A MACHINE FOR CUTTING AND MAKING COMBS, A THING NEVER BEFORE PUT IN PRACTICE, AND WHICH WOULD BE OF GREAT PUBLIC BENEFIT AND UTILITY
Year: 1796

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, WILLIAM
BUNDY, of Pratt Place, Camden Town, in the County of Middlesex, Mathe-
matical Instrument Maker, sendeth greeting.
WHEREAS His present Majesty King George the Third, by His Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twentieth day of June last, in the thirty-sixth year of His reign, after
taking notice that the said William Bundy, by his Petition therein mentioned,
had represented to His said Majesty that he had by great study and applica-
tion invented and made "A MACHINE FOR CUTTING AND MAKING COMBS, A THING
NEVER BEFORE PUT IN PRACTICE, AND WHICH WOULD BE OF GREAT PUBLIC BENEFIT
AND UTILITY," did give and grant unto the said William Bundy, his exors,
admiors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole priviledge and
authority, that he, the said William Bundy, his exors, adñiors, and assigns,
and every of them, by himself and themselves, or by his and their deputy or
deputies, servants or agents, or such others as the said William Bundy, his
exors, admors, or assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from
time to time and at all times thereafter during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend his said
Invention within that part of the Kingdom of Great Britain called England,
the Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner
as to the said William Bundy, his exors, adñiors, and assigns, or any of them,
should in his or their discretions seem meet; and that the said William Bundy,
his exors, admiors, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy the

page_text: whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time coming,
growing, and accruing by reason of the said Invention for and during the
term of years therein mentioned; to have, hold, and enjoy the said licence,
powers, privileges and advantages therein granted or mentioned to be
granted unto the said William Bundy, his exors, adññiors, and assigns, for and
during the term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent,
according to the Statute in such case made and provided. And it is by the
said Letters Patent among other things provided, that if. the said William
Bundy should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of his said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument
in writing, under his hand End seal, and cause, the same to be inrolled in the
High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, then the said Letters Patent, and
all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted, should cease and be
void, as by the said Letters Patent may appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that the said William Bundy, in pursuance of and
conformity to the directions contained in the said in part recited Letters
.Patent, by this present Deed or Instrument under his hand and seal, and
intended to be inrolled in the High Court of Chancery, doth describe his said
Invention or machine, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
in manner following (that is to say):
The frame A, A, or lathe part of the said machine (which is delineated in
the margin hereof), may be made of cast iron, or any sort of wood generally
used for, a turner's lathe. I use the latter, and have made sides or cheeks
broader than ordinary, viz, about nine inches, the bottom of which is
fixed high enough from the ground to admit a fly-wheel B, fixed to
the. crank C, of three feet diameter, weighing about eighty pounds; on the
checks are fixed the puppets D, E, by wedges F, .F,- to the crank C.
which receives .an, alternate motion by the foot; at the treadle, G is fixed the
wheel H, of. fifteen inches diameter, carrying a line in its grove, and crossing a
little above I between the cheeks, and passing round the pully K of nine inches
diameter, giving, it a rotary motion contrary to the lower wheel H. These
,wheels are of proportionate sizes, to receive the first impulso from a person's
foot as in a common lathe, but any number of these machines may receivo
motion at.K from a horse mill, water mill, steam engine, or any machine of
power calculated to give motion. Tho pully K. runs on a fixed centre, having
two holes to receive the horned catch M, which is screwed to an arbor N of
steel, about seven inches in length, and half an inch in diameter; on this arbor
must be fitted the circular cutters O, which does the office of saws. . Having

page_text: prepared the number of cutters intended, according to the length of the comb
to be cut, of good tempered steel, and of thickness suitable to the fineness of
the comb to be cut, having about twenty-five teeth to an inch, in the extrenie
edge of the cutters you are to prepare a like number of washers P, made of iron,
steel, brass, or any convenient metal; I find brass most agreeable to the
purpose; these washers must be the thickness you intend to have the substance
of the tooth of the comb, and works exceeding flat, which I perform on metal.
plates, such as opticians use, with the addition of a brass hoop well fitted round
the edge of the lower plate in use, to adjust with screws round the hoop and
into the edge of the plate which holds the top edge of the hoop, as much
above the surface of the plate as the thickness of the things to be ground may
require, which are to be loose or moveable on the lower plate, and not liable to
fall off by the action of rubbing the upper plate on them.. With these plates
I flat the cutters, guides, guide washers, and pointing cutters; as the execeding
thinness of some of the cutters will not permit them to be worked and fixed so.
paralel to each other as to keep equal distances from each other when on the
arbor N with the washers P only, whereby they may admit equal size teeth of
the comb between the cutters, apply the guides S, which may be made of any
metal, but I prefer and use steel. The guides may also be of any shape
and size, so that they go between the cutters as far towards the centre as the
depth of the teeth nearly, and caliper something less in thickness than the
washers. One of these guides is held or supported between each cutter in
manner following:-A metal arbor T, being made of any shape that will not
allow the guides to shift or turn on this arbor, is made triangular, the length
of which is to correspond at the shoulders with the length of the round arbor N,
so that both arbors are fitted in the frame plates U, U, U, U, U, which is of.
brass, and extreme diameter of them about four inches and a half, with three
pillars, W, W, W, screwed together with nuts. In the centres of these plates
let in hardened steel to preserve them from the friction of the continual
rotary motion of the arbor N which carries the cutters. This frame is fixed..
in this machine by the adjusting screws X, X, X, X, the points of which
screws rest on a metal surface on the upper part of the dovetail Y, Y; the
arbor T, on which the guides S are put, being in the plates, by these screws
may be raised or lowered a small matter, so that the bottom edge of the guides
may be brought close over the comb or combs, which are to be passed
towards the centre of the cutters when they are in use. The guides S
when on the arbor T are to be kept at a distance paralel to cach
other, little more than the thickness of the cutter which is to pass
between; a paralel substance or guide washer Z may be made of steel or other

page_text: metal must be placed between every guide, when the cutters and washers are
put on the arbor N. If the cutters are all of equal diameters, the edges
will form a streight line paralel to the arbor, and cut the teeth of a streight
edge comb of equal depths; but if it be required to cut the teeth of equal depth
in a comb of any other shape, the diameters of the cutters must vary so that
the line the edges of the cutters or points of the teeth of the cutters on tho
arbor form must correspond with the shape of the comb intended to be cut,
and. as it is necessary to sett or widen the teeth of these cutters, that the cutter
itself may follow without friction against the sides of the teeth of the comb,
and there being but sufficient liberty between the guides to pass the cutter, so
it is also necessary to make a grove, or take away by filing or indenting with
punches a sufficient quantity from each side, the guide at L being that part
where the teeth of the cuttors pass between the guides to clear the passage, so
that the teeth of the cutters shall not touch the guides. If the guides are
ground or worked one twentieth part thiner than the washers, the guide
washers must be one twentieth part thicker than the cutters, to make an equal
number of cutters and washers of the same measure on their arbor N as the
like equal number of guides and guide washers measure on the arbor T. To
put these arbors in the frame plates, and furnish them with their cutters and
washers, and guides and guide washers, separate the frame platos, and having
put that end of the arbor N next the shoulder Q into the centre of the plate
U, which is designed to be next to the horned catch M, screw the catch on
then that end of the arbor T which is designed for the same plate should be
put into the square hole in the plate to the shoulder a, and by a nut fixed there.
The shoulder a, and a guide when on it, should coincide with the shoulder Q,
which shoulder Q must be turned as flat as may be; these being in their
places a' cutter put on the arbor N, should lay fair on the guide, and the teeth
in the cutter fall into the grove in the guide made for that purpose; then
put on the arbor Ta guide washer and a guide, and on the arbor N a
washer and a cutter, and so on till you have completed your number;
then with nuts on the other end of the respective arbors screw them up,
let this end of the arbor T fit into a square hole in the frame plate, which
may have a mut screwed without to make it more firm, then screw the frame
plates together by the nuts on the pillars W. The frame with the arbors may
now be put into the centres, the horns of the catch M fitting into tho
two holes of the 'pully K, and the other centre of the arbor N into a centro
that goes up with a screw in the puppet D; tho scrows X, X, X, X, uro
designed to steady the frame plates against that part of the dovetail Y, which
frame plates hold the arbor with the guides; the dovetail Y is previously made

page_text: and supported by brackets projecting from the front of the cheeks about six
inches, or sufficient to let the block 6 (which slides in the dovetail holding the
comb or combs) be drawn forward to give room for the hand to put in and take
out the combs clear of the puppet D; to the bass of his dovetail is fixed a
plate c, holding a spur wheel d, d, of thirty teeth, whose axis is about three
eighths of an inch diameter, and six inches long, made of steel, and having
at the inner extremity a deep thread screw of about ten breadths to an
inch, and such a number of threads as will answer to the depth of the
teeth intended to be cut. The screw end of the said axis works against a centre
which is fixed to the bass of the dovetail Y; the block b has a part cut
away, to pass clear over the threads of the screw, backward and forward, with-
out touching it. This block which holds the combs is to move in the dovetail
and carry the teeth of the combs into the cutters while cutting. As the screw
is to carry the block up in lieu of a nut acting thereon, apply a knife edge e of
steel, which being moveable on a pivot centre in the front of the block b at f,
may instantly by pushing a thumb stud at 9,9, which disengages a spring catch
at h, from a hole in the knife edge, allow the spring i to relieve the knife edge
from the screw; the block may now be brought forward in the dovetail; on the
top of the block, which is on a line with the centres of the arbor N, is a strong
platek, between which and the top of the block are placed the combs intended
to be cut, and held firm there by two pinching screws 1, 1; as the combs to be
cut should project from the block towards the cutters so much as the depth of
the teeth requires, this is regulated by two screws m, m, which run through
the block, the points of them reaching the clam or clamp n, which hold the
comb; by means of this clam any combs to be cut of different widths may be
gauged to one regular width by being held firm in the clam by the screws 0, 0,
when set in the gauge p'; having fixed your comb or combs with the clam on
the block by the said pinching screws l, pull down the handle or lever of the
knife edge e, which will be held down by the spring catch h; push the block
with the comb towards the cutters, when the comb going close under the
guides will nearly reach the cutters, and the knife edge e will take the first
thread of the screw, and thereby stop from going quite up to the cutters.
While the line round the extremity of the pully K is turning the arbor N with
the cutters, a circular grove of six inches diameter is adjoining and on the
pully K carrying a line round a pully q of three inches diameter, the axis
of which is supported at that end by an arm r from the bracket. On the
other end the axis is an endless screw that turns the spur wheel d, on whose
axis is the screw carrying the knife edge with the block, which holds the comb
to be cut, as far as the end of the thread of the screw will reach. This being

page_text: done, and the teeth cut in the comb, the thumb stud 9,9, being pushed, the
screw is relieved of the knife edge, and the block may be brought forward
to take out the comb or combs. If both sides of the comb or combs aro to
be cut, then fix the other edges of the comb or combs in the clam n by the
gauge p, and return the clam with the combs to the block where they come
out, and push the block up to the screw for cutting the other side as before.
Then ends the business of cutting, and in order to point the combs, the same
action of the foot on the trendle to cut the combs turns the wheelf on the
crank C, for pointing; from this crank C a line passes over a small pully t,
fixed on an arbor u of the same diameter and length with the arbor N, having
a shoulder close to the pully at w, the same as that at Q on the arbor N.
On the arbor are put as many pointing cutters X, made of tempered steel, as
will agree in calliper with the like number of cutters and washers which may
be on the arbor N, which are to be screwed firm on the arbor u by the nut y.
The extreme edge of these pointing cutters are turned with a bevil on either
side, as at, before the teeth are made in them, which teeth are about twenty
in an inch; and with respect to the shape of the comb, they must be made of a
greater or less diameter, to correspond therewith. On this arbor of the point-
ing cutters the tops of the teeth of a comb cut is to be applied by hand (first
one side the comb, then the other) til you have made the points of the teeth
as you require; this you perform to one comb while the teeth are cutting in
another. If it is required to cut more than one comb at the same time make
the arbor of length suflicient for as many sets of cutters as you intend combs,
observing to put washers to make blanks between each set; in this machino
combs may be cut of any materials that saws are generally used to make the
teeth in.
In witness whereof, the said William Bundy hath hereunto set and put
his hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of July, in the thirty-sixth year
of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of
God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the Faith,
&c., and in the year of our Lord Christ One thousand seven hundred
and ninety-six

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Nineteenth day of July, (in the
year of our Lord 1796, the aforesaid William Bundy came before our said
Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification aforesaid,
and all and every thing therein contained and specified, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stampt according to the tenor of the
Statutes made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Nineteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
soven hundred and ninety-six.