IMPROVED ▲PPA- RATUS FOR CLIPPING HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS
Year: 1872

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Robert Willis at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 9th
August 1872.
I, ROBERT WILLIS, of Jermyn Street, in the County of Middlesex, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for " IMPROVED ▲PPA-
RATUS FOR CLIPPING HORSES AND OTHER ANIMALS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved construction of apparatus to be
used for clipping or shearing horses, and other animals, the object being
to actuate the cutting blades with rapidity and power, while the teeth of
the guiding instrument hold the hair in position for clipping.
This improved apparatus dispenses with a direct right or left hand
lever operating on the cutters, and effects the requisite action by means
of an arrangement of teeth or cogs on the base of the cutter and on a
segmental rocking disc, by which means rapid action, clearness, and
sharpness of cut are effected without straining the hand of the operator.

page_text: The comb plate is constructed of the desired width and number of
teeth, according to the purpose for which it may be used, and has fixed
thereto a guiding handle. On the comb plate and at a short distance
from the bottom of the rows of teeth I form or cast or otherwise adjust
a transverse projecting tenon bar on projecting pins extending com-
pletely or partly across the plate, and parallel to the spring of the teeth.
The cutting knife bar consists of a corresponding series of sharp teeth
cut or set on a moveable sliding plate or bar, which is cut with a dovetail
or tenon grove to suit the projecting tenon on the guiding plate, and
which contains a slot parallel and over the grove so as to permit of the
sliding action of the cutter bar along the tenon slide. The cutter being
adjusted on the plate is held by the tenon and guided in a perfectly
constant action across the guiding comb. The two parts are secured by
means of a compound screw pin passed through the guide plate, the
projecting tenon, and the slot of the cutters, then through a curved but
flattened spring pressing on the cutter bar, with a groove at each end
of said spring to clip the cutter bar, which arrangement prevents the
spring from slipping and secures a regular action and cut along the
machinc. The screw pin is made with a square head and a square stem
to fit the guide plate, and has a round stem to pass through the pro-
jecting tenon, then a square stem to hold the cutting plate, and finally it
passes through the spring beyond, and on which it is secured by one or
two nuts and a metal washer so that the spring may be tightened by
means of a key or winch applied to the nut, thus pressing the spring
down on the cutting plate in order to ensure a due bite or friction
between the moving and stationary teeth of the apparatus.
The next part of the Invention relates to the means of actuating the
cutting bar and blades. This motion is effected by forming on the
cutting bar (on the edge opposite the blades or teeth) a series or row of
cogs, in which a corresponding series of cogs are made to gear, from a
semicircular or other shaped plate set on a fulcrum or pivot (with a nut
and washer), passing through and set in the comb plate near the handle.
The semicircular or other shaped toothed plate is provided with a handle
or lever capable of being grasped by the hand, and it is evident that the
leverage thus afforded, in conjunction with the toothed gearing, will
enable the operator to clip the hair of the horse or other animal with

page_text: great case and certainty. The segmental teeth of the working handle,
gearing with the straight row of teeth on the cutter plate, will effect the
to-and-fro motion of the cutters on the surface of the comb with far
greater power than can be accomplished by the direct lever action, and
the adjusting spring will keep the blades in gear.