IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLS FOR DRILLING LIQUID MANURE
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Reeves, of Bratton Westbury, in the County
of Wilts, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLS FOR DRILLING
LIQUID MANURE."
Sealed the 31st October 1854, and dated the 20th June 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Reeves at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th June 1854.
I, ROBERT REEVES, of Bratton Westbury, in the County of Wilts, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLS
FOR DRILLING LIQUID MANURE" to be as follows:-
Heretofore in the construction of liquid manure drills it has been usual to
employ buckets or measures, which by their rotation take up quantities of the
liquid manure and empty it into funnels, which conduct it in such manner as
to fall with the seed into the earth. Now, the present improvements consist of
dispensing with the employment of rotating buckets or vessels, and to depend
on a flow of the manure by simple openings in the vessel containing the
same, one to each funnel, and at the same time to cause the liquid manure to
be kept constantly stirred, to insure the flowing out thereof through openings
into the proper funnels; and in order to prevent the openings becoming
clogged, they have gratings, or wire cloth, or perforated material over them,
which are kept clean by cleaners moving constantly or at intervals across the
openings.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Reeves in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
15th December 1854.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
REEVES, of Bratton Westbury, in the County of Wilts, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, hearing date the Twentieth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Reeves, Her special licence that I, the said Robert Reeves,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
Robert Reeves, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any
time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after during the term therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire-
land, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN DRILLS FOR DRILLING LIQUID MANURE," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Robert Reeves, by an instrument in writing under my hand
and seal, 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 Robert Reeves, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof (that is to say):-
Heretofore in the construction of liquid manure drills it has been usual to
employ buckets or measures, which by their rotation take up quantities of the
liquid manure and empty it into funnels, which conduct it in such manner as
to fall with the seed into the earth. Now, the present improvements consist of
dispensing with the employment of rotating buckets or vessels, and to depend
on a flow of the manure by simple openings in the vessel containing the same,
one to each funnel, and at the same time to cause the liquid manure to be
kept constantly stirred, to insure the flowing out thereof through openings into
the proper funnels; and in order to prevent the openings becoming clogged,
they have gratings, or wire cloth, or perforated material over them, which are
kept clean by cleaners moving constantly or at intervals across the openings.
Having thus stated the nature of my said Invention, I will proceed to
describe the manner of performing the same.

page_text: DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a longitudinal, and Figure 2 a transverse, section of the vessel
which contains the liquid manure, which vessel is applied to any suitable form
of drill, and the vessel shown is for a drill making three furrows and depositing
three rows of seed; but this may be varied, and like vessels and apparatus
may be arranged for drills which are to make other numbers of furrows.
a, a, a, are openings at the bottom of the liquid manure vessel. These open-
ings a, a, are covered with a perforated plate b, under which there is another
plate c, which is capable of sliding, and of thus regulating the quantity of the
holes in the plate b, which shall admit the liquid manure to flow through.
The plate c is to be slided by the lever d, or by other convenient means. e is
a funnel or tube to conduct the liquid manure to the furrow made by the drill;
one of these funnels or tubes is to be applied to each of the openings a, a.
These funnels or tubes may, however, be arranged to conduct the liquid
manure into the funnels or tubes of a drill down which the seed descends, so
that the liquid manure and the seed may descend together into the furrows
made by the drills. f is an axis, which is to be kept constantly rotating by
being driven from the axis of the drill. This axis f carries steel arms g,g,
which in their rotation cleanse the openings through which the liquid manure
passes. h, h, are arms on the axis f, carrying bars i, i, by which the liquid
manure is kept constantly stirred or agitated, in order to prevent settlement of
the heavier matters to the bottom. I would remark that the form of the
stirrers and of the instruments for cleansing the openings may be varied,
the objects simply being to keep the liquid manure stirred and the openings
kept clear.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, I would have it understood that I make no claim to the
parts separately; but what I claim is, the combined apparatus herein
described for drilling liquid manure.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Reeves, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eleventh day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-four.
ROBERT REEVES. (L.S.)