IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS 66 FOR PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATING LAND
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Mackinder, of Mere Hall, Branston,.
and George Johnson, of Cannick Road, Lincoln, both in the
County of Lincoln, for the Invention of IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
66
FOR PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATING LAND.”
Scaled the 22nd August 1871, and dated the 28th June 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Mackinder
and George Johnson at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 28th June 1871.
WC, WILLIAM MACKINDER, of Mere Hall, Branston, and GEORGE
JOHNSON, of Cannick Road, Lincoln, both in the County of Lincoln,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR PLOUGHING AND CULTIVATING LAND," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for
ploughing and cultivating land, and the improvements relate more
especially to ploughing and cultivating apparatus to be drawn over the
land by a traction or travelling engine. In order that when the
implement has been drawn up to a headland that the ploughs or other
cultivating implements may be lifted out of the land to enable the
implement to turn with the engine which is drawing it, the implement

page_text: is supported on wheels, and is connected to the back end of the engine
in the following manner-From a pin approximately at the centre of
the implement a chain is led to the centre of a draw fixed across the
back. end of the engine, and by this chain the implement is drawn over
the land. At the forward end of the implement a screw is mounted
transversely across it. On this screw is a nut which engages into the
top and bottom portions of the screw thread. This nut forms part of
the chain by which the implement is drawn forward. By this arrange-
ment the implement can, by turning the screw, be caused to incline in
either direction from the line of draught, and the implement can thus
be stecred. In order that the steering gear may be worked from the
rear end of the implement a bevil wheel is fixed upon the screw, into
which gears another bevil wheel on an axis leading back along the
implement, and at the rear end of the axis is a hand wheel, by which
it can be turned by the ploughman who is seated on a seat near the back
end of the implement. In order to lift the ploughs out of the land
when the implement arrives at a headland, each end of the draw bar
at the back of the engine has affixed to it a chain, and these chains
at their other ends are connected to lever arms on an axis placed
transversely across the fore part of the implement. When the engine
is travelling, in a straight line, and the implement is being drawn after
it, both these chains are somewhat slack, but so soon as the engine
commences to turn at a headland, one or other of the chains becomes
taut and turns the axis before mentioned, and the turning of this axis
is arranged to depress a wheel or wheels at the fore part of the
implement, and so lift the ploughs out of the ground. The turning
of the axis is by preference caused to depress a pair of wheels, one on
the land side, and the other on the furrow side, and running in the last
furrow previously cut. The wheel on the land side is carried by an arm
on the axis, whilst the furrow wheel is by preference carried on a stem,
which when the axis is turned is depressed by an arm on the axis acting
upon it. When the ploughs have been raised out of the land they are
held out by a long lever arm, on the axis being sprung under a catch
at the back of the implement. When the engine and implement have
been turned round, the ploughs are again allowed to enter the ground
by releasing the lever from under the catch, so that when the implement
is again drawn forward the axis is free to turn back to its original
position until it is arrested by a stop. For this stop we prefer to employ
a chain connecting the lever arm with the frame of the implement. By

page_text: altering the length of the chain or the point at which it is connected
to the implement, the depth to which the ploughs are allowed to enter
the land can be regulated, the rear end of the frame of the implement
is supported on a depressible wheel on the land side of the plough, and
there is also a wheel running in the furrow in rear of the last plough;
this wheel serves to support the rear end of the implement when it is
being turned at a headland. The ploughs are carried by diagonal beams
of the frame, and are attached to them in such a manner that the
ploughs can be set nearer to or further from one another, according
to the width of furrow desired.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said William Mackinder and George Johnson in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th December 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, WILLIAM
MACKINDER, of Mere Hall, Branston, and GEORGE JOHNSON, of Cannick
Road, Lincoln, both in the County of Lincoln, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the thirty-
fifth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto us, the said William Mackinder and George
Johnson, Her special license that we, the said William Mackinder
and George Johnson, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
others as we, the said William Mackinder and George Johnson, our
exccutors, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS FOR PLOUGHING And Cultivating Land," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said William Mackinder and George
Johnson, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing
under our or their hands and scals, or under the hand and seal of one
of us or them, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of
the said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed,

page_text: 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.
NCW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Mackinder, on behalf
of myself and the said George Johnson, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed,
to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, that is to say :-
According to our Invention we construct ploughing and cultivating
apparatus which is to be drawn over the land by a travelling or traction
engine in such a way that when the implement has been drawn by the
engine up to a headland (or end of a field) that the act of turning the
engine at the headland shall cause the ploughs or cultivators to be lifted
out of the land so that the plough can readily be turned with the
engine. For this purpose we construct the plough and connect it to
the back of the engine in the manner shewn on the Sheet of Drawing
hercunto annexed.
Figure 1 shows a side view, and Figure 2, a plan view of the plough,
and also of a draw bar fixed at the back end of a traction engine, and
to which the plough is coupled up by chains herein-after described.
In these Figures A, A, are the ploughs fixed to the framework B,
which is shewn to be of iron. The front end of the plough is supported
by a wheel C on the land side, and by a wheel D on the furrow side.
The axis of the wheel D is carried by a fork on the lower end of a
vertical stem E, which can rise and fall through a suitable guide fixed
on the framework. The axis of the wheel C is carried by a forked
arm F on axis G, which passes across the framework and is carried in
bearings fixed to it. On the axis G are two arms H; each of these
arms is connected by a chain I with the draw bar K, which is fixed at
the back end of the traction or travelling engine; a chain L is also
passed from the centre of the draw bar K to a point approximately at
the centre of the plough, and by this chain the plough is drawn over the
land. When the engine and plough are travelling over the land in a
straight line, or nearly so, the chains I, I, are somewhat slack, but
when the engine is turned at a headland, one or other of the chains I
becomes taut, and the axis G is thereby caused to turn, and the turning
of the axis lowers the wheel C, and also lowers the wheel D by reason
of an arm G¹ on the axis then pressing down on to the top of the vertical

page_text: W. MACKINDER. (L.S.)