In- PROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL APPARATUS FOR SOWING SEEDS AND DEPOSITING MARTIER
Year: 1855

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Robert Murdoch, of Cran Hill, Glasgow, in the
County of Lanark, North Britain, Surveyor, for the Invention of "In-
PROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL APPARATUS FOR SOWING SEEDS AND DEPOSITING
MARTIER"
Sealed the 6th May 1856, and dated the 13th November 1855.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Murdoch at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th
November 1855.
I, ROBERT MURDOCH, of Cran Hill, Glasgow, in the County of Lanark,
North Britain, Surveyor, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL APPARATUS FOR SOWING SEEDS AND DEPOSITING
MANURE" to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to improvements in machinery or apparatus to be
employed in sowing turnip, clover, cereal, and other seeds, whereby the con-
struction of the apparatus is greatly simplified, and an increased regularity and
certainty of action is secured. The main feature of the improvements is the
use of glass chambers or vessels for containing the seed to be sown or the
manure to be deposited, so that the operator can watch the action of the appa-
ratus; that is to say, so that he can see whether the seed or manure is being

page_text: deposited in a regular and uniform manner, and at once make any adjustment
or rectification if required, and so that he can see when the seed is exhausted,
and at once add a fresh supply. This improvement is applicable to all kinds
of sowing machines at present in use, and may be carried out by making
the seed or manure containing vessel either wholly or partially of glass.
According to one modification of the improved sowing apparatus, and one
which is suitable for sowing turnips, the seed container is an oblong, cylindrical,
or globular vessel of glass, by preference of the description known as "crystal,"
which is mounted on a horizontal spindle, and is made to rotate as the
apparatus proceeds. This glass vessel has holes drilled through it at equal
distances round its circumference at or near its longitudinal centre. The seed
is introduced at an opening formed in the vessel at any convenient part
and closed in any convenient manner during the action of the machine, and
it issues through the circumferential perforations as the vessel rotates. The
seed thence passes down guide tubes which deposit it in the earth, and which
may either be of the ordinary kind, or they may be made wholly or partially
of glass.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Robert Murdoch in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
13th May 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ROBERT
MURDOCH, of Cran Hill, Glasgow, in the County of Lanark, North Britain,
Surveyor, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirteenth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-five, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Robert Murdoch, Her special license that I, the said Robert Murdoch,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Robert
Murdoch, my executors, administrators, or 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 AGRICULTURAL
APPARATUS FOR SOWING SEEDS AND DEPOSITING MANURE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Robert Murdoch, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain

page_text: 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 I, the said Robert Murdoch, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say :-
My said Invention relates to improvements in machinery or apparatus to be
employed in sowing turnip, clover, cereal, and other seeds, and in depositing
manure, whereby the construction of the apparatus is greatly simplified, and
an increased regularity and certainty of action is secured. The main feature
of the improvements is the use of glass chambers or vessels for containing the
seed to be sown or the manure to be deposited, so that the operator can watch
the action of the apparatus; that is to say, so that he can see whether the
seed or manure is being deposited in a regular and uniform manner, and at
once make any adjustment or rectification if required, and so that he can see
when the seed is exhausted, and at once add a fresh supply. This improvement
is applicable to all kinds of sowing machines at present in use, and may be
carried out by making the seed or manure containing vessel
partially of glass.
either wholly or
According to one modification of the improved sowing apparatus, and
one which is suitable for sowing turnips, the seed container is an oblong,
cylindrical, or globular vessel of glass, by preference of the description
known as "crystal," which is mounted on a horizontal spindle, and is
made to rotate as the apparatus proceeds. This glass vessel has holes drilled
through it at equal distances round its circumference at or near its longitudinal
centre. The seed is introduced at an opening formed in the vessel at any
convenient part, and closed in any convenient manner during the action of the
machine, and it issues through the circumferential perforations as the vessel
rotates. The seed thence passes down guide tubes, which deposit it in the
earth, and which may either be of the ordinary kind, or they may be made
wholly or partially of glass.
And in order that my said Invention may be properly understood, I have
hereunto appended, and shall now proceed to describe, a Sheet of explanatory
Drawings, showing the application of my improvements to a machine for
Sowing turnip seed.
Figure 1 on the Sheet of Drawings is a side elevation, and Figure 2 is a

page_text: back end elevation, of a turnip sower with my improvements applied thereto.
Figure 3 is a plan, corresponding to Figures 1 and 2; and Figure 4 is an
enlarged vertical section of one of the seed vessels with its depositing details.
I may here remark that the framing and general details of the sowing
apparatus to which my improvements may be applied may be constructed
according to any of the systems hitherto in use, and I have not selected the
one represented in my Drawings as that to which my Invention is, exclusively
applicable, but merely to show its actual application in practice. In the
sowing machine represented in the Drawings, the actual seed-sowing details
are preceded by a pair of rollers A, upon the spindles of which rests the frame
B. baving fixed to it the shafts C for the attachment of the horse, by which
the machine is drawn over the ground. The rollers A are of a curved shape,
to press down the tops of the ridges D into a rounded form. The seed-sowing
details are carried on a light framing, connected by chains E to the frame B,
and carried on the spindle F of two light wheels G, which run in the
furrows between the ridges, two ridges D being comprehended in the space
between the wheels. The attendant guides the machine by means of the two
handled bars H. These bars are each forked at I to form the framing for
carrying the seed vessel, and they rest at their front ends on the axle F of the
running wheels. The two seed vessels J are attached by means of hoops to
the opposite ends of a spindle K, which rests by means of journals outside
The
of the seed vessels J upon brackets L, springing up from the framing.
seed containers J are oblong, cylindrical, or globular vessels of glass, by
preference of the kind termed "crystal," and they are provided with apertures
at which to introduce the seed, and which are closed whilst the machine is at
work. The glass vessels are perforated with a ring of holes M, passing round
them at their longitudinally central portions, and serving for the egress of the
seed as the vessels rotate. The spindle K has fast on it a pulley N, which is
driven by a belt from a pulley O on the axle F of the running wheels G, and
as these wheels are fast on their axle, their rotative motion is communicated
to the seed vessels J. The seed is delivered from the seed vessels J into
troughs P, supported by brackets upon the framing I. Each trough P is
divided by a partition Q, which rises up to the side of the vessel J, reaching it
at a point about forty-five degrees of the circle from the lowest point for the
time being. When the apparatus is in action, the rotation of the seed vessel
causes the contained seed to rise to one side, and the seed is discharged above
the point, corresponding to forty-five degrees of the circle from the bottom,
that is to say, it is discharged so as to fall to the back of the partition Q. It
thence finds its way down the spout R, and is guided thereby between the

page_text: cheeks of the coulter S, which forms the small furrow along the top of the
ridge to receive the seed. When the attendant does not wish the seed to pass
down the spout R whilst the seed vessels are in motion, he lifts up the handles
H, raising therewith the trough P, so as to bring the partition Q above or
behind the point at which the seeds are ejected from the vessel J, and he thus
causes the seed to fall into the space in front of the partition Q, from which they
cannot find their way to the ground, and whence they can be removed by the
attendant at his convenience. Rakes T are fixed to the bars H, so as to loosen
up the ridges D, and cover in the seed after the latter has been deposited in
the ground. The seed vessels J being made of glass in this manner, the
attendant will have no difficulty in seeing that his machine is always performing
its work in a proper manner, that no stoppages occur in the egress of the seedl
from the vessel, and that the machine never works uselessly without depositing
seed in consequence of the seed vessels being emptied of their contents. The
form, size, and other details of the vessels may of course be modified to suit
the particular kind of seed to be sown or manure to be deposited.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I may observe, in conclusion, that I do not confine or restrict
myself to the precise details or arrangements which I have had occasion to
describe or refer to, as many variations may be made therefrom without
deviating from the principles or main features of my Invention; but what
I consider to be novel and original, and therefore claim as the Invention
secured to me by the herein before in part recited Letters Patent, is,―
First, the application and use in machinery or apparatus for sowing seed
and depositing manure of vessels wholly or partially formed of glass to contain
the seed or manure, as herein-before described.
Second, the system or mode of constructing apparatus or machinery for
sowing seed and depositing manure with seed or manure containing vessels,
ducts, or spouts of glass, as herein-before described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Murdoch, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighth day of May, One thousand eight hundred