A New or Improved Implement or Appliance for Use in Cultivating Land.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 2nd Mar., 1894
Complete Specification Left, 1st Dec., 1894-Accepted, 5th Jan., 1895
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
A New or Improved Implement or Appliance for Use in
Cultivating Land.
I, CHARLES ADDISON ASH, of Meretown, Newport in the County of Salop,
Agricultural Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the invention to be as
follows:-
This invention has for its main object to combine, in one implement or appliance,
means for ploughing the land, breaking up the clods, pulverising the earth, and
eradicating and destroying weeds.
An implement or appliance constructed according to this invention, for the above
purpose, is fitted with, preferably, two or more plough frames, set of course each
to travel in a separate track, each carrying a plough foot and a share or point.
The mould board usually fixed behind each plough share is dispensed with, and in
lieu thereof strong fingers or bars are fixed, slanting back from the plough share,
which break up the clods as they are delivered on to them from the plough share.
A shaft, running lengthways of the implement, is carried to revolve in suitable
bearings, and is driven by bevel gear from the axis of a pair of wheels which
support the chief weight of the implement. This shaft is formed with a number
of cranks with which the shanks of forks are, respectively, connected. Each fork
may pass through a guide fixed in position below the shaft or be pivoted to a
vibrating arm in position below or above the shaft, and thus in either case as the
shaft revolves the forks are raised and lowered and also moved sideways at the
same time. A suddenly increased twist or lift may be imparted to each fork just
at the time it is passing through the soil, by a special provision made therefor in
the crank shaft, or in the connection of a crank with the fork, or in the connection
of the fork with an arm, or in the method of guiding the fork shank through the
guide such as by forming a cam-shaped slot through the fork shank and passing a
pin therethrough which is carried by the guide. The forks fork out any couch
grass, scutch or twitch, commonly called squitch, which is amongst the earth left
by the fingers; and throw the squitch to one side lightly on to the land, where it
becomes destroyed by the action of the sun and air. The action of the forks also
pulverises the earth.
The crank shaft is raised by means of a suitable lever, when the appliance has
reached the end of its travel in one direction along the ground which it is used to
cultivate, and thus the forks are raised clear above the surface of the ground.
Dated this 1st day of March 1894.

page_text: A New or Improved Implement or Appliance for Use in
Cultivating Land.
I, CHARLES ADdison Ash, of Meretown, Newport in the County of Salop,
Agricultural Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what
manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained
in and by the following statement :-
This invention has for its main object to combine, in one implement or appliance,
means for ploughing the land, breaking up the clods, pulverising the earth, and
eradicating and destroying weeds.
An implement or appliance constructed according to this invention consists, in
its simplest or essential form, of the combination of a plough with forks which
automatically pass sideways through the earth which has been partially broken up
by the plough and thus further break up and pulverise such earth, and which also
fork out any couch grass, scutch or twitch, commonly called squitch, which is
amongst such earth, and throw the squitch to one side lightly on to the land already
tilled by the implement, where it becomes exposed to the action of the sun and air
and is thus destroyed.
A complete implement or appliance, constructed according to this invention for
the purposes above stated, is illustrated in side elevation by Figure 1 of the
drawings herewith, and in plan by Figure 2. Figure 3 shews, in side elevation,
the method of operating one of the forks; and Figure 4 illustrates, also in side
elevation, a method of giving a twist to one of the forks, in addition to an up-and-
down and sideway movement.
The implement is fitted, preferably, with two or more ploughing breasts A,
each consisting of a part a formed with backward fingers band itself fixed to a
beam B, and of a share or point c. The mould boards, usually fixed behind the
plough shares of ordinary ploughs, are dispensed with, and the earth turned up by
the plough shares is delivered on to the fingers which break up the clods. A
number of forks C, each having a shank d, and prongs e, are in the arrangement
shewn by Figures 1, 2 and 3, pivotally connected at the upper ends of their shanks
with arms or links which are pivotally connected with a fixed bar g running
lengthways of the implement. Each shank d is also pivotally connected, at a point
some distance from its upper end, with one of a set of cranks m formed in a shaft h
running longitudinally of the implement, and the cranks are preferably set
alternately the opposite throw to one another. The crank shaft h is driven, as the
implement travels, by means of bevel wheels ij, of which the wheel j is fixed on
the hinder end of the shaft and the wheel i is fixed on one end of an axle k on
the other end of which is fixed a travelling wheel D formed with spuds as is
usual with such wheels. The forks C have thus imparted to them, as the implement
travels, an up-and-down and sideway movement compounded of the revolution of
the cranks m and the vibratory movement of the arms f, with the result that they
are each during a single revolution moved down into the earth turned up by the
plough shares, or one of them, and partially broken up or disintegrated by the
fingers 6 behind such shares, or share, and are moved outwards and upwards in a
direction to fork out any squitch from such earth and throw it on to the land already
tilled by the implement, the action of the prongs through the earth tending to
still further disintegrate or pulverise it. The outward movement or throw of the
forks may be accelerated towards the point of extreme throw by fixing the bar
low down in relation to the middle point of the movement of the outer ends of the
arms f, as will be understood; and thus a kind of outward kick, such as is given
to the forks of hay tedders, may be given in the movement of the forks to assist in
throwing the squitch clear from the implement.
9

page_text: The wheel D and a small wheel E, both of which are shewn as directly supporting
an outside beam B' of the implement, run on the untilled part of the land, and the
wheels F and G run in the bottom of the furrow. The wheel G is mounted on a
pin which is fixed within the lower end of a pillar n of square or other rectangular
section which passes up through a fixed guide p. The upper end of this pillar is
formed with a slot through which a lever q passes. The lever is fulcrummed at
its inner end to the framing of the implement, and is fitted up after the manner of
a locomotive reversing handle, so that it may be held in any notch of a quadrant r.
When the implement is to be turned at a headland, the outer end of the lever q is
depressed and the lever fixed in such position, and the implement is thus tilted over
sufficiently towards the side on which the wheel D is placed to clear the plough
shares and forks from the ground; and when the implement is again in position for
ploughing, the outer end of the handle q is raised again and fixed in the required
position.
.
An ordinary coulter blade s (not shewn in plan) is fixed in front of each plough
share to open the ground in advance.
In Figure 4 a fork is shewn having the upper portion t of its shank formed of a
flat or rectangular section twisted, and in lieu of being connected to a vibrating arm
such as f Figure 3, the twisted portion of the shank passes through a fixed guide v
having a hole therethrough through which the shank is just a sufficiently easy
sliding fit to allow of the vibration of the shank. The connection between the
shank and the corresponding crank by which it is operated is by means of a
universal joint, and thus the fork has, in addition to an up-and-down and sideway
movement, an action imparted to it, by the movement of the twisted part of the
shank through the guide, which turns the plane of the prongs so as to bring it into
a position at right angles, or at other desired angle, with the direction of the
travel of the implement during a part of the time the fork is at the outward portion
of its movement. A sudden kick is thus given to the soil as the soil and weeds
are thrown out.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In an implement or appliance for use in cultivating land, the combination,
with means for ploughing the land, of forks which are made to pass through the
earth which has been turned up in ploughing, in a direction transverse to that in
which the implement moves, and which thus assist in breaking up and pulverising
the earth, substantially as described.
2. In an implement or appliance for use in cultivating land, the combination,
with means for ploughing the land, of forks which fork out the vegetable growth
from the earth turned up in ploughing and deposit it at the side of the implement,
substantially as described.
3. In an implement or appliance for use in cultivating land, the combination,
with means for ploughing the land, of bars or fingers for breaking up the clods,
and forks which pass automatically through the earth turned up in ploughing and
fork out the vegetable growth therein and deposit it at the side of the implement,
substantially as described.
4. The new or improved implement or appliance for use in cultivating land,
constructed and operating substantially as described and shewn by the drawings
herewith.
Dated this 30th day of November 1894.
STEPHEN WATKINS,
Wolverhampton, Agent for the Applicant.