AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR DIBBLING' MANGOLD AND TURNIP SEEDS
Year: 1878

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Thomas, of Eastfield House, Cowbridge, for the
Invention of " AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR DIBBLING' MANGOLD AND
TURNIP SEEDS."
Sealed the 8th November 1878, and dated the 26th July 1878.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Thomas at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 26th July 1878.
JOHN THOMAS, of Eastfield House, Cowbridge.
DIBBLING MANGOLD AND TURNIP SEEDS."
"
AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR
This machine is constructed to sow two rows of mangold or turnip seeds at
oqual distances.
This implement is greatly preferable to the old plan of a continual flow of seed,
which very often leaves large spaces vacant, but in this case is regularly planted,
and the ground much easier for cleaning between the plants, thus giving the plant
the benefit of all the manure, which by the old plan is drawn away by hoeing.
The plants grow up in bunches together, and get too strong for the fly to attack
tliem.
The dibbling machine is arranged for sowing at 10 or 15 inches apart, and the
distance of rows may be easily altered to any width required.
Holes are made in the ground by means of an iron dibbler attached to the rollers,
and as the dibbler leaves the hole it raises a leaver which is attached to the seed
box behind, thus leaving the seed drop from the seed box into the hole made by
the dibbler. The quantity of seed is regulated by a slide over the hole in the
seed box.
Mangold seed being very rough and slow to run, an extra box is provided for
them with spoons, which supplies a small continual flow into the lower seed box,
which deposits them into the dibble hole. The holes are filled up by means of a
small chain harrow attached to the box. The drill is drawn by one horse. "

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed
by the said John Thomas in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 25th January
1879.
JOHN THOMAS, of Eastfield House, Cowbridge, in the County of Glamorgan-
shire. "AN IMPROVED MACHINE FOR DIBBLING' MANGOLD AND TURNIP SEEDS."
My Invention consists in so constructing the machine that two rows of mangold
or turnip seeds may be sown simultaneously at equal distances apart (say ten or
fifteen inches, for example, and with uniformity of distribution.
The holes in the ground for the reception of the seed are formed by iron
"dibblers" projecting from the periphery of rollers which carry the machine and
rotate as it is drawn along the surface of the soil, and these dibblers may be
separated or brought together according to the width of the row required. As these
rollers rotate the "dibblers" enter and make an opening or hole in the soil, and as
they leave the soil they act upon a lever or levers in connection with the seed
box situated behind them, and thus release the seed and allow it to fall into the
holes so formed, the quantity being regulated by a slide over the outlet in the
seed box.
Mangold seed being of rough exterior, runs slowly and unevenly, and therefore an
extra box is provided, having spoons to deliver the seed to the lower seed box and
ducts more regularly and continuously, whence they are deposited in the holes
formed by the dibblers.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, with the method of
carrying the same into practical effect, and in order that the same may be more
clearly understood, I have hereunto annexed a Sheet of Drawings made upon a
scale of about one inch to a foot, and have marked the same with figures and letters
of reference corresponding with those in the following explanation thereof.
37
In the annexed Drawing Fig. 1 represents an end view; Fig. 2, a plan view;
Fig. 3 & 4 respectively end and front views, of the rollers and "dibblers;
and Fig. 5 is a side view of the slotted arms or carriers supporting the lower
seed box.
A, A, are the shafts by which the machine is moved; B, B, the handles for
guiding the same; C, C, the cross framing supporting the arms D, D, in which
slots E, E, are formed for the purpose of regulating the lower seed boxes; F, F, are
the upper seed boxes, which are supplied with treadles G, G; and H, H, is the
spindle and wheel for seed box, actuated by the strap ✗; the regulator I, I, is
applied to the top seed box to deliver the seed to the lower boxes; and J, J, are
side brackets of the machine in which the roller shaft rotates, carrying the
rollers K, K, on the periphery of wheel; the "dibblers "L, L, are secured by bolts
or otherwise, and may be regulated in relative positions thereby. The tube Y con-
ducts the seed from the upper box to the lower, whence it passes into the holes in
the soil.
Having now described the nature and object of my said Invention, together with
the method of carrying the same into practical effect, I wish it to be understood that
what I claim the novel construction and arrangement of machinery or apparatus
whereby two rows of seed may be sown simultaneously and at equal distances apart,
and the flow or delivery of such seed so regulated that it shall be evenly distributed

page_text: in the hole or rows formed by the action of the machine, substantially as herein-
before described and set forth in the Drawing annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Thomas, have hereunto set my hand and
seal, this Twenty-fourth day of January, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.
Signed, sealed, and delivered
in the presence of
WILL". T. GWYN,
Law Student,
Cowbridge.
JOHN THOMAS. (L.S.)