IMPROVEMENTS IN BREAKING UP AND TILLING LAND
Year: 1852

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Bernhard Samuelson, of Banbury, in the
County of Oxford, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN BREAKING
UP AND TILLING LAND."
Sealed the 12th January 1853, and dated the 2nd November 1852.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Bernhard Samuel-
son at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his
Petition, on the 2nd November 1852.
I, BERNHARD SAMUELSON, of Banbury, in the County of Oxford, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
BREAKING UP AND TILLING LAND" to be as follows:-
Heretofore implements have been made with numerous teeth fixed
to or moving on an axis or on axes, such instruments acting in some
cases simply as a harrow or pulverizers of land, and some being
intended to break up or till land. Now my Invention consists of
forming the tynes or teeth of steel, and by preference each tyne is
curved, and proceeding from its inner end it comes ragularly to a point
or chisel edge at its outer end.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Bernhard Samuelson in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 2nd May 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
BERNHARD SAMUELSON, of Banbury, in the County of Oxford, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Second day of November, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two, in the sixteenth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Bernhard Samuelson, Her special licence that
I, the said Bernhard Samuelson, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Bernhard Samuelson, my execu-
tors, 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
BREAKING UP AND TILLING LAND," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Bernhard Samuelson, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and scal, 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 Bernhard Samuelson, 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):
Ieretofore various implements have been made with numerous teeth
fixed to or moving on an axis or on axes, such instruments acting in
some cases simply as harrows or pulverizers of land, and some being
intended to break up or till land. Now my Invention consists of
forming the tynes or teeth of steel, and by preference each tyne is

page_text: curved, and proceeding from its inner end it comes regularly to a point
or chisel edge at its outer end.
And in order that my Invention may be more fully understood
I will describe the means pursued by me. 1 would premise that
its object differs from that of all toothed implements, like the Nor-
wegian harrow, and clod crusher or roller, inasmuch as these merely
pulverize the surface of the land, whereas the teeth or prongs ac-
cording to my Invention are intended to penetrate below the surface,
and to lift up the soil after the manner of the trenching fork or
spade, an operation which the form and composition of the teeth of
those implements do not admit of their accomplishing. I am aware,
moreover, that circular grubbers and digging and subsoiling imple-
nents have been made with prongs of iron, case-hardened or pointed
with steel or otherwise, but they have been comparatively unsuccessful,
owing to the great sectional area of the prongs (necessary to enable
them to resist the strain to which they are exposed when at work)
requiring so great a weight or so powerful an impact to force them
into the ground has involved an expenditure of force out of proportion
to the result obtained.
Now the object which I have in view resembles that sought to be
attained by the latter class of implements; and my Invention in respect
to it consists in making not merely the extremities but the whole of
the prongs exposed to strain in their progress through the soil of
steel, and I use by preference the best cast or double shear steel not
hardened; and I find that in the implements the form of which I shall
describe its own weight, of about eighteen hundred weight, is suffi
cient to force the prongs into the ground in ordinary soils to a depth of
ten inches, and that when so imbedded their section is strong enough
to resist the strain caused by the draught of as many horses as can be
practically applied to it.
I prefer to make the prongs of such a curve that the extremities
shall enter the ground almost perpendicularly of a square or diamond
section set on the angle, so as more easily to break any extraneone
substances, as stones, which they may meet with in the ground. The
extremities may be pointed like a fork, or like a chisel; being more or

page_text: less acute according to the soil to be dealt with and the depth to bo
penetrated, though I have found a fork point to act well in all soils..
The prongs may be connected by welding on to a steel or iron centre,
or by being drawn from a solid centre, or by casting a centre round a
number of them, or inserting them into a cylinder, or in many other
ways, but I prefer to arrange them in series in the form of wheel
spokes, and connecting each series by means of plates, between which
they are bolted, as shown in Figures 4, 5, and 6, of the implement
which I shall describe.
Also such prongs may be practically applied in various ways to the
purpose of breaking up or tilling land, either by horse, steam, or other
power; but as my Invention does not comprise circular digging imple-
ments generally, but is confined to the use of the revolving steel prongs
only, it will suffice if I describe one form of such implement in which
the revolving steel prongs may be used.
Figure 1, is a ground plan; Figure 2, an elevation; Figure 3, an
end view of a digging (breaking up or tilling) implement; Figure 4, is
a view of a plate forming half a centre, with prongs inserted; Figure 5,
of the opposite half without prongs; Figure 6, a section of a complete
wheel showing how the prongs are fixed. The same letters refer to
the same parts in all the Figures. a, a', Figures 1, 2, and 3, are the
sides of the frame which contains the digging wheels, and which 1.
will call the inner frame. b, b', Figures 1, and 3, and Figure 2, are
quadrant frames containing travelling wheels c, c', Figures 1, and 3,
and c, Figure 2. d, Figures 1, 2, and 3, is a bar on which the
quadrant frames are fixed, and the internal frame is hung. The back
of the quadrant is toothed, and gears into pinions, e, e', Figures 1, and
8, and e, Figure 2, which are keyed on the bar f, Figures 1, 2, 3,
the latter revolving in the frame sides a, a'. These latter are con-
nected by the stays k, k', k". The shafts for traction are also attached
to the frame a, a'. The digging apparatus is included within this inner
frame, and consists of 1, Figures 2, 4, 5, and 6, and 1, to , Figures
1, to 3, pairs of centre plates with the digging prongs bolted between
them (the prongs are shown made in pairs, which I prefer, as they may
thus be more firmly bedded between the centre plates). The latter,

page_text: forming digging wheels, are hung upon the bar k', which forms the
axis on which they move, and are kept apart by washers m, to m¹,
Figure 1; each of these wheels may revolve independently of the
others, or they may all be bolted together, or be connected by a hollow
shaft revolving on the bar k', or that bar itself may revolve with or
through the digging wheels, in which case it would cease to connect
the frame sides a, a', as a stay, and another stay bar would be required
between the lower fore part of them. I prefer, however, that the
digging wheels should move on the stay . o, Figure 2, and o, to o¹¹¹,
Figures 1, and 8, are cleaners hung upon a bar p, Figure 1, and 3;
each cleaner is in contact with the circumference of two half centres,
and scrapes it. Each cleaner has a tongue projecting into the space
between adjacent centres, limiting its own lateral play upon the bar p;
and the whole series is prevented from lifting otherwise than slightly
by the stay k", and they are all weighted to keep them down to their
work.
The inner fram a, a', is connected with the quadrant frames b, b',
by the bar d, in front, and by the toothed quadrants and pinions e, e', at
the back; and it follows, that supposing the travelling wheels to be on
the ground, by causing the pinions to revolve on the quadrants they will
lift or depress the inner frame and digging wheels, and the latter may
be maintained in any relative position to the travelling wheels by the
pawls,, Figures 1, and 3, and z, Figure 2; 9, is a bevil wheel on
the shaft and h, a bevil pinion gearing into it, by means of which
an attendant turning the winch i, Figures 1, 2, and 3, causes the
pinions e, e', to revolve, and to raise or lower the inner frame as before
described.
In proceeding to its work the digging wheels are raised sufficiently
to prevent the prongs from touching the ground, and are held there by
the pawl, catching a ratchet wheel cast on to pinion a². On reaching
the place to be dug this pawl is thrown out, when the weight of the
inner frame and the digging wheels will cause the pinions e, e', to run
down the quadrants, and the digging prongs to enter the ground,
when one or more turns of the winch i, depress the inner frame less
or more, the extreme depression being when the prongs are in the

page_text: ground up to the centre plates, and the travelling wheels are lifted ofl'
the ground, in which position the pawl would keep them. By
applying any tractive power to the shafts in front of the machine the
prongs of the digging wheels enter and leave the ground successively,
breaking it up in their progress, and being ridded of any portions which
they may bring up with them by contact with the cleaners between
which they revolve.
Having now described my Invention, and a mode or modes of
putting the same into practice, I would have it understood that I do not
claim steel digging prongs absolutely, nor revolving prongs generally;
but what I do claim is, the use of steel prongs or teeth fixed to or
moving on an axis or axes for the purpose of breaking up and tilling
land.
In witness whereof, I, the said Bernhard Samuelson, have here-
unto set my hand and scal, this Twenty-ninth day of April,
in the year of our Lord One thousand.eight hundred and fifty-
three..
Witness,
JNO. ALLCOCK.
B. SAMUELSON. (L.S.)