IMPROVED MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR MOWING AND CUTTING GRASS AND OTHER SIMILAR SUBSTANCES
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Norris at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th May
1869.
I, THOMAS NORRIS, of Frome, in the County of Somerset, Edge Tool
Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED
MEANS AND APPARATUS FOR MOWING AND CUTTING GRASS AND OTHER SIMILAR
SUBSTANCES," to be as follows:-
Its shape or configuration is that of a rectangle whose length is about
five feet eight inches and breadth about four feet, fastened at the corners
by means of pins and screws. The two sides of the frame has each an
elbow situate about sixteen inches from the hind end, and which dips
about ten inches. At the bottom part of each elbow is a hole through
which passes the main axletrec, and in which it works. Passing through
the length of the frame and about the middle of it is a part similar to
the side of the frame without the elbow and fastened by means of screws
at cach end. In this part are two bearings for two minor axletrees, the
other bearings of which are in the right-hand side of the frame. It has
three axletrees, which I shall for the sake of distinction call No. 1, No. 2,
and No. 3. No. 1, or the main axletree, has fastened on it two driving

page_text: wheels, a large cog wheel, and two racket wheels. The large cog wheel
and the two racket wheels are fixed on it and carried round with it.
The two driving wheels and the two racket wheels are outside of the
frame, and the large cog wheel is between the part which passes through
the middle and the right-hand side of the frame. To cach driving wheel
is fastened a catch and a little spring, and the springs are so placed as to
force the catches into the notches of the racket wheels, and thus carry
the whole round together when at work. No. 2 has fixed on it two cog
wheels, one small and the other larger. The large cog wheel on No. 1
runs into the small one on No. 2. No. 3 has also two cog wheels on it,
a bevel cog wheel and a common cog wheel. The larger cog wheel on
No. 2 runs into the small cog wheel on No. 3, and gives it a rapid
velocity. The common cog wheel on No. 3 can be joined to or disjoined
from the bevel cog wheel at pleasure, or as may be required, by means
of a handle which is secured to it. No. 3 axletree is fixed by means of
pins and screws to the right-hand side of the frame and the part which
passes through it. Near the middle of No. 3 is a large boss with a hole
through which passes a tubular shaft perpendicular to it, and forming as
it were a cross. Through this shaft passes a long pin to the bottom of
which is fixed a part with three feet, the feet forming an equilateral
triangle. In each foot is a small wheel secured by means of pins, which
wheels run on the ground and support the fore part of the machine. On
the top of the pin is fixed a handle by which the machine is directed or
guided. The bottom of the tubular shaft rests on the part with the three
feet, and the top of it is fixed in the boss of No. 3. On this shaft is
secured a bevel cog wheel, a karn or crooked wheel, and a part like the
two diameters of a circle intersecting each other at the centre and
forming as it were four arms. At and round the centre is a raised part
or boss with four openings, one to each arm, and a hole through the
centre for it to revolve on the shaft. The bevel cog wheel and these
diameters are secured to each other by means of connecting rods fastened
at the ends by screws. The bevel wheel is run into by the one on No. 3
axletree and driven round with the same velocity at right angles to it,
carrying the diameters in a rotary motion parallel to the frame and the
ground over which the machine passes. In the openings of the raised
part of the diameters are four arms secured by means of pins on which
they work. Underneath these arms and fixed on and to the diameters
are four springs, one to each arm. On the top part of these arms are
four little wheels secured in them by means of pins on which they run

page_text: round underneath the karn or crooked wheel; and these arms being
acted on underneath by the springs rise and fall according to the eleva-
tion and depression of the crooked wheel. These arms have also a hole
through each near the outer end in which are fastened four more arms
at right angles to them, and each of these last-mentioned arms has a
foot, and in each foot is fixed by means of a wedge or wedges a knife
blade or scythe with which the grass or any other similar substances
may be cut; and these arms to which the scythes are attached can at.
pleasure by means of press screws be set at any distance from the ground,
so that the scythes or blades may be made to cut the grass as close to or
as distant from the ground as may suit the owner's taste. It requires to
be drawn by a horse or horses the same as other mowing machines, but
in every other respect it is totally different. It cuts the grass or other
substances just like the mower with his scythe, and does not squeeze it
off as all other machines do.