Improvements in Apparatus for Clipping Horses or other Animals and Dead Skins.
Year: 1888

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Clipping Horses or other Animals
and Dead Skins.
I, WILLIAM CLARK of 528 Oxford Street, W., in the County of Middlesex Horse
Clipper Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of this Invention to be as
follows:-
-
My invention consists mainly in an improvement on the apparatus for driving
shears or cutters for clipping horses or other animals for which Letters Patent were
granted to me bearing date 18th March 1887 No. 4099 and the main object of my
present invention is the construction of an apparatus for driving shears or cutters, so
that the said apparatus can be driven from shafting operated by steam or other power
while the shears or cutters are free to be moved around the apparatus and held in any
required position, on the animal or skin being operated upon.
An
On a hollow vertical standard or post having a base plate by which it can be secured
to the ground, I journal a short horizontal shaft and I mount fast and loose pulleys on
the said shaft so that it can be driven by a belt from shafting rotated by power.
ordinary belt fork or other suitable device is provided for shifting the belt, or a single
pulley with a friction clutch may be employed in place of the fast and loose pulleys.
A handle may also be fitted on the said shaft so that it can be driven by hand if
required. A vertical shaft is journalled in the said hollow post above the horizontal
shaft and driven therefrom by bevel gear and a short horizontal shaft is driven from
the upper end of the vertical shaft by similar bevel gear. This horizontal shaft is
journalled in a cap which is free to rotate on the top of the hollow post, and it drives,
by means of an endless cord and pulleys, a short shaft carried at the end of a long arm
which is pivotted on the shaft in the said cap so that this long arm can be turned
around the said shaft at right angles thereto in a vertical plane.
The shaft at the outer end of this arm carries and drives by means of bevel gear a
light shaft in a tube, the lower end of this shaft is provided with a suitable coupling to
which a short flexible shaft is attached, or a system of bevel gears for driving the

page_text: cutters of the shearing or clipping instrument. The said cutters are kept in contact
with each other by means of spring fingers, and are preferably so attached to the
handle of the instrument that the two cutting plates and the spring fingers aforesaid
can be removed if required, without interfering with any other part of the
apparatus.
A suitable removable guard or sheath is provided to cover and protect the crank and
lever, which drives the top cutter, from dirt dust hair wool etc.
The weight of the long arm and the apparatus at the end is counterbalanced by a
coiled spring in a tube attached to the aforesaid cap on the standard.
My improved apparatus is specially useful for rapidly shearing or clipping horses,
sheep or other animals and also for shearing or clipping dead skins.
Dated 20th March 1888.
AMBROSE MYALL,
21, Cockspur Street, S.W.,
Agent for the Patentee.

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Clipping Horses or other Animals
and Dead Skins.
I WILLIAM CLARK of 528 Oxford Street W. in the County of Middlesex, Horse
Clipper Manufacturer do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in
and by the following statement :--
My invention consists in improvements in apparatus for driving shears or cutters
for shearing or clipping horses, sheep, or other animals, and also in improvements in
the shears or cutters used with such apparatus, and the main object of my said invention
is the construction of an apparatus for driving shears or cutters, so that the said
apparatus can be driven from shafting rotated by steam or other power, while
the shearing or cutting instrument is free to be moved around the apparatus and held
in any position and traversed in any direction on the animal, or skin being operated
upon.
In the accompanying two sheets of drawings; Fig. 1 is an elevation, partly in section,
of my improved driving apparatus, with the shearing instrument attached thereto;
Figs. 2, 2 and 2 represent alternative modes of connecting the instrument to the
apparatus; Fig. 3 is an elevation of the apparatus to a reduced scale, at right angles
to Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is an enlarged view of my improved shearing instrument, shewing,
partly in section, one mode of attachment to the driving apparatus; Fig. 5 is a view
of the lower portion of Fig. 4, at right angles thereto; and Figs. 6 and 7 are views of
such lower portion shewing the parts detached; Fig. 8 is a plan of stocks specially
designed for holding sheep when being sheared.
Similar letters of reference denote similar parts throughout the drawings.
In Figs. 1 and 3, A is a hollow vertical standard or post, having a base plate B
by which it can be secured to the ground. A short horizontal shaft C is journalled
in a box D on the top of the standard A. Fast and loose pulleys E, E', are
mounted on the shaft C, so that it can be driven by a belt F from shafting F¹,
rotated by power.
The position of the shafting F¹ in relation to the apparatus
is obviously not confined to that shewn in Fig. 3. An ordinary belt fork H,
or other suitable device provided for shifting the belt, or a single pulley,
fitted with a friction-clutch, may be employed in place of the fast and loose
pulleys E E'. A fly wheel J is preferably. fitted on the shaft C and provided
with a handle J', so that the apparatus can be driven by band if required.
A hollow vertical standard K is fitted to the top of the box D, in line with the
standard A, and a shaft L is journalled therein and driven from the shaft C by
the bevel gear M M', in the box D. A second short horizontal shaft N is driven
from the upper end of the shaft L by bevel gear P P. This shaft N is journalled
in a cap Q, which is free to rotate on the top of standard K, and it drives, by
means of an endless cord R and pulleys S S', a third short horizontal shaft T,
carried at the outer end of a long arm U, which is pivotted at its lower end on
the cap Q, so that this arm U can be turned up or down at any angle, as

page_text: required. In Fig. 1 the armn is shewn vertical, and in Fig. 3 at an angle. The
shaft T carries and drives by means of mitre gear V, VI, a light shaft W, journalled
in a light tube X. The lower end of the shaft W is provided with a suitable
coupling, shewn to an enlarged scale in Fig. 4, to which a short flexible coiled
wire shaft Y is attached for driving the cutters of the shearing or clipping instru-
ment. The weight of the arm U, shafts T and W and the cutting instrument, is
counterbalanced by a coiled spring Z in a tube or case Z', pivotted at its lower
end on the arm a affixed to the rotating cap Q.
By disconnecting the arm U from the spring Z, the said arm with its attachments;
can be allowed to hang down, thus rendering the apparatus very compact for
transport. The bevel wheel M being larger than the bevel pinion M², and the bevel
wheel P larger than the bevel pinion PT, and the grooved wheel S larger than the
grooved wheel S', the shaft W is driven much faster than the shaft C, and the cutters
can therefore be operated at great speed, so that an animal or skin can be clipped or
sheared in a fraction of the time required when hand clippers or shears are used.
The construction of the improved shearing or clipping instrument for use with the
driving apparatus, as shown to an enlarged scale in Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7, is as follows:-
which is
bis the handle of the instrument, having journalled within it a spindle
attached by a screw, or other suitable coupling d, to the lower end of the short
flexible coiled wire shaft Y. The coupling for connecting the upper end of the
flexible shaft Y to the shaft W, is constructed as follows. The shaft W terminates
with a flat piece e, which enters a slot cut across the solid end f of the shaft Y, g is a
cap swivelling on W and threaded internally to screw upon the externally threaded
part of f. When the cap g, which is milled externally for convenience in handling,
is screwed quite home, it bears upon the shoulder on the shaft W, and holds the
flat pieco e firmly in the slot in f, thus compelling the shaft Y to rotate with the
shaft W. A sliding tube i covers covers this coupling, and a flexible coiled wire
sheath (indicated by dotted lines in Fig. 4) is slipped over and covers the flexible
shaft Y and coupling d. A plate k is fixed to the handle b, and a lever I is fulcrummed
on a hollow stud m on the said plate, the inner end of this lever is bent at right
angles and slotted, and a crank pin c¹ on a disc c on the end of the spindle c, works
in the slot, so that the rotation of cimparts a reciprocating motion to the lever 7.
The stationary cutting plate or comb n, is attached to the plate by the stud o and
nut o'. This stud is rivetted into the plate and passes through the hollow fulcrum m.
Steady pins o o³ are screwed into the plate n and enter the holes in the plate k, shewn
in Fig. 7. They are provided with nuts on the ends as shewn. The moving cutting
plate p is kept in close contact with the stationary plate n by means of the spring
fingers q, q. They are fixed at their inner ends to the plate n and their pressure on
the plate p is regulated by the nuts q' q'. Two pins are rivetted into the plate n
and passing through slots in the plate p form guides for the motion of the latter
plate. These pins project above the surface of the plate p and the washers r, r, upon
which the ends of the fingers q1 bear, are placed over their ends so that the said
fingers do not bear directly upon the plate p. The outer end of the lever / enters
the holes in the plate p, and so gives the required reciprocating motion to the said
plate. The advantage of this mode of construction is, that should the cutting plates
become injured, or should it be desired to change them for plates having the cutting
teeth of finer or coarser pitch, or greater or less depth, it is only necessary to remove
the nut o' and the nuts on the steady pins o³ o³, when the two plates with the spring
Singers can be instantly removed as one piece, and a fresh set substituted therefor,
without interfering with any other part of the instrument. A guard z is employed
to cover the upper part of the lever 1, crank pin c², and disc c. It is held in place
by the nut o¹ and screw 2. The spring fingers 9, 9, exert a continuous self acting
pressure upon the plate p, and thus keep the cutting plates always in close contact, so
automatically maintaining their cutting efficiency, as they are thereby rendered
self-sharpening. The steady-pins 02 03 may, if desired, be made in the form of screws
to pass through the plate and screw into the plate n. And the stud o, instead of
being rivetted into the plate n, may be formed as a screw passing through the
03

page_text: hollow fulcrum m and screwing into the plate n; or the pins o² o* may be screwed
into the plate k, and merely enter holes, in the plate n, so that to remove the
cutting plates, it is only necessary to unscrew the stud o. In place of the mitro
wheels V, VI, for driving the shaft W, I may employ a short flexible coiled wire
shaft t, as shewn in Fig. 2, similar to the shaft Y, or I may employ a coiled wire
shaft t' in addition to the mitre wheels as shewn in Fig. 2; and again in place of the
shaft Y, for connecting the cutting instrument with the shaft W, I may employ two
pairs of mitre gears similar to V, VI, enclosed in boxes " u', the box u necessarily
being able to swivel upon the end of the shaft W, the box u¹ to swivel upon the
box น, and the cutting instrument b to swivel upon the box u. As a further
modification I may employ the arrangement shewn in Fig. 2b, in this case the mitre
wheels VV are used, but in place of flexible shafts Y or t, or sets of mitre
wheels u u, I employ two ordinary universal joints 2 and 3. The advantage of
employing a flexible shaft t in place of, or in addition to the mitre gears V V₁, or of
employing the universal joint arrangement shewn in Fig. 2b, is that the shaft W can
be held and worked in any direction with relation to the shaft T, whereas with the
mitre wheels alone it must always remain at right angles to the shaft T, no matter at
what vertical angle it may be held. It is obvious that the flexible shafts or mitre
gears may be employed if desired at both ends of the shaft W, or a flexible shaft at
one end and mitre gear at the other, as shewn in Figs. 1 and 2. It will be clear
from the construction of my improved apparatus that the cutting instrument can be
held and operated in any position or direction, thus affording the greatest possible
facility for rapidly shearing or clipping horses, sheep, or other animals, or if required
for operating upon dead skins.
When shearing sheep, I prefer to employ the stocks shown in Fig. 8. These
consist of a wooden frame v vv, having holes w www, opened by the hinged
pieces xxxx, which are secured when shut by the spring catches y yyy. The legs
of the sheep are secured in the holes w to w w, and the animal is then laid on its side,
when the whole of the upper side, half the back, and half the belly can be sheared,
the animal is then turned over, when the remaining half can be done. The cutter is
preferably moved lengthways with the body of the animal. When a sheep is held
by hand, as in the ordinary process, the skin gathers up in wrinkles, rendering it
difficult to shear properly, because the teeth of the cutting comb cannot travel
rapidly over the wrinkles, but catch in them and so to a great extent stop the progress
of the instrument, but by holding the sheep in these stocks and laying it upon one
side, the top side is bowed slightly upwards, stretching the skin out flat and tight
and thus rendering possible to move the instrument forward with great ease and
rapidity, producing clean work without the danger of catching into, or of cutting or
piercing the skin of the animal.
I wish it to be understood that in carrying my invention into effect I do not
necessarily confine myself to the precise details of construction as shewn in the
accompanying drawings provided that in all cases the essential principles of the
invention be retained.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. The improved apparatus for driving shears or cutters for shearing or clipping
horses, sheep, or other animals, or dead skins, so constructed that the apparatus can
be driven by power or hand, while the cutting instrument can be moved around the
apparatus and be held and driven in any position or direction on the animal or skin
being operated upon, substantially as herein described and shewn with reference to
Figs. 1, 2, 2, 2 and 3 of the accompanying drawings.
2. The combination with the driving apparatus, constructed substantially as herein
set forth with reference to the first claim, of a shearing or cutting instrument wherein
the moving cutting plate p is kept in contact with the stationary cutting plate n by
0

page_text: means of spring fingers 99; substantially in the manner and for the purposes as
herein set forth with reference to Figs. 4, 5 and 6 of the accompanying drawings.
3. The combination with the driving apparatus, constructed substantially as herein
set forth with reference to the first claim, of a shearing or cutting instrument so
constructed that the cutting plates can be readily removed from or attached to the
handle of the instrument, substantially in the manner and for the purposes as herein
set forth, with reference to Figs. 4, 5, 6, and 7 of the accompanying drawings.
Dated this 15th day of Tune 1000
AMBROSE MYALL,
21, Cockspur Street;
Agent for the Applicant.