IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Burgess, of the Firm of Burgess and Key,
-
of Newgate Street, in the City of London, Agricultural Implement
Makers, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING
MACHINES."
Sealed the 18th July 1862, and dated the 21st January 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Burgess at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 21'st
January 1862.
I, WILLIAM BURGESS, of the Firm of Burgess and Key, of Newgate Street,
in the City of London, Agricultural Implement Makers, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING
MACHINES," to be as follows:-
My Invention refers to those machines in which the frame is supported
upon the wheels.
My Invention consists in dividing the second motion spindle into two parts
united in a casting formed on or in a piece with the bevel wheel which drives'
the bevel pinion on the crank shaft, or otherwise. Upon one part of the spindle:.
I key a ratchet wheel and fit ratchets or pauls upon arms cast on or formed
in a piece with the said bevel wheel. I key or fix another ratchet wheel upon
the other part of the spindle and fix ratchets or pauls upon the opposite side

page_text: of the said bevel wheel to that which carries the teeth. Instead of the ratchets
or pauls being fixed on and to the bevel wheel the ratchet wheels may be
fixed to it, and the ratchets or pauls may be carried upon discs or projections
fast on the parts of the spindle. The object of these arrangements is to allow
of the machine turning without any of the working parts being stopped, for if
one wheel travels faster than the other it turns with that portion of the spindle
to which the pinion driven by it is keyed or fixed without affecting the motion
of the other wheel or that part of the spindle to which the pinion driven by
that wheel is keyed or fixed. By the arrangements before described the
ratchet wheels and pauls are protected from dirt, and I am enabled to place
the bearings for the second motion spindle closer to the pinions driven by the
main wheels than in any arrangements heretofore proposed, and I am enabled
to adopt the ordinary means for throwing the knife in and out of gear.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Burgess in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
21st July 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BURGESS, of the Firm of Burgess and Key, of Newgate Street, in the City of
London, Agricultural Implement Makers, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Burgess, Her special licence that I; the said William Burgess,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Burgess, 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 REAPING AND
MOWING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
William Burgess, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Burgess, 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
thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, that is to say:―
My Invention refers to those machines in which the frame is supported
upon two wheels.
My Invention consists in dividing the second motion spindle into two parts
united in a casting formed on or in a piece with the bevel wheel which drives
the bevel pinion on the crank shaft, or otherwise. Upon one part of the spindle
I key a ratchet wheel and fit ratchets or pauls upon arms cast on or formed
in a piece with the said bevel wheel. I key or fix another ratchet wheel upon
the other part of the spindle and fix ratchets or pauls
of the said bevel wheel to that which carries the teeth.
or pauls being fixed on and to the bevel wheel the
fixed to it, and the ratchets or pauls may be carried upon discs or projections
fast on the parts of the spindle.
upon the opposite side
Instead of the ratchets
ratchet wheels may be
The accompanying Drawing is a plan of so much of a reaping and mowing
machine as will be necessary to illustrate the manner in which my Invention
is carried into effect. The second motion spindle is divided into two parts a
and 6; c is a casting consisting of a collar uniting the parts a and b, as shown
by the dotted lines, and e is the bevel wheel formed in a piece with the
casting c. On the part a of the second motion spindle there is a ratchet
wheelf, into the teeth of which pauls g, g, linked to an arm projecting from
the bevel wheel e take. There is a similar ratchet h on the part 6 of the second
motion spindle with pauls i, i, linked to an arm on the end of the casting c;
k, k', are pinions, one on each end of the parts a and b, gearing into the teeth
on the inner sides of the running wheels 1, 1, and the bevel wheel e gears into
the pinion m for communicating motion to the cutting blade in the ordinary
manner. The object of these arrangements is to allow of the machine turning
without any of the working parts being stopped, for if one wheel, say, the
wheel, travels faster than the other, it turns with that portion a of the
spindle to which the pinion k' driven by it is keyed or fixed without affect-
ing the motion of the other wheel or that part of the spindle b to which
the pinion driven by that wheel is keyed or fixed. By the arrangements
before described the ratchet wheels and pauls are protected from dirt, and
I am enabled to place the bearings for the second motion spindle closer to
the pinions driven by the main wheels than in any arrangements heretofore
proposed, and I am enabled to adopt the ordinary means for throwing the
knife in and out of gear.

page_text: And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what
manner the same is to be performed, I declare that. I claim as my "Improve-
ments in Reaping and Mowing Machines, forming or dividing the second
motion spindle in two parts and, uniting those parts in a casting carrying the
bevel wheel and pauls which take into ratchets on the two parts of the second
motion spindle, all substantially in manner herein-before described with
reference to the accompanying Drawing.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Burgess, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of July, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-two.