IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE CULTIVATION OF LAND BY STEAM OR OTHER POWER."
Year: 1876

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Fisken at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 1st January 1876.
WILLIAM FISKEN, of Stamfordham, in the County of Northumberland, Presbyterian
Minister. "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR THE CULTIVATION OF LAND BY STEAM
OR OTHER POWER."
My improvements partly consist in making better arrangements for the guide
pulleys of the endless driving rope used in the Patent granted to me 25th April
1862, and numbered 1221. In working the Patent it is desirable to have the endless
driving rope better kept out of the track of the plough, and for it to have as few
separate anchor pulleys as possible. In my improvements for the guidance of the
endless driving rope I either lengthen the top part of the windlass frame, or by
preference attach a beam to the top of the frame, which beam projects lengthwise
beyond the main frame. Upon this beam so projecting I attach an adjustable swing
bar, which is fitted at its opposite ends with studs for receiving the guide pulleys of
the hauling and slack ropes. The cross bar with its studs lies anglewise or slanting
across the projecting beam, so that the pulley or pulleys on one end are nearer the
main driving sheave than the other, but the cross bar and its pulleys are so far placed
from the main sheave as to keep the endless driving rope in passing from one windlass
to the other clear of the track of the tilling implement, either in traversing the furrow
or in turning. The studs are made to receive one or two pulleys, as desired. The
cross bar is made to turn on a centre pin, so that either end, as desired, may be made
the nearest to the main driving sheave. The studs are made to keep the pulleys
at different horizontal heights to cause the driving rope to clear itself when crossing.
The driving rope is supported along the line of furrow by moveable rope porters,
which are moved onwards as the work proceeds, by the lateral pressure or strain of
the driving rope. The pulleys bearing up the driving rope are hung or suspended
in their guide bars from a pin in the framing of the rope porter; on this pin the
pulleys and their guide bars are allowed to swing only laterally or at right angles
to the line of motion of the driving rope. As the windlasses move along the
headlands the driving rope imparts a lateral pressure on the porter pulleys, causing
them to incline their grooves more to the lateral pressure of the rope, so as to
prevent the driving rope from slipping over the rims of the pulleys, and thereby
imparting sufficient pressure to the rope porter to cause it to move forward. The
guide bars are so prolonged above the point of suspension as to aid the inclined
motion of the pulleys by their counterpoise weight. To prevent the clutching of the
drum when the driving sheave is in rapid motion from injuring the gearing by the
sudden shock I place the main driving sheave loose upon its axle, and upon the same
axle either above or beneath the sheave I key fast an arm; on the outer end of this

page_text: arm which extends to the rim of the driving sheave, I fix a spiral spring securing its
other end to the rim of the driving sheave, thus when the sheave is made to rotate
by the driving rope the pressure or power is gradually conveyed to the keyed arm,
and by it the main driving shaft receives motion. The keyed arm may itself be
in the form of a spring.
In working my Patent, dated 8th October 1873, and numbered 3262, I interpose a
spring, spiral or otherwise, between the knob or catch on the hauling rope, and the
lever which works the clutches in order to prevent the lever from being thrown into
gear too suddenly. It is desirable in shifting the anchor windlasses along the head-
lands to make them move by means of the travelling wheels; for this purpose the
main travelling shaft has placed on it one or two bevil wheels, if two, either is keyed
on the shaft or can be clutched so as to make the travelling shaft rotate along with
its two travelling wheels; the bevil wheel or wheels receive motion from a pinion
keyed on a shaft, on which shaft a spur wheel is also keyed, and is in contact with
a pinion on the main driving shaft, so that when the pinion is put in motion the
travelling wheels are made to move, and so carry the windlasses along with them;
to ensure this onward motion of the windlass when the wheels are set in action I
employ the following contrivance:-The two travelling wheels are made to have
sufficient bite or hold of the soil to move the windlasses, by each having cast or
formed on it a flange projecting on one side of the flat rim, and on the face of
the flat rim a series of radial plates is cast extending the breadth of the flange; and
in one or more of the spaces formed by the flange and the radial plates there is fixed
a block of wood corresponding to the space but projecting over the rim and higher
or thicker than the projecting flange; this block or shoe of wood is held in its place
by a hook which catches the outer rim, and by a bolt through the flange on the
wheel. If more than one such wooden shoe is put on the travelling wheel, the
space between the shoes must be so large as to allow the flange of the wheel to
penetrate the soil and impart resistance to the windlass when pulling the plough.
The forward motion of the windlasses is arrested when the blocks or shoes are
clear of the ground. The clutch lever is used to stop and start the windlasses. The
wooden shoes may be removed when the windlasses are travelling from field to
field. Instead of using two coiling drums with coiling guides and friction straps I
may use grooved pulleys composed of two rims and connected to the spur wheel
of each windlass so as to form self-adjusting gripping surfaces. These rims are
slotted radially to receive bolts which project from the side of the spur wheel for
the purpose of securing thereto radial bars with wedge-shaped terminations. The
rims are thus held loosely between the spur wheel and the radial arms. When the
strain of the rope begins to act on the V grooved sheave, that part of the circum-
ference on which the strain of the rope comes is pushed towards the centre, and in
its motion to the centre the lips of the V groove are pressed closer in proportion
to the strain upon the rope, and so increasing its bite on the pulley, and the pressure
upon the pulling part of the rim makes the other part to open to allow the slack
side of the rope to escape from the groove. The main hauling rope takes half a turn
round these grooved sheaves on each windlass. The rope becomes like a driving
band with the tilling implement attached to one side of the band or to one ply of
the rope, and by means of the alternate action of the windlasses the tilling imple-
ment is always pulled direct to the acting windlass. A sufficient tension is given
to the rope, and provision made for lengthening and shortening the furrow or
pulling side of the rope, by having the rope porters pulled by the slack side of the
rope as the work proceeds along the field.
It being understood that the longest side of the field is the most convenient to be
operated on at first; a friction wheel or wheels may also be employed to press
together the lips of the rim to cause a bite on the hauling rope or clip; drums may
be used on the windlasses, one clip drum on each windlass.