IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE CHAFF-CUTTING MACHINERY."
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Maynard, Engineer, of Whittlesford,
in the County of Cambridge, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PORTABLE CHAFF-CUTTING MACHINERY."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Maynard at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
10th March 1875.
I, ROBERT MAYNARD, Engineer, of Whittlesford, in the County of
Cambridge, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE CHAFF-CUTTING MACHINERY," to be as follows :—
This Invention relates to improvements in portable combined chaff
engines, by which term I mean chaff engines in which are combined
means for cutting straw and other like substances into chaff, sifting out
the cavings or imperfectly cut straw, elevating the chaff sufficiently high
for it to fall into bags, and arc furnished with wheels for the purpose
of travelling about. Such chaff engines when worked by steam power

page_text: ""
require a number of laborers to straighten, or as it is termed "yealm'
the straw before it is laid in the feed box and subjected to the nip of the
feed rollers which present it to the knives. The present object is
twofold:-
First. By self-acting machinery to reduce the necessity for hand labor
in straightening the straw, by using for the purpose a roller or a pair of
rollers to bring the straw forward when it is submitted to the action of a
comb or series of spikes, which being caused to penetrate it & to
move laterally straighten it and bring it into a fit state for being cut
into chaff.
Secondly. By taking away a part of the dead bottom of the feed box
and substituting for it a roller or a scries of rollers, each of which is
made to revolve by being connected with the moving parts of the
machine, the straw on being pressed downwards upon them is helped
along till the feed rollers obtain a nip upon it.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Robert Maynard in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 18th August 1875.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT_
MAYNARD, Engineer, of Whittlesford, in the County of Cambridge, send'
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters-
Patent, bearing date the Tenth day of March in the year of our Lord a
One: thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the thirty-eighth year.
of Her reign, did for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant
unto me, the said Robert Maynard, Her special licence that I, the
said Robert Maynard, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such.
others as I, the said Robert Maynard, my executors, administrators,
and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to
time and at all times thereafter during the term therein expressed,
should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within the

page_text: United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel Islands,
and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN PORTABLE CHAFF-
CUTTING MACHINERY," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Robert Maynard, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should
particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same
to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Maynard, do hereby declaro
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
bo performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement:-
-
This Invention relates to improvements in portable combined chaff
engines, by which term I mean chaff engines in which are combined
means for cutting straw and other like substances into chaff, sifting out
the cavings or imperfectly cut straw, elevating the chaff sufficiently high
for it to fall into bags, and are furnished with wheels for the purpose of
travelling about. Such chaff engines when worked by steam power
require a number of laborers to straighten, or as it is termed "yealm
the straw before it is laid in the feed box and subjected to the nip of
the feed rollers which present it to the knives. The present object is
twofold :-
"
First. By self-acting machinery to reduce the necessity for hand labor
in straightening the straw, by using for the purpose a roller or a pair of
rollers to bring the straw forward when it is submitted to the action of
a comb or a series of spikes, which being caused to penetrate it and
move laterally straighten it and bring it into a more fit state for being
cut into chaff.
Secondly. By taking away a part of the dead bottom of the feed box
and substituting for it a roller, or a series of rollers, each of which is
made to revolve by being connected with the moving parts of the
machine, the straw on being pressed downwards upon them is helped
along till the feed rollers obtain a nip upon it.
The nature of my Invention will be understood by reference to the
accompanying Drawings.

page_text: Figures 1 and 2 represent an arrangement of parts for yealming or
straightening the straw. A is a roller under which the straw is made to
pass; on emerging from the roller it is penetrated by a comb or a series
away from
of spikes, which being caused to move laterally in a direction
the roller pulls or combs and straightens it so as to bring it into a
condition to pass through the feed rollers.
In the
bars D,
Various means may be used for giving the action above described to
the comb or spikes. Those which I here show consist of two pairs of
wheels, one pair of which B, B, is keyed on to a spindle C.
periphery of these wheels are perforations through which pass
into each of which are rivetted spikes E so forming it into a comb. At
the ends of the comb are fastened arms G which work on studs I pro-
jecting from the other pair of wheels K. These latter wheels have no
spindle but are kept in position by the guide rollers H, H. It will be
seen that on the first-named wheels being made to revolve the spikes
are brought down, and being kept in a perpendicular position by the
arms G they penetrate the straw and are caused to move laterally by the
rotation of the wheels. Or I take a pair of rollers B, B, as shown in
Fig. 3, which carry a series of spikes on their surfaces, and the straw
being made to pass between the rollers A, A, is received by the second
pair of rollers B, B, the surfaces of which being caused to revolve faster
than those of A, A, the straw is thereby combed and straightened.
Fig. 4 relates to the second part of my said Invention, and shews part
of the feed box, as ordinarily constructed, with the feed rollers A, A, the
mouth steel B, the rising plate C, and the dead bottom of the box D
which extends to d. In order to admit the rollers referred to I cut
away part of the dead bottom, as shown by the dotted lines from d to a',
and substitute for it one or more rollers; in the present instance three
are represented, shewn by the dotted circles e, c', and e¹¹, to each of
which a toothed wheel E, E, and E" is affixed. The wheel F is keyed
to a cross spindle which receives motion from a spindle connected with
the main shaft of the chaff engine, and transmits it to the rollers e and e¹
through the wheels E and E'. E' gives motion to F which again takes
into E". The respective rollers are thus caused to revolve, and the
straw being pressed down upon them is brought to the nip of the feed
rollers A, A.
I have here shewn one arrangement by which motion may be given
to the rollers, but I do not confine myself to this way nor to the number

page_text: of rollers here represented, as other ways of giving motion to them may
casily be found, nor do I confine myself to three rollers as a greater or
less number may be found more suitable.
What I claim as novel in this Invention is,―
First. The use of teeth or spikes to. penetrate and straighten the
straw.
Second. The use of one or more rollers besides the feed rollers placed
for the straw to travel over, and acted upon by a moving part of the
machine.
I confine these claims as applying to portable combined chaff engines;
as described, not knowing that the parts described, or some of them,
may not have before been used in connection with other kinds of chaff
engines.
In witness whereof I, the said Robert Maynard, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Sixteenth day of August, One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-five.