IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING TOBACCO."
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Manoel Antonio de Souza, of No. 13, Glasshouse
Street, Rogent Street, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
APPARATUS FOR CUTTING TOBACCO."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Manoel Antonio de
Souza at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 26th October 1874.
I, MANOEL ANTONIO DE SOUZA, of No. 13, Glasshouse Street, Regent
Street, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING TOBACCO," to be as follows:
-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
cutting tobacco.
The machine consists of a disc having teeth upon it and capable of
being rotated by means of a pinion. There are four radial slits in the
disc, and beneath the disc and opposite the slits are fixed four plane--
like cutters. The disc is mounted on a block in which are passages to

page_text: receive the rolls of tobacco to be cut. Underneath the tobacco in the
passages is a piston or propeller, which as the disc is rotated is moved
upwards by a screw and it presses the tobacco up against the cutting
disc.
The apparatus is shown in the annexed Drawing. A is a view of the
top of the machine with the openings, by which is passed the tobacco in
rolls of various thickness; B is a view of the perforations in the case of
the machine; C is a view of the cog wheel with the openings by which
the cut tobacco comes out, and the holes in which are fixed the screws
of the knives; D is the reverse of the wheel C on which are fixed the
knives which cut the tobacco; E is the disc which rises and falls by
means of the screw F, it rises to press the tobacco against the knives or
falls to allow of the entry of the tobacco into the apertures which are
seen in the top of the machine A; F is the screw which causes the
disc E to rise and fall; G is a general view of the machine in working
order; H is the handle with small cog wheel, which on being turned in
a socket causes the rotation of the cog wheel C; I is a water supply
which lubricates the knives when the machine is at work to prevent
their being clogged with the tobacco when cutting same.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, 2
filed by the said Manoel Antonio de Souza in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th April 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, Manoel
ANTONIO DE SOUZA, of No. 13, Glasshouse Street, Regent Street, send
greeting.
2
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-sixth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the
thirty-eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc-
cessors, give and grant unto me, the said Manoel Antonio de Souza, a
Her special license that I, the said Manoel Antonio de Souza, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Manoel Antonio de Souza, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and

page_text: at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed, should and
lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the United King:
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Islo of
Man, an Invention for " IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR CUTTING TOBACCO,”
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Manoel Antonio
de Souza, 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 Manocl Antonio de Souza, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement thereof, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
cutting tobacco.
The machine consists of a disc having teeth upon it and capable of
being rotated by means of a pinion. There are four radial slits in the
disc, and beneath the disc and opposite the slits are fixed four plane-like
cutters. The disc is mounted on a block in which are passages to
receive the rolls of tobacco to be cut. Underneath the tobacco in the
passages is a piston or propeller, which as the disc is rotated is moved
upwards by a screw and it presses the tobacco up against the cutting
disc.
The apparatus is shewn in the annexed Drawing. A is a view of the
top of the machine with the openings, by which is inserted the tobacco
in rolls of various thickness; B is a view of the perforations in the case
of the machine; C is a view of the cog wheel with the openings by
which the cut tobacco comes out, and the holes in which are fixed the
screws of the knives; D is the reverse of the wheel C, on which are
fixed the knives which cut the tobacco; E is the disc which rises and
falls by means of the screw F, it rises to press the tobacco against the
knives or falls to allow of the entry of the tobacco into the apertures which
are scen in the top of the machine A; F is the screw which causes the
disc E to rise and fall; G is a general view of the machine in working

page_text: order; H is the handle with small cog wheel, which on being turned in
a socket causes the rotation of the cog wheel C; I is a water supply
which lubricates the knives when the machine is at work to prevent their
being clogged with the tobacco when cutting the same. The Drawing
is to a diminutive scale.
:.
I claim the construction of apparatus for cutting tobacco, substantially
as described and shown in the annexed Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said Manoel Antonio de Souza, have
hercunto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-second day of
March, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy-five.