IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING AND PULPING TURNIPS AND OTHER VEGETABLES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Corbett at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd July
1870.
I, SAMUEL CORBETT, of Wellington, in the County of Salop, Agri-
cultural Implement Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES OR APPARATUS FOR CUTTING
AND PULPING TURNIPS AND OTHER VEGETABLES," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, firstly, of the following improvements in
machines or apparatus for cutting turnips and other vegetables.
.
In constructing the said machines or apparatus I employ a disk or
wheel carrying the knives, the said disk or wheel being mounted on a
horizontal axis, and made capable of rotating by a crank handle or
otherwise. The roots or vegetables to be cut are placed in a large
hopper, and rest against the revolving disk or wheel carrying the
knives.
According to my Invention I make the slicer knives so that they can
be set or adjusted at different distances from the wheel or disk for the
purpose of fitting the machine or apparatus to cut or slice pieces of

page_text: different thicknesses without reversing the motion of the machine.
This I effect by fixing the said knives to the disk or wheel by screw
bolts and nuts, and by means of metallic packings of different thicknesses
placed between the knives and disk the positions of the knives may be
adjusted. I also fix the stripping knives on the disk or wheel in such
a manner that every alternate knife can be removed from the said disk
or wheel when wide strips for cattle are required to be cut; this I
effect by making slots in the disk wheel and providing the stripping
knives with screwed stems. By passing the stems of the knives through
the slots in the disk or wheel and screwing nuts thereon the said knives
are secured to the said disk or wheel.
According to another part of my Invention I combine with the
cutting machine or apparatus two cutting hoppers or mouthpieces one
above the other, the knife disk operating simultaneously upon the
turnips or other matters in both hoppers, that is to say, I employ the
ordinary hopper arranged as herein-after described, and under the said
hopper I place a second and smaller hopper. Instead of making the
bottom of the inclined side of the top hopper bear against the knife
disk as usual I place the bottom of the said inclined side some distance
from the knife disk, thereby leaving an opening between the bottom of
the top hopper and the knife disk. The second or lower hopper is in
communication with the top hopper by the opening described.
When the machine or apparatus is put to work one half of the turnip
(or turnips is cut by the knife disk in the top hopper, and the other
half (or a small turnip) falling into the second or bottom hopper, where
it is sliced by the knife disk while the said knife disk is cutting the first
half of one or more turnips in the top hopper. I prefer that the lower
hopper shall be placed at a different angle to the knife disk from that
at which the top hopper is placed. By thus arranging the machine or
apparatus it is made to cut twice the quantity of turnips with the same
number of cutters and during the same number of revolutions as
ordinary turnip cutters, and by adjusting the distance of the knives from
the disk from the disk slices of different thickness may be cut at
pleasure. The double hopper or mouth piece herein-before described is
applicable to turnip cutters fitted with cylindrical cutting barrels as well
as turnip cutters fitted with disk cutters.
My Invention consists, secondly, of the following improvements in

page_text: One part of my Invention consists in fixing the pulping knives and
plates in such a manner that the said knives and plates can be readily
fixed to and removed from the wheel or disk carrying them. For this
purpose I combine the rows of pulping knives and the holes under them
for the pulped food to pass through in one plate, the said plate with the
knives and holes being made by the process of casting. I make apertures
in the disk or wheel to which the four or other number of plates are to
be fixed, and I fix the said plates to the disk at the rim and boss by
screw pins and nuts. I also combine with pulpers (whether provided
with knife disks or cylindrical cutting barrels) the double hopper or
mouthpiece herein-before described with respect to turnip cutters.