IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOUGHING AND IN PLOUGHING IMPLEMENTS.”
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Reid, of Monkton Miln, in the County
of Ayr, North Britain, Farmer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS
IN PLOUGHING AND IN PLOUGHING IMPLEMENTS.”
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Reid at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
19th February 1870.
I, THOMAS REID, of Monkton Miln, in the County of Ayr, North
Britain, Farmer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOUGHING AND IN PLOUGHING IMPLEMENTS," to be as follows,
that is to say :-
This Invention relates to an improved system of ploughing, and to
improvements in ploughing implements to be used in carrying out the
said system, and otherwise.
An important improvement in the implements and applicable to most
kinds of ploughs consists in adapting the coulter for steering or guiding
the plough, either alone or in conjunction with other guiding appliances

page_text: already in use. It is a well known fact that in the ordinary plough
with a rigidly fixed coulter the "set" of the coulter requires to be
adjusted with the greatest nicety to prevent the coulter from misguiding
the plough, and in consequence of the comparatively great effect on the
motion of the plough produced by a very slight change in the position or
set of the coulter. By the present Invention the power of the coulter
thus indicated is taken advantage of, and the coulter is formed with a
spindle accurately fitted and capable of turning in a socket formed in
or attached to the plough frame. A simple lever may be fixed to the
coulter spindle to turn and adjust it by in steering, but it is preferred to
-employ_for_that purpose a worm wheel or toothed sector acted on by a
worm on a spindle extended to the-back-of_the_plough, where it can be
conveniently turned by the ploughman. If desired, and for greater-
steadiness, the coulter may be formed with a heel pin at its bottom end
to enter a socket formed for it in the point of the plough sock, and it
may have an inclined wing blade attached to its side to cut through
stubble or weeds at or slightly below the surface of the soil.
. By a second modification, which is more especially applicable to
implements fitted with two or more shares, each share with the parts
attached to it and including or without the coulter is connected to the
frame with a pivot or hinge joint and has in connection with it a lever
screw, or toothed sector and pinion or worm, by means of which it may
be adjusted whilst working for steering or for making the mould board
exert more or less pressure on the earth whilst turning it over.
Another improvement applicable to various kinds of ploughs consists
in making the mould board with grooves or in the form of a skeleton
with ribs, the ridges between the grooves or the ribs being disposed in
the lines traversed by the parts of the earth whilst being turned over,
the object being to reduce the amount of rubbing surface in contact with
the earth, and thereby lessen the frictional resistance and draught of
tlic implement.
The improved implement for carrying out the improved system of
ploughing consists of an open iron frame, which in plan presents the
figure of a rectangle combined with a triangular front portion and pro-
vided with three or morc cross bars. The frame is carried on five wheels,
one at the front point, two at the forward corners, and two at the back
A lever adjuster of considerable range connects the front wheel
to the frame, and by means of it the frame can be raised sufficiently
corners.

page_text: to take the implements entirely out of the ground. The forward and
back wheels on one side are connected to the frame by connected lever
adjusters, and similar lever adjusters are applied to the forward and back
wheels on the other side. These side adjusters are a convenient means
for guiding the apparatus, as when one side of it is elevated by its adjuster
it turns to the other side in consequence of the greater drag or resistance
that other side then experiences.
In commencing to plough a field there are first fixed to the cross bars
of the frame a pair of small shares towards the front and a little on each
side of the centre line. These shares are right handed and left handed,
and turn over the earth towards cach other and upon the centre line of
the breadth that is being operated upon. Two full-sized shares, also
right handed and left handed, are fixed outside of and a little behind the
first pair and turn over the earth into the furrows made by the first pair
and partly cover the earth turned by the first pair. The implement thus
arranged is worked along the centre lines of all the breadths in the field,
after which the shares are changed for two or three or more, which are
all right handed or all left handed, and the implement is then worked up
and down the breadths on each side of the work previously done, always
turning the earth over towards the middle of each breadth. The
breadths are afterwards completed by a third arrangement of the im-
plement, in which a double mould board share follows behind and
centrally between a pair of shares, one of which is right handed and the
other left handed. The centre share forms the furrow or gutter between
each pair of breadths, and its mould boards and those of the two shares
in front turn over on each side the two completing ridges of cach breadth.
Or shares may be added to turn over more than the two ridges on each
side.
An important advantage of this system is that the horses never
trample on any ploughed earth, and when a field is completed not a hoof
mark will remain.
An additional improvement in the implement consists in applying
loose rollers at the back of the frame in positions to run upon the turned
ridges of earth to give the earth a uniform moderate compression or
consolidation.
The implement frame is also fitted to receive markers to be used when
making its first traverse. These markers arc tincs attached to arms
stretching out laterally from the frame and mark along the surface of the

page_text: ground the lines for the succeeding traverses or the divisions between
the breadths.
The lever adjuster herein-before described as applied to the two wheels
on either side of the implement may be modified to suit the existing
form of double furrow plough, in which one wheel runs in the furrow
behind one of the mould boards, a second runs on the surface a little
further forward to one side, and a third runs in a previously formed
furrow on the other side at the front end. The front wheel is' connected
to the frame through a bell-crank lever, an arm of which is connected
by a link to a bell-crank lever having its fulcrum over the back or
furrow wheel, and-an-arm_of_this last lever extends backwards to be
acted upon by the ploughman's left hand when the-plough is a right
handed one, the application of his weight to depress the lever having the
effect of raising the front end of the plough frame.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Reid in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 18th August 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
REID, of Monkton Miln, in the County of Ayr, North Britain, Farmer,
send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of February, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-third
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give
and grant unto me, the said Thomas Reid, Her special licence that I,
the said Thomas Reid, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Thomas Reid, 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 PLOUGHING AND IN
PLOUGHING IMPLEMENTS," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the
said Thomas Reid, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in

page_text: writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 Thomas Reid, 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 in writing, reference being had to the accompanying
Drawings, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to an improved system of ploughing, and to
improvements in ploughing implements to be used in carrying out the
said system, and otherwise.
And in order that my said Invention and the manner of performing
the same may be properly understood, I have hereunto appended two
Sheets of explanatory Drawings to be herein-after referred to, and
representing modifications of my improved ploughing implements. In
these Drawings the same reference numerals are used to mark the same
or like parts wherever they are repeated.
An important improvement in the implements, and applicable to most
kinds of ploughs, consists in adapting the coulter for steering or guiding
the plough either alone or in conjunction with other guiding appliances
already in use. It is a well known fact that in the ordinary plough
with a rigidly fixed coulter the "set" of the coulter requires to be
adjusted with the greatest nicety to prevent the coulter from misguiding
the plough, and in consequence of the comparatively great effect on the
motion of the plough produced by a very slight change in the position
or set of the coulter. By my present Invention I take advantage of
the power
of the coulter which I have thus indicated, and mount or fit
the coulter so that the ploughman can adjust it whilst ploughing and
thus steer by it.
By a further improvement, which is more especially applicable to im-
plements fitted with two or more shares, each share with the parts
attached to it and including the coulter is connected to the frame with
a pivot or otherwise so that it may be adjusted whilst working for steering
or for making the mould board exert more or less pressure on the earth
whilst turning it over.

page_text: Figure 1, on Sheet 1 of the Drawings is a plan, and Figure 2 is a
corresponding side elevation of a two-furrow plough with the shares
arranged so as to be adjustable about vértical axes whilst working, and
also with the coulters arranged to be similarly adjustable relatively
to the shares. I would however have it understood that either arrange-
ment may be used separately or without the other.
The implement comprises an open framing consisting of a part 1 which
is rectangular in plan and of a front triangular part 2. To the back
cross piece 3 of the frame there is bolted a strong vertical pivot or pin 4,
upon which is set the beam 5 of a plough 6, this beam being formed
with an eye to fit and-turn-upon the pivot 4. A second plough 7 has
its beam 8 similarly formed with an eye to fit and turn on-a-pivot-9-fixed
to an intermediate cross piece 10 forming part of the frame. The two
plough beams 5, 8, have levers 11, 12, formed or fixed upon them and
connected by a link 13 so that both ploughs turn together on their pivots
and always keep parallel to each other. The beam 8 of the right-hand
plough is continued backwards to form a hand lever by which the
ploughman adjusts both ploughs, and a notched plate 14 is fixed to the
cross frame piece 3 to receive a knife edge on the under side of the beam
and so hold the ploughs in any desired position relatively to the frame,
the beam having enough play on its pivot to allow of its being shifted
from one notch to another. The front end of the right-hand beam 8 is
extended forward over a cross frame bar 15 and the left-hand beam 5 has
its front end resting on the intermediate cross frame piece 10. Each
coulter 16 has its upper end turned truly to fit an eye or socket formed
for it in each beam 5, 8, and has fixed to it above the beam a short lever
17 loosely jointed to a lever 18 set on each main pivot 4, 9. The levers
.18 extend backwards over notched holding plates 19, and can be adjusted
by the ploughman whilst ploughing so as to give the coulters whatever
set or inclination may seem desirable. If preferred toothed sectors and
pinions or worms may be used instead of the described lever arrange-
ments for adjusting either the coulters or the ploughs. If desired, and
for greater steadiness, each coulter 16 may be formed with a heel pin
at its bottom end to enter a socket formed for it in the point of the
plough sock, and it may have an inclined wing blade or small share
attached to its side to cut through stubble or weeds at or slightly below
the surface of the soil.
The plough shown in Figures 1 and 2 is represented as provided
with three wheels 20, 21, 22, as now common with two-furrow ploughs,

page_text: the hindmost one 20 being as usual arranged permanently to run behind
the after plough 6, and when ploughing in the furrow made by that
plough. The front and right-hand wheel 21 is also arranged much as
usual, but instead of being carried by a cross bar which is adjustable
upon the frame, the cross bar 15 is fixed to and forms a strengthening
part of the frame, whilst the lever 23 connecting the wheel to the frame,
and by means of which it is elevated or depressed to raise or lower the
frame, is fitted to turn upon a boss 24 which is adjustable upon the
cross bar 15 to suit different widths of furrow. The cross bar 15 is also
made to carry the left hand or intermediate wheel 22, and for that
purpose is fitted with an adjustable boss 25 to receive the lever 26 by
which the wheel is depressed or raised. This lever is shown as partly
broken away in Figure 2; it is formed with a triangular part, at the
lower corner of which it has the axle for the wheel 22. With this
arrangement the lever 26 is depressed when raising the plough frame,
which is more convenient than the ordinary reverse arrangement.
Figure 3 is a side elevation showing the acting face of a mould
board as I prefer to make it, namely, in the form of a skeleton with ribs
separated by open spaces, the ribs being disposed in the lines traversed
by the parts of the soil whilst being turned over, and my object being
to reduce the amount of rubbing surface in contact with the earth,
and thereby lessen the frictional resistance and draught of the imple-
ment.
The improved implement for carrying out my improved system of
ploughing is represented in plan in Figure 4 on Sheet 2 of the Drawings,
and in side elevation in Figure 5. It consists of an open iron frame,
which in plan presents the figure of a rectangle 1, combined with a
triangular front portion 2, and provided with three or more cross bars
3, 10, 15. The frame is carried on five wheels, one 31 at the front
point, two 32, 33, at the forward corners, and two 34, 35, at the back
corners. A lever adjuster 30 of considerable range connects the front
wheel 31 to the frame, and by means of it the frame can be raised
sufficiently to take the implements entirely out of the ground. A
segmental holding bar 37 is fixed to the frame for fixing the lever
adjuster 36 in any required position. The forward and back wheels
32, 34, on one side are connected to the frame by connected lever
adjusters 38, 39, and similar lever adjusters 38, 39, are applied to the
forward and back wheels 33, 35, on the other side. Each lever 38 is

page_text: connected by a link 40 to a bell-crank hand lever 41, which is jointed
to the back end of the frame, and which also lifts or lowers the frame
relatively to the back wheel 34 or 35 by acting on a pin set in one of
the perforations of a plate 43 fixed to the frame lever 39. Each frame
lever 39 is formed with a notched and grooved quadrant, into the groove
of which a tongue fixed to the frame projects, whilst a spring catch
lever 42 engages with the notches and holds the parts in any desired
relative position. A stop bar 43 with holes, and fixed to the quadrant
or lever 39, serves for fixing the handle 41 in any desired position by
means of a pin. These side adjusters are a convenient means for
guiding-the-implement, as when one side of it is clevated by its adjuster
the implement turns to the other side in consequence of the greater
drag or resistance that other side then experiences.
In commencing to plough a field according to my improved system
there are first fixed to the cross bars 10, 15, of the frame a pair of small
shares 44 towards the front and a little on cach side of the centre line.
These shares are right-handed and left-handed and turn over the earth
towards each other and upon the centre line of the breadth that is being
operated upon. Two full sized shares 45 also right-handed and left-
handed are fixed to the cross bar 3 outside of and a little behind the
first pair 44, and turn over the earth into the furrows made by the first
pair and partly cover the earth turned by the first pair, forming two
ridges near together. The implement thus arranged is worked along the
centre lines of all the breadths in the field, after which the shares arc
changed for two, or three, or more, which are all right-handed or all
left-handed, and the implement is then worked up and down the breadths
on cach side of the work previously done, always turning the earth over
towards the middle of each breadth. The breadths are afterwards com-
pleted by a third arrangement of the implement, in which a double
mould board sharc follows behind and centrally between a pair of shares
one of which is right-handed and the other left-handed. The centre
duplex share forms the furrow or gutter between each pair of breadths,
and its mould boards and those of the two shares in front turn over on
each side the two completing ridges of each breadth.
Or shares may be
added to turn over more than the two ridges on
each side. An
important advantage of this system is that the horses never trample on
any ploughed earth, and when a field is completed not a hoof mark will
remain.

page_text: An additional improvement in the implement consists in applying
loose rollers at the back of the frame in positions to run upon the turned
ridges of earth to give the earth a uniform moderate compression or
consolidation. In the arrangement of the implement shown in
Figures 4 and 5 one such loose roller 46 is shown for running on the
adjacent sides of the two centre ridges. This rollar and others when.
required are set loosely on an axle 47 connected by swinging arms 48 to
the back of the frame. My improved implement frame is also provided
with markers, one of which 49 is shown in the plan, Figure 4. Each
marker is a tine or vertical pointed rod fixed or adjusted on the outer
end of a horizontal arm 49 hinged to the frame and stretching out
laterally and staged by a chain 50 connecting its outer end to the front
of the implement. When the implement is travelling along the centre
of a breadth these tines mark along the ground the lines for the
succeeding traverses or the divisions between the breadths.
The lever adjuster herein-before described as applied to the two wheels
on either side of the implement may be modified to suit the existing form
of double-furrow plough in which there are three wheels situated as shown
in Figures 1 and 2. This modification is indicated by dotted lines in
Figures 1 and 2. The lever 23 of the front wheel 21 is connected by a
link 51 to a lever 52 having its fulcrum over the back or furrow wheel 20,
and an arm of this last lever extends backwards, to be acted upon by the
ploughman's left hand when the plough is a right-handed one, the
application of his weight to depress the lever having the effect of raising
the front end of the plough frame. In Figures 1 and 2 I have shown
the front wheel 21 in the position ordinarily assigned to it, but I intend
in practice to place it further back in order to facilitate the turning of
the implement at the headlands when the frame is raised so as to lift
the ploughs out of the ground. Or another wheel may be added on the
same side as the front wheels, such added wheel being as far back as the
front mould board and either to the outer or inner side thereof. The
same lever adjuster may be arranged to act on the added wheel as well
as on the front wheel.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I have to state that I do not
restrict myself to the precise details herein described or delineated;
but that what I believe to be novel and original, and claim as the
Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited Letters
Patent is.