IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CULTIVATING LAND
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to David Greig, of the Steam Plough Works, Leeds, in
the County of York, Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR CULTIVATING LAND."-Partly a communication from abroad
by Max Eyth, residing at Shubra, Egypt.
Sealed the 29th August 1865, and dated the 20th April 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said David Greig at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th April
1865.
I, DAVID GREIG, of the Steam Plough Works, Leeds, in the County of
York, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR CULTIVATING LAND," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for cul-
tivating land. In constructing a machine for cultivating land for cotton and
other crops which require to have the land formed with furrrows a shaft or
axle is used, on which are placed two, three, or more ploughs, having between
them narrow rollers, and the arrangement is such that the distances between
the ploughs is determined by having a greater or less number of such rollers
between the neighboring ploughs. The rollers are of different diameter;
those nearest the ploughs are of the largest diameter, whilst those midway
between two ploughs are the smallest, and of like diameter one to the
other. Each plough is formed with two mould boards, one on each side
of the share, so as to turn the land in opposite directions, by which the furrows
are produced, whilst the rollers on either side consolidate the land, and prevent
it again falling into the furrows. When in work the rollers carry the machine,
but when being moved along roads or surfaces out of work wheels are applied
on the two ends of the axle. When an even cultivated harrowed surface is

page_text: to be produced a frame of cultivating tines is employed constructed in the
following manner:-The frame is of a triangular form, having a wheel at
eacli end, and a third wheel at the angle of the frame. Two sets of double
tines are used in the frame; these double tines are back to back, and by
reason of their combination and manner of their application alternately act as
cultivating tines and harrowing tines, according to the direction in which the
machine is being drawn. The stem of each tine turns on an axis in such
manner that when the cultivating tine is in the land the stem is upright, but
when the machine is moved in the opposite direction the cultivating tine is
out of the land, and the other point or tine enters the land, and is drawn
through the surface thereof. The stems of the tines of each set are one
behind the other, and at a distance apart, but they produce parallel furrows as
they are drawn from headland to headland by steam or other power. The
axles of the two end wheels are arranged to turn with vertical axes to facili-
tate the steering of the machine. In using this machine it is drawn by
means of steam or other power from headland to headland, and when moved
in one direction one of the sets of double tines will be acting as cultivating
tines, whilst the double tines of the other set will be acting as harrowing tines,
and when the machine is moved in the opposite direction, that set of the
double tines which has acted as cultivating tines will come into action as
harrowing tines, whilst the double tines of the other set will come into action
as cultivating tines.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said David Greig in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th
October 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, DAVID
GREIG, of the Steam Plough Works, Leeds, in the County of York, Engineer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said David Greig, Her special licence that I, the said David Greig, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said David
Greig, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with,
and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend,

page_text: within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR
CULTIVATING LAND," the result partly of a communication from abroad from
Max Eyth, a person resident at Shubra, Egypt, and partly of Invention of my
own, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said David Greig, my
executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their,
or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be per-
formed, and cause the same to be filed in the Great Seal Patent Office
within six calendar months next and immediately after the date of the said
Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said David Greig, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,.
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say:--
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for cultivating
land. In constructing a machine for cultivating land for cotton and other
crops which require to have the land formed with furrows a shaft or axle is
used, on which are placed two, three, or more ploughs having between them
narrow rollers, and the arrangement is such that the distances between the
ploughs are determined by baving a greater or less number of such rollers
between the neighboring ploughs. The rollers are of different diameter,
those nearest the ploughs are of the largest diameter, whilst those midway
between two ploughs are the smallest, and of like diameter one to the other.
Each plough is formed with two mould boards, one on each side of the share,
so as to turn the land in opposite directions, by which the furrows are pro-
duced, whilst the rollers on either side consolidate the land, and prevent it
again falling into the furrows. When in work the rollers carry the machine,.
but when being moved along roads or surfaces out of work wheels are applied
on the two ends of the axle.
Figure 1 is a side view, and Figure 2a plan view of a plough constructed.
as above described.
a is the axle on which the rollers and ploughs are mounted, this axle is
carried at the rear end of the frame b, b; the front of the frame is formed to
receive the ends of the hauling ropes by which the implement is to be hauled
to and fro across the land, and this end of the frame is supported by the
swivel wheels c, c, the horizontal axle of which wheels is carried by the vertical
axis d, on the upper end of which is a toothed quadrant into which a worm e
on the axis e¹ gears.
On the opposite end of the axis is a hand wheel by

page_text: which an attendant sitting on the seat f can turn the axis, and so guide the
implement when at work; g is an arm for carrying the return rope; and k, k,
are levers for lifting the points of the ploughs out of the ground. Each end of
the axle a is adapted to receive a road wheel h, shewn by dotted lines in the
Drawing. These road wheels are removed when the plough is at work. In
the implement shewn in the Drawing there are three double mould-board
ploughs, separated the one from the other by rollers ; these rollers rest on
the surface of the land when the plough is at work, and consolidate the land
turned over by the ploughs so as to prevent it again falling into the furrows.
The land turned over by the mould boards on the outer side of the ploughs at
the two sides of the implement is consolidated by the rollers d. When an
even cultivated barrowed surface is to be produced a frame of cultivating tines
is employed constructed in the following manner: The frame is of a trian-
gular form, having a wheel at each end, and a third wheel at the angle of
the frame. Two sets of double tines are used in the frame; these double tines
are back to back, and by reason of their combination and manner of their
application alternately act as cultivating tines and barrowing tines, according
to the direction in which the machine is being drawn. The stem of each
tine turns on an axis in such manner that when the cultivating tine is in the
land the stem is upright, but when the machine is moved in the opposite
direction the cultivating tine is out of the land, and the other point or tine
enters the land, and is drawn through the surface thereof. The stems of the
tines of each set are one behind the other, and at a distance apart, but they
produce parallel furrows as they are drawn from headland to headland by
steam or other power. The axles of the two end wheels are arranged to turn
with vertical axes to facilitate the steering of the machine. In using this
machine it is drawn by means of steam'or other power from headland to
headland, and when moved in one direction one of the sets of double tines will
be acting as cultivating tines, whilst the double tines of the other set will be
acting as harrowing tines, and when the machine is moved in the opposite
direction, that set of the double tines which has acted as cultivating tines will
come into action as barrowing tines, whilst the double tines of the other set
will come into action as cultivating tines.
Figure 3 is a side view, and Figure 4 a plan view of an implement con-
structed as above described.
a is the framing of the implement, which is as above stated nearly of a trian-
gular form. At the two ends b, b, of the frame are wheels b', the axles of which
are carried by vertical axes 6, at the upper end of each of which is a toothed
quadrant, into each of which a worm c on the axis d gears; on this axis is a

page_text: hand wheel, by means of which an attendant on either of the seats e can turn
the axis, and so guide the implement when at work, the axles which carry
the wheels & can be raised or lowered on the vertical axes 62, so as to regulate
the depth the tines enter the land, or to raise the tines entirely off therefrom.
As before stated the tines are in two sets, one set to work as cultivating tines
when the implement is drawn in one direction, whilst the other set act as
harrowing tines. In Figure 3 the implement is supposed to be moving in the
direction shewn by the arrow, the tines h then act as cultivating tines and
the tines as harrowing tines; when the implement is drawn in the opposite
direction the action of the tines is reversed. The tines are carried by the
parallel bars f of the frame, and come one behind the other as shewn, so that
when the implement is at work there is always on one side of each tine a loose
side to which the earth may be displaced. Each tine is carried by a pin at
its upper end, upon which it is free to turn in one direction; in the other
direction it is prevented from turning by a stop g, as is shewn at Figure 5.
The stops are on one side of the tines in one set, and on the other side in the
other set.
Having thus described the nature of this part of the Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I am aware
that cultivating implements have before been made with two sets of double
tines, which act alternately as cultivating tines and barrowing tines according
as the implement is drawn in one direction or the other. I do not there-
fore generally claim the same; but what I claim is the combining imple-
nients of this description as herein described in such manner that the tines
when at work come one behind the other, so that no tine is working in solid
land, by which much less power is required for working the implement.
In witness whereof, I, the said David Greig, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
JAMES MOSBY,
Book-keeper,
Mario Street, Leeds.
DAVID GREIG. (L.S.)