IMPROVEMENTS IN TRAVELLING ANCHORS EMPLOYED IN CULTIVATING LAND BY STEAM POWER
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Osmond at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 25th
October 1871.
I, JOHN OSMOND, of New Cross, in the County of Kent, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN TRAVELLING
ANCHORS EMPLOYED IN CULTIVATING LAND BY STEAM POWER," to be as
follows:-
My improvements in travelling anchors have for their object, firstly,
to effect an automatic adjustment of the position of the anchors so as to
bring them in line with the cultivators at the commencement of cach
to-and-fro motion of the latter, in place of having to effect such adjust-
ment by hand as heretofore; and, secondly, to afford to the anchor the
requisite stability without the use of the ballast box, which was necessary
in the arrangements hitherto employed.
For effecting the first named object I provide on the framing of the
anchor a screw blade on a horizontal shaft, capable of receiving rotary
motion from the turntable of the anchor by means of fast and loose
pullies on the axle of the turntable imparting motion by a belt to a

page_text: pulley on a spindle geared to the shaft of the screw blade. In contact
with the hauling rope passing round the turntable is a roller upon a
lever fixed on the same spindle as a shifting lever, for shifting the
aforesaid belt from the loose to the fast pulley on the turntable. When
the cultivator is about to commence its travel towards the anchor from
the opposite side of the field it will be situated in advance of the anchor
and consequently the hauling rope will pass in a slanting position from
the anchor to the cultivator. If now a tension is put on the hauling
rope for imparting motion to the cultivator, the rope in pressing upon
the before-mentioned roller will move its lever, and with it the said
shifting lever, so as to shift the before-mentioned belt from the loose to
the fast pulley of the turntable. By this means rotary motion will be
imparted to the screw blade, which being partially sunk in the earth
will by its rotation cause the anchor to travel forward until the hauling
rope is in line with the cultivator. When the anchor has arrived at this
position the hauling rope will no longer press against the roller to the
shifting lever, whereupon a balance weight attached to the latter will
cause it to move so as to shift the belt from the fast to the loose pulley,
and the motion of the screw blade, and consequently also the advance
of the anchor will be stopped, the screw blade now serving effectually to
hold the anchor stationary against the strain of the hauling rope. The
screw blade is prevented from turning in the contrary direction to that
above described by means of a pawl and ratchet wheel, fixed either on
the shaft of the screw blade or on the pulley shaft through which it
receives its motion.
In place of the above described arrangement of fast and loose pullies
and belt for imparting motion to the screw blade, this may be effected
directly by the hauling rope itself, by arranging a fast and a loose pulley
geared to the screw blade directly in contact with the hauling rope, so
that when the rope is in the slanting position before described it passes
over the fast pulley, and in imparting motion to it effects the turning of
the screw blade as described, while when the anchor has advanced, so as
to bring the hauling rope in a straight line with the cultivator, the rope
will have passed from the fast to the loose pulley, and the motion of the
screw blade will cease.
For affording to the anchor the requisite stability without the ballast
box as also for rendering it readily transportable when not in use, I
provide it with two pairs of ordinary road wheels, in addition to the

page_text: usual disc wheels, and I form the axles of. the disc wheels so that they
slant upwards from the inner to the outer side of the anchor, when this
is resting on the road wheels, the lower ends of the axles on the inner
side being cranked upwards to receive the inner road wheels, while the
upper outer ends thereof are connected to the outer road wheels by a
sliding connection similar to that now employed for the road wheels of
the cultivators. When it is required to fix the anchor in position the
outer road wheels are slid up in their connections to the axles so as to
allow these to sink down into a horizontal position, and thus to cause
the disc wheels to enter the earth; when in this position both the disc
wheels and the road wheels will be inclined in a direction from the
inner to the outer side of the anchor, and they will thus afford a greatly
increased resistance to the pull of the hauling rope, and the stability of
the anchor will also be further increased on account of the turntable
and hauling rope being then situated at a lower level than the cranked
ends of the axles on which the inner road wheels turn.