IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING AND BUNDLING STICKS FOR FIREWOOD
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frank Kingston at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 31st July 1870.
FRANK KINGSTON, of Greenwich, in the County of Kent, Cricket Bat Manu-
facturer. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING AND BUNDLING STICKS
FOR FIREWOOD."
This Invention relates to improvements in machinery for cutting and bundling
sticks for firewood.
According to my Invention the wood to be cut into sticks is first sawn into
blocks of a given size. These blocks are placed side by side on a table so as to fill
up or nearly so the width of the table and always present a straight front to the
chopping or splitting knife at the front of the table. The wood is fed over the
table towards the knife by (by preference) side vertical toothed rollers, between two
of which it is gripped. These rollers are so actuated as to advance the wood a given
distance for each descent of the knife. This may be conveniently effected by a cam
on the main driving or other shaft striking against an arm gearing by a rack or
racks into ratchet pinions on the spindle of bevil wheels gearing into other bevil
wheels on the toothed vertical rollers which feed the wood. The arm may be
returned by weight or spring. Thus in the forward motion of the arm the roller
would be actuated a given amount whilst the ratchet pinion would allow of the
back motion of the arin without actuating the toothed roller. The wood having
thus been advanced a given distance (say half an inch) over the front edge of the
table a guillotine knife the full width of the wood descends and cutts of the
projecting trip. The knife may be actuated by cam, crank, or other suitable means.
The slabs of wood thus detached from the blocks on the table as they descend meet
a double row of revolving circular knives on continuous horizontal axes. These
knives are set in pairs opposite one another, the peripheries of the two all but
touching, and the distance between the successive pairs on the edges of the knives
being that of a stick of wood, say half an inch. The slabs of wood detached by the
descending knife descend between this double row of cutters and are thereby split
up into sticks. The front row of cutters is set a little higher than the other so as
to incline the sticks with their lower ends a little forward. After passing the
knives the sticks in a row meet at their lower ends an endless band travelling
forward and by preference slightly downward. This throws the sticks over all in
one direction side by side in a row on the endless band by which they are carried
forward for a short distance until they meet a stop against which they are arranged
[Price 2d.1

page_text: evenly, the endless band continuing if necessary to revolve underneath them. Thus
far the actions have taken place during a portion of a revolution of the shaft
actuating the knife. Two collectors are at this moment brought into action.
These are placed one at each end of the row of sticks and have each a somi-
cylindrical concavity facing the sticks. When started in action they approach one
another gathering the sticks up between them so that when they meet the sticks
are enclosed in bundle form in a cylinder horizontal or nearly so. A plunger then
enters the back of this cylinder and drives the sticks forward between a pair of
pincers of the form and size desired in the finished bundle. The sticks in bundle
form are here firmly gripped and held whilst being tied by the attendant. During
the process of tieing the machine may be stopped by means of a loose pulley and
strap or by other suitable means. When the action is continued the pincers open
releasing the bundle, the plunger retires from the cylinder, the collectors return to
their open position, and the actions of the machine are then repeated.