IMPROVEMENTS IN MLOWINARY POD SPLIMMING LEATHERLITTING
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Moses Poole, of Avenue Road, Regent's Park, in
the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MLOWINARY POD SPLIMMING LEATHER" A communication
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Moses Poole at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 12th
May 1854.
I, MOSES POOLE, of Avenue Road, Regent's Park, in the County of Mid-
dlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR SPLITTING LEATHER" to be as follows:-
The Invention consists in the use of a knife composed of an endless belt of
sheet iron or steel, in place of the knives heretofore employed in machines of
this class.
For this purpose, there is a driving shaft, from which the other moving parts.
of the machine derive their motion; two drums or carrying pullies are fixer,.
one upon the driving shaft, and the other upon a short transverse shaft at the
other end of the machine. These drums carry the knife, which is composed
of a strip of sheet metal, the ends of which are brazed, or otherwise suitably
secured together, so as to form an endless belt. The upper portion of the
knife is made to operate upon the leather, in a manner which will be hereafter
explained; it is confined between two jaws or guide plates, which hold the.
knife sufficiently rigidly to prevent it from being bent out of the horizontal
plane in which its cutting edge is to operate. The guide bars are confined at

page_text: suitable distances by metallic clamps, which serve to prevent them from
springing apart. An endless feed apron carried by the rollers is used, and
upon which the leather is fed to the knife. Motion is communicated to this
apron in the following manner:-There is a screw upon the driving shaft
which engages with a wheel upon the shaft of one of the rollers of the apron;
the latter is thus made to revolve an amount equal to the pitch of the screw
each time the shaft revolves, as the knife travels a distance equal to the entire
circumference of the drums each revolution of this same shaft; it is evident
that the velocity of the knife greatly exceeds that with which the leather is fed
into the machine. There is a roller which bears upon the upper surface of the
leather, and is regulated in position in the customary manner by set screws,
according to the nature of the work to be performed. This roller is driven in
a direction corresponding to the motion of the hide by a crossed band from a
pulley upon the shaft of the roller of the apron.
66
. In machines of this class, as heretofore constructed, the weight of the "split"
is often sufficient to drag down the hide from the upper roller, causing the
grain" to be of unequal thickness, and oftentimes to be severed by the knife;
to guard against this difficulty, and to keep the leather always firmly pressed
up against the under surface of the upper roller, the following expedient is
resorted to There is a bar which lies immediately beneath the feed apron,
and runs longitudinally through the machine; there is a spring plate secured
to the bar above mentioned, and projecting beyond it beneath the upper roller;
this projecting portion is slit into a number of equal portions which form as
many independent springs, by the action of which every portion of the hide is
kept uniformly pressed up against the upper roller, whatever may be the thick-
ness or irregularity of the hide, a uniformity of thickness being thus given to the
"grain," which cannot be otherwise attained. In machines heretofore con-
structed for the purpose of splitting leather, it has been necessary to remove
the knife from the frame whenever it required to be sharpened, or at least to
interrupt its operation. To avoid this necessity, and to keep the knife always
sharp, is the object of the next branch of the Invention, which consists in the
arrangement of two revolving stones or sharpeners which are arranged above
and below the knife, in such positions that they shall operate upon its edge,
which is thereby kept continually sharp, and in the best possible condition for
the performance of its work. It is evident that, if the constant action of these
stones upon the knife be not required to keep it sharp, that they may be caused
to operate at intervals, and under certain circumstances stationary stones or
other sharpeners may be made to operate upon the knife in place of the
revolving ones. There is a table or metallic plate which receives the split as

page_text: it comes from the knife and guides it out of the machine. The continuously
revolving knife, in connection with the sharpening stones, enables me to employ
a sheet iron knife instead of a steel one, heretofore rendered necessary; the
latter, however, may be entirely dispensed with in this machine, as the iron
band bas been found to answer every purpose. As the knife moves with a
great velocity, compared with that of the material, it will readily be seen that
all the advantages of a "draw cut" are obtained, and that the machine will
operate more rapidly than the stationary knife machine, and with the expen-
diture of far less power. In order that the knife may be preserved in its
proper position, and not forced off its carrying pullies by the pressure of the
leather, it is furnished with short pins, which project from its under surface
into a groove cut in the surface of the pullies, by which the knife is held in
place.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Moses Poole in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th August 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, MOSES
POOLE, of Avenue Road, Regent's Park, in the County of Middlesex, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of May, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the seventeenth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Moses Poole, Ier special license that I, the said Moses
Poole, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said Moses Poole, 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 United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland,
the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR SPLITTING LEATHER," (communicated to me from abroad,) upon.
the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Moses Poole, by an instrument
in writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, 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.
:

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that 1, the said Loses oore, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to. be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say:
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
'
Figure 1 is a front view of the machine; Figure 2 is a plan of the same;
Figure 3, an end view; Figure 4, a transverse section upon the line A, A, of
Figure 1; Figures. 5; 6, and 7, details which will be hereafter referred to.
The principal feature of the Invention consists in the use of a knife composed
of an endless belt of sheet iron or steel, in place of the stationary. knives,
heretofore employed in machines of this class.
To enable others skilled in the art to make and use this machine, I will
proceed to describe its construction; and the manner in which it is carried out;
also the particulars in which it differs from all machines for a similar purpose
heretofore known or used. B is the driving shaft, from which the other moving
parts of the machine derive their motion; C, C', are two drums or carrying
pulleys, the former upon the driving shaft, and the latter upon a short trans-
verse shaft at the other end of the machine. These drums carry the knife
D, D', which is composed of a strip of sheet metal, the ends of which are
brazed, or otherwise suitably secured together, so as to form an endless belt, as
seen in Figure 1. The upper portion D of the knife which is made to operate
upon
the leather, in a manner which will be hereafter explained,- is confined
between the two jaws or guide plates a, a', which hold the knife sufficiently
rigidly to prevent it from being bent out of the horizontal plane in which. its
cutting edge is to operate, without griping it with sufficient force to create
friction, or to impede its motion. The guide bars a, a', are confined at suitable
distances by metallic clamps b, which serve to prevent them from springing
apart; E is an endless feed apron carried by the rollers F, F, and upon which
the leather is fed to the knife; motion is communicated to this- apron in the
following manner: -G is an endless screw upon the driving shaft B,
which engages with the gear H, upon the shaft of the roller F;-the-latter
is thus made to revolve an amount equal to the pitch of the screw G each
time the shaft B revolves; as the knife travels a distance equal to the
entire circumference of the drums C, C', each revolution of this same
shaft, it is evident that the velocity of the knife greatly exceeds that with
which the leather is fed into the machine. I is a roller which bears
upon the upper
surface of the leather, and is regulated in position in the
customary manner by the set screws d, according to the nature of the work to

page_text: be performed; this roller is driven in a direction corresponding to the motion
of the hide by the crossed band f, from the pulley g, upon the shaft of the
roller F. In machines of this class, as heretofore constructed, the weight of
the "split" is often sufficient to drag down the hide from the upper roller I,
causing the "grain" to be of unequal thickness, and oftentimes to be severed
by the knife; to guard against this difficulty, and to keep the leather always
firmly pressed up against the under surface of the roller I, I have adopted the
following expedient:-K is a bar in the position seen in Figure 4, which lies
immediately beneath the feed apron E, and runs longitudinally through the
machine; h is a spring plate secured to the bar K, and projecting beyond it
beneath the roller I; this projecting portion (Figure 6) is slit into a number
of equal portions i, i, which form as many independent springs, by the action
of which every portion of the hide is kept uniformly pressed up against the
upper roller, whatever may be the thickness or irregularity of the hide, a
uniformity of thickness being thus given to the "grain" which cannot be t
otherwise obtained. In machines heretofore constructed for the purpose of
splitting leather, it has been necessary to remove the knife from the frame
whenever it required to be sharpened, or at least to interrupt its operation.
To avoid this necessity, and to keep the knife always sharp, is the object of
the next branch of the Invention, which consists in the arrangement of two
revolving stones or sharpeners, which are arranged above and below the knife
in such positions that they shall operate upon its edge, which is thereby kept
continually sharp, and in the best possible condition for the performance of its
work. These sharpening stones N, N₁, Figures 1 and 4, are secured to the
shafts O, O', and are set in motion as follows:-A band from a pulley M
upon the main shaft gives motion to the transverse shaft L; this shaft carries
a pulley P, from which a band m passes to the pulley Q (seen in dotted lines
in Figure 1), by which means motion is communicated to the shaft O and
grindstone N, the other stone being driven by the band n, upon the pullies p, q,
upon the shafts O, O'. It is evident, that if the constant action of these stones
upon the knife be not required to keep it sharp, that they may be caused to
operate at intervals; and under certain circumstances stationary stones or other
sharpeners may be made to operate upon the knife in place of the revolving
ones. R is a table or metallic plate which receives the split as it comes from
the knife, and guides it out of the machine. The continuously revolving knife,
in connection with the sharpening stones, enables me to employ a sheet iron
knife instead of a steel one, heretofore rendered necessary; the latter, however,
may be entirely dispensed with in this machine, as the iron band has been
found to answer every purpose. As the knife moves with a great velocity,

page_text: compared with that of the material, it will readily be seen that all the advan-
tages of a "draw cut" are obtained, and that the machine will operate more
rapidly than the stationary knife machine, and with the expenditure of far less
power. In order that the knife may be preserved in its proper position, and
not forced off its carrying pullies by the pressure of the leather, it is furnished
with short pins, which project from its under surface into a groove y, cut in
the surface of the pullies C, C', by which the knife is held in place. Figure 7
is a view of the pulley C, with a section of the knife.
Rotary motion being communicated to the driving shaft B, the endless knife
is set rapidly in motion; the hide X to be operated upon is then laid upon the
feed apron E, and is carried in between the rollers F' and I, the distance of
the latter from the edge of the knife being adjusted by its set screw d, to
accomodate it to the thickness of the required "grain," which then passes
out of the machine at r, the split passing out beneath the knife at s, and
the spring plate keeping every portion of the hide firmly pressed up against
the roller I, by which, as before explained, a great uniformity of grain is
obtained.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood, that what I claim as the
Invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is, the use of the con-
tinuously revolving or endless belt knife, as applied to machines for splitting
leather, and operating in the manner substantially as set forth.
Second, I claim the endless belt knife, in combination with the method
herein described of sharpening the same, by which I am enabled to employ a
knife of exceedingly cheap construction in place of the steel one heretofore
employed in such machines, and to keep the same in order without interrupting
the operation of the machine or removing the knife therefrom.
In witness whereof, I, the said Moses Poole, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-sixth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
Witness,
B. GOBEY,
12, Cursitor Street,
Chancery Lane.
MOSES POOLE. (L.S.)