IMPROVEMENTS IN HORSE-RAKES
Year: 1880

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Samuel Wilkerson at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 5th July 1880.
SAMUEL WILKERSON, of Bassingbourn, in the County of Cambridge, Agricultural
Implement Maker. "IMPROVEMENTS IN HORSE-RAKES."
My improvements consist, 1st, in a contrivance for elevating the teeth of
horse-rakes; and, 2ndly, for locking the teeth when the rakes are at work.
The
To the inner side of one of the travelling wheels of the rake 1 attach a small cast
or wrought iron wheel, having pieces projecting at intervals from its circumference.
It being required to elevate the teeth of the rake, these pieces are caused to come
into contact with a pawl which is fixed at its opposite end to the swing-frame to
which the teeth are attached. This pawl is put into gear by a lever, one end of
which lever pivots at the end of the swing frame opposite to that to which the said
pawl is fastened, and the centre of said lever is pivoted on one end of an iron bar;
the other end of the said iron bar works loosely on the axle of the rake. This lever
is thrown over by another lever, which imparts an eccentric motion to the pawl,
thereby causing the projection on the side of the pawl to which the lever is attached
to come into contact with the projections on the aforesaid cast iron wheel.
pawl is thrown out of gear by the opposite end of the lever, to which it is pivoted
as aforesaid, coming into contact with a pin fastened to the frame of the rake,
thereby throwing the lever back, and placing the pawl out of gear by the like
eccentric motion which had thrown it into gear, as herein before described. By this
action the teeth of the rake are released, and fall at once into their original
position, locking themselves at the same time. For regulating the height to which
the teeth are required to be raised, holes are drilled at convenient distances in the
iron bar projecting from the frame of the rake, in which the aforesaid pin is placed
accordingly. The lever hereinbefore first described is thrown over by another lever,
the centre of which is attached to the shaft; one end of this latter lever acts upon
the lever first described, and throws the aforesaid pawl into gear; the other end is
attached to a locking apparatus, which is caused to lock the rake by the following
process: A connecting rod or link is fastened to the fore part of the swing-frame,
the top end of the said rod or link being attached by a pin to another shorter link,
the bottom end of which is pivoted on a joint to a brace on the frame of the rake.
When the shorter link is thrown slightly forward in an oblique direction, the longer
link is thereby prevented from being depressed, and by this means the teeth of the
rake are kept in lock. To throw the teeth out of lock, and to put in motion the

page_text: self-acting apparatus, the shorter link is thrown backward in the opposite direction
to that in which it is when in lock, by the agency of a projecting rod of iron
attached to its bottom, and which upon being pressed by the foot brings the top of
the shorter link forward and throws the rake out of lock, whilst it at the same
time depresses the lever (herein before last described) at one end and elevates it at
the other, and by throwing over the lever hereinbefore first described drops the
pawl into work.