IMPROVEMENTS IN IMPLEMENTS FOR PLANTING POTATOES.
Year: 1873

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Dewar, of Kellas, in the County of
Forfar, North Britain, Agricultural Implement Maker, for the
Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN IMPLEMENTS FOR PLANTING POTATOES.
Scaled the 17th October 1873, and dated the 21st April 1873.

page_text: The implement is mounted on a pair of wheels which run in two
furrows and have one furrow between them. The potatoes are carried
in a kind of semi-cylindrical hopper formed with a double incline in the
middle to cause the potatoes to fall down towards the two sides. The
potatoes are lifted by two revolving discs fixed on a transverse horizontal
shaft geared by a pair of toothed wheels to one of the carrying wheels so as
to turn in the opposite direction to the carrying wheels. The discs revolve
in contact or nearly so with the edge of the hopper so as to close its sides,
and they are fitted with a series of spring grippers which may consist.
simply of stout wires or metal strips fixed to the outsides of the discs
and bent so that their free ends enter holes in the discs. The end of each
gripper that projects through to the inner side of the disc is slightly
bent, so as to hold a single potato or piece, and yet let it go easily at
the proper time. Fixed to the framing of the implement there are
outside of each disc two curved guides, one situated at the bottom of
the hopper, and the other at the back near the level of the shaft. As
each disc in turning carries the grippers down amongst the potatoes
the bottom curved guides cause the grippers to be pressed inwards, and
on the guides being passed by each gripper its spring action causes it to
hold a potatoe or piece against the disc. Then on reaching the back
guides the grippers are again pressed inwards, being thereby made to
release their potatoes, which fall down guide spouts into their proper
places in the furrows.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Dewar in the Great Seal Patent Office 2
on the 21st October 1873.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
DEWAR, of Kellas, in the County of Forfar, North Britain, Agricultural
Implement Maker, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters a
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three, in the thirty-sixth year
of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant |
unto me, the said William Dewar, Her special licence that I, the said
William Dewar, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such

page_text: are attached to a rectangular horizontal frame consisting of trans-
verse bars 3 and side bars 4. The wheels 1 which are set on short
axles or journals 5, fixed to the side frame bars 4, are spaced to run in
the two outermost of three furrows, the horse walking along the middle
furrow. The potatoes are carried in a kind of semi-cylindrical hopper 6 |
fixed at its front and back to the transverse frame bars 3, and formed
or fitted with a double incline 7 in the middle, to cause the potatoes to
fall down towards the two sides, where grooves or channels 8 are formed
extending round and upwards towards the front. The potatoes are lifted
by two revolving discs 9 fixed on a transverse horizontal shaft 10, geared:
by two toothed wheels 11, 12, to one of the carrying wheels 1, so as to
turn in the opposite direction to the carrying wheels. The discs 9
revolve in contact or nearly so with the lateral edges of the hopper 6, so
as to close its sides, and they are fitted with a series of spring grippers 13
which may consist simply of stout wires or metal strips fixed to the
outsides of the disos 9, and bent so that their free ends enter holes in the
discs. The end of each gripper that projects through to the inner side
of the disc is bent so as to hold a single potatoe or piece, and yet let it
go easily at the proper time. Fixed to the frame bars 4 there are
outside of each disc 9 two curved cam guides 14, 15; one 14 placed
level with the bottom of the hopper 6, and the other 15 at the back
and a little above the frame bar 14. As each disc in turning carries
the spring grippers 13 down amongst the potatoes the bottom curved
guides 14 cause the grippers to be pressed inwards, and on the guides 14
being passed by each its spring action causes it to hold a potato
or piece against the disc 9. Then on reaching the back guides 15 the
grippers 13 are each in succession again pressed inwards, and are theroby
made to release their potatoes or pieces which fall down guide spouts 10
into their proper places in the furrows.
.
Having thus particularly described my said Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, I have to state that I do not restrict myself to
the precise details herein described or delineated, but that what I believe
to be novel and original, and claim as the Invention secured to me by
the herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is,―
1. The combining together of the parts of apparatus to form an
implement for planting potatoes, substantially in the improved manner
herein described and delineated.

page_text: ww
J
guides to take hold of and release the potatoes at proper periods, sub-
stantially as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Dewar, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of October, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-three.
Witness,
EDMUND HUNT,
Patent Agent,
Glasgow.
WILLIAM DEWAR. (L.S.)