IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLIPPING OR SHEARING HAIR, FUR, PILE, AND OTHER FIBRE
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Jules François Albert Laloy, of No. 14, Rue
Montmartre, Paris, in the Republic of France, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLIPPING OR
SHEARING HAIR, FUR, PILE, AND OTHER FIBRE."
Sealed the 31st August 1875, and dated the 5th June 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Jules François Albert
Laloy at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 5th June 1875.
I, JULES FRANÇOIS ALBERT LALOY, of No. 14, Rue Montmartre, Paris,
in the Republic of France, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR
CLIPPING OR SHEARING HAIR, FUR, PILE, AND OTHER FIBRE," to be as
follows:-
My Invention relates to the clipping or shearing of fibres, such as the
hair or fur on the skin of an animal, or the pile on a fabric, by a method
of mowing or scything instead of directly cross cutting, and to the
construction of apparatus for that purpose..

page_text: In the clipping apparatus usually employed, as for example for
clipping horses, there are two serrated plates presenting a number of
cutting teeth like those of a comb, and the one plate is moved over the
other plate, so that as the teeth of the one pass over the teeth of the
other the hair or fibres caught between the teeth are shorn off. The
cutting plate is usually made to have a reciprocating to-and-fro move-
ment either in a rectilineal direction, or through an arc of a circle
round a fixed centre. In both cases the shearing is effected by a direct
cross cut, which causes the cutters to be soon blunted, and when they
are blunted many of the hairs or fibres escape cutting, which gives a
rough appearance to the skin or fabric operated on.
According to my improved method instead of making a direct cross
cut of the fibres I effect the shearing of them by a gliding movement
partly transverse to the cutting edges, and partly in the direction of
their length, so that the knife edge, while it effects the cut across the
fibre, is at the same time drawn along them in the manner of a scythe
in cutting corn. For this purpose, instead of giving the cutting comb
plate a simply rectilineal or circular reciprocating movement, I guide it
by pins, screws, or studs working in curved slots, so that while it makes
a single stroke transversely it is caused at the same time to advance and
retreat in the longitudinal direction. I prefer to proportion the stroke
to the width of the cutting teeth in such a manner that during half of
the stroke in the one direction each tooth of the moveable cutting plate
passes over a tooth of the fixed plate, at the same time advancing
towards the point of the latter, and during the other half of the stroke
cach tooth of the moveable plate passes over another tooth of the fixed
plate, at the same time retreating from the point of the latter; similar
relative movements being effected in the back stroke.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Jules François Albert Laloy in the Great Seal 30
Patent Office on the 29th October 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JULES
FRANÇOIS ALBERT LALOY, of No. 14, Rue Montmartre, Paris, in the
Republic of France, send greeting.

page_text: WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fifth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Jules François Albert Laloy, Her special
license, that I, the said Jules François Albert Laloy, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Jules François
Albert Laloy, 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 THE METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR CLIPPING OR
SHEARING HAIR, Fur, Pile, and oTHER FIBRE," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Jules François Albert Laloy, 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 Jules François Albert Laloy, 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, reference being had to the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and to the figures and letters marked
thereon, that is to say :-
My Invention relates to the clipping or shearing of fibres, such as the
hair or fur on the skin of an animal, or the pile on a fabric by a method
of mowing or scything instead of directly cross cutting, and to the con-
struction of apparatus for that purpose.
In the clipping apparatus usually employed, as for example for
clipping horses, there are two serrated plates presenting a number of
cutting teeth like those of a comb, and the one plate is moved over the
other plate so that as the teeth of the one pass over the teeth of the
other the hair or fibres caught between the teeth are shorn off. The
cutting plate is usually made to have a reciprocating to-and-fro move-

page_text: ment either in a rectilineal direction or through the arc of a circle round
a fixed centre. In both cases the shearing is effected by a direct cross
cut, which causes the cutters to be soon blunted, and when they are
blunted many of the hairs or fibres escape cutting, which gives a rough
appearance to the skin or fabric operated on.
According to my improved method, instead of making a direct cross
cut of the fibres, I effect the shearing of them by a gliding movement
partly transverse to the cutting edges, and partly in the direction of
their length, so that the knife edge, while it effects the cut across the
fibres, is at the same time drawn along them in the manner of a scythe in
cutting corn. For this purpose, instead of giving the cutting comb plate
a simply rectilineal or circular reciprocating movement, I guide it by pins,
screws, or studs working in curved slots, so that while it makes a single
stroke transversely it is caused at the same time to retreat and advance
in the longitudinal direction. I prefer to proportion the stroke to the
width of the cutting teeth in such a manner that during half of the
stroke in the one direction each tooth of the moveable cutting plate
passes over a tooth of the fixed plate, at the same time retreating from
the point of the latter, and during the other half of the stroke cach
tooth of the moveable plate passes over another tooth of the fixed plate,
at the same time advancing towards the point of the latter, similar
relative movements being effected in the back stroke.

page_text: spaces of A. While the tooth is passing over the first space it is also
retreating, and while it is passing over the second space it is advancing,
and in the back stroke it has a similar movement, so that the cutting
partakes of the nature of a scything action, the cutting edge of the tooth
being drawn along the fibre to be severed at the same time as it is
moving across it.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I claim,―
First. The method, substantially as herein described, of clipping or
shearing hair, fur, pile, and other fibre by a scything action produced by
giving the clipping or shearing teeth a compound movement along as
as well as across the fibres to be severed.
Second. In apparatus for clipping or shearing hair, fur, pile, and other
fibres, wherein one plate having comb cutting teeth is made to recip-
rocate over another plate, guiding the former by studs working in curved
slots, so as to give the cutting teeth a scything action, substantially as
herein described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Jules François Albert Laloy, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of October,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
five.