Im- PROVEMENTS IN MOWING AND REAPING MACHINES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Nicholas Henwood, of St. Germans, in the
County of Cornwall, Timber Merchant, for the Invention of "Im-
PROVEMENTS IN MOWING AND REAPING MACHINES."
Sealed the 25th March 1869, and dated the 2nd October 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Nicholas Henwood at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 2nd October 1868.
I, NICHOLAS HENWOOD, of St. Germans, in the County of Cornwall,
Timber Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN MOWING AND REAPING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
My Invention relates to the application of a circular saw or saws to
reaping and mowing machines for cutting all kinds of growing crops by
the continuous rotary motion of the said saw or saws.
In carrying out my Invention as applied to reaping and mowing
machines I mount a cutting wheel or circular saw plate to work,hori-
zontally close to the ground against the standing crop; this saw is keyed
to a vertical shaft working in suitable bearings, and receiving rotary

page_text: motion by means of a horizontal shaft and bevil gearing from the driving
wheel of the machine. The cutting may be effected either by means of
a fine toothed saw or by providing fingers arranged in a semicircle
through which the larger toothed saws would pass. At the upper end of
the vertical shaft is keyed a pinion gearing with an internal toothed
wheel keyed to an inclined shaft placed above the vertical shaft before
mentioned, and carrying a set of rakes to which rotary motion is trans-
mitted from the vertical shaft by means of the rack and pinion before
mentioned for laying the corn or grass in sheaf or swath. By reversing
the positions of the internal toothed wheel and pinion the rakes may be
driven faster and so act as hay distributors. The shaft carrying said
rakes is inclined forward so that they will revolve parallel with an
inclined platform fixed just above the cutting saw at the front or cutting
part and rising toward the back part, terminating in a sudden drop for
the purpose of allowing the corn or grass to fall off on to the ground.
Instead of using a fixed inclined platform and revolving rakes I may
employ a horizontal circular platform revolving above and parallel with
the circular saw, but at a less speed than the saw, and travelling under
a fixed delivery board at the back to take off the grass or corn,
The cutting saw or saws I may make either of a plate similar to a
circular saw, or it may be a wheel with teeth or knives fixed to its outer
edge for the same purpose. The machinery herein described is applicable
for cutting all kinds of growing crops, including rice, indian corn, sugar
cane, and flax.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Nicholas Henwood in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 1st April 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, NICHOLAS
HENWOOD, of St. Germans, in the County of Cornwall, Timber Merchant,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of October, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Nicholas Henwood, Her special licence that

page_text: I, the said Nicholas Henwood, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Nicholas Henwood, my executors, adminis
trators, 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, usc, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MOWING
AND REAPING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Nicholas Henwood, my executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment 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 Nicholas Henwood, 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 thereof, that is to say :-
These improvements in reaping and mowing machines relate to the
application of a circular saw or saws to reaping and mowing machines
for cutting all kinds of growing crops by the continuous rotary motion of
the said saw or saws.
At
In carrying out my Invention I mount a cutting wheel or circular saw
plate to work horizontally close to the ground against the standing crop,
which saw is keyed to a vertical shaft working in suitable bearings, and
receiving rotary motion by means of a horizontal shaft and bevel gearing
from the driving wheel of the machine. The cutting may be effected
either by means of a fine toothed saw or by providing fingers arranged
in a semicircle through which the larger toothed saws would pass.
the upper end of the vertical shaft is keyed a pinion gearing with an
internal toothed wheel keyed to an inclined shaft placed above the
vertical shaft before mentioned, and carrying a set of rakes to which
rotary motion is transmitted from the vertical shaft by means of the rack
and pinion before mentioned for laying the corn or grass in sheaf or
swath. By reversing the positions of the internal toothed wheel and
pinion the rakes may be driven faster and so act as hay distributors.
The shaft carrying said rakes is inclined forward so that they will revolve

page_text: bar a mitre wheel is secured, which is connected with another wheel
secured on the axle of the cutting wheel. The revolving rakes J, J, are
fixed to another axle I, I, over the cutting wheel axle, fixed not exactly
perpendicular but so as to be at right angles with the platform, which is
raised behind so as to cover the driving bar; the rakes are driven by an
internal tooth wheel secured on the top of the cutter axle and a pinion
hung on the axle of the rakes. The double cutter is like the single, but
the outer cutter gets its motion by a bar N, N, from one wheel to the
other by gear wheels connecting the same.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be and may be carried
out in practice, I hereby declare that I claim, in regard to the Inven-
tion of the above-mentioned "Improvements in Mowing and Reaping
Machines," the use of the herein-described arrangement of the circular
continuously revolving cutters, and the herein-described arrangements
for fixing and of driving the revolving rakes, it being understood that
I do not limit myself to the precise arrangements illustrated in the
diagrams, neither do I claim the mere constituent details of the
arrangements per se and apart from the purposes of my said Invention.
In witness whereof, I, the said Nicholas Henwood, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this 29th day of March, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
NICHOLAS HENWOOD. (L.S.)
Witness,
HENRY WHITMORE.