IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOUGHS, AND IN GIVING MOTION TO PLOUGHS AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS BY STEAM POWER
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Hornsby, junior, of Spittlegate Iron Works,
Grantham, in the County of Lincoln, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PLOUGHS, AND IN GIVING MOTION TO PLOUGHS AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL
IMPLEMENTS BY STEAM POWER."
Sealed the 81st August 1859, and dated the 24th June 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Hornsby at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th
June 1859.
I, RICHARD HORNSBY, junior, of Spittlegate Iron Works, Grantham, in the
County of Lincoln, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN PLOUGHS, AND IN GIVING MOTION TO PLOUGHS AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL
IMPLEMENTS BY STEAM POWER," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in ploughs, and in giving
motion to ploughs and other agricultural implements by steam power. In
forming ploughshares it has been found advantageous to make the cutting edge
of the share to curve upwards in the centre, thus
(or, as it is called, to
"cut up,") in place of making the edge straight, as is usual in England. When
such shares have heretofore been employed the angle of the cutting edge has.
been made acute, that is to say, the cutting edge has never been set to make a

page_text: greater angle than 45°, with a central line drawn from end to end of the
plough. In consequence of the edge being thus arranged the turning over of
the slice cut by the share commences very much in advance of the completion
of the cut of the share, and hence the slice is broken. To obviate this, I,
according to my Invention, make the angle of the edge of such shares much
more obtuse than heretofore, preferring an angle of 65°, or thereabout; I also
make shares having the cutting edges curved to "cut up," as already described,
of cast iron in place of wrought iron, which has always heretofore been
employed for making shares of this description, and I form the sockets of such
shares underneath the working face in place of prjecting beyond it, which
makes the shares more suitable for use on ploughs having lever necks; or in
some cases I adapt lever neck ploughs to receive shares of this description
with sockets projecting beyond the working face, as heretofore, by employing a
covering piece between the mould board and the share; this covering piece
slipping over the socket of the share allows the joints to be made closer than
would be possible with a projecting socket if the mould board were continued
up to the share. I also cast or form in one piece with a share having a curved
cutting edge, as described, a vertical fin, which serves as a coulter; or a
vertical fin may be employed made in a separate piece from the share, and
secured to the land side of the plough or to the share by screws or otherwise;
in forming the slipe or slade of a plough the vertical plate thereof which rests
against the land side, and the horizontal or sole plate have heretofore usually
been made of the same length. Now, according to my Invention, I make the
vertical plate of the slipe or slade much longer than the horizontal or sole
plate; by increasing the length of the vertical plate the plough is rendered less
liable to deviate from a straight line when at work, and by decreasing the
length of the horizontal or sole plate, the plough is more easily made to follow
the undulations of the land, so that the ploughing may be everywhere of the
same depth. The portion of the vertical plate of the slipe or slade, which
projects beyond the sole plate I sometimes make in a separate piece, and I
support this piece by a stay passing to a piece projecting down from the
handles, and another stay passes from the same piece on the other side to the
mould board; the vertical plate of the slipe or slade is not of the same depth
throughout its length, but slopes upwards, so as to rise off the bottom of the
furrow at its further end. The advantages of this system may be to some
extent obtained by using a slipe or slade in which vertical plate and the hori-
zontal or sole plate are of the same length, but in which the sole plate, in place
of being flat on its under side, is towards its further end bevilled or curved
upwards, so as to raise it off the bottom of the furrow, or a short slipe of tho

page_text: ordinary construction may be employed, together with a stay passing from the
handles or other part of the plough, and resting against the land side of
the furrow, at some distance behind the end of the slipe. This stay may be
furnished with a friction wheel or otherwise.
When two or more shares and mould boards are combined together in one
frame for steam ploughing, or otherwise, I remove from the frame the coulters
usually employed, and parts necessary for fixing the same to the frame, and I
employ in place of coulters, shares, having vertical fins projecting upwards
from them; or separate fins may be employed fastened to the land sides of the
ploughs, or to the shares; compound ploughs thus arranged are less liable to
choke than when coulters are employed. In some cases I combine drag chains
with compound ploughs arranged suitably for steam ploughing, in order to bury
grass or rubbish laying on the surface of the land. I couple steam ploughs
or implements with the tackle by which they are hauled, by means of a com-
paratively weak coupling piece, which, should the implement meet with an
impediment of sufficient size to stop the plough or implement, the coupling
piece will give way, and the breakage of the tackle will be avoided.
In arranging winding apparatus for hauling ploughs and other implements
when steam power is employed I mount the winding drums both on the same
axis, and I clutch the drums with the axis alternately (according as one or
other drum is required to wind) by means of clutches, which act within the
drums; by this arrangement the space is saved which would be occupied were
the clutches placed exterior of the drums. The two clutches, one for each
drum, are connected together by means of feathers, which lay in grooves
formed in the axis, and by means of these they can be slid simultaneously
along the axis, according as it is required to clutch either one or other drum
with the axis, or to allow both to run free.