Iμ- PROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF STEAM POWER TO THE CULTIVATION AND MOVEMENT OF LAND
Year: 1872

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Hope, V.C., of No. 38, Nicholas Lane,
in the City of London, Civil Engineer, for the Invention of "Iμ-
PROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF STEAM POWER TO THE CULTIVATION AND
MOVEMENT OF LAND."
Sealed the 3rd June 1873, and dated the 21st December 1872.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Hope at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
21st December 1872.
I, WILLIAM HOPE, V.C., of No. 38, Nicholas Lane, in the City of
London, Civil Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE APPLICATION OF STEAM POWER TO THE CULTI-
VATION AND MOVEMENT OF LAND," to be as follows :-
In the cultivation of land by steam power I place two double drum
engines opposite to each other, and to each of them I attach a pulley or
snatch block. I use two hauling ropes and two return ropes so arranged
that an implement driven between the engines is moved by the direct
pull of one engine and the indirect pull of the other engine round a pulley.
=

page_text: Thus both engines would be continuously at work and would do pre-
cisely the same work as is now accomplished by two engines of
double the horse power, cach opposite to each other, one of which is
always idle.
For the movement of land by steam power I construct a large imple-
ment of suitable size analogous in shape to what is known as a horse
shovel, say for a 12 horse engine, 7 feet wide by 5 deep, by 32 inches
high at the back. I make the bottom flat and place it upon three joists
so to say, which act as sledge runners. The pulling chains are fastened
on the sides and terminate in a large ring. To this ring there is also
hooked between the other two chains a central chain fastened by a ring
to a hook at the centre of the back of the implement. At a convenient
distance from the rear end of this chain, say 15 inches, there is another
ring, and this chain is longer than the other chains, so that when they
are tight and this one hooked to the terminal ring it will be slack.
Both the back and front rope of the engine or engines are shackled to
the large ring in front of the shovel. At the sides are attached two
large handspikes long enough for two men to work at each, so that a
leverage may be obtained in either an upward, a downward, or inward-
direction. By means of these handspikes the shovel can be directed
from behind, and can be lifted or depressed according as it is required to
be put into the land as to skim along when full, and a shovel of the
dimensions named will take when properly handled about six tons of
carth. When it is desired to tip this over the pull upon the front rope
should be stopped and a slight pull given to the back rope. This will
make the three chains slack, and the central chain can then be hooked
up to the hook behind, then when a pull is put upon the front rope the
shovel will be pulled over and its contents emptied. The back rope will
then be lying on the upturned bottom of the shovel, and if the large
ring carrying the two ropes and also the front chains be detached from
the latter and shackled to a ring at the bottom of the centre of the back,
the pull being on the back rope will again throw over the shovel and will.
replace it at the starting point.
For the, draining of land I construct a balance plough of four shares
each in one and the same straight line, but working in different planes,
two on each side. The shares themselves are to be chisel pointed, with
a coulter at each side; they deliver backwards up an inclined plane, and
the breast of what I may term No. 1 share to deliver, say to the

page_text: right, 'keeping the top soil on that side, while Numbers 2, 3, and 4
breasts deliver to the left, keeping the subsoil separate; or in the case of
very deep soil one or more of the other three breasts may also deliver to
the same side as Number 1. In the event of the soil being too crumbling
to rise up a simple inclined plane from the lower depths I substitute
for the simple inclined plane either a screw or a pair of screws, or a
dredge, the movement of either being got off the central or road wheels
of the implement, the object in each case being to assist the subsoil to
run up the inclined plane. By this means it will be seen that a trench
of any required depth may be cut all ready for pipes to be laid, and
according to the strength of the engine and tenacity of the soil and
depth of the drains the operation may be performed in two or more
journies.
For the application of liquid manure of a sufficiently concentrated
character to bear the expence, and for the getting rid of sewage sludge, I
make a plough which may be either on a balance or with any other
convenient apparatus for throwing it out of gear, and which will cut
with the outside or right hand share a deep furrow, say 30 inches deep
and 9 inches wide at bottom, throwing the loose earth up to the left;
in front of this share works a share to the left hand, cutting a furrow of
say 2 feet wide, by 10 or 12 inches deep, and throwing the soil together
with the soil thrown out by the right-hand plough across the ditch made
by the latter. In between these two, and delivering as it were under-
neath the spoil thrown up by the left-hand plough, is a nozzle
delivering the liquid manure or sludge. Travelling alongside this plough
is to be a waggon containing enough liquid manure or sludge to fill
one trench by means of a flexible hose of say 8 or 9 inches in
diameter fixed to the nozzle attached to the frame of the plough. In
the case of soft spongy soil I make this waggon to run upon two rollers,
say that the waggon is 8 feet wide, then there should be a roller at each
end made in separate pieces to the full width, and of say 6 feet in
diameter, and the waggon should as it were be between these two rollers
suspended over the front one on a sort of under carriage admitting of
complete or almost complete locking, or both rollers may have under
carriages each admitting of partial locking. The bottom of the waggon
is strengthened with both wood and iron and should be of a convenient
form for sliding as a sledge on a level above that of the bottom of the
rollers. When the rollers sink in, in the case of soft earth, to a depth of

page_text: 9 to 12 inches the entire superficial area of the bottom of the tank or
waggon will then assist the rollers in supporting the weight of the
implement; a flexible pipe should then be passed between the plough
and the waggon, and a fixed nozzle attached to the plough, and this will
allow of a certain amount of play and work in the pulling of two
implements.
The implements should thus either be pulled by two double drum engines
working together as described above, or they should be pulled by a
sufficient powerful single drum engine, the pull being imparted by
means of a whippletree of sufficient size and strength.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Hope in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 21st June 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
HOPE, V.C., of No. 38, Nicholas Lane, in the City of London, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two, in the
thirty-sixth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Hope, Her special license
that I, the said William Hope, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said William Hope, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others,
from time to time and at all times thercafter during the term therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, usc, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THE
APPLICATION OF STEAM POWER TO THE CULTIVATION AND MOVEMENT OF LAND,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said William Hope,
my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my,
or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Hope, 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 :-
In the cultivation of land by steam power I place two double drum
engines opposite to each other, and to each of them I attach a pulley or
snatch block. I use two hauling ropes and two return ropes so arranged
that an implement driven between the engines is moved by the direct
pull of one engine and the indirect pull of the other engine round a
pulley. Thus both engines would be continuously at work and would
do precisely the same work as is now accomplished by two engines of
double the horse power, cach opposite to each other, one of which is
always idle.
A diagram view of an arrangement such as is above described is
shewn at Figure 1 of the Drawings hereunto annexed.
A and B are double drum winding engines placed opposite to each
other, and each having two winding drums with a separate rope for each;
a, b, are the snatch blocks or pulleys attached respectively to the
engines A, B; C is the plough or cultivating implement. When the
implement C is moving from A to B it is drawn towards B by the direct
pull of the hauling rope from B, and the indirect pull of a rope from A,
which passes around the pulley b, and in like manner to move the imple-
ment from B to A, it is hauled directly by a rope from A, and indirectly
by a rope from B.
For the movement of land by steam power I construct a large imple-
ment such as is shewn at Figure 2, of suitable size analogous in shape
to what is known as a horse shovel, say for a 12-horse engine, 7½ feet
wide by 5%, deep, by 32 inches high at the back. I make the bottom
flat and place it upon say three joists a, a, which act as sledge runners..
The pulling chains b, b, arc fastened on the sides and are held apart by
a stretcher c placed at a convenient distance, say 4 fect in front of the
cutting edge d of the shovel, the chains 6 terminate in a large ring e.
To this ring there is also hooked between the other two chains a central
chain, which at its end has fastened to it a ring g, to which is attached
a short chain, which by a ring g¹ can be attached to a hook h at the centre
of the back of the implement. To the ring 9 is connected a short chain k.
with a ring k at its end, to which the back rope is attached; at the sides
.

page_text: are attached two large landspikes 1, as shewn, long enough for two men to
work at each, so that a leverage may be obtained in either an upward,
downward, or inward direction. By means of these handspikes the
shovel can be directed from behind, and can be lifted or depressed
according as it is required to be put into the land or to skim along when
full; and a shovel of the dimensions named will take when properly
handled about six tons of earth. When it is desired to tip this over the
pull upon the front rope should be stopped and a slight pull given to
the back rope, this will make the three chains slack and the central
chain ƒ can then be hooked up to the hook behind, then when a pull
is put upon the front rope the shovel will be pulled over in the manner
shewn at Figure 3, and its contents emptied; the back rope will then
be lying on the upturned bottom of the shovel, and the ring ¹ being
shackled to the hook at the bottom of the centre of the back, a pull on
the. back rope will again throw over the shovel and will replace it at the
starting point.
For the draining of land I construct a balance plough of four shares
each in one and the same straight line but working in different planes
two on each side. The shares themselves are to be chisel pointed with a
coulter at each side; they deliver backwards up an inclined plane, and
the breast of what I may term No. 1 share delivers, say to the right,
keeping the top soil on that side, while Nos. 2, 3, and 4 breasts deliver
to the left, keeping the subsoil separate; or in the case of very deep soil
one or more of the other thrco breasts may also deliver to the same sido as
Number One. I propose to cut to a greater depth with No. 1 than
No. 2, with No. 2 than with No. 3, and with No. 3 than with No. 4, as
shewn at Figure 4, and in the event of the soil being too crumbling to
rise up a simple inclined plane from the lower depths I substitute for
the simple inclined plane cither a screw, or a pair of screws, or a dredge,
the movement of either being got off the central or road wheels of the
implement, or the soil may be carried up by an endless band as shewn
at Figure 5, the upper roller over which the endless band passes being
driven from one of the plough wheels, the object in cach case being to
assist the subsoil to run up the inclined plane; by this means it will be
seen that a trench of any required depth may be cut all ready for pipes
to be laid, and according to the strength of the engine and tenacity of
the soil and depth of the drain the operation may be performed in two
or more journies.

page_text: For the application of liquid manure of a sufficiently concentrated
character to bear the expense and for the getting rid of sewage sludge I
make a plough which may be either on a balance or with any other con-
venient apparatus for throwing it out of gear, and which will cut with
the outside or right hand share a deep furrow, say 30 inches deep and 9
inches wide at bottom, throwing the loose earth up to the left; this
share works in front of a share to the left hand, cutting a furrow of say
2 feet wide by 10 or 12 inches deep, and throwing the soil together with
the soil thrown out by the right hand plough across the ditch made by
the latter. In between these two and delivering as it were underneath
the spoil thrown up by the left hand plough is a nozzle delivering the
liquid manure or sludge. Travelling alongside this plough is to be a
waggon containing enough liquid manure or sludge to fill one trench by
means of a flexible hose of say 8 or 9 inches in diameter, fixed to the
nozzle attached to the frame of the plough.
I prefer to construct the plough in the manner shown by the diagrams
Figures 6 and 7, to be hauled over the land by hauling ropes in a similar
manner to that in which Fowler's ditching and draining ploughs are.
now hauled over the land. The hauling rope for drawing the plough
forward is passed around a pulley a mounted on the fore part of the
frame of the implement, the implement is thus drawn forward at one-
half the speed of the travelling rope. The back wheels of the fore part
of the frame are mounted on a cranked axle, and to the crank is con-
nected the forc part of the back frame upon which are carried the two
ploughs. 6 is the plough for cutting the deep furrow; c is the pipe for
conveying sludge or manure into the trench from the waggon d, and e is
the hinder plough which again fills up the deep furrow and covers over
the sludge or manure deposited therein. In the case of soft spongy soil
I make the waggon which conveys the sludge or manure to run upon two
rollers as shewn at Figure 7*. Say that the waggon is 8 feet wide, then
there should be a roller at each end made in separate pieces to the full
width, and of say 6 feet in diameter, and the waggon should as it were be
between these two rollers suspended over the front, one on a sort of
under carriage admitting of complete or almost complete locking, or both
rollers may have under carriages each admitting of partial locking.
The bottom of the waggon is strengthened with both wood and iron and
should be of a convenient form for sliding as a sledge on a level above
that of the bottom of the rollers. When the rollers sink in, in the case