for Use with the Binding Mechanism of Harvesters.
Year: 1887

page_text: Date of Application, 30th Apr., 1887
Complete Left, 30th Jan., 1888
Complete Accepted, 2nd Mar., 1888
for Use with the Binding Mechanism of Harvesters.
I WILLIAM MCINTYRE CRANSTON of 36 Worship Street, Finsbury, in the county of
Middlesex, Agricultural Engineer do hereby declare the nature of this invention which
has been communicated to me from abroad by The Walter A. Wood Mowing and
Reaping Machine Company, Hoosick Falls, New York, United States of America, to
be as follows:
This invention relates to mechanism for making a rope of straw adapted for tying
bundles of grain and attachable to a Harvesting machine, the rope of straw being
made while the machine is at work in the field or as a separate appliance for making
Rope straw for general purposes.
For the purpose of this invention a kind of cradle is provided into which straws of
a given length are placed. A dis: in the lower end of the cradle has a reciprocating
circular motion imparted by crank or otherwise communicated to a bar, said bar
having a blade passing through the side of the cradle to knock the straws up to prevent
them inatting.
The movement of the disc before referred to acts as a knocker up to keep the butt
end of the straws in position. Below yet entering into the slot in the bottom of the
cradle is a toothed picker wheel, to which a rotary motion is given, the teeth taking
straws in succession and putting thein in the path of a pusher which is connected to
and has a motion with a disc the toothed picker wheel having frictional contact with a
spring sufficient to push it round for taking the straws with it until they arrive
against a dog plate and the pusher to feed them into an opening in one face of a drum,
which has a hook for laying the straws in between a pair of rollers. These rollers are
rotated to draw the straws in between them and presses the straw against a cup
shaped piece of the outer plate which turns the straws to a right angle leading them
out of the aperture central to one face of the drum into and between a pair of outside
draw rollers, which draw the straws through. The drum is mounted on a frame .and
has a rotation by pinion or otherwise and this rotation gives the twist to the straws

page_text: partially within the drum and completes the twist between the drum and the outside
pair of draw rollers.
Straws thus twisted in rope form can be led on to a reel for use with ordinary
binding mechanism in which a rope of straw can be employed or the twisting
mechanism can be applied and made to form part of the binding appliance of a
Harvester the kind described in my application No. 6351 of 30th April 1887.
In connection with the twisting mechanism before described after each time a straw
is moved forward by the toothed picker wheel, said wheel has a backward motion
given to it by means of a paul so that each tooth in succession is made to clear itself
and prevent entanglement.
I provide a take up appliance which as each bundle is bound stops the twisting
mechanism by the fall over of a lever, but about as soon as sufficient straws are
gathered to form a fresh bundle the lever is thrown back again and this acting upon a
clutch throws the twisting mechanism into action again, there being preferably
sufficient straw rope made in advance to bind a bundle.
I have described the above apparatus as applicable to the binding mechanism of
Harvesters for binding bundles of grain straws as sheaves but it can be used for
making straw rope to be used in lieu of twine or string for other purposes.
Dated 30th day of April 1887
H. GARDNER,
166, Fleet Street, London,
Agent for the said W. McI. Cranston.

page_text: Apparatus for Twisting Straws to Make Rope, Specially Applicable
for Use with the Binding Mechanism of Harvesters.
I, WILLIAM MCINTYRE CRANSTON, of 36 Worship Street, Finsbury, in the County
of Middlesex, Agricultural Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
which has been communicated to me from abroad by The Walter A. Wood Mowing
and Reaping Machine Company, of Hoosick Falls, New York, United States of
America, and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
This invention relates to mechanism for making a rope of straw, adapted for tying
bundles of grain, and attachable to a Harvesting Machine; the rope of straw being
made while the machine is at work in the field or as a separate appliance for making
straw rope for general purposes.
For the purposes of this invention a kind of cradle is provided into which straws
of a given length are placed. A disc in the lower end of the cradle has a recipro-
cating circular motion imparted by crank or otherwise to a bar; said bar having a
blade passing through the side of the cradle to knock the straws up to prevent them
matting.
The movement of the disc before referred to acts as a knocker up to keep the butt
ends of the straw in position.
Below, vet entering into the slot in the bottom of the cradle, is a toothed picker
wheel to which a rotary motion is given, the teeth taking straws in succession and
putting them in the path of a pusher which is connected to and has a motion with a
disc, the toothed picker wheel having frictional contact with a spring, sufficient to
push it round for taking the straws with it, until they arrive against a dog plate and
the pusher to feed then into an opening in one face of a drum, which has a hook for
laying the straws in between a pair of rollers. These rollers are rotated to draw the
straws in between and press the straw against a cup shaped piece of the outer plate,
which turns the straws to a right angle leading them out of the aperture central to
one face of the drum, into and between a pair of outside draw rollers, which draw the
straws through.
The drum is mounted on a frame and has rotation by pinion or otherwise and this
rotation gives the twist to the straws partially within the drum, and completes the
twist between the drum and the outside pair of draw rollers. Straws thus twisted in
rope form can be led on to a reel for use with ordinary binding mechanism, in which
a rope of straw can be employed, or the twisting mechanism can be applied and made
to form part of the binding appliances of a Harvester of the kind described in my
application No. 6351, dated 30th April 1887.
In connection with the twisting mechanism before described, after each time a straw
is noved forward by the toothed picker wheel, said wheel has a backward motion

page_text: Harvesters for binding bundles of grain straws as sheaves but it can be used for
making straw rope to be used in lieu of twine for other purposes.
In order that others skilled in the art to which this invention relates may under-
stand the same, I will now proceed to describe it more particularly with reference to
the accompanying drawings, in which similar letters of reference indicate like
parts.
Figure 1 is a view of the twister.
Figure 2 a perspective view of the friction disc.
Figure 3 is a side elevation of the twister.
Figures 4, 5 and 6, are views in detail of the picker.
Figure 7 is a view in elevation of the twister attached to a harvester.
Figures 8 and 9 are details in perspective of the clutch and its operating mechanism
for throwing the twister into and out of gear.
A is the main driving shaft of the twister and is mounted in the standards A¹, A³,
secured to the support A³. Motion is communicated to shaft A through gear N,
loosely mounted on the shaft and provided with a clutch face N¹ forced into engage-
ment with the opposite clutch face N formed on N³ firmly secured to shaft A, the
spring N interposed between the standard A² and the gear N, acting to cause such
engagement.
Secured to the opposite end of shaft A is the larger gear wheel B meshing with
smaller gear C secured to the revolving drum P having a bearing for its spindle in
the tubular portion C² of the standard 0³, secured to support A³. The standard C² is
conical and shields the revolving drum P. The drum P is provided on its inner face
with two friction rollers, between which the straws are guided by a hook formed on
the periphery of the drum, the friction rollers being given a rotary motion independent
of the motion of the drum by which they are carried.
The shaft C3 of the drum is hollow and forms a bearing for the shaft C, which bas
a gear wheel on its inner face meshing with a gear wheel on one of the friction rollers
which in turn meshes with a similar gear on the other roller. As the spindle of the
drum revolves, the rod C secured to the shaft C4, abutting against the shaft A, or
some other fixed point, prevents the shaft C from rotating and the gears. secured to
the friction rollers are consequently caused to rotate through the contact with the
stationary gear on shaft C. The straw is drawn out from the revolving drum through
the rollers D³, D7, and is twisted into a rope as the drum revolves. Inasmuch as this
part of the mechanism is not the subject of the present invention, I will not more
particularly describe it, the present invention consisting more essentially in the manner
of picking the straw, and in the automatic clutch mechanism for throwing the twister
in and out of gear.
Firmly secured to shaft A is the pinion D meshing with bevil gear E secured to
shaft D having its bearing in the casting D' by which the hopper is supported. The
corrugated roller D³ is secured to shaft D¹, which has a small gear wheel imeshing with
the gear D secured to the shaft D, also carrying a second corrugated roller D',
between which two rollers the band is drawn out from the drum. The shaft D' carries
at its upper end the bevil gear wheel E meshing with pinion E¹ firmly secured to the
shaft having its bearings in the casting D³. The shaft E' passes through the
notched disc or picker F, which has the hole F for that purpose, the disc E³ on
shaft Efitting against a leather washer confined between E' and F. A spiral
spring F surrounds the shaft E2 and is interposed between E and the nut E on the
end of shaft E' and its tendency is to force the disc E' against the disc F, thereby

page_text: causing F to revolve with E through the friction exerted upon the leather washer
between E and F. The shaft E' is further provided on its exterior end with the
cam E' firmly secured thereto. The casting E is secured to the frame or casting
D2, and has the forwardly extending shoulder D8 against which the cam E³ bears,
thereby forcing shaft E2 outwardly and decreasing the friction between E and F,
permits the disc F or picker to be revolved in the reverse direction.
To the disc E at E' is pivotted the straw pusher G pivotted to the dog G' which in
turn is pivotted to the link G2 pivotted to the frame D³ at d. To theirear end of
the pusher G is secured the knocker up G³. H is the hopper in which the straws to
form the band are placed.
To the under side of the pusher G is secured a stift flat spring g and the dog g¹ has
a lug which rests upon the spring and holds the dog up to its work but will permit it
to yield should the parts become out of line. The dog is confined in its upward move-
ment by a suitable stop on the pusher striking against a lug on the dog. On the
inner face of the disc F is the circular rack F¹. The notches f in the disc F seize
the straws from the hopper one at a time and convey the single straw so seized against
the spring detent I, which is bent over the disc. The detent I has a downwardly
extending arm, turned up at its lower end to fit into one of the notches in the circular
rack F. The detent has a transverse shaft 11 and a spiral spring surrounds its shaft,
one end being secured to the shaft and the other to some fixed portion of the machine.
The action of the spring tends to keep the downwardly extending arm of the dog
from an engagement between or in any of the notches fi in the rack F¹.
The operation of the picking device is as follows:-
As
As the shaft E revolves, the friction between E and F causes the dise or picker F
to revolve with it, and when a straw has been caught in one of the notches f, it is
carried against the detent I and overcoming the action of the spring surrounding the
pivot shaft of the detent, rocks its upper end forward thereby raising its lower
branch into one of the notches f¹ which causes the disc F¹ to cease to rotate.
the pusher moves up to seize the straw lying against the detent I. the dog,G! is
moved upwardly and striking in one of the notches f¹ revolves the disc Fin the
reverse direction. At this time the cam E on the end of the shaft E' forcing E³ out-
wardly and decreasing the frictional bearing between E and F. The pusher G
continuing to advance seizes the straw lying against the detent and carries it forward
into the hook on the periphery of the drum, thereby releasing the detent which by the
action of the spring on its pivot shaft moves into position ready to be tripped by
the succeeding straw.
In Figure 7 I have shown the twister as attached to a grain binding harvester
and in Figures 8 and 9 details of the mechanism for regulating the supply of rope.
Motion is communicated to the pinion or gear wheel N loose on shaft Afin any
suitable way from some moving part of the harvester and the band passes from the
twister around the pulley K secured on suitable bearing and from K to pulley L,
running on the lever M and from L to the binding arm or to the grasper of a
binder.
The lever M falls forward as fast as the supply of rope will permit, and is attached
near its lower end to the rod m, extending upwardly and attached to the forked
lever m¹ one branch of m¹ being attached to the rod m³, which in turn is secured to
the rocking arm m³, pivotted to the support of the twister. The rocking arm m³
extends forwardly and has the upwardly extending nose m' which by the movement
of the lever M, is moved in and out of the cam groove m³ in the sliding clutch
pinion N, to which motion is communicated from the harvester, the sliding clutch
pinion revolving constantly. Suppose the lever M to be in the position represented
in full lines in Figure 7, the rocking arm m is forced downwards out of the
groove me, and the spring N throws the pinion N forward and clutching with the
clutch secured to the shaft of the twister drives it causing the twister to operate.
When sufficient rope has been formed to allow the lever M to fall far enough forward
to rock the arm mr in the reverse direction bringing its nose m* into the groove m³, the
cam m² acting as a wedge against the nose m slides it from engagement with the

page_text: clutch secured to the twister shaft, and the operation of the twister is suspended until
the bundle having been bound. the lever M is again moved towards the twister,
throwing the nose m* out of groove m³ and the twister again is operated to form
sufficient rope for the succeeding gavel. In very heavy grain it might be desirable
to have a supply of rope more than enough to bind one bundle ahead. This may be
done by winding the rope on the pulley L or by increasing the length of the lever M
on which the pulley is mounted.
Of course to start the machine it is necessary to form some rope ahead, and
leading it over the pulleys K and L, secure it in the proper grasping device of the
binder and for this purpose I have provided the crank W secured to the twister
shaft.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In a picking mechanism for a straw band twister a revolving picker adapted to
take the straws to form the band, one at a time from the receptacle containing the
band material and a tripping device whereby the straw carried from the receptacle
causes the picker to cease revolving until the tripping straw has been carried to the
twister, substantially as and for the purpose specified.
2. In a picking device for a straw band twister the combination of the frictionally
revolved picker mechanism and a tripping device adapted by the action of the straw
seized by the picker to stop the revolution of the picker substantially as and for the
purpose specified.
3. In a picker mechanism for a straw band twister, the combination of the revolving.
picker adapted to seize the straws for the band, one at a time, a tripping dog, by
which the picker is caused to cease to revolve through the action of the straw carried
against the dog and a pusher adapted to take the straw from the dog into the twister,
as and for the purpose specified.
4. The combination of the frictionally revolved picker mechanism, the spring
actuated tripping dog, taking into a rack on the picker disc and a lever or dog carried
by the picker disc shaft against the rack on the picker disc to revolve it in the reverse
direction of the picker shaft, thereby releasing the tripping dog from engagement
with the rack on the picker disc substantially as and for the purpose specified.
The 30th day of January 1888.
The 30th day of January 1888.
H. GARDNER,
166, Fleet Street, London,
Agent for the said William McIntyre Cranston.