A DRILL MACHINE FOR SOWING CORN, PULSE, AND SEEDS
Year: 1790

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, CHRISTOPHER
PERKINS, of Stockton, in the County of Durham, Gentleman, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third, by His
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at West-
minster, the Nineteenth day of August, in the thirtieth year of His reign,
did give and grant unto me, the said Christopher Perkins, His especial
licence, that I, the said Christopher Perkins, during the term of years therein.
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England and Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention
of "A DRILL MACHINE FOR SOWING CORN, PULSE, AND SEEDS;" in which said
Letters Patent is contained a proviso obliging me, the said Christopher
Perkins, under my hand and seal, to cause a particular description of the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be used and
performed, to be inrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery, as, by
reference thereunto had, may more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Christopher Perkins, do hereby declare that my said Invention is contained
in the Plan hereunto annexed, and the following description thereof (viz') :-
Figure 1st, a section of the machine taken at the centre, in a direct line
from front to back. By this section the business of the machine is so clearly
seen at one view, that but a little explanation is requisite to make it perfectly
understood. A, the ground wheel, of two feet diameter, which, when the
machine is drawn along, sets the whole in motion by means of the notched.
wheels B, B, B, B, the highest of which incircles the receiver C; three or

page_text: more of which receivers are attached to each machine, and these are properly
indented so as to receive pulse, grain, and seeds in suitablo quantities, and
of every denomination. These receivers are three inches in diameter, extend-
ing from side to side of the machine, and entirely suspended on their own
.centers, being totally unconnected with any other thing, save the notched
wheel named above, and which notched wheel is capable of being removed
from one receiver to another; and the receivers also are removed at pleasure
by means of the thumb screw a..
Figure 2d. D, the seed in bulk. E, the conductor of the sced to the
coulter F. These coulters are made of malleable iron, and form a hollow
square as far as the projection towards the bottom, where they are open
at the back. These coulters are fixed' by means of the screw and nut H,
and further secured near the top at I, K, the slide or stop, one of which to
each box, in all five. These slides are to prevent the sowing of one or more
drills where the ground may have been already sown, and by means of which
each box is stopped and opened again at pleasure, without affecting in any
shape.the progress of the machine. L, the front rail, to which the box contain-
ing the seed is hung, see the hinges b, b, Figure 2d. To this rail is also fixed
the support M, which prevents the box, when turned over, from resting upon
the moving wheel N, the middle rail to which the upper part of the coulters.
are fixed, and to which the iron-bracket. O is also at one end applied. P, the
front rail, Q, the back rail; to this rail the coulters are principally secured;
by means of a screw and nut to each, as named above. To this and the front,
rail is also fixed a lock to the wheel, see C, Figuro 2d.
vent the seed being wasted on the headlands in the act of turning the
machine, and the wheel is locked and unlocked by a touch of the handle R,
either with the hand or foot, S, the iron crank to which the two small
notched wheels of communication are applied; this crank. is fixed securely to
the top rail, and still more so to the front and back rail, going through cach,
and secured by a nut and screw at the back of the latter, and by this means
the two rails are bound together, which, with the iron bracket applied to the
front and middle rails, makes the machine perfectly strong.
This lock is to pre-
The axis d, Figure 2 d, is a fast one, and secured to each end by a screw bolt
and nut; but previous to the axis being fixed, two iron bolts, made with cir
cular eyes for that purpose, are put on to the axis, one at each end, and to those
bolts are applied the shafts, which are fastened to the bolts by means of screw
nuts, and being so applied, the draught on no ground or situation can possibly
have any tendency to raise to depress the coulters. e, Figure 2nd, the box
containing the seed; this box is hung on slip hinges, so as to be taken off at

page_text: pleasure, and by means of the iron plate f, one of which is applied to each
end of the box, and unbrace the screw g, which being thrown up secures
the box at any required distance from the receiver, this distance to be regu-
lated by the size of the seed in use, and just so high that such secd shall not
pass but when taken into the indented parts made in the receiver for that
purpose. h, a spring which prevents the thumb screw, when in its proper
station, from taking a retrograde motion. This machine is capable of sowing at
different distances with two, three, four, and five coulters, and its having but one
wheel to move upon, gives it a superiority over every other drill machine having
more wheels, for in no possible situation in which this machine can be placed
will the coulters be affected or lifted out of the ground thereby, for if the
wheel be elevated by a clod or a stone, or sunk deep in a furrow, still the
coulters are not affected thereby, nor is the seed less regularly shown, be the
land rough or smooth, hilly or level.
In witness whereof, I, the said Christopher Perkins, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of December, in the year of
our Lord One thousand soron hundred and ninety