IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAFF CUTTERS
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Arthur Lowcock and John Barr at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th April 1878.
ARTHUR LOWCOCK and JOHN BARR, both of Shrewsbury, in the County of Salop,
Agricultural Implement Manufacturers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAFF CUTTERS."
Our Invention consists of the improvements herein-after described in chaff cutters,
whereby the arresting of the motion and the reversal of the direction of the motion
of the chaff cutters are effected with great ease, rapidity, and certainty by the
motion of a "safety bar" situated at the feeding end of the chaff cutter.
The safety bar referred to is situated around and in front of the toothed feed
rolls, between which the attendant places the materials to be cut into chaff. This
safety bar consists of a rectangular frame jointed at its bottom to the chaff cutter,
and constitutes a lever capable of motion in a vertical plane. The said safety bar
or lever is so connected with the sliding clutch on the driving shaft that by the
attendant moving the said safety bar through the required angle the motion of the
feed rolls may either be arrested, or the direction of their motion reversed.
Instead of reversing and stopping the motion of the driving shaft and feed rolls
driven therefrom by the motion of the safety bar in the ordinary way, we effect the
said reversing and stopping by means of the following combination of parts:-The
sliding clutch situated between the fixed clutches carried by the bevel pionions on
the driving shaft of the chaff cutter is connected to the safety bar by a cross pin
passed through one side of the safety bar, and taking into the sliding clutch.
Situated parallel to the driving shaft is a horizontal bar, over which a portion of
the cross pin described projects, the said horizontal bar being fixed at one end to the
frame of the chaff cutter; the other end, which is situated near the sliding clutch,
is free or unsupported. The said horizontal bar is thereby made capable of slightly
yielding at its free end in a vertical plane when pressure is put upon it. Near the
free end of this elastic horizontal bar and on the upper edge thereof is a series of
three shallow notches or depressions of a size proper to receive the cross pin con-
nected with the sliding clutch and safety bar or lever.
When the cross pin of the safety bar is in the middle notch of the series the
sliding clutch is out of gear with both the clutches of the two pinions, and the chaff
cutter is brought to rest. When the said cross pin is situated in the notch nearest

page_text: the free end of the notch bar the sliding clutch is in gear with that bevil pinion
nearest to it, and the advanced or feeding motion is given to the toothed feed
rolls, and when the cross pin is in the notch situated at the opposite side of the
middle notch the sliding clutch is thrown out of gear with the last-mentioned bevil
pinion, and geared with the bevil pinion at the opposite end of the shaft, and the
motion of the feed rolls is reversed in the usual way; thus, the attendant by
throwing backward or drawing forward the safety bar, can lift the cross pin out of
one of the three notches in the horizontal elastic bar, and cause it to engage with
that notch, which will either bring the feed rolls to rest, or give the advance motion
or the back motion to the said feed rolls.
Our improvements are especially applicable to chaff cutters driven by steam
power, but they may also be applied to chaff cutters driven by other motive
power.