IM- PROVED AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS
Year: 1861

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Charles Stevens at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th March
1861. A communication from abroad by Louis Jacques Chateau, of
42, Rue Laffitte, Paris, in the Empire of France.
I, CHARLES STEVENS, of 31, Charing Cross, in the County of Middlesex,
Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVED AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS," & that it has been communicated to me
from abroad by Louis Jacques Chateau, of 42, Rue Laffitte, Paris, in the
Empire of France, to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to improvements in agricultural implements, having
for object the stirring & breaking up of the subsoil after the passage of the
plough without mixing it with the upper layer of arable ground.
The improvements which I make in the implements for which I have
already obtained a Patent No. 2875, dated the Fifteenth of December
Eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, are as follows:-The tines or coulters fixed
in a solid block of cast-iron, and serving to stir up the subsoil, must not be
curved, but to prevent their bending from the resistance they meet with, a
shoulder piece or collar is adapted to the back of the tine, & touching the
under part of the cast-iron block. The pulley for raising the operating
instrument must be placed nearer to the cross piece of the framework, and
the axis of the pulley not placed higher than the upper surface of this cross
piece. The windlass must also be raised only about twice the thickness of

page_text: the cord above the cross piece, consequently the bearings and the pinion
governing the rotary movement of the windlass must also be lowered.
I also introduce the following improvements in a modified implement
represented Fig. 5 in the Drawings of my above-mentioned Patent. The
two arms attached to the shaft, and supported by the small rollers, and
carrying the tines or coulters must be of greater strength. This shaft can be
furnished with blades for hoeing, digging, lining, bent parallelly, obliquely, or
horizontally to the movement of the implement. They may be triangular,
lance headed, or pointed. Instead of being fixed in the openings made in the
shaft, the tines, teeth, or coulters can be attached by movable nut screws.
In order to prevent clogging up, the tines can be placed on two shafts
bolted together. This instrument can be raised from the ground by means of
cords fastened to two rings fixed on the back shaft near the rollers. The
same instrument can be adapted to Fig. 6, for which the two branches must
be united in one at the front so as to supply the place of the coulter in the
joint of the traction rod (the said joint being the object, of the following
improvements). The implement represented Fig. 6 in my former Patent, is
to receive the following improvements :-The frame instead of being supported
by brackets or bearings resting on the shaft must rest immediately on it above
the top angle. Supports placed under the frame, and being fixed to the top
angle of the shaft fix it to the frame, other larger supports fixed also under
the frame and holding the lower angle maintain the shaft in a fixed position.
The shaft of the windlass rests in a groove covered with sheet iron. The pulley
is unnecessary. The cog wheel acting on the windlass, the pinion, and crank,
instead of being placed to the right, are placed to the left. The shaft of the
pinion is parallel to the upright of the frame, it is held in two bearings fixed
on the frame. The pinion and cog wheel are bevelled. The rack is fixed on
the end of the upright of frame. The block of cast-iron is covered with a plank
having holes, in which the tops of the tines may enter, between this plank
and the iron block is a piece of sheet iron also having holes, and turned up
at the edges about the thickness of the plank; these edges are pierced with
holes to screw it to the plank. The traction rod is in two parts, bolted
together at a joint. On the frame, as near the joint as possible, is bolted a
wooden cross piece with a rectangular opening in the middle in which a
regulator passes. An iron rod pierced in the upper half to receive a movable
bolt passes through the cross piece, & finishes at the lower end by a tenon
fixed to the traction rod immediately above the joint. When the implement
is at work, the traction of the animals makes the regulator descend, but it is
stopped at any height by the cross bolt. The traction rod instead of being

page_text: fixed to the back part, as it is shown Fig. 6 in my former Patent, must be
made fast directly to the front part of the frame by means of an axis bolt
passing horizontally through the head of the rod, and through two iron cheeks
bolted to the frame. In Fig. 6, the shaft is angular in form. The front
edge of the opening made in the block of iron for the traction rod must be
sloped off to strengthen the traction rod by curving it a little below where it
enters the block. The front cross piece must be solidly fixed, being the most
strained. It would be well to support the tenons by means of iron squares
fixed in the inside angles of the frame. The front part of the traction rod
must pass through the fastening of the regulator above the bolt that joins
the two arms of this fastening, or be bolted with the same bolt.