the cutters, or free from
the cutters.
By this Invention any piece of timber may be operated upon as above
stated, and thereby facilitate the process and economize labour in the
production of such work, but more particularly in large beams for floors,
roofs, strong framing, and so on..
In order that my said Invention may be fully understood reference is
given to an accompanying Sheet of Drawings of a machine constructed
or adapted to illustrate the same..
Fig. 1 is the side elevation of an ordinary timber sawing frame or
machine, which I have adapted to be employed both for sawing and for
the dressing or planing and moulding, or for other operations on timber,
as set out in my Provisional Specification. A is one of the side frames;
B is the carriage supported on rollers b, which are placed at intervals on
the flooring beams C; and D is the timber to be operated upon, which
rests upon transoms or cross bearers D' and the friction rollers E..

page_text: Motion is given to the carriage by rack F and spur pinion F', com-
municated from the 'driving wheel Fin the usual manner, and which
is well known. For my purposes to this frame are applied two revolving
or rotary cutter bars G and H (carrying cutters), which are supported in
moveable brackets I and J, and motion is given to them by belt K from
a countershaft L, which may receive its motion from the driving wheel
or other source of power. These brackets I and J are connected by rods
or links M and N with stud plates O and P, each having a lever O₁
and P¹, by means of which the cutter bars can be moved up or down on
the frame, placing the cutters into or out of contact with the timber
when required, and which are held in such positions by placing the
levers in notches on the bracket Q. The rod or link M is in two parts
so as to be adjustable-to-the-different sizes_or_thicknesses of timber. The
said levers may be connected together by a link Q', so as to be worked
simultaneously, or they may be worked separately by disconnection..
For taking up the slack of the belt K, or maintaining an equal tension
thereof on the pullics affixed to the cutter bars, the said belt passes over
a pulley R carried on a weighted lever S, the weight being adjustable on
the lever so as to apply any desirable amount of tension, and the lever
may also be placed in and held by a notch plate 'S'.
Fig. 2 is a cross section of the timber D, with portions of the cutter
bars G and H and the driving belt K, which also shows the cutters a, b,
c, d, e, f, fixed on the said bars by screw bolts and nuts, as will be seen
more clearly in Fig. 3, which is a full size section of one of the said bars.
In Fig. 2 the cutters are shewn in operation, and it will be observed
that the angle cutters a, c, on one bar and d, f, on the other bar are
placed at opposite sides of the bar so as to equalize the action thereof on
the timber, or the power applied in the driving of them. It will also be
observed that whilst the said cutters a, c, d, and of cut the mouldings
on the angles or corners of the timber, according to the peculiar form
of the cutters used, the cutters & and e dress or plain the top and bottom
surfaces of the timber, and in cases where the sides of the timber are
also required to be dressed a disc or face plate may be fixed on each
cutter bar on opposite sides of the timber, each plate carrying cutters
for dressing. Or in cases where two opposite sides of a piece of timber
are required to be dressed, and the third side and two angles to be
moulded or panelled, or otherwise cut longitudinally, as hercin-before
set forth, two discs may be fixed upon one cutter bar with cutters of

page_text: suitable forms for the work required, as shown in Fig. 4. In such case
the top cutter bar will not be required to be in use. Or other cutter bars
similar to G and H may be applied in a vertical position, and driven by
a suitable arrangement of gearing when the machine is required to
mould or cut grooves or otherwise, as aforesaid, on all the four sides
simultaneously.
Fig. 5 shews a series of different forms of cutters, drawn full size, to
be fixed upon and used with the cutter bars, and various other forms can
be used to produce different kinds or forms of mouldings or workings in
wood by this means or machinery.
It will now be evident that by this machinery and the use of suitable
forms of cutters timber or wood may be cut and shaped either by
dressing or plaining, chipping, tongucing, rebating, grooving, panelling,
or producing mouldings of various kinds, and that such cuttings may
either extend the whole length of the piece of timber under operation,
or the cutters may be removed out of or from action upon the wood at
any time during the progress or passage of the timber through the
machine for the purpose of panelling or for other similar purposes where
the mouldings or workings are required to stop or where not to be
worked the whole length of the timber.
And it will also be evident that in establishments where there is not
sufficient work to keep a timber saw frame in constant use the appli-
cation of this Invention to an ordinary saw frame will enable the same
machine to be used for any of the purposes herein set forth when not
required for sawing, in which case it is only necessary to remove the
saws from the frame, as usual, to adapt it for such use, and for sawing
it is not necessary to remove the cutter bars from the machine, as the
cutters may be kept clear of the timber by means of the herein-before
described levers.
Having thus fully described the nature of my said Invention, and
shewn by Drawings and description thereof how the same is to be or
may be performed or carried into practical operation, I would have it
understood that I make no claim to any of the mechanical parts or
apparatus when separately considered, nor do I confine myself to the
5 precise combination and arrangement as herein set forth; but what I
claim as my Invention, and what I believe to be new is, -
Firstly. The method of cutting and shaping timber or large blocks of
wood, as herein explained, by fixing the same on a travelling carriage,

page_text: stage, or platform, which will carry it over, or under, or between
revolving or rotatory cutters.
Secondly. The arranging of revolving or rotatory cutters so as to be
readily removed into or out of contact with the timber while the same
is travelling or in motion.
Thirdly. The combination and arrangement of parts or apparatus for
the purposes set forth, in manner substantially as shewn and described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Archibald Neill, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy.
Signed, sealed, and delivered by the
within-named Archibald Neill, in
the presence of
EDWARD TASKER.
ARCHIBALD NEILL. (L.S.)