CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS, OP OBTAINING AND APPLYING POWER, FOR WORKING OR DRIVING THRASHING MACHINES, MILLS, CHAFF CUTTERS, AND OTHER MACHINES OR APPARATUS
Year: 1844

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, 1, JAMES
VIBART, of Chilliswood House, near Taunton, in the County of Somerset,
Lieutenant in the Royal Navy, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Royal Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twelfth day of September, in the eighth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her beirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
James Vibart, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege and authority,
that I, the said James Vibart, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
such others as I, the said James Vibart, my executors, administrators, or
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and
at all times during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully
might make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN THE MEANS,
OP OBTAINING AND APPLYING POWER, FOR WORKING OR DRIVING THRASHING MACHINES,
MILLS, CHAFF CUTTERS, AND OTHER MACHINES OR APPARATUS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said James Vibart,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, particularly to describe
and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, and to cause the same to be inrolled in Her Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the same,
reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
James Vibart, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, is particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following description thereof, reference being
had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked
thereon (that is to say):-
The Invention for which I have obtained Her Majesty's Letters Patent
as aforesaid, consists in the adaptation, employment, or application of the prin-
ciple of the lever to the construction of an engine or machine for obtaining
motive power for driving agricultural and other machines. I propose to mount
my machine on wheels or rollers, so as to facilitate its transportation from one
place to another, and its adaptation to the various kinds of work for which
it will be employed. In order that the Invention may be more fully understood,
I havo shewn in the accompanying Drawing various views of my power,
engine, and the method of applying the same. Fig. 1 represents a side elevation;
Fig. 2, a plan, or bird's eye view; and Fig. 3, an end view of the engine.
It consists of a strong wooden or iron framing a, a, a, a, which carries a
horizontal crank shaft b, b, in bearings c, c, which are furnished with small anti-
friction rollers, for the purpose of reducing the friction of the shaft b, b, in its
bearings; one end of the crank shaft 6 carries a large fly wheel d, and at the
other end the band or driving wheel e is mounted. f is a lever having its
fulcrum at g, and is connected at one end by means of the rod h to the crank
of the shaft b, and at its opposite extremity to the lower end of the vertical
rod i, i, which is moved up and down in the bearings j. j, fixed to the frame-
work by means of the vibrating arms or levers h, k, see Fig 3. These latter
arms have their fulcrum at 1, 1, in the framework, and are connected to the
vertical rod i, i, by means of chains or straps m, as seen best in the end eleva-
tion. The engine, it will be seen, is mounted on four wheels. If required,
the speed at which the engine drives inachinery may be considerably increased
by the employment of additional speed gearing, as seen best in the plan view,
Fig. 2. n is a large toothed wheel on the crank shaft b, and gears into and
drives a pinion o on the shaft p, which also carries a band wheel, as shewn by
dots in the Figure, and which band wheel may be made to drive thrashing or
other machinery in place of the band wheel e, which has a slower motion.
Fig. 4 represents in side elevation a modification of the above.
Fig. 5 is an clevation of the opposite side, and Fig. 6 is an end view; the
arrangement of the several parts is somewhat different, but the principle and
the effect produced are the same. b, b, is the crank shaft; h, the connecting
rod which transmits the vibration motion of the lever f to the crank shaft.

page_text: The vibrating levers k, k, are mounted at the end of the machine, as seen in
the Drawings, and a bell cranked lever q is employed as an auxiliary power.
The use and effect of this is so obvious that no further description thereof will
be necessary.
near its centre. On the opposite
Fig. 7 is a side elevation of a modification of my improved engine adapted
to thrashing machinery, and Fig. 8 a detached view on an enlarged scale of
an improved coupling, whereby I am enabled to drive another machine either
at the same time as a thrashing machine, or without driving or removing this
latter motion is transmitted to the crank shaft b, b, as in the other instances,
by means of a pair of vibrating levers k, k. The lever f in this case having
its fulcrum at one end at z instead of in or
side of the machine a toothed wheel r and pinion (see Fig. 8) are mounted
for the purpose of actuating and increasing the speed of the wheel-work 8, 8,
which drives the thrashing machine. The wheel turus freely on the crank
shaft b, and is furnished with a clutch or coupling t, t, which by being screwed
tightly up against the boss of the crank shaft causes the wheel r to be
carried round with it when required to drive the thrashing machine, but when
the latter is to be detached, this object is effected by loosening the screw bolts
and causing the clutch t to recede from the boss u, firmly fixed on the crank
shaft, and then this latter will revolve freely without carrying round the toothed
wheel r with it. An additional toothed wheel, or a band wheel, or a universal
joint and coupling, must be keyed into the shaft for the purpose of driving
other machinery when required.
Fig. 9 is a side elevation of another modification of my improved hand
motive power.
The rotary motion of the main shaft is obtained in this
machine also by means of vibrating levers, which are keyed into a double bell
crank, the middle arm of the same transmitting motion to the crank by means
of a connecting rod, as in my before described machines, and when a more
powerful machine is to be impelled I put another crank on the fly wheel shaft
on the opposite side of the machine, and which is actuated in a similar man-
ner either by means of one vibrating lever, or two, according to the power
required.
Having now described my Invention, and the manner of carrying the same
into effect, I wish it to be understood, in conclusion, that I am aware that
thrashing machines and other agricultural implements have been heretofore
driven or actuated by means of levers; I do not, therefore, mean to claim
that as constituting my Invention, except as herein-after mentioned. But I
claim, as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before in part recited
Letters Patent, constructing engines or machines for driving or working

page_text: JOHN IVIE,
aster Extray in Chancer
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the same Eighth day of February,
in the year above mentioned, the aforesaid James Vibart came before our
Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification afore-
said, and all and every thing therein contained, in form above written.
And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according to the tenor of
the Statute in that case made and provided.