William Bundy
1796 Patented a comb-cutting machine. Described and illustrated in Rees's Cyclopedia. See illustrations.
The comb cutting machine resembled a treadle lathe, but instead of the workpiece revolving against a stationary tool, a stack of cutters (steel circular saws) rotated while the ivory comb blank was fed into the cutters. The cutters were assembled on a driven shaft, separated by a series of spacers.
The ivory blank was clamped in a dovetailed cross slide, its overhanging portion being supported at each tooth location by a series of thin metal fingers. The cross slide was moved by a leadscrew, turned by worm and wheel gears, the wormshaft being driven from the lathe spindle by a belt.
The operator engaged the leadscrew by pressing down a lever. The lever had a profiled edge which located in the leadscrew threads, and would remain engaged until unlatched by the operator. Thus the feed was self-acting.
A second tailstock was provided to locate another belt-driven spindle ('S' in the illustration), and this was equipped with a further stack of revolving cutting discs, whose chamfered edges formed the pointed ends of the teeth. This was done by the operator holding the comb against the discs, while the teeth of another comb were being cut.
1817 'Patents Lately Enrolled ..... WILLIAM BUNDY, Pratt Place, Camden Town, mathematical instrument-maker, for machinery for breaking and preparing flax and hemp, February 1.'[1]
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ The Scots Magazine, 1 August 1817