IMPROVED MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR. PERFORMING DIFFERENT OPERATIONS REQUIRED IN AGRICULTURE
Year: 1858

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles Johnson, of Dickleborough, in the County
of Norfolk, and George Johnson, of Wandsworth, in the County of
Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR.
PERFORMING DIFFERENT OPERATIONS REQUIRED IN AGRICULTURE,"
Sealed the 9th August 1858, and dated the 11th February 1858.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles Johnson and
George Johnson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 11th February 1858.
We, CHARLES JOHNSON, of Dickleborough, in the County of Norfolk, and
GEORGE JOHNSON, of Wandsworth, in the County of Surrey, do hereby declaré
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR
PERFORMING DIFFERENT OPERATIONS REQUIRED IN AGRICULTURE," to be as follows.
(that is to say): -
Our Invention relates to agricultural implements & inachinery and
engines, parts of which machinery and engines are also applicable for oth-r
purposes.
These implementsand machinery & the improvements thereto applied, form
a complete apparatus for performing the different operations required in
agriculture in-a portable and self-propelling form.
"The improvements consist in the forms of and modes of framing and fitting.
гр. 871

page_text: the said implements and machinery, and in the mechanism connected there-
with for propelling the same.
The apparatus when complete comprises a propeller frame mounted upon
wheels; a steam engine for driving the same; a carrier frame also mounted
upon wheels, and geared to the propeller frame, and worked thereby a set of
framed moveable ploughs, harrows, and drills, for performing the operations
of ploughing, drilling, and harrowing at one operation, formed so as to be
fitted to and worked by the carrier frame, and detachable therefrom; a
reaping and mowing machine, formed so as to be fitted. to and worked by the
carrier frame, and also detachible therefrom; and a thrashing and dressing
and a pulping, crushing, and grinding machine, for thrashing and preparing
corn and other produce.
The propeller frame and engine are locomotive and propel the carrier frame
(which carries the ploughs,&c.) or reaping machine,as the case may be,) either
by their locomotive or stationary power; in the former case the carrier frame
issimply coupled to the propeller frame and advances therewith, in the latter
case is attached to the propeller frame by a suitable cable or chain, the carrier
frame remaining stationary while the propeller advances and pays out the cable
or chain; at the same time when the propeller frame has advanced the required
distance it stops and fixes itself by a drop, strut, or otherwise, and then the
engine hauls the ploughs (or the reapers, as the case may be), by winding
in the cable previously paid out, when the propeller frame again advances, and
the operation is repeated as required. For increased portability the propeller
frame is made in parts either to attach and detach or to fold together; the
detaching parts serve to increase the capacity of the frame for transporting
the whole apparatus, and in their seperated condition are intended to
contain and remove manure, seed, or produce.
The wheels of the propeller frame are mounted in bearings, whereby each
wheel can be set at any required angle with the frame, so that its motion can
be regulated either in a direct line or curved line, forward or sideways, to
facilitate the operation of turning at the headland, and also to f:cilitate its
adjustment to any required position or line of direction, forward, backward, or
sideways. These wheels are made with an elongating and shortening nave, and
with expanding and contracting felloes, for increasing or diminishing the
width at the periphery; they are also furnished with drop pins or anchors
which are placed within the circumference, at the sides of or between the
expanding felloes, and are centred so that they enter and leave the soil in a
vertical line, or nearly so, as the wheel advances. The object of the expanding
felloes and drop anchors is to increase the hold or purchase of the wheels upon

page_text: the ground, and increase the locomotive power of the frame; these wheels are
connected with and driven by the engine, which is mounted upon the propeller
frame.
The enginewhich gives motion to the whole apparatus is is capable of being
detached from the propeller frame and used independently when required,
consists of a boiler for generating steam, with internal and external chambers
for the more perfect application of the products of combustion and increasing
the expansive force of the generated steam; a furnace and blower for increasing
the draught for the consumption of refuse fuel; and arising and falling chimney,
over which a cap is suspended to assist the escape of waste heat, steam, &c.
The cylinders may be of the usual construction, but in lieu of the ordinary
crank disk wheels with radial, corrugated, or other irregular surfaced grooves
at the periphery are keyed on to the driving shaft; these wheels receive their
motion from the pistons, and transmit it as required by means of suitable
cables, ropes, or chains, to similarly grooved wheels or segments throughout
the whole apparatus. These radial corrugations or other irregularly formed
grooves are made in one or both cheeks of the groove integrally with or
in segments, and fitted to the wheels so as to cause the cable or chain, &c. to
be bent in a serpentine or any other crooked line, and may be of similar or
dissimilar material or materials; the cheeks of the groove may incline towards
each other, or be made parrallel. The carrier frame is also mounted upon
wheels which may be either of the ordinary construction or similar to those
described for the propeller frame; this carrier frame consists of two side frame
pieces with cross frame pieces at the hind part where the compound ploughs,
harrows, &c., drills, or reaping machines (as the case may require) are
attached; the space in the front of the implements in the fore part of and
between the side frames being left open in order that they may pass along
outside the propeller frame, and thus admit of the ploughs, &c., or reapers
operating close up to the tail of the propeller frame; the wheels of the carrier
frame are placed at the sides of the open frames, where they are mounted
in rising or falling bearings also adjustible to any required angle with the
frame; by means of these rising and falling bearings, these side frames can be
used as levers for raising the whole of the ploughs, &c., or reapers clear of the
ground when turning at the headlands or where else required, the hind wheels
acting as a fulcrum. In addition to these wheels, however, a drop fulcrum is
provided to let down between the side frames to answer the purpose of a
second fulcrum for raising thewhole of the hind frame, ploughs,&c., and hind
wheels together clear of the ground. The hind wheels are also formed &
provided with grooves, cables, &c., similar to those before described, and thus

page_text: give motion to the moveable parts of the ploughs, harrows, and drills, as well
as to the reaping and mowing machine by means of similarwheels therein with
corrugated grooves or levers, or 'cones, or any other means of diverting the
line of draught.
When the ploughs and reapers are detached the carrier frame can be
converted into a waggon, and may be propelled in this or in either of the
other forms above described by animal or other power.
The propeller frame, when the machines for thrashing, &c., are removed,is
also adapted for a similar purpose, either with the engine or with its removal,
also by animal or other power.
The ploughs, harrows, and drills used in this apparatus are mounted in
frames and in sets of two or more. The whole of the ploughs and drills are
capable of being adjusted to any height or width apart required, either
seperately or simultaneously by suitable mechanism.
The ploughs are placed abreast of each other so as to enter and leave the.
soil even with each other or in advance of each other if required, and consist
of a stem which carries the coulters, and to which the share and fore part of
the breast are attached, so as to rise and fall therewith. The breasts consist
of a spiral plate similar to the ordinary plough breast, but of greater length,
and extending backwards until the spiral plate has attained a horizontal line,
where it is attached to a tail bar, and by which bar or beam the share
and breast are driven. By this form of breast plate the soil or flag is
turned completely over and each flag laid level, edge to edge. Between the
shares and tail ends of the breast plates eccentric wheels or rising and falling
presses are fitted, so as to push the manure, weeds, &c., into the bottom of
the furrow; the tail ends of the breasts are also adjustible upon the tail bar
vertically and laterally.
The harrows, which are placed between the ploughs and drills and also at
the back of the latter, are framed and geared to the carrier frame, and have
a rising and falling motion to clear themselves, and also a zig-zag motion
through the soil. These motions are communicated to the harrows by wheels
and segments, and cables, cords, or chains, as before described, or by other
suitable mechanism in combination therewith.
The drills are also geared to the carrier frame, and consist of stems and
coulters with openings at the backs, inclined at an angle of about 60° with
the horizon; they differ from ordinary drills by entirely dispensing with the
complicated telescopic or flexible tubes, but are furnished with revolving
cupped wheels, which feed themselves from one or more troughs, and drop
the seed as close to the bottom of the drill in the ground as practice will

page_text: admit, the seed passing directly from the cup down the incline plane at
the back of the coulter. The whole of the drills can be lifted simul-
taneously or seperately, and adjusted to any width apart required, and
have each a rising and falling motion, so as to adapt them to any
inequalities in the surface of the soil.
The reaping and mowing machine, which is framed and fitted and geared
to the carrier frame (the compound ploughs having been removed for that
purpose), consist of a circular, or segmental, or angular cutter, blade, or
blades mounted in a suitable frame, and having a rotary, curvilinear, or
reciprocatory motion, and driven by wheels and cables or chains, as before
described, or otherwise. In front of the reapers, and driven by similar
means, bending and clearing bales and cradles are fixed; these and the other
machines can be mounted upon their own wheels, and be driven by animal
or other power if required.
The thrashing and dressing & other machinery comprised in this apparatus
are fitted and geared to the propeller frame, to the parts of which the respective
parts of the entire machinery are adapted, so as to be driven by the engine,
but are also adapted so as to be driven by other power should it be required.
The thrashing machine consist of one or more rotary beaters madein the form
of a frustrum of a cone. The straws, &c., after passing the beaters is received
by double-action shakers, which dispense with the ordinary long shakers, and
deliver the straw at either side of the frame as required. The riddlers which
receive the corn, &c., from the beaters are also of the form of the frustrum
of a cone, or cylindrical, and have a semi-rotary motion (these, however,
may be made flat, and as well as the the beaters have the ordinary forms
and motions where economy of space is not material). The corn, &c., thence
passes a set of blowers and falls rough dressed into the receivers, from
which it is elevated and further dressed by passing through incline, spiral,
or plain cylinders, through which it is carried by endless chains passing
over a corrugated grooved wheel at top and bottom; at the top of these
cylinders the corn is again made to pass a small blower, and thence falls
clean dressed into the discharging hoppers.
The machines for pulping, crushing, and grinding are of the usual form,
except that they are brought into a smaller space by the application of the
improved driving wheels, chains, &c. When the grooved wheels above
described are used as bearing and driving wheels, which they are intended for,
in order to facilitate the power of ascending and descending inclines, pro-
pelling, or raising, or lowering the apparatus or the parts thereof, they are
furnished with lever-roller breaks which act upon the periphery by levers,

page_text: springs, or screws. These rollers are placed at opposite sides of the axles in
order to relieve the strain upon the bearings when retarding the motion of
the wheel, are coupled together by jointed levers and straps which pags from
roller to roller and multiply the grip, the whole being tightened at one
operation when the lever or screw is applied, which can. be done gradually
and to any extent required, while the wheels are still allowed to rotate and
the engine power to be applied so as to still further retard locomotion by
reversing the direction of the rotations of one or more of the wheels. When
the pressure is withdrawn, the break rollers instantly clear the wheel, and
leave it free to rotate by the action of springs or otherwise; and when
required these rollers may be made so as to partially rotate only upon
eccentric axis, and thus become a rolling wedge. By the rotation of the
rollers upon their central axes, however, the wheels are not subjected to a
sudden positive lock, but can be subjected to any amount of retarding forces
regulated by an index plate, by which the breaking power may be always
known, so as to prevent the application of a breaking strain upon any part
of the mechanism, chains, or cables.
The radial, corrugated, or otherwise uneven grooved wheels by obtaining
a grip or bite upon the chain or cable, by receiving it in a serpentine or other
uneven line, admit of the adoption of a peculiar arrangement of driving
machinery, and the groove thus formed, while it admits the cable, chain, or
rope to pass on and off with the same facility as over a common pulley, at
the same time that it prevents it from slipping by the bending principle, it
also thereby allows it to run slack or to slip to any amount required, and also
admits of any number of wheels being driven by one and the same driving
wheel and chain or cable in the same vertical plane and in a straight, curved,
or angular line or position.
The corrugated, waved, or otherwise uneven surfaced grooves of these
driving wheels when made in segments can be fitted to any existing wheels
or mechanism of suitable form and these wheels and cables, chains, and
breaks, as herein described, we conceive to be applicable to the general
purposes of transmitting power, multiplying or reducing rotary or other
motion, or increasing or retarding the same.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Charles Johnson and George Johnson in the Great Seal
Patent Office on the 11th August 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
JOHNSON, of Dickleborough, in the County of Norfolk, and GEORGE JOHNSON,
of Wandsworth, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eleventh day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight, in the twenty-first year of
Her reign, did, for 1erself, 11er heirs and successors, give and grant unto us,
the said Charles Johnson and George Johnson, Her special licence that we,
the said Charles Johnson and George Johnson, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Charles Johnson and George
Johnson, our 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 "IMPROVED MACHINERY OR
APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING DIFFERENT OPERATIONS REQUIRED IN AGRICULTURE,"
upon the condition, (amongst others) that we, the said Charles Johnson and
George Johnson, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our, or their, or one of their lands 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Charles Johnson and George Johnson,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement and description thereof, and in and by the several
Drawings accompanying this Specification, together with the explanation
referring to the said Drawings herein contained, that is to say :-
Our Invention relates to agriculture, and consists of an apparatus and
machinery for performing different operations required therein. The apparatus
is locomotive, and comprises an engine, propeller and carrier frames, machinery
and implements for reaping or mowing, thrashing and dressing, ploughing,
drilling, and harrowing. The engine and reaping and thrashing machinery
are fitted to the propeller frame; the ploughing, drilling, and harrowing im-

page_text: plements are fitted to the carrier frame. The propeller and carrier frames are
both mounted upon wheels, and are capable of being actuated simultaneously,
alternately, or separately. In light land the entire apparatus is intended to
be propelled simultaneously. In heavy land the engine and propeller frame is
intended to advance separately, in which case the carrier frame with the
implements fitted thereto, is drawn forward by a connecting cable or chain,
which is payed out by the propeller frame as it advances, and is hauled when
it becomes stationry, so that while the engine is driving the propeller frame
the carrier frame is at rest, and while the latter is advancing the engine is
fixed. The engine, machinery, and implements are so formed and fitted that
they can be readily detached from the frames, and when so detached are
capable of being worked separately. The implements can then, if required,
be worked by animal or other power. In the Drawings accompanying this
Specification the engine is shewn as fitted to the propeller frame, but when
required it may be mounted upon its own wheels, and may then be made to
propel, haul, or draw the frames, machinery, or implements together or
separately by moving along at the side, in the rear, or in advance of the
frames as the nature of the operation or operations may require for the con-
venience of transport from farm to farm, or from place to place, along turnpike
or other roads. The entire apparatus is so arranged as to be capable of being
mounted upon the propeller frame. The engine consists of a boiler for
generating steam, and duplicate cylinders, slides, cranks, and fly wheels, so
arranged that one or both may be in action as may be required. The frames
are mounted upon wheels having each separate axles; those upon which the
propeller frame is mounted have axles working in double bearings. One of
these bearings is moveable upon its own centre, and the other and the other
round a curve described by the axle; upon such centre the wheels are keyed
on to the axles and rotate therewith. The whole of the axles are connected by
forked limbs or levers, coupled in the centre and worked by a screw passing
thro' each lever, and thus setting the wheels at an angle with each other at
one operation for turning or shunting at the headlands or where else required;
these wheels are fitted with drop anchors for increasing their hold when
stationry, and are made with expanding and contracting naves and felloes,
are grooved at the periphery with a corrugated groove, and are fitted with a
break in which a number of rollers are made to impinge upon the tire or rim
by means of a screw or lever. The mechanism by which the motion is trans-
mitted from the engine to the implements consists of corrugated grooved
wheels and chaius or cables. The reaping machine consists of a revolving or
semi rotary plate aud cutters, fitted with revolving rake drums, both moving

page_text: i
upon a vertical axis upon the same centres, but in oposite directions and at
unequal velocities; the drum rakes move to the left and right inwards to the
centre line of the machine longitudinally, the revolving cutters both ways
outward from the said centre line. The drums and cutters are actuated by
corrugated grooved wheels and cables or chains adapted thereto. The cutting
blades have a peculiarly formed edge which prevent the stalk from riding by
its S-like form. These cutters when driven in a reciprocatory curved line are
made double-edged, or they may be made to cut in one direction only, and
with an advancing and receeding curved line motion laterally, similar to
that of a common scythe in mowing, by being attached to a plate moving
upon an eccentric axis.
The thrashing machine of this apparatus is fitted immediately in the
rear of the reapers, and is supplied thereby'; it consists of the ordinary beaters
revolving horizontally, but is fitted with improved screens, trays, and driving
gear, and delivers the straw at either side of the frame as required by screw
vanes, and thus dispenses with beaters. The screens and trays are inclined
towards each other at the bottom like the two limbs of a V; the screen which
receives the straw, &c., after it has passed the beaters is made with an
adjusting grating, which can be opened and closed as required. The drums
and cables for driving or hauling the carrier frames are capable of being
fitted either to the engine or frame. The carrier frame may be single
or in duplicate; when single they are made open in the front, and so much
wider than the propeller frame as will admit of the fore wheels and fore part
passing along outside of the propeller frame, in which case the ploughs are
brought up close to the tail of the latter. The ploughs of this apparatus are
fitted even with each other in the same square line traversely, and not
diagonally as is usual in ordinary framed ploughs. The object of this arrange-
ment is to effect an improvement in the operation of ploughing by not leaving
the angles at the headlands unturned. The plough breasts are made of
sufficient length to continue the spiral surface until it becomes horizontal at
the tail, and thus turn the flag completely over and lay the flags edge to edge
flush without lap; these breasts are fitted with a share and coulter at the head
and to a horizontal bar at the tail, by which the breasts are both supported,
kept in gauge, and driven. They are fitted to a frame with longitudinal
horizontal bars which radiate upon cross bars, by which these breasts can be
adjusted to the required gauge at the share or head, and between which vertical
stems are supported and are also adjustable to any height; the breasts arealso
moveable upon the tail bar for admitting a corresponding adjustment there.
The harrows and drills of this apparatus are placed immediately in the rear_

page_text: wheels.
of the ploughs, and each made to rotate by the motion of the carrier frame
The drills will be found particularly described in the Provisional
Specification. The harrows consist of a shaft or barrel with projecting teeth
and studs driven by a pulley at the end. One of these harrows is fitted in
front of the drills, and one in the rear in the same frame. The hinder or
dressing harrow is driven by chains which we denominate mould chains, and
which pass round both barrels, and between the coulters of the drills, mould
dressing the surface, and clearing the drill coulters at the same time. The
frame is mounted upon wheels with moveable axles similar to those described
in the propeller frame, having also a vertical motion to admit of the end of
the frame being elevated, and depressed when turning at the headlands,
&c.; the harrow and drill frame is lifted bodily by a lever in the carrier
frame, and the ploughs with the frame itself by a drop lever as described
in the Provisional Specification. When the ploughs are used for paring,
they are fitted with small revolving harrows, and rising and falling pressers
for throwing up the weeds and pressing them into the bottom. These
presses have a rolling as well as a lifting and falling motion.
EXPLANATION OF THE DRAWINGS.
The Drawings accompanying this Specification are laid down to a geome-
trical scale of an inch to a foot, and shew the general arrangement of the
parts of the apparatus, engine, frames, machinery and implements.
Fig. 1 is an elevation of the engine, propeller frame, reapers, thrashing
and dressing machine, bearing wheels and break driving wheels, pullies
and cables, by which the same are propelled and regulated.
Fig. 2 is an elevation of the carrier frame, ploughs, harrows and drills
attached to the propeller framé by the hauling cable.
Fig. 3 is a general plan of the engine, propeller frame, reapers, &c., as
shewn in elevation at Fig. 1.
Fig. 4 is also a general plan of the carrier frame, ploughs, harrows, drills,
&c., as shewn in elevation at Fig. 2.
For convenience of reference the saine parts of the apparatus which are
shewn both in plan and elevation are indicated by corresponding letters in
the respective Figs.
Having thus described and ascertained the nature of our said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed and illustrated, the form
and construction of the improved machinery and implements of which our
said apparatus consists, to the best of our ability, we have to observe that we
do not confine ourselves to the precise arrangement of parts thereof shewn

page_text: upon the Drawings, nor to the actual form and dimensions thereby illus-
trated, as these may be varied; we therefore include as our Invention all such
modifications in arrangement and dimensions as the said apparatus admits, so
long as the principle of our said Invention is the same or identical therewith.
We have also to observe that we do not confine ourselves to the exclusive appli.
cation of the said machinery and implements to our said apparatus, as it is
obvious that the same may be applied to improve both machinery and imple-
ments as at present in use for similar agricultural operations, and may
also be applied to improve the working or manufacture of engines, apparatus,
and machinery of a locomotive or stationary character. We therefore claim
all such applications of our said improvements thereto as may be legal under
Letters Patents as aforesaid.
In witness whereof, we, the said Charles Johnson and George Johnson,
have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Eleventh day of
August, A.D. 1858.
CHARLES (L.S.) JOHNSON.
GEORGE (L.s.) JOHNSON.
CHARLES (L.S.) JOHNSON.
GEORGE (L.s.) JOHNSON.