IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOUGHS
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Cooke, of the City of Lincoln, Plough
Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOUGHS."
Sealed the 10th August 1869, and dated the 12th March 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Cooke at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th March 1869.
I, JOHN COOKE, of the City of Lincoln, Plough Manufacturer, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
PLOUGHS," to be as follows:-
Beams of ploughs as hitherto manufactured have been made either
of solid wood alone or of solid iron alone. These beams are objectionable,
and especially when made of iron alone they are very heavy and liable
to be strained and bent out of shape.
Now the object of my Invention is to construct the beam of the
plough so that it shall be both strong and light, and not liable to be
bent out of shape or strained.

page_text: My Invention consists in manufacturing an improved beam for
ploughs of a combination of wood and iron or steel. Thus I obtain
the advantages of each material and obviate the disadvantages.
One mode in which this may be carried into practical effect is by
employing angle iron or angle steel, and in this case I fill up the recess
formed by the angle with wood, and I secure the iron or steel and the
wood firmly together by screws or other fastening contrivances. The
wood filling removes the undue springiness of the metal, and a very
strong but at the same time sufficiently light beam is obtained.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said John Cooke in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 10th September 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
COOKE, of the City of Lincoln, Plough Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of March, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said John Cooke, Her special licence that I,
the said John Cooke, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as I, the said John Cooke, 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 PLOUGHS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said John Cooke, my executors or admi-
nistrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their hands and scals, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Cooke, 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, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thercon, that
is to say:
Beams of ploughs as hitherto manufactured have been made either
of solid wood alone or of solid iron alone. These beams are objectionable,
and especially when made of iron alone they are very heavy and liable
to be strained and bent out of shape.
Now the object of my Invention is to construct the beam of the
plough so that it shall be both strong and light and not liable to be
bent out of shape or strained.
My Invention consists in manufacturing an improved beam for
ploughs of a combination of wood and iron or of wood and steel, thus
I obtain the advantages of each material and obviate the disadvantages.
One mode in which this may be carried into practical effect is by
employing angle iron or steel, and in this case I fill up the recess
formed by the angle with wood, and I secure the iron or steel and the
wood firmly together by screws or other fastening contrivances. The
wood filling removes the undue springiness of the metal, and a very
strong but at the same time sufficiently light beam is obtained.
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a plough having a beam constructed
according to my Invention, and Figure 2 an end section of the beam (or
transverse section thereof).
A, A*, is my improved beam, it consists of a long piece of angle
iron A (the recessed surface of which is towards the interior of the
plough) and of a block of wood A*, which fills up the recess of the
angle iron, and is firmly rivetted thereto by rivets a, a. A combined
beam, that is to say, a beam composed of iron and wood combined is
thus produced, and it is secured to the ordinary portions of the plough
by screws c, c, passing through the angle iron and the wood. Some of
the rivets which connect the iron and wood together are placed vertically
and others horizontally so as to render the connections very secure.
Instead of using angle iron I sometimes use angle steel. Also some-
times I use T iron or T stecl with bars or fillings-in of wood in the

page_text: recesses on each side of the shank of the T iron, the wood being con-
nected with the iron by horizontal and vertical rivets, and indeed the
iron and wood may be otherwise combined, but I wish it to be understood
that in combining wood and iron or wood and steel for the manufacture
of my improved beams for ploughs I do not restrict myself to the use
of angle iron or angle steel, as other descriptions or forms of iron or
steel may be used in such combination, though I believe angle iron best
adapted for the purpose. Qis the mould board; P, the handle; p, stay
or tie piece; R, wheels, all of which, and indeed all parts of the plough,
except the improved beam A, A*, are of ordinary construction.
Having now described the nature of the said Invention, and in what
manner the same may be performed, I declare that I claim, the com-
bination or combined employment of wood and iron or wood and steel in
the manufacture or construction of beams for ploughs.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Cooke, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.
Witness,
ISAAC DICKINSON.
JOHN COOKE. (L.S.)