A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE FOR THINNING TURNIPS AND OTHER PLANTS SOWN IN DRILLS
Year: 1875

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Piric, of Nether Kinmundy, in the
County of Aberdeen, North Britain, Agricultural Implement Maker,
for the Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE FOR THINNING
Sealed the 28th December 1875, and dated the 12th July 1875.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Pirie at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
12th July 1875.
I, THOMAS PIRIE, of Nether Kinmundy, in the County of Aberdeen,
North Britain, Agricultural Implement Maker, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE FOR
THINNING TURNIPS AND OTHER PLANTS SOWN IN DRILLS," to be as follows, that
is to say :-
This Invention, which relates to a new or improved arrangement or
construction of mechanism for thinning turnips and other plants,
consists of a framing supported on wheels or drums, the peripheries of

page_text: on two or more drills or ridges, and instead of operating the hoe from
the shaft or axis of the bevilled or inclined wheels or drums as afore-
said, it may be operated from the shaft or axis of a trailing wheel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Pirio in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 11th January 1876.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
PIRIE, of Nether Kinmundy, in the County of Aberdeen, North Britain,
Agricultural Implement Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twelfth day of July, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-five, in the 39th
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Thomas Pirie, Her special license, that I,
the said Thomas Pirie, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Thomas Pirie, my executors, administrators,
or 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 "A NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINE FOR
THINNING TURNIPS AND OTHER PLANTS SOWN IN DRILLS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Pirie, 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 Thomas Pirie, 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, reference being had to the accom-

page_text: panying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon, that
is to say :-
My said Invention, which relates to a new or improved arrangement
or construction of mechanism for thinning turnips and other plants,
consists of a framing supported on wheels or drums, the peripheries of
which are bevilled or inclined to correspond with the bevilled or inclined
sides of the drills or ridges in which the turnips or other plants are sown.
On the axis of the wheels or drums, in the case of a machine for
operating on one drill or ridge at a time, a toothed wheel is fixed which
gears into a corresponding toothed pinion situate on a stud fixed in the
frame, and on this pinion a crank is secured. This crank is attached
by connecting rods to an arm fixed on the upper end of a vertical pin or
shaft supported in the rearward end of the frame, and to whose lower
extremity a bent arm carrying one or two oval or elliptical or equivalent
shaped hoes or thinning implements is (or are) attached.
When the machine is traversed over or through the drills the toothed
gearing hercin-before referred to reciprocates the hoe or hoes backwards
and forwards in a horizontal plane through the top of the drill by means
of the crank and rods or links connecting the toothed gearing and the
hoe or hoes together.
In each row or drill of young turnips or other plants a space of any
desired length, and which is regulated by change wheels or pinions, is
thus cleared of the said plants at each reciprocatory movement of the
hoc or hoes, and the plants remaining in the ridges or drills are thereby
left at the proper distance apart to enable them to grow to maturity.
The inclined surface of the wheels or drums by acting against the
bevilled or inclined sides of the ridges or drills causes the hoe or hoes to
operate at the centre of each drill and to penetrate to a regular depth
thereinto.
At the forward end of the framing supporting the mechanism herein-
before described, a vertical arm or link is situated, and which is secured
at its lower end to another frame at the front of the machine by an eyo
bolt.
At the upper end of the vertical arm or link a lever passing to the
rear of the machine is jointed, by operating which the machine may be
turned to the right or left, as desired. The lever is also connected to

page_text: the framing at a part situate behind the wheels or drums by a rod or
link, so that by operating the lever vertically the hoe or hoes may be.
raised or lowered, as desired. The hoe or hoes may also be raised:and:
lowered by a screw rod working against the framing at the front end of
the, machine, and to which frame the shafts for drawing the machine:
arc.attached.
The mechanism herein-before described is arranged to operate on one
drill or ridge only, or it may be duplicated and arranged to operate on
two or more drills or ridges, and instead of operating the hoe from the
shaft or axis of the bevilled or inclined wheels or drums as aforesaid, it
may be operated from the shaft or axis of a trailing wheel.
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood I.
now proceed more particularly to set forth the system, mode, or manner:
in or under which the same is or may be used or practically carried into
effect, reference being had to the annexed Sheet of Drawings, and to
the letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improved turnip thinning machine
as arranged under one modification, for operating upon two rows or
drills at a time, Figure 2 being a plan corresponding to Figure 1. As
shown by these Figures the machine consists of a framing A with
shafts, B, by which a horse is harnessed or yoked thereto for the purpose
of drawing the machine over the ground to be operated upon. The
framing A and parts connected therewith rest at there hinder end upon
the wheels C, which rotate as the machine is drawn, and arè in fact the
wheels by which the hoes or thinning out implements are driven. The
wheels Care arranged in pairs, each being bevilled in opposite directions,
as shown, so that they correspond to the shape and size of the furrows
or drills into which the ground in which the rows of plants grow is
formed: The axles or shafts D on. which the wheels C are carried rest
in bearings formed in the brackets E, which are firmly attached to the
lower part of the vertical shafts F. These shafts F are also capable of
slight angular or radial motion in their bearings G attached to the
framing A, as herein-after more particularly described.
"
f:
The hoes or thinning out implements H are carried upon arms fixed
to short vertical shafts I which are capable of being vibrated on their
axes in the bearings in the framings J. The framings J are carried at.
their inner ends upon the shafts D by which the driving wheels Caro

page_text: carried, and at their outer ends are suspended by the rods K from the
arms L. The arms L are fastened to the shaft F by pin joints at M,
and are provided at their under sides with rods having screws N at their
inner ends and handles O at their outer ends. The inner ends of the
screws N rest or abut against the ends of the framing A, as shown, so
that by turning round the screws N in either direction by aid of the
handles O the length of that portion of the screws between the fixed
nuts P and the end of the framing against which they abut may be
shortened or lengthened at pleasure, and the distance between the plane
on which the wheels C rotate and that on which the hoes or imple-
ments H operate are regulated as required, for through the connecting
links K the framings J which carry the hoes or implements H are
raised or lowered simultaneously with the raising or lowering of the
arms L.
The hoes or implements H.may be arranged either as one to operate
in each drill or in two, the second hoes or implements being shown in
dotted lines both in Figures 1 and 2. At the upper end of each shaft-I
a crank is fixed, this being coupled by the connecting rods R to the
cranks S carried and driven by the stud, spur pinion T gearing into the,
spur wheels U on the carrying and driving shaft D..
.
The machine may be provided with a set of change spur wheels and
pinions T and S for enabling the hoes or implements H. to be driven at
different speeds, as required.
From the arrangement and construction of the machine now described,
it will be seen that as it is drawn over the ridges. or drills in or out of
which the turnips or other plants have to be thinned or removed with
the exception of those plants which are intended to remain therein, that
when provided with one hoe or implement H for operating upon each
row-or-drill,-that-hoe-or-implement operates in a wave-like course, as
shown at a reduced scale in Figure 3, removing all the plants excepting
those indicated by the black spots a, and that when provided with two
hocs to operate on each drill the second hoe or implement H being behind
the axis on which they vibrate, its motion is always the reverse of tho
forward hoe or implement H, so that two wave-likes courses intersecting
one another are produced by two hoes or implements so arranged. Two
such intersecting courses are indicated on a reduced scale in the diagram
Figure 4, and the black dots b; also the central smaller and somewhat
elliptical figures enclosing them at the several intersections of the wave-

page_text: like courses represent the portions of soil or mould left undisturbed
around each plant.
1
The after part of the machine being moveable radially upon the
vertical shafts, by aid of the arms L and handles O these are moved in
the direction required on arriving at the end of the drills or rows so as
to facilitate the turning round of the implement and the passing of it
from drill to drill, as required."
When using two hoes or implements H for operating on each row or
drill, these instead of being carried upon one shaft may each be mounted
upon a separate shaft, in which case they may either be obviously driven
from one and the same crank, or from separate cranks driven from the
same spur wheel U or from separate spur wheels, one at each end or
side of the shaft D. Or otherwise the machine may be arranged with
two sets of driving wheels and connected parts, substantially as herein-
before described, one set being in advance of the other, and each set of
mechanism consequently operating its hoe or thinning implement inde-
pendently of the other.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention; and the system, mode, or manner in or under which the
same is or may be used, or practically carried into effect, I would
observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel and original, and
therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in
part recited Letters Patent is,―
First. The general arrangement and construction of the improved
machine for thinning out turnips and other plants, as herein-before
described, or any mere modification thereof.
Second. The horizontal hoe or hoes, or thinning out implement or
implements reciprocating, as herein-before described and shown upon
the annexed Sheet of Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Piric, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eighth day of January, One thousand
'eight hundred and seventy-six.