Cloth-shearing machine (cimatrice): the shear mechanism
A long horizontal machine study with a note on timing the blade to the passage of the cloth
A long horizontal machine runs across the middle of the leaf, with a cluster of small component sketches — screws, clamps and a toothed wheel — grouped at the top. A note written with the sheet turned on its right side describes the working of a cloth-shearing machine (cimatrice): as part f rises, point a n descends, so the cutting edge r c lifts and the cloth is drawn in under the shears. Much of the drawing across the lower half of the sheet is faint and left untranscribed.
On this page
Coupling the shear to the feed of cloth
Leonardo times the shear to the movement of the fabric: when member f moves upward, a n goes down, lifting the cutting edge r c so that the cloth passes beneath the shears. The linkage ties the rise of the blade to the advance of the cloth.
