IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR REAPING AND MOWING."
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Joseph Lewis, of Salford; in the County of Lancaster,.
Machine Maker, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR REAPING AND MOWING."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Joseph Lewis at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th March 1857.
I, the said JOSEPH LEWIS, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Machine
Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR REAPING AND MOWING," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists, firstly, in the application of an endless band of
steel or other metal as a cutter for performing the operations of reaping and
mowing. The cutting part of this may be plain, or formed with a sickle
serrated or other notched edge, and it may be combined with any known or
suitable arrangements of machinery.
Secondly, my Invention relates to a peculiar arrangement of endless band,
chain, or other such apparatus used for carrying a cutter or cutters, and consists
in so mounting the same that it shall travel upward as it leaves its work and
pass over that part of the said band or chain which is then in operation.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Joseph Lewis in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
18th September 1857.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOSEPH
LEWIS, of Salford, in the County of Lancaster, Machine Maker, send
greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twentieth year of Her
reign, did; for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Joseph Lewis, Her especial license that I, the said Joseph Lewis, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Joseph
Lewis, my 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 MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR REAPING AND MOWING," upon the condition, amongst others,
that I, the said Joseph Lewis, by an instrument in writing under ny 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 Joseph Lewis, 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 and accompanying Drawings (that is to say) :-
My Invention consists, firstly, in the application of an endless band of steel or
other metal as a cutter for performing the operations of reaping and mowing.
This belt I cause to pass over a series of pullies or rollers, so that it shall run
in the grass or grain, motion being communicated by a tram wheel and
suitable gearing. The belt knives may be serrated on the edge like a sickle,
toothed like a saw, or corrugated very finely across the whole breadth, so that
when sharpened an edge similar to that of the sickle would be produced.
The construction of machine to be used with my improved cutter may be
similar to those in ordinary use, but I have in the accompanying Drawing
shewn it adapted to that form known as the side draft.
Fig. 1 represents a plan view of the machine, the general form being that

page_text: known as Forbush & Co.'s American reaping machine; and Fig. 2 is a
partial cross section. The shafts for one horse are at a, and the framework at
b; c, is the tram wheel, within which is a toothed wheel taking into a pinion d.
Upon the shaft of this pinion is a bevil wheel e, driving a pinion f, upon the
axis of which is a spur wheel g, which communicates motion to a shaft h.
Upon this shaft is a pulley i, the rim of which is of wood, or of iron covered
with leather, and which is the main driver of the endless belt knife j. From
this pulley the knife passes round a small wood roller k, and another 1 of the
same diameter (see Fig. 2), and from thence through a projecting sheath m
to the under side of the driving pulley . The roller k is supported in levers n,
which are capable of moving round the centre of the roller for the purpose of
tightening the belt knife, and this tightening is regulated by a bar o, which
is screwed at p so as to be capable of being moved longitudinally by a pulley
handle q, the boss of which is furnished with a nut working upon the said
screwed part; by turning this handle, therefore, the levers n may be made to
move upon their centre so as to carry the roller k inward or outward, and thus
effect a proper tension of the endless cutter. The roller 7 is protected by a tin
box of any. desired shape. The protecting sheath for the knife is shewn at m;
it is formed of two pieces of sheet iron, separated so as to allow the knife to
run freely between them, and is secured to the projecting arm r of the machine
by bolts s, which are placed within slots, so as to allow the sheath to be drawn
backward as the cutter wears away. To the sheath m is attached a sheet-iron
guide t, for the purpose of collecting and guiding the material to be cut. The
cutter may be sharpened as the machine travels by a stone, applied by hand
or by other means.
Fig. 3 shews another arrangement of pullies for carrying the belt knife. In
this instance the top and bottom thereof are brought nearly together, so that
both of them may run throught a sheath.
Fig. 4 shews an arrangement which may be adopted when the machine is
pushed from behind. The rollers are set in an angular direction, the bottom
edge of the belt knife standing considerably in advance of the rollers and
pulley, so that the ordinary endless sheet delivery may be used as in "Croskills"
machine.
Fig. 5 shews another arrangement of rollers and endless knife. In this
instance it is intended to pass the top edge through the sheath m of Fig. 2,
and the bottom edge through the projecting arm which carries it.
Fig. 6 represents, in section, a form which may be given to the cutting belt
in order to avoid the risk of its running off the pulley; and Fig. 7 is a view
of a part of the face thereof. At u the metal is bent, so as to form a hollow

page_text: for the reception of a corresponding projection formed upon the pulley i
(Figs. 1 and 2), and there are grooves cut in the guide pullies for allowing
the belt to bed thereon. This bending of the belt would of itself, however,
destroy the elasticity thereof, but to avoid this I punch a series of slits across
the bent part, as shewn at v, Fig. 7.
The second part of my Invention relates to a peculiar arrangement of
endless band, chain, or other such apparatus used for carrying a cutter or
cutters, and consists in so mounting the same that it shall travel upward as
it leaves its work and pass over that part of the said band or chain which is
then in operation. This may be illustrated by Fig. 2, before referred to, the
band j being supposed to carry detached knives of ordinary construction.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed, I desire it to be
understood that altho' I have shewn and described certain arrangements of
machinery to be used in connection with the cutting instrument, yet I do not
confine myself thereto; that which I claim being,-
Firstly, the application of an endless band of steel or other metal as a cutter
for performing the operations of reaping and mowing.
Secondly, the arrangement of band, chain, or other such apparatus above
described, for carrying cutters.
In witness whereof, I, the said Joseph Lewis, have hereunto set my hand
and scal, this Seventeenth day of September, in the year of our Lord:
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven.