IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING, CHOPPING, OR RENDING WOOD FOR MAKING MATCHES, FIREWOOD, OR SIMILAR ARTICLES." PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION
Year: 1881

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Frederick Parsons, Engineer, of No. 1, Hamilton
Road, Grove Road, Victoria Park, in the County of Middlesex, for an
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CUTTING, CHOPPING, OR
RENDING WOOD FOR MAKING MATCHES, FIREWOOD, OR SIMILAR ARTICLES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Frederick Parsons
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 11th August 1881.
CHARLES FREDERICK PARSONS, Engineer, of No. 1, Hamilton Road, Grove Road,
Victoria Park, in the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR CUTTING, CHOPPING, OR RENDING WOOD FOR MAKING MATCHES, FIREWOOD,
OR SIMILAR ARTICLES."
I construct a strong framework suitable to carry an ordinary chopping blade or
guillotine knife driven by a crank or disc motion, similar to an ordinary slotting
machine in its action. The wood to be operated on is first crosscut into blocks in
the usual way so as to give it the required length. These blocks are placed in a
trough leading up to the chopping blade, and are forced towards it either by hand or
a screw, or rack and pinion. In front of the chopping knife is a guide or adjustable
stop for regulating the thickness of the slice to be cut and for holding the wood
well up to the knife; this stop is furnished with a spring arrangement which allows
the slice to be released when cut off and to fall into a square tube or guide placed
immediately beneath it to receive it, and drop it between a pair of rollers hereinafter
described. For all square or flat pieces of wood I place them lengthways to the grain
into the trough, so that the knife instead of splitting the wood the way of the grain
vertically, as is done at present, enters the grain of the wood sideways the entire
length of the wood at once, and pares off a slice instead of splitting it off, thus
rendering the knife independent of knots or cross grains, avoiding all waste as each
slice comes off square, however cross the grain may run. The rollers or cylinders
above mentioned I construct thus; if required to rend or divide a slice of wood cut
laterally with the grain, as above described, I make one roller perfectly smooth &
plain, the other is armed with straight knives let into grooves by preference cut
LD031

page_text: at unequal distances apart, so as to vary the sizes of the pieces cut; these knives
are secured in their grooves, which are cut say, 8/1 in. deep lengthways in the
circumference of the roller by a metal band, clipping their extremities at each end
of the roller, or by any other convenient method. These rollers are firmly geared
together, and made to rotate at a speed sufficient to run the slices through as fast
as they fall through the guiding tube from the knife. These knives like the
guillotine blade attack the wood lengthways with the grain and cut it into shapely
pieces independently of knots or cross grain, dropping them into a trough or
other suitable recepticle placed beneath to receive them. For such wood as is not
flat or square, and which would not lay lengthways in the mouth of the trough
under the knife, it is necessary to attack the wood in the usual way, that is, place
it upright to the grain in the trough, when the knife splits off slices vertically to
the grain. To reduce such slices which fall longways between the rollers, it is
necessary to remove the roller containing the knives & replace it with a roller
compounded of discs of steel with a cutting edge, and collars or washers between
each to keep them apart at suitable distances, these circular knives revolving like
the roller removed cut the slices of wood lengthways with the grain, and split them
up into suitable sizes for firewood or wood matches, according to the spaces left
between the knives.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Charles Frederick Parsons in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
2nd February 1882.
CHARLES FREDERICK PARSONS, Engineer, of No. 1, Hamilton Road, Grove Road,
Victoria Park, in the County of Middlesex. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
FOR CUTTING, CHOPPING, OR RENDING WOOD FOR MAKING MATCHES, FIREWOOD,
OR SIMILAR ARTICLES."
My said Invention relates to machinery to be employed for cutting wood into
sticks or splints suitable for firewood, matches, or similar articles, and constructed to
operate on the wood lengthways with its grain instead of cleaving it vertically, as
is at present done by hand labour, which causes waste and irregularly shaped
sticks, as the vertical cleavage is bound to follow the grain, which seldom runs
straight. In order that my said Invention may be perfectly understood, I shall
now proceed to more particularly describe the same, and to make reference to the
Drawings herewith annexed and to the letters thereon indicating their various
parts. I construct a strong iron framework, by preference square, about four feet
by three feet six inches, suitable to carry the standards necessary for receiving the
shaft, crank, fly wheel, pulleys, and other parts necessary to form an ordinary
chopping machine fitted with chopping blade or blades (which may be made to act
either vertically or horizontally), and is to be fed by the ordinary method with blocks
of wood previously cross cut as usual to the required size, but inserted edgeways
of the grain towards the knife or chopper instead of vertically. For a vertical
chopper, which I consider the most convenient form, a trough to contain the blocks
must lead up to the knife and be forced towards it by hand, a screw, a rack, or
other convenient method, but for an horizontal arrangement the blocks can be
placed in boxes or hoppers, when they will gravitate towards the knife at the
bottom of the said boxes or hoppers. As it is necessary to cut each slice about
the same thickness, a stop bar made adjustable should be fixed in front of the knife
and attached to it, level or a little below its cutting edge, so that its action becomes
similar to that af an ordinary plane, with this exception, the machinery is so
simple and would be so readily understood by any mechanic, that I do not consider
it necessary to illustrate it by Drawings or further description, as any one with
mechanical knowledge would understand and be able to construct a suitable
machine with a chopping blade for slicing purposes, as so many already exist of
similar character in use for various purposes, and I proceed at once to describe
what I consider novel.in my Invention. The slices cut off by the chopper before
described are allowed to fall into a square tube or shoot which conducts them to
and between a pair of rotating cylinders or rollers, one of which is armed with
latteral or circular knives having spaces between them equal to the size of the
width of the stick of wood required; if circular knives are used the spaces can be
made by placing iron collars or washers on the spindle between each knife and
screwing them together with a nut at each end, as shown in the plan of the roller
marked A. The opposite roller is plain, with the exception of narrow grooves cut
to receive the edges of the knives or discs so as to make certain that the knives cut
through and completely divide the sticks one from the other, a depth of one eighth
of an inch being sufficient. When the knives are latterally disposed on the cylinder
it is as well to gear it with the smooth roller opposite so as to ensure safety to the
knives, but when the knives are of the disc form, as shown in plan & section,
Figures A, B, C, D, the smooth grooved roller is best left loose in its bearings,
driving power being communicated to the armed cylinder only. I do not illustrate -
the latteral arrangement of the knives, as it can be readily understood from the

page_text: above description and from the Drawing in plan and section (Figures A & B) of the
same (rotating) form, of cutting wood by means of two cylinders, one armed with
circular knives marked A, the washers forming the spaces for the width of the
sticks of wood being marked o. As the slices are cut lengthways they naturally
would fall in the manner required between a pair of rollers armed with knives
fixed lengthways, i.e., edgeways to the grain, but when the disc cutters are used the
fall of the slice must be reversed from lengthways to edgeways, i.e., vertically to the
grain of the wood, unless the blocks are placed vertically in the chopping machine
and split with the grain, which is objectionable. This can be effected by dropping
them through a shoot with a boss or projection on one side of it; or the slices can
be reversed by hand, and rapidly dropped down an ordinary straight shoot leading
to the dividing cylinders, Figures A & B, which are drawn about half full
size. These cylinders or rollers by their rotary motion drag the slice through them,
and the disc knives figured g, or in plan Drawing, Figure E, completely divide
the slice into strips; a plate being fixed vertically close under the point of exit
retains the separate pieces in their vertical descent, and by preventing them
sticking between the spaces discharges them freely into a box or on to a travelling
band, which carries them away from the machine.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be used and carried into
effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and original,
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the hereinbefore in part
recited Letters Patent is,-
First. The use of revolving cylinders or rollers, one of which is armed with
latteral knives or circular cutting discs for the purpose herein before described of
cutting slices of wood into sticks suitable for matches or firewood, as described and
illustrated by my Drawing.
Second. The combination of such rotating cylinders as aforesaid with an
ordinary chopping machine for slicing wood, substantially as herein before
described.
Thirdly. The general arrangement, substantially as herein before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Charles Frederick Parsons, have to this my
Specification set my hand and seal, this Second day of February, One
thousand eight hundred and eighty two.