CERTAIN NEW OR IMPROVED METHODS OF DRAINING AND CULTIVATING LAND, AND NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINERY AND APPARATUS APPLICABLE THERETO, WHICH MACHINERY AND APPARATUS MAY BE APPLIED TO DIVERS OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES
Year: 1832

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
HEATHCOAT, of Tiverton, in the County of Devon, Esquire, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King William the Fourth, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom of Great Britain
and Ireland, bearing date the Fifteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and thirty-two, in the second year of His reign,
did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
John Heathcoat, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His especial licence,
full power, sole privilege and authority, that I, the said John Heathcoat, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, by myself and themselves, or by my and
their deputy or deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said John
Heathcoat, 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 of fourteen years therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use,
exercise, and vend, within that part of His Majesty's United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town
of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all His Majesty's Colonies and Planta-
tions abroad, my Invention, of which I am possessed, of "CERTAIN NEW OR
IMPROVED METHODS OF DRAINING AND CULTIVATING LAND, AND NEW OR IMPROVED
MACHINERY AND APPARATUS APPLICABLE THERETO, WHICH MACHINERY AND APPARATUS
MAY BE APPLIED TO DIVERS OTHER USEFUL PURPOSES," in such manner as to me,

page_text: my executors, administrators, or assigns, should seem meet; in which said
Letters Patent there is contained a proviso, obliging me, the said John Heath-
coat, by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and tause the same to be inrolled in His Majesty's High
Court of Chancery within eighteen calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said Letters Patent, as in and by the same, reference
being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
John Heathcoat, do hereby declare that the nature of the said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are particularly described
and ascertained in and by the Drawings hereunto annexed, and the figures
and letters marked thereon, and the following description thereof (that is
to say) :-
My new or improved methods of draining and cultivating land consist in
the employment of certain new or improved machinery and apparatns to be
worked by steam or other power, for the purpose of ploughing, rolling, harrow-
ing, and draining lands, and for effecting such other operations of husbandry
as are or may be performed by traction, which machinery and apparatus are
particularly adapted for use on lands which cannot be so conveniently worked
and tilled in the ordinary way by the agency of horses or other cattle. This
machinery and apparatus consist of a carriage with a steam engine or other
motive engine mounted thereon, and also of machines or apparatus capable of
supporting an extended rope, band, or chain at a distance from the last-
mentioned carriage. I consider the most convenient apparatus for this purpose
to be a carriage which I shall describe under the name of an auxiliary carriage.
The power of the engine is to be employed to give progressive and retrograde
movements to the principal carriage, and also to draw ploughs and other
agricultural implements to and fro between the said principal and auxiliary
carriages at right angles, or at any other convenient angles, to the line of
progress of the principal carriage.
In order to render my methods more evident, I shall proceed to describe the
general features of my machinery and apparatus with the objects they are
intended to effect, and some of the variations and modifications of which they
are susceptible.
First, I employ a carriage of large dimensions, designed for the support of a
steam engine or other machinery, capable of generating or communicating
motive power. This carriage is mounted on a series of wheels, which conduct
an endless flexible floor, railroad, or way, within and upon which the carriage

page_text: travels. This endless flexible floor, railroad, or way affords a very broad and
extended surface, for the purpose of sustaining a carriage of great weight
upon soft, swampy, boggy, or unstable land.
Secondly, in place of the series of wheels and broad flexible endless floor,
railroad, or way, I substitute in certain cases rollers or drums, presenting con-
siderable surfaces to the ground. I employ carriages mounted on such broad
rollers or drums on lands or soils which naturally possess or have acquired
sufficient solidity to sustain their weight.
Thirdly, I modify the carriage by mounting it upon wheels proper for
travelling upon land or soil of a sufficiently firm and compact nature, in order
to simplify the application of the machinery and apparatus to the culture of
such soils.
Fourthly, I employ auxiliary carriages, which I place on each side of the
principal carriage, at a distance from it, and parallel therewith. By means of
ropes, bands, chains, or other media of traction issuing from and actuated by
the machinery of the principal carriage, and passing round a wheel, pulley, or
barrel on the auxiliary carriages, I drag the ploughs or other agricultural
implements to and fro between the said principal carriage and auxiliary car-
riages at right angles, or at any other convenient angles to the line of progress
of the principal carriage. By these means a wide extent of land is brought
under the operation of my machinery and apparatus. These auxiliary car-
riages are mounted on wheels, rollers, drums, or flexible floors, railroads, or
ways, similar to those provided for the principal carriage, and suitable to various
soils, by which means they are capable of being made to advance or retrograde,
as circumstances may require. Upon the platform of the principal carriage
described under the first, second, and third heads, I fix a boiler, and the
several parts of a steam engine, or other actuating machinery, which, through
the agency of wheels and suitable gearing, I employ for the purpose of giving
locomotion to the carriage in its longitudinal direction, and also for driving the
drums or barrels that work the track ropes, bands, or chains, which draw the
ploughs or other implements to and fro, between the principal carriage and
the auxiliary carriages.
In the accompanying Drawings the same letters of reference are used to
denote similar parts in all the Figures.
Fig. 1 is a plan or horizontal view of the skeleton or frame of the principal
carriage, shewing twelve large wheels a, a, and also twenty-four wheels b, b, of
smaller diameter, supporting the carriage. These wheels are fixed upon shafts
lying transversely to the length of the carriage, the shafts of the larger wheels
being mounted on pedestals standing upon the upper beams or timbers of which

page_text: the framing of the carriage is constructed, and those of the smaller wheels
turning in pedestals fixed on the lower beams of the framing. Round the six
large wheels a, a, and under the twelve smaller wheels b, b, on each side of the
carriage, an endless flexible floor is extended; the upper part being removed
in this Figure the better to shew the parts; the weight of the upper part of
these floors being sustained in the middle by wheels placed at suitable distances
to allow the iron plates of the endless floor (herein-after described) to rest
upon, and pass over them, as shewn in Fig. 3, and which wheels are supported
from the platform of the carriage. These endless flexible floors I propose to
make of painted or tarred sailcloth c, c, stretched transversely by the bars of
wood d, d, bolted at intervals to endless strips or bands of thin plate or hoop
iron e, e, upon which strips or bands of iron the wheels run. The heads of the
bolts, by which the stretchers are connected with the iron bands (excepting
those which would come in contact with the teeth of the spur wheels M and N)
are made so long as to project inwards about two inches. The space between
the heads of each pair of bolts is somewhat greater than the width of the rims
of the wheels, and the insides of the heads are bevilled, in order to allow the
wheels to enter more freely between them. Thus the bolts serve not only to
unite the several parts of the flexible floors, that is to say, the endless iron
bands and transverse wood stretchers, with the sailcloth held firmly between
them, but also to keep the iron bands in the track of the wheels. In some
cases I propose to dispense with the sailcloth, and in lieu thereof to use a
greater number of wooden stretchers, placed as near to each other as may be
necessary, in order to bear the weight of the carriage, and prevent its sinking
too deeply into the land or soil. The construction of the endless flexible floor
is represented in several of the annexed Figures. Fig. 2 is likewise a plan or
horizontal view of the principal carriage, exhibiting the platform or floor on
which the engine gearing and other machinery are fixed; Fig. 3 is a side
elevation, shewing one of the steam engines with its appendages; Fig. 4 is
also an elevation of the side of the carriage, in which is represented the mode
of mounting and driving one of the track rope barrels; Fig. 5 is a view of
one end of the carriage, exhibiting the endless flexible floors passing over the
wheels; Fig. 6 is a plan or horizontal view, and Fig. 7 a side elevation, of an
auxiliary carriage mounted on three broad drums or rollers, and shewing the
wheel or pully round which the track rope or cord is passed from the prin-
cipal carriage; Fig. 8 is a plan or field view of the relative position of the
principal and auxiliary carriages as they are to be employed, together with
the manner in which the power of the engine is communicated to the ploughs
or other implements through the agency of the track ropes, bands, or chains.

page_text: I intend, wherever the surface of the land operated upon shall permit, to
make drains on each side of the track of the carriages, as represented
in Fig. 8, which drains will serve the double purpose of laying dry the
roadways on which the carriages travel, and of receiving and discharg-
ing the water issuing from the drains which may be required to be made
between the parallel roadways of the principal and auxiliary carriages. Such
last-mentioned drains, being at right angles to the roadways, may be formed
in part by the traction of draining ploughs, or other suitable implements
of drainage, by the steam engine, and their intersections with the road-
way drains may be completed by hand labour. I also intend to lay down
these roadways in grass or other herbage, which will be benefitted rather than
injured by the passage of the carriages, as herein-before described, over its
surface. This application of my Invention is more particularly suitable to
bogs and mosses, which from their extent will admit of being laid out on a
plan of parallel roadways, at given distances crossed at right angles by similar
roadways. By these arrangements the expence of constructing hard stone
roads will be saved, and no land will be lost, as I contemplate that the
cultivation by my machinery and apparatus of such lands so laid out will be
more economical and convenient than the employment of horses or other
cattle, even after they shall have acquired sufficient solidity to bear horses or
other cattle and carriages of the ordinary description. The steam engine
which I deem most convenient for the purposes of this Invention is constructed
upon the high-pressure principle, with two horizontal cylinders, which through
their connecting rods give motion to the crank shaft f. The steam whereby
the pistons are worked is generated in the boiler A, and passes from thence
through the pipes B, B, to the cylinders C, C, which are furnished with
suitable valves, and the steam is discharged from the cylinders after each
stroke by the pipes D, D, into the chimney E. The boiler is supplied with
water by the force pumps F, F, worked by rods attached to the slides of the
piston rods. The power of the engine is communicated to the machinery by
which the carriage is moved, and also to the machinery designed to work
the ploughs and other apparatus for draining and tilling the land, through the
agency of the crank shaft f. On this crank shaft there is a sliding pinion g,
which when thrown into gear with the wheel h, gives motion to the train of
wheels and pinions h, i, k, l. By these means the large spur wheel m, fixed on
the shaft of the wheels a, a, will be driven round, and also with it those
wheels; and by an elongation of the shaft of the pinion (which is broken
off in the Drawing Fig. 2, to avoid confusion), having a similar pinion fixed
at its end, the other spur wheel n, together with the wheels a, a, connected

page_text: therewith, and also the endless floors, will revolve simultaneously. Thus,
the carriage supporting the steam engine and other machinery is made loco-
motive. At each extremity of the crank shaft f there is a small spur
pinion o, o, in gear with the wheels p, p, fixed on the counter shafts q, q.
These counter shafts each carry a pair of mitre wheels, turning freely thereon,
and take into the teeth of a similar mitre wheel, fixed on the end of the axle
of each of the drums or barrels r, r, on which the track ropes, bands, or chains
wind and unwind, and thereby draw the ploughs or other implements to and
fro between the principal and auxiliary carriages. A catch box & slides upon
each of the counter shafts between the mitre wheels, and when either of
the barrels are to be put into operation the catch box inust be slidden
so as to lock it into one of the mitre wheels, which causes the barrel by
its rotation to wind or coil the extended rope or chain, and draw the
plough or other implements attached thereto through or over the ground.
The rotation of the barrels may be reversed by sliding the catches into
the opposite mitre wheels. In order to work the ploughs or other imple-
ments, having placed the auxiliary carriages at convenient distances from
the principal carriage parallel therewith, (as shewn in Fig. 8,) I make fast one
end of a rope, band, or chain to each of the barrels r, r, and coil thereon
a quantity sufficient when uncoiled to extend from the principal to the auxiliary
carriages. I then stretch out a continuation of such ropes, bands, or chains
to and round the pullies or drums t on the auxiliary carriages, bringing the
ends back to the main carriage, and then make them fast to the barrels in
such a way, that when the barrels revolve, one end of the ropes, bands, or
chains may coil on the barrels whilst the other ends are uncoiling. To these
track ropes, bands, or chains I attach ploughs or other agricultural imple-
ments, and then (the steam engine being at work) I throw the barrels into
gear by means of the catch boxes s, s, which will cause the ropes, bands, or
chains to travel over the spaces between the main carriage and the auxiliary
carriages, drawing the ploughs or other implements through or over the ground
in the line or space comprised between the principal and auxiliary carriages.
When the plough or other implement shall have been drawn out to the
required distance, it may be turned round, and the barrel r be made to revolve
in an opposite direction, so as to cause the plough or other implement to be
drawn back again towards the principal carriage, it being attended and guided,
if required, in the ordinary way. The Drawings are necessarily made only to
exhibit one particular train of wheels proper for communicating a slow motion
to the carriage; but it is evident that the speed of the carriage may be varied
in any desirable degree by changing the number or relative diameters of the

page_text: wheels and pinions used. It is also evident that the train of wheels and
pinions may be so arranged as to cause the carriage to be advanced or retro-
graded through a space equal to the width of the land operated upon and
completed by the plough, roller, harrow, or other implement during the time
occupied in the passage of such implement between the principal and auxiliary
carriages. Or the principal carriage may rest during the time of performing
such operations, and be put in motion at required intervals by throwing the
pinion g on the crank shaft f into and out of gear with suitable trains of wheels.
The auxiliary carriages must be advanced or retrograded at rates corresponding
with the progress of the principal carriage, whether the latter be moved con-
tinuously or at intervals. This may be effected through the pinion u, shewn
in the plan or horizontal view, Fig. 6, which pinion takes into the teeth of a
wheel v on the axle bearing the broad rollers or drums w, w, and by turning
the axle of the pinion by a handspike a the carriage will be moved.
Another obvious mode of communicating motion, and one capable of giving
various speeds to the auxiliary carriage, is the employment of a train of wheels
and pinions (actuated by winches), gearing into the spur wheel on the shaft
bearing the two drums or rollers. The auxiliary carriages must be sufficiently
heavy to resist the pull of the cord when the plough or other implement is
drawn from the principal carriage towards it. In cases when a very great
power may be required to be exerted, the auxiliary carriage must be weighted
accordingly, or it may occasionally be made fast to stakes placed at proper
distances in the soil by a cord or chain attached, so as to oppose the greatest
resistance to the pull of the track rope. In other cases, where operations may
have to be performed at considerable intervals or distances the one from the
other, and draining ploughs or other implements requiring great force may
have to be used, the pully round which the cord passes from the principal
carriage may be attached to stakes or posts driven in the soil at proper dis-
tances, or a portable crane may be employed for this purpose. I do not claim
as any part of my Invention the particular construction of steam engine
delineated. I have adopted it as well suited for impelling the carriage and
for accomplishing the various objects of my Invention, but other forms of
engines, as well as other agents than steam, may be applicable as a motive
force. Upon mosses or bog lands, where coal or other fuel may be too expen-
sive or difficult to obtain, I propose to use peat to work the engine, in which
case it will be necessary to make the furnace or fire box of the boiler sufficiently
capacious for containing such a quantity of this bulky kind of fuel as will pro-
duce the requisite abundance and force of steam. Upon mosses or bog lands,
where water is at most times procurable from the drains, I propose to supply

page_text: the boiler either directly from the drains, or from holes formed at convenient
distances, by attaching a hose to the suction pipe of the pump. In seasons
or in situations where water is not so accessible, it may be furnished by the
well-known methods practised for the supply of locomotive engines. I do
not intend to confine myself to the precise materials and construction, arrange-
ment or dimensions, of the parts of the principal carriage or auxiliary carriage
or carriages, or to the distances at which such carriages are placed asunder,
as shewn in these Drawings, nor to the manner in which the engine is com-
bined with them. I propose in some cases to make use of a carriage having
only one endless flexible floor, railroad, or way, and to place the engine and
apparatus in such carriage instead of placing it between two endless flexible
floors, as hercin-before described, in which case it will be necessary to pass
the chimney in a horizontal direction, in order to clear the edge of the upper
part of the endless flexible floor, whence it may be raised vertically to the
required height. I propose also to employ a modification of the carriage,
mounted on broad rollers or drums, and impelled by a steam or other engine,
for the purpose of passing over land and serving as a heavy rolling machine
in order to consolidate the soil or to break down lumps or clods. For this
purpose I employ a carriage mounted on three broad rollers or drums, furnished
with a steam engine of small dimensions and compact form, as represented
in Figs. 9 and 10. The power is to be communicated by suitable gearing to
the two drums, and the machine may be directed into a new path, and be made
to travel over fresh ground, after having reached the end of an enclosure
or field, by moving the axis of the single drum into an angle to the axis
of the two rollers or drums, by means of a rack and pinion acting on the
bearing of one end of the axis, the other end being mounted in an adjustable
bearing, as shewn in Figure 10. At the same time the motion of the engine
is to be reversed, and one of the two rollers or drums be disengaged from
the engine, and be allowed to turn freely on its axis, whilst the other remains
locked into the gearing of the engine, and is turned round by it. In this
manner the machine may be made to take up fresh ground without being
turned completely round. This machine may also be employed to drag ploughs
or other agricultural implements in connection with auxiliary carriages by
adapting to it barrels fixed and worked in a manner similar to those already
described. For this purpose it may be necessary to apply a wheel on each side
of the single roller in order to give sufficient stability to the carriage. These
wheels are shewn dotted in Figure 10, as also the barrels. The wheels are
mounted on temporary axles bolted to the framing so as to be removed at
pleasure. In the accompanying Drawings the large wheels a, a, of the principal

page_text: carriage are represented as formed of wooden spokes and fellies with naves of
cast iron; but I propose to make them stronger in cases where the weight of
the carriage and engines may require it, by filling in between the spokes with
wood, so as to form complete discs, or it may be still more advantageous to
employ wheels of cast or wrought iron. In case the wheels a, a, should have
a tendency to slip round within the endless floor without carrying it with them,
then the two inner straps of iron e, e, may be made wider, and teeth or coggs
fastened upon them at proper intervals, which shall take into the spaces
between the teeth of the wheels m and n.
I have now described my new or improved methods of draining and cul-
tivating land, and have shewn the manner in which the machinery and
apparatus are to be applied to the culture of various soils. I have before
stated this Invention to be especially serviceable on lands which cannot be so
conveniently worked and tilled in the ordinary way by the agency of horses or
other cattle. The cultivation of bogs or mosses requires more numerous drains
than drier or firmer ground, and further requires, when horses or other cattle
are employed, that the greater number of the drains shall be covered, in order
to enable the horses or other cattle to pass over them. But by the system of
cultivation by traction obtained from motive power, combined with the arrange-
ment of the principal and auxiliary carriages, herein-before explained, I am
enabled not only to drain, plough, roll, and work the soil by suitable implements
without its being poached or injured by the feet of horses or other cattle, but also
to leave the drains open, by which means they may be cleansed and deepened
as the land shall subside and consolidate. If in the progress of these soils
towards solidity all the original drains (which I propose to make very numerous)
should no longer be necessary, a portion of them may be filled up, and of the
remainder such may be left open and such of them covered as the circum-
stances of cultivation may require. As regards the utility of this Invention in
a national point of view, I anticipate also that several advantages will result
from the substitution of steam power for horses or other cattle, and from the
use of peat as fuel for the steam engines to be employed in the culture
of mosses or bog lands. Amongst the advantages will be the abundant and
profitable occupation for an unemployed population, in the raising and pre-
paring of peat for feeding the steam engines, and as labourers in reclaiming
and cultivating lands which are at present utterly unproductive. And further,
that the produce of the soil will be available as food for human beings instead
of being consumed by horses or other cattle employed in the cultivation thereof.
Figures 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, and 10 of the accompanying Drawings are made to
a scale of one half of an inch to a foot. The field plan, Fig. 8, is represented

page_text: on a scale of one-eighth of an inch to a yard. It will be obvious, as the prin-
cipal carriage herein-before described is capable of locomotion, and contains a
steam or other engine of power, that it may be placed in convenient situations
where the power of such engines may be advantageously used for the working
of corn mills, threshing machines, chaff cutters, pumps, or other machinery.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Heathcoat, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Fifteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and thirty-three.
JOHN
НЕАТИСОЛТ.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Fifteenth day of November, in
the fourth year of the reign of His Majesty King William the Fourth, the
said John Heathcoat came before our said Lord the King in His Chancery,
and acknowledged the instrument aforesaid, and all and every thing therein
contained and specified, in form above written. And also the instrument
aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made in the fifty-
fifth year of the reign of His late Majesty King George the Third.
Inselled the Fiftaanth day of Nov
thouser aight hundred