A NEW OR IMPROVED TURNIP THINNING MACHINE, WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE FOR ROOTING AND SHAVING TURNIPS
Year: 1875

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Bickerton and Ralph
Bickerton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 29th July 1875
We, RICHARD BICKERTON and RALPH BICKERTON, both of the
County of the Town and Borough of Berwick-upon-Tweed, Agricultural
Implement Makers, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "A NEW OR IMPROVED TURNIP THINNING MACHINE, WHICH IS ALSO APPLICABLE
FOR ROOTING AND SHAVING TURNIPS," to be as follows, that is to say:-
This Invention has reference to a new or improved construction or
general arrangement of the parts of an agricultural machine for thinning
young turnips, and which is also capable of being employed for cutting
off the shaws and roots from the turnips when older and ready for being
taken up out of the ground And the nature and novelty of this Inven-
tion or construction of the machine, consist in mounting the whole
working mechanism or gearing on a strong light rectangular oscillating
frame on the centre of the transverse driving shaft or axle of the two
carrying wheels (coupled with ratchet bosses and palls or other equi-
valent on its outer ends) which revolve loose, and drive the shaft when

page_text: coupled, and the wheels being set to such a with apart as to run on the
bottom of the two outermost of three furrows, thus extending over and
enclosing the two drills of turnips to be thinned or dressed, the horse
walking in the centre furrow of the three. The back ends or cycs of the
horse shafts are directly connected or linked to said driving shaft, which
revolves in them on the inside or outside of the radial oscillating cross
arms of the open frame, which projects upwards in a backward direction
(say about a foot or so, and at an angle of from 20° to 50° from the
vertical line through the common axle), with the lower transverse rail or
rails oscillating close to the swivelling eyes and axle below the drawing
ends of the horse shafts, and having fulcrumed or jointed thereto the
front end of a long vertical oscillating arm or bar projecting backward
over and with the vertical swivelling spindle or frame of the small
trailing wheel, working in an eye at its back end, and so that this wheel
runs in the bottom of the central furrow, and regulates the height of the
angled frame (and cutters mounted on it) by means of a hand lever
1igidly fixed thereto, and projecting back beyond-and a little-above and
to the one side of the back wheel arm, so that the driver who walks in
the centre furrow can by a spring catch fix it into any one of a set of
radial notches in a segment fixed on the said arm or beam of the small
trailing or regulating wheel.
The actual cutting or thinning knives or implements have their
vertical stems fixed in eyes at the lower back ends of the long arm of
two bow or angled levers fulcrumed on the outer rail of the oscillating
frame right over the two drills to be dressed, so that each knife is
reciprocated across the drill which it dresses by a connecting rod
attached to each short arm of these levers on the other side of the
fulcrum, the other end of both connecting rods being connected to or
actuated by a single crank pin in a disc keyed on the upper end of a
short vertical shaft working in bearings in the oscillating frame, and
actuated by a small loose bevil pinion and coupling inside the frame,
gearing into a corresponding large bevil wheel keyed on the driving
wheel or axle, the coupling being thrown into and out of gear by a
spring handle fulcrumed on the rigid hand lever, with stop pin and
holes for retaining it in the engaged and disengaged positions.
The knives or thinners when desired to cut are fixed longitudinally
at the lower ends of their holding stems, but when desired to scrape
or act like a hoc they may be fixed vertically at the lower end of the

page_text: stems, which are raised or lowered and fixed in their sockets to the
proper height to thin out or remove a portion of the turnips at each
traverse backwards and forward over the drill, leaving them in the
hollow of the furrow behind the machine, all as it is drawn forward,
and leaving the sufficient desired plants or turnips between each cut
of the thinners, the acting height of which is regulated to some
extent by the rigid hand lever and trailing arm and wheel, as before
stated.
When desired the fulcra of the oscillating levers of the thinners or
knives may be set nearer or further apart to suit the width of furrows,
with lengthening and shortening connecting rods, and the wheels might
be made to shift on their axle to suit the width of furrows
A transverse bar or frame might be fixed to the arm of the trailing
wheel, and have curved cleaners projecting down from it on each side of
both drills so as to clean or dress the sides of the drill when desired,
and which might be used with or without the thinners, and would be
removed altogether when the cutting knives were used for cutting the
shaws or roots, and different levers might be used for cutting the shaws
and roots from those used for thinning, with double knives in them;
those cutting the shaws acting first on the turnips, and those for cutting
the roots acting after the shaws were cut.
Instead of having the reciprocating lovers of the knives rigid they
might be jointed so as to allow the long arms carrying the thinners to
be raised or set higher or lower to suit each drill separately by segmental
holding levers or other equivalents in addition to or instead of using the
single hand lever and setting sector for oscillating and setting the whole
frame.
Another modification of this turnip thinning machine consists in
mounting two oscillating frames on the axle projecting downward and a
little forward, with a 'pendant shaft and large ring wheel at its lower
end revolving in the centre of each frame over the two drills to be
dressed, and each driven by a pinion on the pendent shaft and wheel on
the axle with engaging and disengaging couplings, as in the first modifi-
cation. The angle of each frame will be so set and fixed by a shortening
and lengthening stay or turning quadrant and lever (either in connection
with the horse shafts or with trailing arms and wheels, as in the first
modification), as to regulate the height of the lower back surface of the

page_text: ring wheel over the drill that the thinning blades which are fixed angularly
on its under side will come round at proper intervals to thin out a
portion of the young turnips every time one of them comes round, there
being three, four, or more in the circumference, and also at such an
angle that the front under edge of the wheel and thinners on it will pass
clear round over the drill and turnips without touching the shaws.