Improvements in Appliances for Training Hops and other Twining Plants.
Year: 1893

page_text: Date of Application, 29th Aug., 1893
Complete Specification Left, 24th May, 1894-Accepted, 25th Aug.,
1894
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Appliances for Training Hops and other
Twining Plants.
I, JOHN WATKINS, of Pomona Farm, Withington, in the County of Hereford,
Nurseryman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention to be as follows:-
My invention relates to appliances for training hops and other twining plants,
so constructed and arranged that the appliances can be easily fixed and removed,
that the soil is throughout accessible for culture, and that the plants can be
readily detached.
For this purpose, I fix poles at suitable intervals apart to receive wires attached
to their tops in the usual way.
Besides these wires, I provide between each pair of poles another wire about
four feet from the ground, and on this wire I string a number of wires which hang
freely down to the ground, one, or it may be more, for each plant. These pendent
wires may be made long enough to allow of their ends being inserted in the soil,
or they may have their lower ends strung together by a wire. But, in any case,
they are so arranged that they can be moved aside to give access to the soil all
round and between the plants.
с
The low horizontal wire is connected by wires or strings to the top wire in the
usual way, and, in order to economise parts for fixing these connections, I may make
the pendent wires with hooks at their upper ends to which may be attached the
wires or strings that extend up to the top wire.
Dated this 29th day of August 1893.
ABEL & IMKAI,
Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Appliances for Training Hops and other
Twining Plants.
I, JOHN WATKINS, of Pomona Farm, Withington, in the County of Hereford,
Nurseryman, do hereby declare the nature of this invention and in what manner
the same is to be performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement :-
My invention relates to appliances for training hops and other twining plants,
so constructed and arranged that the appliances can be easily fixed and removed,
and that the soil is throughout accessible for cultivation, and that the plants can be
readily detached.
For this purpose, I arrange appliances as I shall describe referring to the
accompanying drawings.
Fig. 1 represents a row of training appliances according to my invention.
A A are posts fixed at suitable intervals apart to receive wires B attached to
their tops in the usual way. Besides these top wires I provide between the
posts A A' another wire C which may be about four feet from the ground. This
wire may be fixed to the posts A A¹; I prefer, however, to make its ends with
eyes or hooks which can slide up and down on the vertical limbs of hooks or staples
fixed to the posts.

page_text: As a convenient way of connecting the wires to the post, I make the stretcher
by which the wire is strained in the form of a yoke which embraces the post.
When the wire is slack it can be freely slid up or down, and can be fixed at any
height by straining the wire.
Ön the wire C I string a number of pendent wires D, one, two or more above
each plant. These may hang all independently, or may have their lower ends
connected together in sets by a wire Z. Or their lower ends may be inserted in
the soil.
Their upper ends may be made with hooks of any convenient form to hook on
to the wires C; or as shewn in Fig. 2 they may be made with eyes at the top and
passed through eyes of hooks F strung on the wire C. Instead of hooks F simple
rings G may be strung on the wire and the wires D passed down through them.
The hooks F or the hooked ends of the wires D hold the lower ends of strings K,
the upper ends of which are attached to the top wires B, these strings serving to
support the plants when they grow above the lower wires D.
As the strings K are apt to extend, the weight of the wire C and of the wires D,
when they hang freely from it, serves to stretch the strings K and keep them tight,
and in order that this may be done more effectually, the wire C may be loaded at
intervals.
The wires D may be made as shewn in Fig. 3 with a double bend E forming a
loop under which may be passed a bight of string extending up to the wires above.
This divergence of the strings from E gives convenience for training parts of the
lines to the right and part to the left, the wire C being thus left free to descend
as the strings K stretch, but I make no claim to this arrangement.
It is of
advantage to fix on intermediate posts Alracks presenting ratchet teeth under which
the wire C may be engaged as it descends.
When the wire C is fixed to the posts or to the staples on the posts, the pendent
wires have to be pushed aside or raised through the eyes of F, Fig. 2, so as to
give free access to the soil. But when the wire C is held on by the stretchers
embracing the posts, it may be raised along with all its pendent wires either by
hand or by cords passing over pulleys on the posts, and it may be hooked or held
in its raised position while the soil below is being worked.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
:―
In combination with the posts and top horizontal wires employed for training
hops and other twining plants, lower horizontal wires arranged to carry the upper
ends of pendent wires, these lower wires having attached to them the lower ends
of strings, the upper ends of which are attached to the top wires, substantially as
and for the purpose set forth.
Dated this 23rd day of May 1894.
ABEL & IMRAY,
Agents for the Applicant.