IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING MILLSTONES
Year: 1842

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MOSES
POOLE, of Lincoln's Inn, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
5 Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Fifteenth day of December, in the sixth year of Her reign, did,
for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
Moses Poole, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said Moses Poole, my exors, adññors, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Moses Poole, my exors, adñiors, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times
during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRESSING MILLSTONES,"
communicated to me by a certain Foreigner residing abroad; in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Moses Poole, shall
cause a particular description of the nature of the said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be inrolled in Her said
Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in
and by the same, reference being thereunto bad, will more fully and at large
appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Moses Poole, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and

page_text: the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and
ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thercon
(that is to say):
The Invention consists of certain apparatus for holding, guiding, and regu-
lating the bill or cutter used for dressing millstones, whereby such process of
dressing may be performed with more regularity, requiring much less skill in
the operation than heretofore. And in order that the Invention may be fully
understood, and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to describe the
Drawings hereunto annexed, first remarking that the same letters of reference
are used to indicate the same parts wherever they occur.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 represents a plan of an apparatus constructed according to the
Invention; Figure 2 is a side view of the same; Figure 3 is a transverse
section, the other Figures shewing some of the parts separately, and the
Drawing shews the apparatus on a scale of six inches to a foot. Figure 4
shews a plan, on a reduced scale) of a millstone partly dressed. The apparatus
shewn is worked by hand, as will be hereafter fully understood.
a, a, is the
frame of the apparatus, the nature of which is clearly shewn in the Drawing;
and the same is so arranged as to offer that part of the working face of the
millstone which is within the frame a to the action of the bill or cutting appa-
ratus. And in order to prevent the frame a of the machine being moved out
of its place when the process of dressing is being performed, a wedge is intro-
duced between the stone and part of the framing a, as is shewn, and the
framing is fixed at the centre of the stone by means of the clamps and screws
a', a', which embrace and hold the axis of the stone, or there may be a
temporary axis introduced into the stone, and to one of the clamps a' the bar
a² is formed or affixed, on which that end of the framing a can be slided, so
as to assume such position as may be required, a being an adjusting screw to
fix the framing a to the bar a when properly set. On the frame a, a, are
affixed two parallel guide bars d, d, which guide the carriage of the bill or
cutter, and cause the cutting edge thereof to move in a straight line, and also
cause the lines cut to be parallel to each other. e, e, is the carriage of the
chisel, the nature of which is clearly shewn in the Drawing, it having bear-
ings f, f, for the screw axis g of the bill or cutter lever h, f¹ being a screw
socket which moves on the screw axis. The lever which carries the cutter or
bill, and which I have called the bill lever, is fixed into a socket ', as is
shewn; and the bill or cutter may be held more or less upright by the lever h

page_text: and the lever may be affixed in any desired position. The outer end of the lever h
is forked, and has the holder of the bill or cutter between it. This holder j
consists of a ring which nearly embraces the bill or cutter, but will only hold the
bill or cutter securely when the sides of the fork are pressed towards each other,
which is accomplished in the following manner:- is the bar, which passes
through slots formed in the sides of the forked ends of the lever h, as is shewn;
and is a lever moving on an axis, such lever having an excentric surface, which,
being caused to press against one side of the forked ends of the lever h, causes
those ends to be pressed towards each other, and thus is the ring holder
caused to embrace the bill or cutter tightly. The ring holder moves on necks
or axes j', so as to allow of the position of the chisel being correctly adjusted;
and when adjusted the ring holder is held securely in its place by means of
the bent stem, which at one end is affixed to the ring holder j; the other
end, passing through a slit or hole in the lever h, is made fast when adjusted
by the screw in, and the cutting edge is adjusted by means of the adjusting
piece n, which is capable of sliding from side to side of the frame a, a, in the
groove forined in each of the cross framings for that purpose. Across this plate
a notch or groove is formed to receive and adjust the cutting edge of the chisel.
The socket of the lever h is affixed to a cylinder p, which moves on the
outer surface of the screw socket f', it being retained in its place by the ends
f, one being affixed and the other screwed, as shewn. The apparatus being
properly arranged and adjusted, as above explained, the workman, holding the
lever in his hand, causes the bill or cutter to be moved along, giving the stone
a succession of sharp blows with the cutter as it is moved from the centre of
the stone towards the outer circumference thereof; and the cutter having
arrived at the outer edge, is drawn back to the position at the centre of the
stone, and in so moving the lever back the wheel q, which is affixed on the
axis g, is caused to move round one tooth or projection, as hereafter explained,
which will cause the cutting edge of the bill or cutter to move laterally a
distance equal to the distance it is determined the cuts shall be apart. And
in order to accomplish this, there are several wheels 7, each having the teeth
or projections at different distances apart; so that, according as one or other
of the wheels is used, so will be the distance the cuts are apart from each
other; and as all the teeth on any one wheel 2 are at equal distances apart,
the grooves or cuts formed on the stone will be parallel and equidistant one
from the other. On the side of the framing a, a, is a projecting frame 1, the
nature of which is clearly shewn in the Drawing; s is an axis carried by such
frame. On the axis s is the driver t, by which the wheel q is caused to move
a distance equal to one tooth or projection each time the lever h. has been

page_text: slided outwards and again moved inwards towards the centre of the stone;
but such driver will move out of the way as the carriage of the lever his
moved outwards. Or the stop may be changed in its position by placing the
part t on the other end of its frame at t, when the chisel will be moved
laterally with its lever as the lever carriage is moved back from the centre of
the stone. It will thus be seen that the apparatus is so arranged as to hold
the bill or cutter in a lever, and that the carriage of that lever is guided
correctly in moving to its work, so that the line cut is correct, and each
succeeding line will be parallel to the others by the lateral movement com-
municated to the lever and cutter or bill, by which means a workman, in
dressing a millstone, will be greatly aided by the apparatus.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the best means I
am acquainted with for performing the same, I would remark that I make no
claim to any of the parts separately, nor do I confine myself to the precise
details shown and described, so long as the peculiar character of the arrange-
ment be retained. But what I claim is the mode of combining mechanical
parts into an apparatus for dressing millstones, as above described.
In witness whereof, 1, the said Moses Poole, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and forty-three.