IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS
Year: 1869

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Henry Johnson at the.
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
15th July 1869.-A communication from abroad by Victor Léandre
Emile Rouyer, of Paris, in the Empire of France, Agricultural
Implement Maker.
I, JOHN HENRY JOHNSON, of 47, Lincoln's Inn Fields, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Inven-
tion for "IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS," a communication.
from abroad by Victor Léandre Emile Rouyer, of Paris, in the Empire
of France, Agricultural Implement Maker, to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, firstly, to a mode of fixing or attaching the
teeth or tines and other accessory parts of harrows and such like agri-
cultural implements, whereby such implements may be readily modified
according to the operations which they are required to perform, the
implement being capable of being used either as a rigid or jointed
harrow, a hoe, a scarifier, or an extirpator. The peculiar mode of fixing
the teeth and other parts, herein-after referred to, is also applicable to
the fixing or attaching of some of the parts of other agricultural impli-

page_text: ments, such for example as the draught bars of ploughs. The main
body of the improved implement consists of a set of harrow frames
provided or not with guiding handles, as required, and composed of flat
bar iron placed edgewise and bent into such a form as that those parts
to which the teeth tines, hoes, or other cultivating instruments are
directly attached shall lie at a horizontal angle of 45° degrees from the
line of draught of the implement. Several of these frames may be
connected together by the mode of attachment herein-after described
so as to form one rigid frame, or they may be coupled together side by
side by hooks and eyes, so as to form a flexible or jointed implement
capable of operating upon longitudinal ridges or uneven surfaces. The
peculiar mode of fixing the teeth tines, hocs, or other cultivating instru-
ments, also the draught hooks, and the coupling hooks and eyes, as well
as the metal socket for handles (when required) to the said frames,
consists of a pair of metal blocks grooved near their opposite extremities,
and linked together at a suitable distance apart by a pair of metal bands
or links similar to chain links, which are slipped with the grooves above
referred to so as to cross above and below the beam. Between these
2 metal blocks there intervene the beam of the implement and the tooth
or tine (if that be the article to be attached), and the parts are then
securely tightened up by driving in a key or wedge between the tooth or
tine or other article and one of the metal blocks. In some cases, as for
example, in the case of attaching a draught hook, or a side coupling.
hook or eye, or a socket for a handle, one of the grooved metal blocks
may form a part of the article to be attached. The same mode of
fastening may be employed for attaching the draught bar of a plough
at any desired position or angle. When using the implement as a hoe,
scarifier, or extirpator, one or more rectangular bars carrying guide
wheels or rollers may be attached to the front of the impliment by
the same mode of attachment as described with reference to the teeth
or tines.
The second part of this Invention relates exclusively to ploughs, and
consists in making the beam of three parts, the front part being rivetted
or bolted between the two hinder parts, which not only form the handles,
but form also a portion of the beam. Metal blocks or filling pieces are
interposed at suitable intervals between the two outer parallel bars of
the beam, so as to leave openings for the introduction of the coulter and
the two main supports of the plough body, such parts being secured by

page_text: keys or wedges, and an additional security is obtained in the case of the
two main supports of the plough body by recessing them on one edge
and fitting such recess over the end of the adjoining filling block in the
beam. This mode of construction admits of the beam being readily
actuated when required and used with other plough bodies, whereby
economy in first cost is obtained. The two main supports are bolted or
rivetted to the vertical and horizontal faces of a steel angle piece forming
the sole of the plough, and the front support is formed with a lateral
flange or wing to which are bolted or rivetted the turnfurrow and the
ploughshare, the rear part of the turnfurrow being held in position by a
stay attached to the rear one of the two main supports. This turnfurrow
is composed of steel and is of a helicoidal form, and the beam projects
horizontally about one quarter the width of the furrow on the left side
for a right-hand plough, and on the right side for a left-hand plough,
thus placing it in about the medium line of draught and facilitating the
use of the plough in the cultivation of the vine. The ploughshare is
composed of two steel plates bolted or rivetted the one over the other;
the upper plate is of cast steel, and the lower one, which forms the
actual coulter, and is in the form of parallelogram in plan, has both its
front and rear edges sharpened, so that when one edge is worn the plate
may be detached and reversed so as to bring the other edge into action.
The draught regulator consists of a fork provided with an upright stem
which is capable of being adjusted vertically in the end of the plough
beam so as to regulate the depth of furrow. The horizontal line or angle
of daught is regulated by means of a screw or spiral capable of turning
in the forked portion of the regulator, the draught ring being fitted on
to such spiral, so that on turning the spiral the ring will be moved to
the right or left as required.