MACHINERY FOR THE PURPOSE OF PRODUCING STRAIGHT, SMOOTH, AND PARALLEL SURFACES ON WOOD AND OTHER MATERIALS REQUIRING TRUTH, IN A MANNER MUCH MORE EXPEDITIOUS AND PERFECT THAN CAN BE PERFORMED BY THE USE OF AXES, SAWS, PLANES, AND OTHER CUTTING INSTRUMENTS USED BY HAND IN THE USUAL WAY
Year: 1802

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
JOSEPH BRAMAH, of Pimlico, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third
did, by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United King-
dom of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster, the
Thirtieth day of October, iu the forty-third year of His reign, give and
grant unto me, the said Joseph Bramah, His special licence, that I,
the said Joseph Bramah, during the term therein mentioned, should
and lawfully might use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales,
and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "MACHINERY FOR
THE PURPOSE OF PRODUCING STRAIGHT, SMOOTH, AND PARALLEL SURFACES ON
WOOD AND OTHER MATERIALS REQUIRING TRUTH, IN A MANNER MUCH MORE
EXPEDITIOUS AND PERFECT THAN CAN BE PERFORMED BY THE USE OF AXES,
SAWS, PLANES, AND OTHER CUTTING INSTRUMENTS USED BY HAND IN THE
USUAL WAY;" in which said Letters Patent there is contained a proviso,
obliging me, the said Joseph Bramah, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the nature
of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery
within one calendar month after the date of the said recited Letters

page_text: Patent, as in and by the same, (relation being thereunto had, may
more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Joseph Bramah, do hereby declare that the principal objects of
my Invention are as follows, that is to say:
will
To shorten and reduce manual labor, and the consequent expences
which attend it, by producing the effects stated in my Patent by the
use of machinery which may be worked by animal, elementary, or
manual force, and which said effects are to produce straight, true,
smooth, and parallel surfaces in the preparation of all the component
parts of work consisting of wood, ivory, horn, stone, metals, or any other
sort of materials or composition usually prepared, and render it true and
fit for use by means of edge tools of every description. I do not rest the
merits of this my said Invention on any novelty in the general principle
of the machinery I employ, because the public benefit I proposo
rather depend on new effects produced by a new application of principles
already known, and machinery already in use for other purposes, in
various branches of British manufacture. This machinery, and the new
manner of using it, with some improvements in the construction,
together with sundry tools and apendages never in use before, are
particularly described and explained hereunder. I mean to use apply
for the purposes above stated every kind of edge tool or cutter already
known, either in their present shape, or with such variations and
improvements as the variety of operations I may encounter may
severally call for. But the tools, instead of being applied by hand as
usual, I fix, as judgment may direct, on frames drove by machinery,
some of which frames I move in a rotary direction round an upright
shaft, and others having their shaft lying in a horizontal position, like
a common lathe for turning wood, &c. In other instances, I fix these
tools, cutters, &c. on frames which slide in stationed groves, or ether-
wise; and, like the former, calculated for connection with and to be
driven by machinery, all of which are hereafter further explained and
particularized. The principle points on which the merits of the Inven-
tion rest, are the following:-
First, I cause the materials meant to be wrought true and perfect,

page_text: as above described, to slide into contact with the tool, instead of the
tool being carried by the hand over the work in the usual way.
.
Secondly, I make the tool, of whatsoever cutting kind it be, to
traverse across the work in a square or oblique direction, except in
some cases where it may be necessary to fix the tool or cutter in an
immoveable station, and cause the work to fall in contact with it, by a.
motion confining it so to do, similar to the operations performed on a
drawing bench.
Thirdly, in some cases I use, instead of common saws, axes, planes, :
chissels, and other such instruments usually applied by hand, cutters,
knives, shaves, planes, and the like, variously, as the nature of
the work may render necessary; some in form of bent knives, spoke
shaves, or deep cutting gouges, similar to those used by turners for.
cutting off the roughest part. I also apply planes of various shapes
and construction, as the work may require, to follow the former in
succession under the same operation, and which latter I call finishers.
Fourthly, these cutters, knives, &c. I fix on frames of wood or metal
properly contrived for their reception, and from which they may be
These I
easily detached for the purpose of sharping and the like.
call cutter frames. These cutter frames I move in cases like those on
which the saws are fixed in a sawing mill, and sometimes to reciprocate
in a horizontal direction confined and stationed by groves or otherwise,
as may be found best calculated to answer the several works intended.
In other instances, and which I apprehend will generally have the
preference, I fix cutter frames on a rotary upright shaft, turning on a
step and carrying the frame round in a direction similar to the upper
mill stone; and sometimes I cause the frames to turn on a horizontal.
shaft just resembling the mandrell of a common turning lathe, or those
machines used for cutting logwood, &c. for the dyers uses. When these
frames are mounted in any of the foregoing directions for cutters,
planes, &c. are fixed so as to fall successionally in contact with the wood
or other materials to be cut, so that the cutter or tool calculated to take
the rough and hilly part operates the first, and those that follow must
be so regulated as to reduce the material down to the line intended for
the surface. These cutter frames must also have the property of being
regulated by a screw or otherwise so as to a proach nearer the work or

page_text: recede at pleasure, in order that a deeper or shallower cut may be
taken at discretion, or that the machine may repeat its action without
raising or depressing the materials on which they act. The manner of
thus regulating the cutter frames when on an upright shaft is particularly
described below. These cutter frames may be made of any magnitude
and dimensions the work requires, only observing to make the diameter
of those on the rotary plane so as to exceed twice the width of the
materials to be cut, as the said materials must slide so as to pass the
shaft on which the cutter frame revolves, when on the upright principle.
Fifthly, when I use upright shafts for the purpose of carrying the cutter
frame, as above described, I do not mean that the lower end or point
of such shafts shall coine in contact with or rest on the bottom of the
step or box. in which they stand, neither do I mean that such said
shafts shall rest or turn on any stationed unalterable point at rest, but
the pivot or lower point of the shaft shall actually rest and turn upon a
fluid body, such as oil or any other fluid proper for the purpose, a con-
siderable portion of which always to be kept between the lower point
of the shaft and the bottom of the step in which it works. The said
shafts may be either raised or depressed at pleasure to any required
altitude by means of a greater or less quantity of the said fluid being
confined, as aforesaid, between the end of the shaft and the bottom of
the step. This device I deem of great consequence in the fabrication
of all kinds of machinery where massey and heavy loaded upright shafts
are used, and I perform it. in the following manner, that is to say :-
The lower part of the shaft must be turned perfectly smooth and
cylindrical, to a height something above the greatest distance or lenght
the shaft will ever be required to be raised or depressed when in use.
This part of the shaft I immerse or drop into a hollow cylinder, which
fits its circumference near enough to allow freedom of motion, but
sufficiently fitted to prevent shake. This cylinder I call the step cylin-
der, and must be of a length nearly equal to that of the cylinderical
part of the shaft above mentioned, so that when the point of the shaft
rests on the bottom of the cylinder, the parallel or cylinderical part may
be something above the top or upper end of the step cylinder. In the
upper end of this step cylinder I make a stuffing box by means of a
double cupped leather or other material surounding the cylinderical

page_text: part of the shaft, in such a way as will cause the junction, when the
shaft is passed through it, to remain water-tight under any pressure
that may be felt from the efforts of the fluid retained as before men-
tioned to make its escape upwards through this part I have called
the stuffing box, when the shaft with all its load is passed through it
and immersed in the cylinder below. When this is done the injecting
pipe of a small forcing pump, similar to those I use in my patent
press, must form a junction with the step cylinder in some part below
the stuffing box; then the pump being worked, the oil or other fluid
injected by it will, by pressing in all directions, cause the shaft to be
raised from its rest on the bottom of the cylinder, and to be slidėd
up through the stuffing box just the same as the piston of my patent
press. And by this means the shaft, with all its incumbrance, and
whatever may be its weight, may be raised to any given point at
pleasure, and at the same time it will be left resting on the fluid under
it, whatever the quantity or thickness of such fluid may be, between its
point and the bottom of the step cylinder. By this means the shaft,
with all its incumbent load as aforesaid, should it even amount to
hundreds or thousands of tons, can be easily raised and depressed to
any required point at pleasure by the alternate injunction or discharge
of the fluid used, exactly the same as performed by my patent press as
aforesaid, and at the same time all friction will be avoided, except that
of the stuffing box, which will be comparatively trifling to that which
would result from the resting of such a shaft on the bottom of the step
in the usual way. Thus will be gained the properties above stated, and
in addition thereto I think it may be infered that, provided the stuffing
box is kept perfectly fluid-tight, such a shaft, thus buoyed up by and
turning in a proper fluid, may continue working for years, or perhaps
for hundreds of years, without a fresh supply of oil or whatever other
fluid substance is found the most proper to apply.
Sixthly, the material that is to be cut and made truc must be firmly
fixed on a platform or frame made to slide with perfect truth, either on
wheels or in groves, &c., similar to those frames in a saw mill on which
the timber is carried to the saws. These frames must be moved in a
steady progressive manner as the cutter frame turns round, either by
the same power which moves the latter or otherwise, as may be found

page_text: to answer best in practice. This motion also must be under the power
of a regulator, so that the motion of the sliding frame may be properly
adjusted, according to the nature of the work. The motion of the
cutter frames must also be under the controll of a regulator, so that
the velocity of the tool in passing over the work may be made quicker
cor slower, as such work may respectively require to cause the cutter
to act properly and to the best advantage.
Seventhly, I regulate the motions of both these parts of the appa-
ratus, as afore mentioned, by means of a new Invention, which I call
an universal regulator of velocity, and which is composed as follows,
viz: I take any number of cog wheels of different diameters, with
teeth that will exactly fit each other through the whole, suppose ten,
or any other number, but for example say ten, the smallest of which
shall not exceed one inch in diameter, and the largest suppose ten
inches in diameter, and all the rest to mount, by regular gradations
in their diameters, from one to ten; I fix these ten wheels fast and im-
movable on an axes perfectly true, so as to form a cone of wheels. I
then take ten other wheels, exactly the same in all respects as the former,
and fix them on another axes, also perfectly true, and the wheels in
conical gradation also; but these latter wheels I do not fix fast on their
axes like the former, but leave them all loose so as to turn upon the said
axes contrary to the former, which are fixed. All those latter wheels I
have the power of locking, by a pin or otherwise, so that I can at dis-
cretion lock or set fast any single wheel at pleasure. I then place the two
axisiss parallel to each other, with the wheels which form the two cones,
as above described, in reverse position, so that the large wheel at the
one end of the cone may lock its teeth into the smallest ouc in the conc
opposite, and likewise vice versa. Then suppose the the axis on which
the wheels are permanently fixed to be turned about, all the wheels on
the other axis will be carried round with an equal velocity with the s
former, but their axis will not move. Then lock the largest wheel on
the loose axis, and by turning about the fast axis as before, it must
make ten revolutions while the opposite performs but one; then, by
unlocking the largest wheel and locking the smallest one at the contray
end of the cono in its stead, and turning as before, the fast axis will g
then turn the opposite ten times while itself only revolves once. Thus

page_text: the axis or shafts of these cones or conical combination of wheels may
turn each other reciprocally, as one to ten, and as ten to one, which
collectively produces a change in velocity under an uniform action of
the primum mobile, as ten to a hundred, for when the small wheel on
the loose axis is locked, and the fast one makes ten revolutions, the
former will make one hundred. And, by adding to the number of those
wheels, and extending the cones, which may be done (ad infinitum),
velocity may be likewise infinitely varied by this simple contrivance.
A, may turn B, with a speed equal to thousands or milions of times
its own motion; and by changing a pin and locking a different
wheel, as above directed, B will turn A in the same proportion;
and their power will transferred to each in proportion as their
velocities reciprocally. Here is, then, an universal regulator at once
for both power and velocity. In some instances I produce a like
effect by the same necessary number of wheels made to correspond
in conical order, but instead of being all constantly mounted on the
axisis or shafts as above described, they will be reciprocally changed
from one axis to the other in single pairs, matched according to the
speed or power wanted, just as in the former instance. This method
will have in all respects the same effect, but not so convenient as
when the wheels are all fixed, &c.
Eighthly, when spherical surfaces are to be produced perfectly true
and parallel to their centers in all directions, I use a tool or cutter of a
proper shape, according to the nature of the materials to be cut. This
tool must be fixed on a cutter frame fastned to the rest of any common
lathe so as to present its point exactly to a line drawn thro' the center
of the mandrill of the lathe horizontaly, and the said frame on which
the cutter is fixed must have the capacity of drawing out at pleasure,
to any required distance, to accomodate the diameter of the sphere to
be cut or turned true. This cutter frame must be likewise made to
turn upon a center or pin, very firm and steadily fixed on the rest above
mentioned, so as to enable the cutter to be turned by its frame round a
center, exactly perpendicular to the center of the lathe or line before
mentioned, by which the altitude of the tool's point is to be regulated;
when this is done, and the wood or other materials fix'd on the lathe
in the usual way, the cutter frame must be drawn nearer or farther

page_text: distant from the center on which it turns to accommodate the diameter,
just the same as the common rest. If the materials be rough, and
require to be reduced to a sphericial form by gradations, the work may
be repeatedly gone over by the cutter before it reaches the diameter
proposed. By this simple apparatus the difficulty of turning perfect
spheres is overcome, as it must be obvious to any person of the most
ordinary capacity in machanics, that while the work is turning in the
lathe in a vertical direction, and the tool or cutter is by the hand or
otherwise turned at the same time in a perfectly horizontal direction
round a center opposite to the actual center of the sphere, the point
of the tool or cutter must of necessity generate or turn a perfect sphere
'true in all directions, without the smallest attention or assistance from
the use of the instrument. I mention here the application of the cutter
frame to a common lathe, conceiving it will, by such an explanation,
be more familiarly understood without a Drawing; but by this method
spheres of any practicable magnitude may be cut with perfect ease and
certainty.
Ninthly, when concave surfaces are to be produced perfectly true,
smooth, and parallel to their respective spherical centers, the work
is fixed on a machine the same in all respects as the common turning
lathe, as in the instance last referred to. I then fix a tool or cutter
on a center exactly in a linc, both perpendicular to and on a level
with the exact center of the shaft or mandrill on which the work
revolves, and which cutter or tool projects to the required radial
distance with its point, so that when the works gocs round by the
revolution of the lathe, the tool or cutter at the same time revolving
round its center, a spherical concave will be generated and produced
by the fluction of its point, as in the instance of the convex sphere.
Tenthly, I convert solid wood or other materials into a thin concave
shell similar to a dish; I cut them alternately out of each other, begin-
ing at the smallest, by means of another tool or cutter likewise moving
on a stationed center as before, exactly on a level with and perpen-
'dicularly true with the center of the mandrill or shaft of the machine
on which the work is fixed. This tool or cutter is made at its exterior
point or cutting end, of such a shape as best suits the nature of the
work, and its shank or stem is bent to the exact circle the concave is

page_text: meant to be; it is then fixed on an arm or frame calculated to receive
others of different circles according to the work; in fact the same frame
may be used which is above described, to hold the tool for cutting
spheres, either of the convex or concave kind. The tool must be fixed
on this frame or arm as above mentioned at such a radial distance
from the center on which the frame or arm turns so as to form a
quadrant, with one leg turning on its center, and the tool forming the
perehery with its cutting point, and projecting to the line of the
deficient leg. Before this tool begins its action a common rest must
be applied close to the face of the work, in order to support the tool
when it begins its cut, and on which rest the tool will slide till its
point proceeds under the control of the center on which its frame is
fixed until it reaches the horizontal line of the lathe's center, when the
part cut off or the inner dish will fall from the stock and leave the rest
for the operation of another tool of a larger circle. Thus the operation
may be repeated till the whole lump is converted according to the
intention of the owner.
Thus have I given the clearest description of my Invention I am
able.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Bramah, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and two.
JOSEPH BRAMAH. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on same Twenty-sixth day of
November, in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid Joseph Bramah
came before our Lord the King, in His Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained, in
form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped
according to the tenor of the Statute in that case made and provided.