Leaf pulverizer

Oct. 3, 1961

R. S. PELTIER

LEAF PULVERIZER

Filed June 15, 1960

3,002,702

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United States Patent Office _{Patenled o}«. ₃, ’_1ββ1 barely smaller than the opening 23 to permit free rotation but to prevent the leaves from slipping behind the disc. The shaft 25 extends through the adjacent housing wall and is rotated by an electric motor 26 mounted on a bracket 27 extending from the housing wall. While I have found that a fractional horsepower electric motor is sufficient for this purpose, a small gasoline powered motor may also be used. On the face of the pulverizing disc 24 are a plurality, eight shown, of radially mounted cutting knives 28. The cutting knives are preferably mounted at an angle of 45 degrees to the face of the disc in the direction of rotation.

It is contemplated that for best results the leaves should be dry enough to bum. However, green leaves can also be pulverized. It is obvious that the leaves can be dropped into the housing 10 through the hopper 12 and they will be pulverized by the blades 28 on the disc 24. To force the leaves against the rotating blades 28 I provide the construction shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 at the opposite end of the housing. A rectangular compressor plate 29 is vertically positioned in the housing and of a size to just clear the walls. The plate 29 is held rigidly at each side edge on a slide tongue 30 which is slidably mounted in a groove 31 in the side walls of the hous25 ing 10. The plate 29 is provided in the center with a pair of brackets 32 in which one end of a lever 33 is pivotally mounted. The lever 33 extends rearwardly through a slot 34 in the end wall. Mounted on the top edge of the housing is a bracket 35 on which a lever 36 30 is pivotally mounted. One end of the lever 36 is pivoted to the end of the lever 33. As can be seen in FIG. 2 when the lever 36 is manually pivoted into its dotted line position it will push the lever 33 and plate 29 towards the rotating disc 24 to compress the intermediate 35 leaves against the cutting blades 28.

To remove the pulverized leaves the bottom hinged wall sections 14 are held at one end by a pair of rods 37 which are pivoted at one end to brackets 38 extending downwardly from the edge of each section 14. The 40 upper ends of each rod 37 are pivoted to a pivot pin 39 mounted at the end of the horizontal leg 40 of a Lshaped lever. The vertical leg 41 is mounted for vertical sliding through a bracket 42 on the end wall of the housing. A spring pressed lock pin 43 extends through 45 the bracket 42 into an opening in the vertical arm 41 to lock the parts in closed position as shown in FIG. 5. When the lock pin 43 is withdrawn the lever arm 41 drops downwardly permitting the rods 37 to move downwardly and outwardly which in turn permits the sections 50 14 of the bottom of the housing to swing open and dump the contents. To close the bottom, the lever arm 41 is pulled upwardly back into the position shown in FIG. 5 until the lock pin 43 snaps back into its opening.

The entire mechanism is light and simple and economi55 cal to manufacture and assembly. Actual tests have indicated that a small electric motor will reduce the leaves to less than one fifth of their original bulk. The housing 10 may be made sufficiently large to accommodate a bushel basket of leaves. It can be mounted sufficiently 60 high to allow dumping in a receptacle placed beneath the pulverizer. Other advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to a person skilled in the art.