IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR TRENCHING, CUTTING, DIGGING, AND CULTIVATING LAND
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Bethell, of No. 8, Parliament Street, in the
City of Westminster, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR TRENCHING, CUTTING, DIGGING, AND
CULTIVATING LAND."
Sealed the 20th April 1858, and dated the 22nd October 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Bethell at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 22nd October
1857.
I, JOHN BETHELL, of No. 8, Parliament Street, in the City of Westminster,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR TRENCHING, CUTTING, DIGGING, AND
CULTIVATING LAND," to be as follows:-
My Invention has reference to that description of locomotive or moveable
machinery or apparatus in which rotary excavators, cutters, diggers, or cul-
tivators are employed and worked in by and with the same engine or power
which effects the locomotion or onward travelling, and consists in constructing
such machinery or apparatus in combination with a self-laying system of

page_text: planking, or railway, or roadway for the wheels to run upon; that is to say,
a locomotive or moveable apparatus which carries with it its own railway or
roadway for running over agricultural or rough ground, and lays it down,
moves on or over it, takes it up again, and repeats the same operation
continuously as it travels.
The manner in which I believe my Invention may be best performed is by
constructing a steam engine on wheels with the continuous railway apparatus
above set forth applied or adapted thereto, and the fitting or adapting to such
steam engine of one or more excavating, cutting, digging, or cultivating
machines or apparatus, either such as described in the Complete Specification
of my Patent No. 949, 1st December 1852, (and the separate use of which
forms no feature of my present Invention,) or of any other suitable con-
struction, and either worked by endless bands and pulleys or by connecting
rods direct, or by shaft and endless screw, or other convenient means,
whereby I make a complete steam excavating, cutting, digging, and cul-
tivating machine, which will not only propel itself upon or over rough farm
lands, but will at the same time trench, drain, dig, or cultivate the land.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Bethell in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
22nd April 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
BETHELL, of No. 8, Parliament Street, in the City of Westminster, Gentleman,
send greeting:
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did; for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Bethell; Her special licence that I, the said John Bethell,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Bethell, 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, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY
OR APPARATUS FOR TRENCHING, CUTTING, DIGGING, AND CULTIVATING LAND,"

page_text: upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said John Bethell, 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 performed, 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 John Bethell, 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 :-
My Invention has reference to that description of locomotive or moveable
machinery or apparatus in which rotary excavators, cutters, diggers, or cul-
tivators are employed and worked in, by, and with the same engine or power
which effects the locomotion or onward travelling, and consists in constructing
such machinery or apparatus in combination with a self-laying system of
planking, or railway, or roadway for the wheels to run upon; that is to say,
a locomotive or moveable apparatus which carries with it its own railway or
roadway for running over agricultural or rough ground, and lays it down,
moves on or over it, takes it up again, and repeats the same operation con-
tinuously as it travels. The said railway or roadway being constructed of
a series of separate slippers, shoes, or pieces suitably disposed around the
circumference of the running, or bearing, or other wheels.
The manner in which I believe my Invention may be best performed is by
constructing a steam engine on wheels with the continuous railway apparatus
above set forth, applied, or adapted thereto, and the fitting or adapting to such
steam engine of one or more excavating, cutting, digging, or cultivating
machines or apparatus, either such as described in the Complete Specification
of my Patent No. 949, Sixth December, One thousand eight hundred and
fifty-two (and the separate use of which forms no feature of my present
Invention), or of any other suitable construction, and either worked by endless
bands and pullies or by connecting rods direct, or by shaft and endless screw,
or other convenient means, whereby I make a complete steam excavating,
cutting, digging, and cultivating machine, which will not only propel itself
upon or over rough farm lands but will at the same time trench, dig, drain,
or cultivate the land.
And in order the more fully to render explicit the mode of performing my
Invention, I have appended hereto an illustrative Drawing, shewing a con-

page_text: tinuous railway apparatus and .engine such as is commonly known by the
appellation of the Boydell engine, but somewhat, modified or altered from an
ordinary Boydell engine, namely, by having applied, fitted, or adapted thereto
a series of diggers or cultivators driven by the engine, so as to answer the
intended purpose and object of my Invention.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of the apparatus; Figure 2 a back or end
elevation; and Figure 3 an alteration in the manner of driving the.diggers or
cultivators from that represented in the Figures 1 and 2, herein-after more
particularly referred to.
:
:
In the said Figures 1 and 2, A, A, A, are three running or bearing wheels,
a pair opposite the one to the other, and a single one in front, and B, B, B,
are the series of separate slippers, shoes, or pieces constituting the continuous
railway or roadway. Each wheel is furnished with a separate series of such
slippers, shoes, or pieces, disposed at, upon, around, or near to its circum-
ference. The front wheel. A is for the purpose of guiding the direction of
motion of the apparatus by means of the hand wheel C and suitable gearing
in connection therewith. The main axis D of the entire machine, namely,
the axis of the pair of wheels A, A, carries upon it a chain wheel E, and the
axis d near the back end of the machine carries upon it a similar but smaller
chain wheel e; F is a chain connecting these two axes; and G, H, I, a train
of spur gearing, by means of which, and the chain wheels. and chain above
mentioned a rapid motion is transmitted to the shaft K, which carries and
drives the diggers or, cultivators L, L. Some of the foregoing parts are in
duplicate, that is to say, repeated on either side of the machine, and to avoid
complexity in the Drawing the chain F is not represented in the Figure 2.
The two radius frames or arms N, N, (one on either side) which support and
carry the wheels H, I, are capable of movement upon the axis D, so as to
raise or depress the cultivators as may be required, which is effected by means
of the hand wheel O, shaft O*, and, worm 0%, the worm wheel P, shaft P*,
and reels, or pullies P3, P2, and the chains Q, Q, which are connected to the
said pullies and to the radius frames or arms N, N; R, R, are a pair of
trailing wheels for supporting the weight of the diggers or cultivators, and
gearing, &c. for driving them.
The Figure 3 before mentioned shews the substitution of cranks a, a, and
a connecting rod b for driving the diggers or cultivators from the shaft or
axis d (or the chain wheel e upon the same) instead of the train of wheels
before mentioned, the mode of elevating the cultivator and driving the chain
wheel e being the same, as before described, with the train of wheels.

page_text: And it is to be understood that other suitable means may be substituted
for driving the diggers or cultivators, and also that any other suitable cutters
or tools adapted to the objects of my Invention may be substituted for the
diggers or cultivators which are represented in the Drawing, being throughout
simply illustrative and exemplary of the Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Bethell, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of April, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-eight
JNO. BETHELL. (L.B.)