IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES
Year: 1872

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by John Dodd and William Peel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition
and Declaration, on the 21st December 1872, pursuant to the 9th
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by John Dodd and William Peel
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition
and Declaration, on the 21st December 1872, pursuant to the 9th
Section of the Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JOHN
DODD and WILLIAM PEEL, both of Brunswick Road, Sheffield, in the
County of York, send greeting.
WHEREAS we are in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES," and have petitioned Her Majesty
to grant unto us, our executors, administrators, and assigns, Her
Royal Letters Patent for the same, and have made solemn Declaration
that we are the true and first Inventors thereof.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said John Dodd and William
Peel, do hereby declare that the following Complete Specification,
under our hands and seals, fully describes and ascertains the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed in and by the following statement, reference being had to the
accompanying Drawing forming a part of this Specification :—
Our said Invention relates to a machine in which steam power
is substituted for animal power, both for moving the said machine.

page_text: over the ground and for operating the cutters; for this purpose we
combine with the cutting mechanism of a reaping or mowing machine
a steam boiler and engine mounted on wheels and properly constructed
to travel upon roads or other ways like an ordinary traction engine.
Instead of using steam power we may avail ourselves of the power of
compressed air, or gas, but in the following description we more
particularly refer to the use of steam as a motive power.
The manner of carrying our said Invention into practice is clearly
illustrated in the accompanying Drawing, which we will now procced
to describe.
'
Figure 1 is a horizontal section of a machine constructed according
to our said Invention; Figure 2 is a longitudinal section of the same on
the line x, x, Figure 1; Figure 3 is a transverse section on the line y, y,
Figure 1; Figures 4, 5, 6, and 7, illustrate the construction of the
fingers we employ in our improved machine, detached and drawn to
an enlarged scale; Figure 4 is a plan of the said fingers attached to
the finger bar; Figure 5 is a longitudinal section on the line <, >,
Figure 4; Figure 6 is a transverse section on the line z¹, z', Figure 4;
Figure 7 is a similar section on the line ³, ³, Figure 4.
Like letters indicate the same parts throughout the Drawing.
The boiler and engine may be similar in construction to those of
other traction engines, and the cutting mechanism is or may be made
detachable therefrom so that the traction engine may be used in-
dependently for the purposes for which such engines are commonly
employed. a is the boiler; b, b, are the steam cylinders; c, c, are the
piston rods; d, d, the connecting rods; e is the crank shaft, which is
supported in suitable bearings attached to the boiler a, or framing a*.
It will be seen that the engines are placed below the boiler, and that
the arrangement of the same is very compact and convenient; f, f,
are the driving wheels, which are fitted to turn on a strong axle g
secured to the fire-box a¹. One or both of the wheels must be
provided with a toothed ring h. The crank shaft carries at one or
both ends a pinion i, which is loose on the said shaft and is formed
with a clutch ². The said pinion by means of the sliding clutch ³
may be made fast to the shaft, or loose thereon, as desired.
The crank shafte is geared by the bevel wheel and pinion j, k, with
the small crank shaft 7, which is arranged at right angles to the crank

page_text: shaft e, and is supportod in suitable bearings
attached to the framing
a. The crank of the said small shaft is connected by the rod o to
the lever p, whose shaft p¹ has a lever på at right angles or nearly so
to the lever p. The lever på is connected by the rod " to the cutter
bar q. By these levers and rods the required to-and-fro motion is
transmitted to the cutter bar. Or instead of employing these two
levers and rods for giving motion to the cutter bar, in some cases we
gear in connection with the crank shaft e a short vertical shaft, on
whose lower end we place a crank which is connected by a suitable
rod directly with the cutter bar.
The shoe is constructed of suitable form and strength, and is
supported by the bars which is attached to the axle g.
The finger
bar q and the fingers and cutters may be of any ordinary construction,
and they act to cut the crops in the usual manner.
But we prefer to use our improved fingers which we will now
describe, and which are clearly shown in Figures 4, 5, 6, and 7; q is the
finger bar, and u, u, are the fingers. Instead of forming the said fingers.in
the usual manner, that is to say, with a flange on the under side only of
the finger bar, we form the said fingers with two flanges u', which clip or
embrace the part q* of the finger bar, as shewn in Figure 5, and we pass
a bolt through the two flanges, with a nut on the top of the upper
flange; the said fingers are made of cast steel, malleable iron or cast iron;
* is the slot through which the knives or cutters & work to and fro,
the said knives being rivetted to the knife bar v². By this peculiar
construction of the fingers we are enabled to use a comparatively thin
flange on the under side of the knife bar, and the knives are thereby
brought much nearer to the ground, an advantage which will be
appreciated by all familiar with the working of these machines.
Having thus fully described our said Invention, and the manner of
performing the same, we wish it understood that we claim,—
First. Combining the cutting mechanism of a reaping and mowing
machine with a traction engine, as herein set forth, so that the steam
or other motive power both moves the machine over the ground and
operates the said cutting mechanism.
Second. A machine consisting of a reaper or mower and traction
engine combined and connected in such a manner that they may be
disconnected, so that the said engine may be used independently.

page_text: Third. The fingers constructed as herein set forth, for the purpose
specified.
In witness whereof, we, the said John Dodd and William Pecl,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Nineteenth day of
December, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and seventy-two.
Witness,
JOSEPHI HARGREAVE.
JOHN DODD.
(L.S.)
WILLIAM PEEL. (L.S.)