IMPROVEMENTS IN BAND SAW MACHINES
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Robert Western and Joseph Hamilton,
both of the Victoria Works, Belvidere Road, Lambeth, in the
County of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BAND SAW
MACHINES."
Scaled the 28th November 1873, and dated the 3rd October 1873.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Robert Western
and Joseph Hamilton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 3rd October-1878.
'
We, CHARLES ROBERT WESTERN and Joseph HAMILTON, both of the
Victoria Works, Belvidere Road, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN BAND SAW MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to the construction and operation of band saw
machines in such a manner that they can be applied to cutting and
slabbing timber in various curves and at various degrees of obliquity,
such as are ordinarily required for ships' timbers. For this purpose we

page_text: mount the two pullies of the band saw upon one bar or frame with the
usual means of adjusting the distance of their centres and of giving
elastic tension. This bar or frame is at one end mounted on a pivot in
the same axial line with the driving pulley of the saw, and near the
other end it is fitted to a box or block, in which it is free to swivel and
to slide longitudinally. The pivot at the one end, and the box or block
for the other end are both fitted to slide on parallel bars or frames, and
are cach provided with rack or screw motions by which they can be
moved along these bars or frames. According as the one or the other is
so moved the bar on which the saws are mounted, and therefore the saw
itself can be inclined more or less so as to make a cut of greater or less
obliquity in the timber, which is at the same time caused to traverse
transversely to the line of the saw on a sliding table by means of feed
gear of ordinary construction.
Moreover, from the bar carrying the saws two brackets project which
are fitted with circular discs containing guide slots for the saw blade,
and these discs can be turned within their brackets, so that the saw
blade can be more or less twisted at each side of the timber operated on.
In working this apparatus the timber operated on being marked on
each side with a line indicating the profile to which it is to be cut, is
fixed on the feeding table. An attendant at each side regulates the
movement of the one or the other saw pulley, and at the same time
adjusts the twist of the saw so that as the timber is made to travel
onwards by the feed the saw is made to follow the lines drawn upon it.
The gear for moving each end of the saw bar may be coupled when
desired in such a manner that the two saw pullies, instead of being
moved independently of each other, may be made to move together, and
thus a cut can be effected without twist in it, or they can be coupled so
so to move in opposite directions, thereby causing the saw to cut a helical
surface.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles Robert Western and Joseph Hamilton in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 28th March 1874.
i
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
ROBERT WESTERN and JOSEPH HAMILTON, both of the Victoria Works,
Belvidere Road, Lambeth, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Third day of October, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-
seventh year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto us, the said Charles Robert Western and Joseph Hamilton,
Her special license, that we, the said Charles Robert Western and Joseph
Hamilton, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said Charles Robert Western and Joseph Hamilton, our exe-
cutors, 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
BAND SAW MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the
said Charles Robert Western and Joseph Hamilton, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing, under our or their
hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
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 Charles Robert Western, on behalf of
myself and the said Joseph Hamilton, 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 state.
ment thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Sheet of Drawings
and to the figures and letters marked thereon, that is to say :—
==
This Invention relates to the construction and operation of band saw
machines_in_such_a_manner_that_they_can be applied to_cutting_and

page_text: slabbing timber in various curves and at various degrees of obliquity,
such as are ordinarily required for ships' timbers. For this purpose wo
mount the two pullies of the band saw upon one bar or frame with the
usual means of adjusting the distance of their contres and of giving
elastic tension. This bar or frame is at one end mounted on a pivot in
the samo axial line with the driving pulley of the saw, and near the
other end it is fitted to a box or block, in which it is free to swivel and
to slide longitudinally. The pivot at the one end, and the box or block
for the other end, are both fitted to slide on parallel bars or frames, and
arc each provided with rack or screw motions by which they can be
moved along these bars or frames. According as the one or the other is
so moved the bar on which the saws are mounted, and therefore the saw
itself can be inclined more or less so as to make a cut of greater or less
obliquity in the timber, which is at the same time caused to traverso
transversely to the line of the saw on a travelling table by means of
feed gear of ordinary construction.
Moreover, from the bar carrying the saw pullies two brackets project
which aro fitted with circular discs containing guide slots for the saw
blade, and these discs can be turned within their brackets, so that tho
saw blade can be more or loss twisted at cach side of the timber
operated on.
In working this apparatus the timber operated on being marked on
'each side with a line indicating the profile to which it is to be cut, is
fixed on the feeding table. An attendant at each side regulates tho
movement of the one or the other saw pulley, and at the same time a
adjusts the twist of the saw so that as the timber is made to travel
onwards by the feed the saw is made to follow the lines drawn upon it.
The gear for moving each end of the saw bar may be coupled when
desired in such manner that the two saw pullies, instead of being moved
independently of each other, may be made to move together, and thus a 3
cut can be effected without twist in it, or they can be coupled so as to
move in opposite directions, thereby causing the saw to cut a helical
surface.

page_text: י
view partly in section, and Fig. 4 a side view of the apparatus. The
other Figures represent details which will be referred to hereafter. The
timber A is laid upon the table B, which is caused to travel longitudinally
by rack and pinion, or it might be by screw or other feed gear, as in a
› planing machine. The band saw C passes round two pullies C' and O³.
The pulley C¹ is mounted on an axle on a block D', which is fitted to
slide on a vertical guide E¹, and which has jointed to it a bar or frame F
extending across the framing and sliding through a piece jointed on
another block D³, which is also fitted to slide on a vertical guide E³.
) On the portion of the bar or frame F extending beyond the block D³ is
fitted a slide o³, which carries the axle of the pulley C³, and which may
be caused to slide along the bar or frame F by means of a screw c for
the purpose of tightening or slackening the saw O. The pullies C¹ and
C, and blocks on which they are mounted, as well as the connecting bar
or frame F, are counterbalanced by weights G, G², connected to tho
blocks D¹ and D' by cords or chains passing over pullies mounted at the
top of the framing. To the sliding blocks D', D³, are attached screws
S', S³, which work through nuts in bevil wheels connected by gearing H
with hand wheels 72, 73, one on each side of the framing, so that by
turning either hand wheel in either direction, either of the saw pullies
C¹ or C³ can be raised or lowered, and thereby the obliquity of the saw
C or its height can be varied at pleasure. By means of a hand lever H¹
working a pair of bevil wheels ³ upwards or downwards, the two sets of
vertical screws can be coupled when required, so that by turning either
of the hand wheels h or both saw pullies can be made to move
simultaneously upwards or downwards, or the one upwards and the other
downwards. The one saw pulley C¹ is driven by a bevil wheel c³, which
is fitted with a feather on a vertical sliaft driven from the prime shaft of
the machine, so that the bevil wheel c¹ is caused to revolve, while it is
free to be raised or lowered along with the pulley C¹ which it drives.
On the bar or frame F are fixed two brackets K¹ and K³, in the ends of
which are mounted discs k, as shewn to an enlarged scale in front view
at Fig. 5 and side view at Fig. 6. These discs have through them slots
in which the saw blade is guided, and can be turned in their bearing by
a handle ³, so that the saw blade can be somewhat twisted to suit the
obliquity of the cut made by it. The discs can be clamped more or less
tightly in their bearings by means of a bolt and nut k³. The gearing for
working the table B is arranged in the usual manner for making it travel
in either direction, and the table can be thrown in or out of gear by

page_text: means of a treadle L acting on a clutch & on the shaft of the pinion
which works the rack of the table.
Fig. 7 represents by plan and side view the sliding block D³ with tho
upper portion of the screw S³, by which it is worked upwards or down-
wards.
Fig. 8 shews by side view and plan the sliding block D¹ with a portion
of its working screw S¹ and a portion of the vertical spindle of the bevil
wheel c¹.
In working the apparatus attendants on both sides with their hands
on the wheels and ³ turn theso wheels so as to raise or lower the saw 1
pullics, making the saw blade follow the lines scribed on the sides of the
timber A, and thereby effecting a cut more or less sloped or twisted as
desired, and they also, when necessary, turn the guides to give the
required twist to the saw blade.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and in what 1
manner the same is to be performed, we claim,—
First. Mounting the pullies of a band saw in slides which can be
separately and independently raised or lowered so that the blade of the
saw can be made to lie at any required level and angle relatively to the
bed on which the timber cut by it is caused to travel, substantially as 2
herein described.
Second. Forming the guides of a band saw in discs capable of being
turned so as to give a twist to the saw blado suited to the line of its cut,
substantially as herein described.
In witness whereof I, the said Charles Robert Western, have here- 2
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-seventh day of March,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.