IMPROVE- MENTS IN IMPLEMENTS FOR CULTIVATING LAND
Year: 1877

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Sparks, of Yapton, near Arundel, in the County of
Sussex, Thrashing and Ploughing Machinist, for the Invention of " IMPROVE-
MENTS IN IMPLEMENTS FOR CULTIVATING LAND."
Sealed the 18th April 1878, and dated the 21st November 1877.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Sparks at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 21st November 1877.
JOHN SPARKS, of Yapton, near Arundel, in the County of Sussex, Thrashing and
Ploughing Machinist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN IMPLEMENTS FOR CULTIVATING LAND."
Steam "cultivators," such as are at present commonly used, perform only partially
the operations of tillage, leaving the land to be subsequently levelled and the clods
to be broken by independent implements or harrows. Now my Invention has for
its object to enable the two operations to be performed together, for which purpose
I combine a harrow or levelling implement with the cultivator, thus forming a
compound implement, which, as it travels, not only cultivates the land but also
harrows or levels it and breaks the clods.
The original cultivator is improved with a supplementary frame, extending
beyond and above the ordinary main frame; to this supplementary frame the harrow
or levelling implement is hung by chains, and a lever and segment bar arrangement
is provided for purposes of adjustment; thus, although the harrow or leveller may
be independently raised or lowered during the respective operations, the whole will
be lifted at the headlands off the ground automatically as the cultivator frame with
its shares or tines is at present lifted.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Sparks in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 18th May 1878.
JOHN SPARKS, of Yapton, near Arundel, in the County of Sussex, Thrashing and
Ploughing Machinist. "IMPROVEMENTS IN IMPLEMENTS FOR CULTIVATING LAND."
Steam cultivators," such as are at present commonly used, perform only partially
the operations of tillage, leaving the land to be subsequently levelled and the clods
to be broken by independent implements or harrows. Now my Invention has for
its object to enable the two operations to be performed together, for which purpose
I combine a harrow or levelling implement with the cultivator, thus forming a
compound implement, which, as it travels, not only cultivates the land, but also
harrows or levels it and breaks the clods.
The original cultivator is improved with a supplementary frame extending beyond
and above the ordinary main frame; to this supplementary frame the harrow or
levelling implement is hung by chains, and a lever and segment bar arrangement is
provided for purposes of adjustment; thus, although the harrow or leveller may be
independently raised or lowered during the respective operations, the whole will
be lifted at the headlands off the ground automatically as the cultivator frame with
its shares or tines is at present lifted.
Fig. 1 of the Drawings shews part of a cultivator, with my Invention applied
to it.
Fig. 2 is à plan of the lever arrangement.
a is part of the ordinary main frame of a cultivator; b is my supplementary
frame; c, c, are brackets, in which rotates an axis d; e, e¹, are two arms, both keyed
or fixed rigidly to the axis; the arm e when moved by hand travels in the slot of
a segment bar f, and can be retained in any required position therein by a pin. The
arm e¹ is connected by a chain g to the harrow or levelling implement h, which is
also connected to the supplementary frame b by chains i, and to the cultivator proper
by a draw chain k.
Such being the nature of my said Invention, and. the manner of carrying it into
practical effect, I would have it understood that I do not claim as my Invention, or
the exclusive use of the several mechanical parts herein-before described or referred
to, considered separately and apart from the combination or application thereof, in
manner and for the purpose specified, but what I consider to be novel and original
and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me under the Letters Patent herein-
before in part recited is, the combining a harrow or levelling implement with a
cultivator, substantially as herein-before described and shewn in the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings for the purpose specified.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Sparks, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Eighteenth day of May, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and seventy-eight.