CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON SHEARING MACHINES
Year: 1824

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HUMPHRY
AUSTIN, of Alderley Mills, in the County of Gloucester, Manufacturer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Fourth did, by
His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of that part of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland called England, bearing date at Westminster,
the Twenty-second day of June, One thousand eight hundred and twenty-four,
in the fifth year of His reign, give and grant unto me, the said Humphry
Austin, my exors, adiñors, and assigns, His especial licence, full power, sole
privilege and authority, that I, the said Humphry Austin, my exors, admors,
and assigns, during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS ON SHEARING
MACHINES;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso that if
I, the said Humphry Austin, shall not particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to
be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within six calendar
months next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that
then the said Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever
thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void, as in and
by the same, relation being thereunto had, will more fully and at large
appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Humphry Austin, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly
described and ascertained in and by the Drawing hereunto annexed, and the
following description thereof (that is to say) :-
My said Invention of certain Improvements on Shearing Machines consists
in a new mode of forming the revolving cutting rollers which have generally
a spiral blade wound around a cylinder or roller, and working against a fixed
ledger blade. Now in my improved mode of constructing the cutter rollers,
I affix two, four, six or more blades upon them in a spiral manner, but so as
to wind only partly around the rollers, and in opposite and contrary directions,
and thus to cut the cloth in different directions, also, (viz., against the wool in
an olique direction one way, and with the wool the way it is laid down tho
succeeding cut, and so on alternately; and the effect of which improvement
is, that the wool is fairly cut, not ground off the face of the cloth, as usual,
and a rich face is left, without any bare places appearing, neither does it make
the cloth thready, as it is termed; and I hereby claim as my Invention all
revolving cutting rollers for shearing woollen cloth which have two or more
blades affixed upon the rollers in opposite and contrary directions. As, however,
it is desirable that I should afford some examples of methods of carrying my
said Invention into effect I shall do so by a reference to and a description of
the Drawing, which as aforesaid is annexed to this Specification, and in which
said Drawing, Fig, 1 is a front viow of a cutting roller, with eight blades upon
it; and Fig. 2 an end view of it; Fig. 3 another cutting roller with only four
blades; and Fig. 4 an end view of the same. In all these Figures A is a
cast-iron roller with necks or pivots for it to turn upon as usual. B, B, &c.
are circular rings formed around and along the roller in order to have slits or
gaps made in them in a regular and spiral direction, and in which said slips or
gaps the steel cutting blades C, C, &c. are to be firmly secured by wedges,
or in any other manner. I prefer to work theso rollers against fixed, ledger
blades lying upon solid metallic rests, the upper surfaces of which are made
soft with woollen cloth covered by parchment, skin, leather, glazed linen, &c.
These rests are supported upon carriages and moved by any proper wheel-
work and machinery, and the rollers pass over and cut the cloth from list to
list. I do not, however, mean or intend hereby to claim as my Invention any
particular method or methods of using these my said cutting rollers with
blades fixed upon them in opposite and contrary directions, but only the
cutting rollers themselves; neither do I intend to limit myself to the making

page_text: HUMP (L.s.) AUSTIN.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Thirtieth day of September, in
the year of our Lord 1824, the aforesaid Humphry Austin came before our
said Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
O aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified in form
above written, and also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to
the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the First day of October, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and twenty-four.