AN IMPROVED AGRICULTURAL IMPLE MENT FOR CULTIVATING LAND AND FOR SOWING SEED
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Levi Lemon Sovereign, of 302, Strand. in the County
of Middlesex, for the invention of "AN IMPROVED AGRICULTURAL IMPLE
MENT FOR CULTIVATING LAND AND FOR SOWING SEED."-Partly a com-
munication from abroad by Guiden Huntington, of Noridgeville, County
of Oxford. Canada West.
Sealed the 30th August 1861, and dated the 1st March 1861.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Levi Lemon Sovereign
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st March 1861.
I, LEVI LEMON SOVEREIGN, of 302, Strand, in the County of Middlesex,
do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "AN IMPROVED AGRI-
CULTURAL IMPLEMENT FOR CULTIVATING LAND AND FOR SOWING SEED," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object an improved agricultural implement for
cultivating land and for sowing seed. For these purposes I employ a frame
carrying anumber of longitudinal bars, so arranged that the distance between
[Price 8d.]

page_text: them can be varied as the nature of the work may require; each of these bars
carries a set of ploughing tools, vizt., a plough body with coulter share and
inould board. (The coulter, however, is not in all cases employed,) and these
are placed the one behind the other, so that the trench formed by the first is
filled by the next, and so on; usually I employ five sets of ploughing tools of
small size, and set somewhat closely together. The implement not being
intended for heavy work, but for cultivating and preparing land for seed. The
frame of the implement is carried by three wheels, a furrow wheel on one side,
and two land wheels on the other, all of which are adjustable to set the
ploughs the required distance into the land. The frame also carries au
apparatus for sowing seed behind the ploughs; this consists of a seed box, in
the bottom of which a series of holes are formed, one for each plough, and the
size of these holes can be adjusted to allow any required quantity of seed to
flow through them. This is done by means of a slide, by which all the holes
may at the same time be more or less closed as may be necessary, and each
hole is also furnished with a separate slide for entirely cutting off the flow of
the seed when it is wished to put the hole out of work, leaving the others in
action. Immediately over the holes spiked rollers or brushes are placed,
which, keeping the seed in notion, causes it to flow freely, the rollers being
themselves kept in constant rotation, so long as the implement travels, by a
band which passes from a pulley or connecting rod on the axis of the rollers to
another pulley on an axis carried by the frame, and which has a pinion at its
end gearing with and driven by another pinion fixed to one of the wheels, and
in order,that these pinions may gear properly together at whatever height the
wheel is set, the raising and lowering of the wheel is effected by mounting the
wheel with its pinion on an arm which turns about the axis of the pinion to be
driven. Bevelled gear may be substituted for the driving strap if preferred.
The seed after escaping from the seed trough is conducted by jointed tubes or
in other convenient manner to the points where it is to be deposited in the
land. At the back of the implement is an apparatus for sowing grass or other
similar seed broadcest, it consists of a box or trough running from side to side
of the machine,and perforated with holes from end to end; the seed is placed
in the box or trough, and is caused to pass through the holes by a rotating
brush kept in motion while the machine travels by a strap or band. For the
ploughs cultivating tines may be substituted when required, and they may be
used either in conjunction with the seed-sowing apparatus, or otherwise. The
implement above described is very useful for preparing land for seed, which
may be deposited either by the implement itself, or otherwise, as in the

page_text: particular case may be considered best, but usually it is preferred to turnover
the surface of the land with the ploughs and to deposit the seed at one
operation. When tines are substituted for the ploughs the implement may be
employed for cleaning land of weeds and roots after ploughing.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Levi Lemon Sovereign in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 31st August 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, LEVI
LEMON SOVEREIGN, of No. 88, Pentonville Road, Islington, in the County of
Middlesex, Farmer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the First day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Levi Lemon Sovereign, Her special liceuce that I, the said
Levi Lemon Sovereign, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said Levi Lemon Sovereign, 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 "CULTIVATING LAND AND SOWING SEEDS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Levi Lemon Sovereign, 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 Levi Lemon Sovereign, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
Figure 1 in such Drawings represents a view of the implement in operation
drawn by horses; Figure 2 represents a side view of the implément; Figure 3

page_text: represents a plan of the implement, shewing the interior of the seed and
manure box; Figure 4 represents plan of potatoe box; Figure 5 represents
the front section of potatoe box; Figure 6 represents the back section of
potatoe box; Figure 7 represents the side section of potatoe box shewing
cups; Figure 8 represents the end external view of potatoe box shewing
arrangements of gearing; Figure 9 represents the end section of potatoe box
shewing arrangements for conducting potatoe seed from the box into the
delivery tube; Figure 10 represents the end view of corn and manure box;
Figure 11 represents back elevation of broadcast sowing box; Figure 12
represents the end section of broadcast sowing box; Figure 13 represents
bottom of seed box shewing the slides and regulating screw; Figure 14
represents section of the bottom of the seed box, barrel, and regulating screw;
Figure 15 represents dial to indicate the quantity of seed being sown to the
acre; Figure 16 represents side view of spiked wheels attached to corn
barrel Figure 17 represents curved tooth wheels attached to shaft which
revolve in manure box; Figure 18 represents drag attached to the implement
when required; Figure 19 represents the plan view of lever for raising and
lowering the hinder part of the frame; Figure 20 represents the side view of
the lever for doing the same; Figure 21 represents semicircular plate m for
keeping the lever in any required position.
The nature of this Invention consists, first, in the manner in which I
combine and arrange ploughing, sowing of seeds and manure, and harrowing.
Second, in the manner of attaching the wheels to the frame, so that any
required depth of ploughing may be attained without altering the gearing
which gives motion to the corn or seed barrel and other seed boxes, and
which gearing obtains its motion from and is attached to one of the travelling
wheels B.
In the accompanying Drawings, A, Figure 2, is a wood frame with one or
more bars arranged to carry the ploughs, coulters, skim coulters, and cultivator
tines, each set transversely, the number to be regulated to suit different modes
of farming, as well as the strength of the implement. The bar or bars are
adjustive, in order to carry more or less ploughing and cultivating tools, as the
nature of the work may require. The frame is supported on four travelling
wheels, as shewn in Figure 3, B, B, B, B, videlicet, two small wheels B, B,
in front arranged to guide or steer the implement. These small wheels B, B,
are attached to an upright iron bar C, as shewn in Figure 2, which is attached
to a draw bar D. The bar C, as shewn in Figure 2, moves in a hollow shaft E
on which is a rack. The front part of the frame is raised and lowered by

page_text: means of a pinion F, as shewn in Figure 3, which is placed in the frame, and
works into the rack on the hollow shaft E, as shewn in Figure 2, which moves
in a sleeve G, which is bolted to the front part of the frame, as shewn in
Figure 3. On the upper part of the bar C, Figure 2, is a guide lever H.
I is an iron link to give additional strength to the draw bar D; Jin Figure 3
is an iron bar passing through the end of the frame A, A, and on which is
the pinion F, which works into the rack throngh the sleeve G; K, K,
are ratchet or stop wheels placed on the bar J to hold the frame at any
required height. The hinder part of the implement is carried by two large
wheels B, B, which are not placed opposite each other. Each of these wheels
will revolve on a stud fixed on the point or end of the lever L, Figure 2.
The fulcrum of the lever L works on a stud attached to the frame. The other
end of this lever is of sufficient length to enable the workman to raise that
side of the hinder part to which the wheel is attached. Each wheel working
independently of the other, either wheel can be lowered to travel in the furrow,
and the other regulated to travel on the land. In order to hold these levers
in any required position, I use two semicircular plates M,M,bolted one on each
side of the frame, as shewn in Figures 2 and 3. In these plates are a number
of holes, into which the catch or spring N, Figure 2, which is attached to the
lever L, drops and retains the lever in the position required. The plough
breasts and shares are made either of steel, or iron plated with steel, or of
iron only. O is a seed box placed diagonally on the frame A; P is a tool
box; Q is a box placed across the hinder end of the frame for sowing seed
broadcast; R, R, R, R, R, are the ploughs, which are attached to the plough
bar, which is placed diagonally in the frame underneath the seed box O ;
S,S,S,S,S,are the conducting pipes leading from the seed box to the after part
of the ploughs; T, T, are two gear wheels working one into the other. One
of these gear wheels is placed ou the nave of the travelling wheel B, this gives
motion to the other gear wheel which works on a spindle U, which runs
through the fulcrum on which the lever L is carried for raising or lowering the
frame. At the inner end of the spindle U, as shewn in Figure 3, is a bevil
wheel A, which working into a bevil wheel B placed on another spindle, on
which also is a gear wheel C, the gear wheel C gives motion to another gear
wheel D which works above it, and is on the spindle V which runs through
the seed box. On spindle V is also the gear wheel E, which working into
gear wheel F gives motion to spindle W running through the manure box.
For drilling corn or other seeds I use a box in which are one or more
divisions, as shewn in Figure 3. On the spindle V are a number of spiked

page_text: wheels or rollers A, A, A, A, A, placed over the holes in the bottom of the
seed box, for the purpose of stirring the grain, so that it should not choke in
passing into the conducting pipes. On the spindle W are placed a number of
curved tooth wheels C, C, C, C, C, working in the manure box, as shewn in
Figure 3. There are a number of holes A, A, A, A, A, as shewn in Figure 13,
to admit the corn or seed into the conducting pipes for conveying the seed into
the furrow. To regulate the quantity of corn or seed to be sown or drilled to
the acre, I place a slide B under the bottom of the box with holes cut in it,
C, C, C, C, C, to correspond with the holes a, a, a, a, a, in the bottom of the
box, and by means of a regulating screw D the slide B can be moved in a
longitudinal direction, which will contract the outlets, and thus decrease the
quantity of corn or seed going into the conducting pipes, and in order entirely
to stop the corn or seed from passing through the outlets when turning the
implement at the land's end, I fix a lever E, Figure 14, so as to close the
outlets instantly, as well as to quickly re-open them when the implement is
again placed in a position for work without the assistance of the regulating
screw D, which not having been moved will insure the outlets being exactly
the same as if they had not been closed. I also place under the bottom of
the box the slides F, F, F, F, F, F, for the purpose of shutting off the feed
of one or more holes which may be required to be put out of work. The
regulating screw D passes through the dial G, as shewn in Figure 15, which
indicates the quantity of seed sown to the acre. The manure is conducted
from the manure box through the holes H, H, H, H, H, and passes through
the same spout as the grain. I attach to the hinder part of the implement
an ordinary broadcast sowing box, Figure 11, and also shewn in X, in
Figure 2, shewing the box half open, this is adapted to sowing every
description of seed broadcast.
I also claim the right when necessary to remove the corn, seed, and manure
box, and use instead an apparatus to sow or plant potatoes, beans, or other
large grain, as shewn in Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. This consists of a box
having three or more divisions. In the bottom of the box in each division,
Figure 9, are two revolving rollars A, A, to which I attach an endless web
with a series of ribs B, B, or pieces of wood attached, which supplies a regular
quantity of potatoes, seed, or beans, or Indian corn into the conducting pipe C,
similar to those used for corn or seed. I also use a revolving brush D, as
shewn in Figure 9. This brush D is placed in the box under the hopper E,
to prevent more than any given quantity of seed or potatoes from passing at
one time, as well as to keep them from choking during their passage towards

page_text: the conducting pipe. In Figure 5 part of the hopper E is connected by a
hinge to the side of the box, and from the lower edge of this part of the
hopper there is fixed a number of wires for the purpose of protecting the
brush should the seed come down too heavily on it. On the shaft G there is
a trip wheel H, which, as it revolves, strikes an iron lug I placed on the lower
part of the hopper E, causing it to raise and agitate the seed. The foregoing
plan is for sowing seed in drills. When I wish to plant in hills, I remove the
rollars and endless web A, B, and substitute for it a roller or endless webb, in
which are cups A of suitable size for that purpose, as shewn in Figure 7. To
regulate the quantity of seed sown to the acre, I use different gearing to
increase or diminish the motion as may be required. The motion for working
the endless web or roller is obtained from the driving wheel of the implement
in the same manner as that in the seed drill. At the other end of the potatoe
box, as shewn in Figure 8, is a gear wheel A, and which gear wheel working
into gear wheel B communicates by it a motion to the gear wheel C which
drives the brush B and the trip wheel H, as is shewn in Figures 5 and 9.
The implement is so arranged that when it is required to use steam instead of
horses or oxen, the pole and whipple trees from the draw bar B may be
disconnected, and steam hauling tackle attached to the draw bar B. The
guide lever H is adapted for steering the implement when worked either by
steam or otherwise.
Having thus fully described the nature and object of the cultivator and
drill, I claim by right of Invention and the said Patent the following par-
ticulars :-
First, claim the combination and arrangement of different drill boxes
with one frame, and the ploughing, drilling, or sowing seeds with or without
manure, and with or without harrowing at the same time, substantially as
set forth.
I also claim the mode of obtaining motion for the spindles working in
the seed boxes by means of the gear wheels T, I, working one of them on the
nave of the driving wheel B, and communicating the motion substantially as
set forth.
I also claim the arrangements and combinations in the potatoe boxes of the
revolving brush, endless web, and cups, also trip wheel foragitating the grain,
substantially as set forth.
I also claim the arrangements of placing the ploughs on the plough bar or
bars in such a manner that the ploughs or coulters cau be moved to different
distances apart as may be required.

page_text: I also claim the arrangement and combination of the seed barrels, mode of
working the slides and other parts connected with the seed box and manure
box, substantially as set forth.
I also claim the adaptation and combination of the parts for working the
frame and turning the implement, as shewn by the wheels B, B, the bar C.
the draw bar D, shaft E, and pinion F, the sleeve G, the guide bar H, the
levers L, L, Figures 2 and 3, substantially as set forth.
As witness my hand and seal, the Twenty-eight day of August, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one.
LEVI LEMON SOVEREIGN. (18.)