Improvements in Lawn Mowers.
Year: 1892

page_text: Date of Application, 23rd Mar., 1892-Accepted, 14th May, 1892
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Lawn Mowers.
I, JOHN POST LAWRENCE, of 34, Worship Street, Finsbury Square, in the
County of London, Merchant, do hereby declare the nature of this invention
(a communication to me by William Supplee, of 625, Market Street, Philadelphia,
in the United States of America, Merchant,) and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
This invention relates to lawn mowers and comprises improvements in the
incans for communicating the motion of the travelling wheels to the revolving
knife or cutter.
To enable the invention to be fully understood I will describe the same by
reference to the accompanying drawing, in which :-
Figure 1 is a side elevation of a lawn mower provided with the improvements,
certain parts of the casing or framing of the machine being broken away in order
to reveal certain parts behind; and,
Figure 2 is a sectional plan of the same.
a indicates the framing of the machine, and b, indicate the travelling wheels
which rotate on a spindle c secured at its two ends to the framing a; the part of
the said framing adjacent to the wheels being shaped to fit within the same at one
side, as shewn.
d is the rotary knife or cutter mounted upon the shaft e carried in bearings f, f
in the framing and receiving its motion from the wheels b, b through suitable gearing
at each side of the machine: as, however, this gearing is alike upon both sides of
the machine I will describe that upon one side only.
g indicates a ring of teeth which is formed integral with the driving-wheel b,
is an intermediate
and h is a pinion upon one end of the shafte of the cutter.
gear-wheel having two parts of different diameters, namely the part j engaging
with the teeth g and the part k engaging with the pinion h. This intermediate
wheel i is carried upon a stud / attached to or formed integral with a cap m which
protects the gearing, the said cap at one end being supported upon one end of the
A suitable
spindle c and at the other end secured to the framing a by a bolt n.
aperture o is formed through the portion of the framing a covering the wheels b in
order to allow of the portion j of the intermediate wheel i being passed there-
through so as to engage with the teeth g, as shewn.
With this arrangement of gearing it will be understood that as the wheels bare
rotated, motion will be imparted to the cutter d and that this movement will be
very rapid owing to the employment of the intermediate wheels i which constitutes
the main feature of this invention and enables a much higher speed of the cutter
to be obtained than when the said cutter is driven directly from the driving
wheels.
The pinions are not secured to the shaft e of the cutter but are free to rotate
thereon in one direction without moving such cutter in a well known manner, for
instance, by means of ratchet-mechanism. The pinion shewn in the drawing is
recessed upon its inner side and provided with ratchet teeth p designed, when its
connected wheel b is rotating in the direction to move the cutter, to engage with
one end of a bar y located in a slot in the axle e; which bar, when the wheel is
rotating in the opposite direction to that necessary for rotating the cutter,
oscillates by the impingement of the teeth p against it in a well known manner.
g
indicates the blade in connection with which the cutter works, and s is the roller
for adjusting the height of the cutter, the arrangement of which is well known and
needs no further description.

page_text: In the drawing the gearing for communicating the motion of the driving wheels
to the cutter is shewn as arranged upon the outer sides of such driving wheels,
but it is to be understood that such mechanism may be arranged between the
driving wheels.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. In a lawn mower, the arrangement of the double intermediate pinion for
communicating the motion of the driving wheels to the cutter, substantially as
desoribed.
2. In a lawn mower the arrangement of gearing substantially as hereinbefore
described and illustrated in the accompanying drawing for communicating the
motion of the driving wheels to the cutter.
3. The manufacture and use of the improved lawn mower herein before described
and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
Dated the 23rd day of March 1892.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.