IMPROVEMENTS IN HARVESTING MACHINES
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Bernhard Samuelson and William George Manwaring,
of Banbury, in the County of Oxford, Engineers, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN HARVESTING MACHINES,"
Sealed the 29th September 1877; and dated the 27th July 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Bernhard Samuelson and
William George Manwaring at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents on
the 27th July 1877.
BERNHARD SAMUELSON and WILLIAM GEORGE MANWARING, of Banbury, in the
County of Oxford, Engineers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN HARVESTING MACHINES."
Our Invention of improvements in harvesting machines relates to that class of
machines in which a raking device is adapted to one side of a segmental platform for
the purpose of gathering the crop and raking it off when cut.
It is not necessary
that all the "gatherers" should be provided with rakes, properly so called.
The Invention consists, first, in a contrivance by which the attendant is prevented
from moving a shifting guide (such as the guide C described in the Specification of
our Patent, No. 3578, A.D. 1876) inwards during the period when the friction roller
of a rake arm attached as at G, according to the said Specification, is following the
cam B inside of the guide C, the object being to prevent the end of the roller
coming into contact with the inner margin of the guide C whilst the latter is
being moved, which might cause a strain or breakage of the device for controlling
the arm.
This result we obtain by means of a trigger or its equivalent, with which the roller
comes into contact shortly before it arrives at the lower end of the guide C. The
roller causes this trigger to be depressed, and thereby to bring a projection into
contact with a hollow pin, and to cause that pin to lock the guide C in its outward
position until the roller has passed over that portion of the cam where it might
otherwise come into contact with the inner margin of the said guide. This hollow
pin contains a spiral spring, and if the guide C should no longer be in its outward

page_text: position, but should already have been moved, or be in course of being shifted
inwards by the attendant before the roller comes into contact with the trigger, that
is, at a time when the danger of collision does not exist, then the trigger, when the
roller does afterwards come into contact with it, instead of lifting the hollow pin,
will compress the spring contained within the pin, and the guide will not be locked
or interfered with by the action of the trigger. A solid pin with a spring offering
sufficient resistance to compression, when there is no obstacle to the free action of
the pin, may be substituted for the hollow pin and spiral spring.
The second part of our Invention is an alternative for the mode of connecting
the rake arms to the rotating shaft described in our aforesaid Specification, and it
consists in substituting for the pair of socket plates there described a single plate
upon which separate pairs of bearings are bolted, each such pair containing the
adjacent trunnions of two rake arms. The bottom bearing of each pair may also
be dovetailed into the plate.
The third part of our Invention is a convenient train of gearing for giving motion
to the knife and to the rake shaft which carries the raking and gathering arms.
We effect this as follows:-The driving wheel has an internal ring of teeth; into
this ring is geared a pinion on a horizontal shaft; on the opposite end of the same
shaft, and between the driving wheel and platform, are a large bevil wheel and a
small bevil pinion attached together; the large wheel is geared unto a bevil pinion
which drives the crank shaft, giving motion to the knife, whilst the small bevel
pinion attached to the large bevil wheel gears into another bevil wheel on a shaft,
the opposite end of which shaft carries a small bevil pinion. This latter has
attached to it a spur pinion, which gears into an internal ring of teeth in a horizontal
wheel keyed on to the rake shaft.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Bernhard Samuelson and William George Manwaring in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 26th January 1878.
BERNHARD SAMUELSON and WILLIAM GEORGE MANWARING, of Banbury, in the
County of Oxford, Engineers. "IMPROVEMENTS IN HARVESTING MACHINES."
Our Invention of "Improvements in Harvesting Machines," relates to that class
of machines in which a raking device is adapted to one side of a segmental plat
form for the purpose of gathering the crop and raking it off when cut. It is not
necessary that all the "gatherers" should be provided with rakes properly so
called.
The Invention consists, first, in a contrivance by which the attendant is pre-
vented from moving a shifting guide (such as the guide C, described in the Specifi-
cation of a Patent granted to us, and bearing date Twelfth September, One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-six, No. 3578), inwards during the period when the
friction roller of a rake arm attached as at G, according to the said Specification, is
following the cam B inside of the guide C, the object being to prevent the end of
the roller coming into contact with the inner margin of the guide C whilst the latter
is being moved, which might cause a strain or breakage of the device for controlling
the arm.
This result we obtain by means of a trigger or its equivalent, with which the
roller comes into contact shortly before it arrives at the lower end of the guide C.
The roller causes this trigger to be depressed, and thereby to raise a pin or bolt
which locks the guide C in its outward position until the roller has passed over
that portion of the cam where it might otherwise come into contact with the inner
margin of the said guide.
In Sheet 1 of the accompanying Drawings Fig. 1 shows in plan view, Fig. 2 in
sectional elevation, and Fig. 3 in side view, so much of the raking device of a
harvester as will serve to explain this part of our Invention.
In these Figures A is the bridge piece made fast to the rake arm B, and C is the
shifting guide for leading the bowles F of the rake arms K to the bridge when it
is desired to elevate the same and keep the rakes in their revolution clear of the
crop. The rake arms K are fitted as before in sockets I, the trunnions H of which
fit in bearings on the socket plate P made fast to the rake shaft L.
The shifting guide C slides upon a fixed pin C projecting from the bridge piece,
and surrounding this pin is a coiled spring C* for pressing the guide outwards and
keeping it out of action. The extremities of this coiled spring fit into sockets cast
respectively in the shifting guide C and in the fixed bridge piece A. When, how-
ever, it is desired to bring the guide into action, the attendant, by means of a lever
C² pivotted at C³, and connected by a link C to the chain C³, pulls upon that
chain and thereby compresses the spring C*, and draws the inclined guide into line
with the bridge A as in the arrangement above referred to.
To provide against the shifting of the guide C inwards, while an antifriction
roller of the rake arms is running over that portion of the cam B which is abreast of
the guide, the sliding bolt M is provided, which, when thrown up, projects into a
space between the bridge piece A and the guide C, and thereby presents an obstacle
to the inward movement of the guide C, thus virtually locking it out of action. This
bolt is formed with flanges which slide in vertical guides on the side of the bridge
piece, and it is supported by means of a trigger lever N, the rocking of which on
the fulcrum N' raises the sliding bolt and permits of its dropping out of action.
The tail of this trigger lever lies in the path of the antifriction rollers F of the rake
arms, as clearly shewn at Fig. 3. As, therefore, these rollers come round, they will
depress the tail of the lever Ñ and cause the other end of that lever to lift the bolt

page_text: M and lock out the sliding guide, as shewn at Fig. 2. In order, however, to permit
of this rocking motion of the trigger lever when (by reason of the sliding guide C
being drawn by the attendant into its acting position) the bolt M is prevented from
rising, the pressure of the trigger lever is imparted to the bolt through a coiled
spring, which for convenience is inserted within the bolt. The depression of the tail
of the lever will thus have no other effect than to compress the bolt spring, which, so
soon as the roller has passed, the lever will recoil and thereby lift the tail of the lever
into the path of the next succeeding antifriction roller.
It will now be understood that if the guide C is in its acting position or is in
course of being shifted inwards by the attendant before the roller comes into contact
with the trigger lever, that is, at a time when the danger of collision does not exist,
then the trigger lever, when the roller does afterwards come into contact with it,
instead of lifting the bolt M, will compress the spring contained within it, and the
guide will not be locked or interfered with by the action of the trigger lever.
solid bolt with a spring offering sufficient resistance to compression, when there is no
obstacle to the free action of the bolt, may be substituted for the hollow bolt M and
internal spiral spring.
A
The second part of our Invention relates to an alternative method of connecting
the rake arms to the rotating shaft described in our aforesaid Specification, and it
consists in substituting for the pair of socket plates there described a single plate
upon which separate pairs of bearings are bolted, each such pair containing the
adjacent trunnions of two rake arms.
This improvement is also illustrated at Figures 1 and 2, where P is the bottom
plate carried by the upper end of the rake shaft L. This plate is fitted radially
with bottom bearing pieces P₁ for receiving the trunnions Ĥ of the sockets I, to
which the rake arms are fitted; P2 are cap pieces, which form the upper bearings of
the trunnions, and P³ is a screw bolt which is passed through the centre of the
upper and lower bearing pieces, and through a hole in the plate P, to receive a
binding nut, which secures the several parts firmly together. The trunnions of each
socket I are thus held by two adjacent bearings P1, P2, each bearing taking at its
opposite ends a trunnion of two adjacent sockets. For better security we prefer to
dovetail the botton bearing pieces P¹ to the plate P, as indicated in the Drawing.
The third part of our Invention consists in a simple and efficient arrangement of
gearing for giving motion to the knife bar and to the rake shaft, which carries the
raking and gathering arms.
This arrangement is illustrated in Sheet II. of the Drawings, which shews in
sectional plan view so much of a harvesting machine as will serve to explain the
nature of this part of our Invention.
A is the driving wheel, cast with an internal ring of teeth B. Into this ring
gears a pinion C, keyed to a horizontal shaft D, which is supported in a suitable
bearing, and carries at its opposite end (between the driving wheel and platform)
a large bevil wheel E and a small bevil pinion F cast in one, or attached together,
and which are intended to transmit motion from the driving wheel A to the cutter
bar and to the rake shaft respectively. The bevil wheel E gears into a bevil pinion
G keyed to the crank shaft H, from which the knife bar I receive its reciprocating
motion. The pinion F attached to the bevil wheel E gears into a bevil wheel K,
keyed to a shaft K', the opposite end of which shaft carries a bevil pinion K² in gear
with a bevil wheel K³. Cast with this bevil wheel K³ is a spur pinion K+, which
gears into an internal ring of teeth K³, in a horizontal wheel keyed on to the shaft
L which carries the rake arms.
Having now set forth the nature of our Invention of "Improvements in Har-
vesting Machines," and explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, we
wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters Patent we
claim,―
First. Locking the shifting guide which forms part of the acting surface of the
rake cam in the manner and for the purpose above described.

page_text: Secondly. The means above described for connecting the rake arms to the
rotating rake shaft.
Thirdly. The arrangement above described for transmitting motion from the
driving wheel to the crank shaft of the cutter bar and to the rake shaft.
'
In witness whereof, I, the said William George Manwaring, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, the Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight.
W. G. MANWARING. (L.S.)