IMPROVEMENTS IN LAWN MOWING, ROLLING, AND COLLECTING MACHINES.”
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Green, of Smithfield Iron Works, Leeds, in
the County of York, Willoughby Green, of 11, Brunswick Place, Leeds,
and Robert Mathers, of Trafalgar Street, Leeds, for the Invention of
IMPROVEMENTS IN LAWN MOWING, ROLLING, AND COLLECTING MACHINES.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Green, Willoughby
Green, and Robert Mathers, at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 20th December 1861.
We, THOMAS GREEN, of Smithfield Iron Works, Leeds, in the County of
York, WILLOUGHBY GREEN, of 11, Brunswick Place, Leeds, and ROBERT
MATHERS, of Trafalgar Street, Leeds, do hereby declare the nature of the
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN LAWN MOWING, ROLLING, AND COLLECTING
MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in lawn mowing, rolling,
and collecting machines. For this purpose, in constructing mowing machines
known as "lawn mowers," we make the outer edges of the main drum or
drums rounded, so as to prevent them cutting or marking the turf, and the
outer edges being thus turned up, greater strength is obtained without
increasing the weight, and the drums are less liable to fracture than hitherto.
When two drums are employed we place the catches for throwing the cutters
into or out of work between the two drums and arrange them so that they are
both acted upon by one lever instead of two, as hitherto, outside of each
drum.

page_text: In order to adjust the cutters (usually spiral blades ranged around an axis)
to the bottom blade we employ carriages or plummer blocks having a set
screw acting on the top and a spiral or other spring on the under side of them,
the carriages or plummer blocks carrying the axis of the cutters. This
arrangement allows of the adjustment being effected to the greatest possible
nicety.
In order to communicate motion from the drum shaft to the spiral cutters
we employ an internal toothed wheel on the drum shaft, by which means we
are enabled to employ a wheel of greater diameter than when using an
externally toothed wheel, as heretofore.
The grass boxes of mowing machines we make of thin sheet iron, having
suitable devices stamped upon them, ensuring strength and lightness.
Our last improvement consists in composing the front or leading roller of
thin iron discs, having bosses on each to keep them any suitable distance
apart, the discs being mounted on an axis, and each disc being free to
revolve.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Green, Willoughby Green, and Robert Mathers in
the Great Seal Patent Office on the 20th June 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wе, THOMAS
GREEN, of Smithfield Iron Works, Leeds, in the County of York, WILLOUGHBY
GREEN, of 11, Brunswick Place, Leeds, and ROBERT MATHERS, of Trafalgar
Street, Leeds, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twentieth day of December, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Thomas Green, Willoughby Green, and Robert Mathers, Her special
licence that we, the said Thomas Green, Willoughby Green, and Robert
Mathers, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the
said Thomas Green, Willoughby Green, and Robert Mathers, our 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 LAWN MOWING, ROLLING, AND COL-

page_text: LECTING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
Thomas Green, Willoughby Green, and Robert Mathers, our executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under our or their hands and seals,
or under the hand and seal of one of us or them, 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 Mathers, on behalf of myself
and the said Thomas Green, and Willoughby Green, 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, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in lawn mowing, rolling,
and collecting machines. For this purpose, in constructing mowing machines
known as "lawn mowers," we make the outer edges of the main drum or
drums rounded, so as to prevent them cutting or marking the turf, and the
outer edges being thus turned in, greater strength is obtained without
increasing the weight, and the drums are less liable to fracture than hitherto.
When two drums are employed we place the catches for throwing the cutters
into or out of work between the two drums and arrange them so that they are
both acted upon by one lever instead of two, as hitherto, outside of each
drum.
In order to adjust the cutters (usually spiral blades ranged around an axis)
to the bottom blade we employ carriages or plummer blocks having a seţ
screw acting on the top and a spiral or other spring on the under side of them,
the carriages or plummer blocks carrying the axis of the cutters. This
arrangement allows of the adjustment being effected to the greatest possible
nicety.
In order to communicate motion from the drum shaft to the spiral cutters
we employ an internal toothed wheel on the drum shaft, by which means we
are enabled to employ a wheel of greater diameter than when using an
externally toothed wheel, as heretofore.
The grass boxes of mowing machines we make of thin sheet iron, having
suitable devices stamped upon them, ensuring strength and lightness.
Our last improvement consists in composing the front or leading roller of
thin iron discs, having bosses on each to keep them any suitable distance
apart, the discs being mounted on an axis, and each disc being free to
revolve.
:

page_text: more fully the manner of performing the same.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 is a side view, and Figure 2, a plan of a machine having our
improvements applied to it; Figure 3 is a horizontal section through the axis
of the drums. In each of these Figures the same letters of reference refer to
the same parts.
The first improvement, which consists in turning up the outer edges of the
main drum or drums so as to make them rounded and thus strengthen them,
and at the same time prevent them cutting or marking the turf, is shown in
the sectional view, Figure 3, the outer edges a¹ of a pair of main or driving
drums a being there shown rounded by being turned inwards. When the
machine is made with only one drum, then both edges of the drum are turned
inwards, so as to make both edges rounded. Figure 3 also shows the catches
for throwing the cutters into or out of work placed between the two drums,
and also an arrangement by which the catches may be acted upon by a single
lever between the drums. In this Figure, is a fork upon the end of an
axis b, on which is fixed a lever handle, not shown in the Drawing; the fork b
embraces collars a³, a², formed upon the catches a³; these catches are formed
with teeth, as shown, and the catches are kept continually pressed by means
of the spiral spring c into corresponding toothed surfaces cast on the inner
faces of the drum bosses, and as the catches are prevented from turning upon
the shaft d by feathers d, the shaft d will be caused to turn as the rollers roll
upon the ground. When, however, the axis 6 is turned by the lever handle
upon it the two catches will, by means of the fork, be drawn towards each
other, and the drums will then be free to revolve around the shaft d. The
drums are constantly kept at the proper distance apart from each other by the
ends of the feathers d' inserted in the axle d. The novelty of this part of our
Invention consists in placing the catches between the drums and arranging
them so that they are both acted on by one lever instead of two, as hitherto;
on the outer side of each drum.
Figures 4 and 5 show our improved arrangement for adjusting the cutters to
the bottom blade, Figure 4 being a transverse section, and Figure 5 a side
view, of one of the carriages or plummer blocks for carrying the axis of the
cutters. 9 is the carriage, which slides in guides formed in the framing h of
the machine; this carriage is constantly pressed upwards by the spiral spring i,
and the height to which it is pressed up can be limited by means of the
screw i.

page_text: The improved arrangement for communicating motion from the drum shaft
to the spiral cutters by means of an internally-toothed wheel on the drum
shaft is shown in Figures 1 and 3. In these Figures e is the internally-toothed
wheel on the drum shaft d. This wheel, in the arrangement shown in the
Drawing, gives motion to a pinion 7, on the axis of which is a chain wheel,
from which motion is communicated by an endless chain k to the chain
wheel m on the cutter axis; but in place of transmitting motion from the
internally-toothed wheel e to the cutter axis in the manner above described, it
may be transmitted in any other suitable manner.
Heretofore the grass boxes of lawn mowing machines have generally been
made with wooden ends, and the front of the box has been made of sheet metal
bent over at the top to correspond with the form of the ends; now, according
to our Invention, we construct the grass boxes of lawn mowing machines of
thin sheet iron, having suitable devices stamped upon it,.in order to obtain
strength and lightness, which is important in the construction of lawn mowing
machines. In Figures 1 and 6, the latter being a perspective view, the grass
box n is shewn to be made of sheet iron with projections and indentations
stamped upon it, but we would remark that the sheet iron may be stamped to
any other suitable pattern than that shown in the Drawings so long as the
pattern is suitable for giving strength to the box.
The front or leading roller of the machine, represented in Figures 1 and 2,
is shown to be composed, according to our Invention, of thin discs o, o; each
disc has a boss on each side of it, by which the discs are kept apart from each
other, and the discs are mounted and turn freely upon
the axis
p.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Mathers, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Nineteenth day of June, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
ROBERT MATHERS. (L.S.)