IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SLICING MATERIALS INTO STRIPSAL
Year: 1882

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Burnand Whytehead of Ilkley in the County of
York for an Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SLICING
MATERIALS INTO STRIPS
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Burnand Whytehead
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 28th June 1882.
JOHN BURNAND WHYTEHEAD of Ilkley in the County of York
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SLICING MATERIALS INTO STRIPS
D
IMPROVE
My invention relates to apparatus whereby I am enabled rapidly and uniformly
to slice material such as whalebone, cane horn, bone, wood and the like into
strips.
For this purpose by means of a crank or eccentric on a rotating shaft driven by
hand or other motor I cause a bar to reciprocate to and fro at the side of a clamp
in which is held a block or piece of the material to be operated on. On the face
of the reciprocating bar is fixed a cutter like a plane iron and in front of its edge
are mounted a set of knives with their edges in planes perpendicular to that of the
plane iron. These knives are fixed on a second bar which reciprocates along with
the cutter bar but which by means of a cam on the driving shaft is made to
approach the cutter bar and to recede from it alternately so that the knives which
it carries are during the stroke in one direction protruded towards the material,
and during the back stroke are retracted. The block or piece of material being
pressed against the reciprocating cutter bar has a portion of its thickness
penetrated by the knives which make parallel lines of incision along it, and this
portion being sliced off by the plane iron is delivered as a number of strips each
of width corresponding to the distances between the knives and of thickne-s
determined by the forward set of the plane iron. The cutting is effected only
during the stroke of the bar in the one direction, there being no cut during the
backstroke, as the plane iron is then ineffective and the knives are then retracted.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John Burnand Whytehend in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 27th December 1882.
JOHN BURNAND WHYTEHEAD of Ilkley in the County of York "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN APPARATUS FOR SLICING MATERIALS INTO STRIPS
"
My invention relates to apparatus whereby I am enabled rapidly and uniformly
to slice material such as whalebono, cane, horn, bone, wood and the like into
strips.
For this purpose, by means of a crank or eccentric on a rotating shaft driven by
hand or other motor, I cause a bar to reciprocate to and fro at the side of a clamp
in which is held a block or piece of the material to be operated on. On the face
of the reciprocating bar is fixed a cutter like a plane iron and in front of its edge
are mounted a set of knives with their edges in planos perpendicular to that of the
plane iron. These knives are fixed on a second bar which reciprocates along with
the cutter bar but which by means of a cam on the driving shaft is made to
approach the cutter bar and to recede from it alternately so that the knives which
it carries aro during the stroke in one direction protruded towards the material,
and during the back stroke are retracted. The block or piece of material being
pressed against the reciprocating cutter bar has a portion of its thickness
penetrated by the knives which make parallel lines of incision along it, and this
portion being sliced off by the plane iron, is delivered as a number of strips each
of width corresponding to the distances between the knives and of thickness
determined by the forward set of the plane iron. The cutting is effected only
during the stroke of the bar in the one direction, there being no cut during the
back stroke, as the plane iron is then ineffective and the knives aro then retracted.
Fig of the accompanying drawings is an elevation and Fig 2 a plan partly
in section of a machine according to my invention for slicing horn or such like
material into strips, Fig 3 is an elevation to an enlarged scale of the cutter
employed. A driving shaft A worked from any suitable motor, by means of a
crank C gives reciprocating motion to a bar B which slides in guides in a suitablo
framing D. On the bar B is fixed the cutter which consists of a plano iron E and
a number of knives F separated by spaces equivalent to the widths of the strips
required to be produced. The plane iron E is fixed on the bar B, but the knives F
are fixed in a separate tool box G which extends downwards and at its lower part
has a roller and shoulder between which passes a bar H. This bar is carried by
two arms I projecting from a rocking spindle J which has a bent arm K carrying
a rollor L that bears against the edge of a cam disc M which is fixed on the
shaft A. A spring N tends to draw down one of the arms I. The cam M is made
with about half of its circumference projecting farther than the other half and is
Ho set relatively to the crank C that when the cutter bar B is making its stroko to
the right the arms I and bar H are elevated raising the tool box Gand causing the
knives F to protrude a little beyond the plane iron as shewn in Fig 3, but when
the bar B makes its back stroke to the left, the hollow of the cam M permits the
knives F to be retracted behind the plane iron by the spring N drawing down the
arm I and the bar H. Thus a block of material placed against or fixed on a
plate (which can be raised and lowered) being pressed against the cutter bar B,
the knives F during the right hand stroke being protruded cut parallel slits in the
face of the material and this face is sliced off by the plane iron E in the form of
separate strips. During the back or left hand stroke the plane iron does not cut,
and the knives F being retracted do not slit the face of the block.

page_text: Although I have described a machine in which the reciprocation of the cutter is
effected by a crank, and the protrusion and withdrawal of the knives is effected by
a cam and spring, it is obvious that the cutter might be made to reciprocate and
the knives might be protruded and retracted by other known mechanism having
the motions of its parts suitably timed for protrusion of the knives only during
the cutting stroke of the plane iron.
Having thus described the nature of my invention and in what manner the
same is to be performed, I claim in respect of apparatus for slicing materials into
strips:
The use of a cutter consisting of a plane iron in combination with retractile
slitting knives, arranged and operating substantially as herein described.
In Witness whereof I the said John Burnand Whytehead have hereunto set
my hand and seal this Twentieth day of December in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and eighty-two.
JOHN BURNAND WHYTEHEAD (L.&.)