IMPROVEMENTS IN ELEVATORS OR APPARATUS TO RAISE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE ON TO CARTS OR STACKS
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Perkins at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 4th
September 1868.
I, THOMAS PERKINS, of Hitchin, in the County of Herts, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN ELEVATORS
OR APPARATUS TO RAISE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE ON TO CARTS OR STACKS," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in elevators or
apparatus to raise agricultural produce on to carts or stacks.
Elevators are now commonly used for lifting the straw discharged from
a thrashing machine on to a stack, and also for other purposes. When
used with the thrashing machine the elevator is commonly driven from
it, but there is often difficulty in arranging the elevator to be so driven.
When elevators are used separate from thrashing machines they are now
usually driven by horse gear.
According to my Invention I combine with the elevator a small steam
or other motive-power engine, which I fix on to the carriage or bed frame

page_text: of the elevator, and so make the machine sen-acting and weep
other driving apparatus. By this arrangement much time and trouble
is saved, as the elevator no longer has to be adjusted in position in
relation to external driving mechanism, and as the elevator can now
be worked in any position in which it may be convenient to place it.
The steam or motive-power mechanism may be arranged so that it can
be detached and used to do other work at times in the year when the
'elevator is out of use.
In order to elevate a cut crop from the ground on which it lies on
to a waggon or cart, I employ an elevator consisting of a trough-like
frame, having as in an ordinary elevator pulleys at each end of the
trough, around which endless chains pass. These chains carry cross
laths with teeth upon them which travel along the trough. The trough
is erected in an inclined position, and with its lower end foremost it is
drawn over the land. Inclined rake teeth are fixed at the front end
of the trough, and these points rest on the land. The crop as the
machine meets it rises up the inclined teeth, and from the top of this
incline the elevating chains take the crop and carry it to. the top of
the trough, where it is discharged and falls into the cart or waggon
which immediately follows the apparatus. The lower end of the trough
is supported on a castor wheel or wheels, but the main carrying wheels
of the elevator are underneath the trough, and about midway of its
length, or the castor wheels may be travelling wheels. A framework
connects these wheels with the trough, and from them by a driving
band, rope, or chain the endless clevating chains are driven.
apparatus may be drawn by horses, one on either side of the fore end
of the trough; they are harnessed in shafts or to poles, which are
there provided; or it may be worked by horses harnessed quite in front
of the machine, but so far separated from each other as to allow of
their walking one on either side of the windrow of hay or corn which
lies between them without trampling upon it. The cart or waggon
following the apparatus may be drawn by its own horse or horses
working underneath the upper end of the trough immediately behind
the carrying wheels of the elevator, and the-bridles of the cart or
waggon horses may be attached to the clevator, so as to make them
follow in their proper places; or the cart or waggon may itself be
attached to the elevator, and be so drawn along behind it%; or the
elevator may be pushed before the cart. To help the crop up the
The

page_text: inclined teeth until the elevating chains take it, I sometimes employ
a short set of endless chains, or one or more revolving barrels. These
chains or barrels are provided with spikes or teeth, and they stand
immediately over inclined rake teeth, so that the spikes or teeth draw
the crop up the incline to the point where the clevating chains take
it. Provision may be made for steering the machine independently of
the horses by a lever or other steerage appliance connected with the
castor wheel or wheels.