IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATING LAND BY DIRECT TRACTION, PART OF WHICH APPARATUS MAY ALSO BE USED FOR DRIVING, THRASHING, AND OTHER MACHINES
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Wilkinson at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 15th
December 1870.
I, THOMAS WILKINSON, of the Perseverance Foundry, Scarborough,
in the County of York, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATING
LAND BY DIRECT TRACTION, PART OF WHICH APPARATUS MAY ALSO BE USED FOR
DRIVING, THRASHING, AND OTHER MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
ploughing and cultivating land by direct traction.
For the purpose of ploughing land I attach two or more ploughs one
behind the other to a frame made of wood or iron mounted on iron
wheels. On the frame I mount a small vertical or horizontal engine, by
which motion may be transmitted to a pair of broad cast driving wheels
at the back of the carriage; these wheels are provided with an elastic
tyre of vulcanized india-rubber around their circumference, so as to
obtain great hold upon the ground. The wheels are also provided with
scrapers to clean their circumference; or the wheels may be formed with
a semicircular groove around their circumference and a circular tube of

page_text: vulcanized india-rubber, gutta percha, or leather filled with water, air,
The front of the
or other fluid may be placed around this groove.
carriage is supported by a pair of wheels, which are steering wheels;
they may either be mounted on an axle capable of swivelling on a
central vertical point, or may each be carried on its own axle from a
separate vertical pivot, the two pivots in this case being geared together
so that when one is turned the other is turned likewise. The axle of the
leading wheel on the furrow side of the implement also carries a wheel
to run in the last furrow, and this wheel is capable of being raised or
lowered freely independently of the axle by an adjustable lever, so that
it may be raised when the implement is turning at a headland; this
wheel is steered in the angle of the last furrow, and guides the implement
The other wheels run on
in a course parallel with the furrow last cut.
the unploughed land. The steering wheels are worked by a hand wheel
in any suitable manner. The leading plough is set behind the leading
steering wheel on the furrow side, and the next plough is set in rear of it
behind the driving wheel on the furrow side. The boiler is placed above
the driving axle, and a small engine carried by it gives motion by a
toothed wheel on its crank axis to a toothed wheel on the axle of the
driving wheels. The driving wheels are made fast to the axle by
clutches, so that either both the wheels may when at work be fast with
it, or one or other of them may be allowed to run free on the axle when
turning at a headland. The engine is fitted with improved forward and
backward motion, so that by reversing the ploughs which are attached
to the frame the implement may be caused to plough back without
turning round at the headland. The ploughs are attached to the frame.
in such manner that they may be raised or lowered to adjust the depth
of ploughing or may quickly be raised entirely out of the ground. The
driving wheels or axle are provided with frictional gearing so that in
case the implement comes in contact with any obstacle the engine may
keep on running whilst the frame and plough stand still. When the
machine is not required for ploughing it may easily be fitted to draw
reaping machines or other agricultural implements over the land, or may
be employed for driving a thrashing or other machine, a driving pulley
being provided on the crank axle of the engine for this purpose.