IM- PROVEMENTS IN MOWING MACHINES
Year: 1859

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by James Shanks at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th January
1859.
I, JAMES SHANKS, of Arbroath, in the County of Forfar, North Britain,
Machinist, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IM-
PROVEMENTS IN MOWING MACHINES," to be as follows, that is to say:
This Invention relates more especially to that class of machines used' for
mowing or cutting short grass and vegetables or plants, commonly known as
"lawn-mowing machines," and it compreheuds three several heads of improve-
ment. Under the first head, the arrangements are that the two driving
rollers are loose on the shaft, and on the centre or nave of each roller is cast
or fixed a clutch or engager, which works into a clutch on the shaft on which
the two rollers revolve. These clutches are loose, and are prevented from
turning round by means of a sunk key in each, between each clutch and in
the centre is placed a spiral spring, composed of iron or steel wire, which is
meant to keep the clutches always in gear, and at the same time to allow the
machine to turn easily in consequence of the rollers being loose. This spiral
spring may be placed at each end of the shaft instead of the centre, as may
be required; the spring may also be made spirally or otherwise. The spiral
spring answers in place of levers, and it is this spring which is the important
feature of this part of the Invention.
Under the second head the gear for shifting the machine to the required

page_text: cut, consists of a bracket fitted to each side of the machine, a little in front of
the cutter. A socket is cast on the bracket in each case, into which a spindle
is fitted, having a forked end to contain a small pulley. It is on these pulleys
that the fore part of the machine rests. A toothed rack is fixed or cast on
the bracket, into which a pinion is made to work. There is a pinion on each
end of a shaft stretching across the machine, on one end of which is placed a
handle, so that by turning the shaft by the handle, the bracket is made to
move upwards or downwards as may be required in order to get the required
length of cut. The mode of raising both brackets at one time (in order to
insure perfect uniformity in the length of the cut) by means of the shaft with
a pinion in each end to work into the toothed rack fixed or cast on the bracket
is the important feature in this arrangement. In the ordinary mowers the
method of emptying the grass box is defective, in so far as it is necessary to
stop the machine from working, and empty the box by means of the hand or
by two false ends placed in the box. This imperfection is remedied by the
present Invention, which consists under the third head of an apparatus,
which will empty the box without the necessity of stopping the machine, or
leaving the handles for this purpose. The apparatus consists of a rod or lever
which is made to turn backwards or forwards on a pivot or other joint fixed
on the back rail or other part of the machine. One end of the rod is fixed
by means of two or more joints or otherwise to a false end in the grass box
of the machine; the other end is lengthened till it reaches the stilts or shafts
of the machine, and this end is made into a handle for the man working the
machine to take hold of, so that by a simple throw of the handle from one side
to the other, the grass is thrown out of the box by means of the travelling
end.