Bevel Gears

Bevel gears have a slight conical shape and are used in apple parers to change the direction of motion. The small table gears and the turntable gears as illustrated by the Keyes (to the right) that rotate paring arms are good examples. The slight conical shape of bevel gears allows them to work only on axles positioned at angles greater than 0 or less than 180-degrees.

The J.J. Parker (pictured to the left) uses a bevel gear to rotate the paring arm 180-degrees. The S.S. Hersey (below) may have the most interesting bevel gear system. A small bevel gear sits between two larger bevel gears at a 90-degree angle. The two larger bevel gears rest on the same axle as the paring arm. On this axle, between the two larger bevel gears, rests a smaller modified gear connected to the paring arm. The paring arms modified gear has only two teeth, each pointed to the opposite bevel gear. The size of this centrally located gear with two teeth allows it to only engage one of the larger bevel gears at a time.

As one cranks the hand-driven gear the small bevel gear rotates the two larger bevel gears in opposite directions. The paring arm follows the direction of the large bevel gear that is engaged with its modified gear. Once the paring action is completed a lever on the small bevel gear pushes the paring arm’s modified gear across its axle to engage the opposite bevel gear. After the gear switch, an apple can be pared in the reverse direction.

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