IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TILLING OR DIGGING LAND AND OTHER EARTH WORKS
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Mathieu Giraud at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th May
1870.
I, MATHIEU GIRAUD, of Ruc Sauzay, No. 22, Constantine, Algerie,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR TILLING OR DIGGING LAND AND OTHER EARTH WORKS," to be as.
follows:-
My Invention relates to the construction and arrangements of
apparatus or machinery to be applied to tilling of land and to the
digging and removal of earth. The apparatus or machine is intended.
to be used chiefly in agricultural operations, but it is also applicable
to all cases where the earth has to be dug up and removed, and can be
drawn either by draught animals, as would be the case in small works,
or by steam or other power in the case of large ones. In some instances
a special locomotive with a central motor could be employed..
This apparatus imitates on a large scale the work of the spade:
weight of the machine is utilized directly in order to drive into the soil
the blade which afterwards lifts it; this lifting is made by means of
levers, which may be described as rays proceeding from a cylinder
the barrel which finds on the soil an cudless support so that the levers
The

page_text: .
are incessantly driven by the force derived from the rolling action, the
useful effect of which is greater than that arising from the progress of
ordinary ploughs.
An apparatus of spade scrapers (contre beches) arranged between the
branches of forks causes the earth raised by the teeth or rays to fall back
upon the soil. In this operation the end piece of the spade scupers
scraping the barrel of the cylinder disengages the earth, which is broken
and crumbled by the incessant crossing of the forks and the spade
scrapers. When the apparatus is moved by draught animals the driver
is mounted upon a seat placed in front, from whence he can guide his
team, while at the same time he governs the apparatus or grapnel. A
winch and screw jack within reach of his right hand permits him to raise
the grapnel away from the earth when it is necessary to turn the
apparatus or to leave the field. For great works the cylinder is lengthened
with a view of larger clods, and can be actuated by a special locomotive,
with a central motion above spoken of without the help of the ropes and
drums used in the system of steam ploughing.
One of the essential conditions for a good action of the grapnel in all
cases consists in the curve of the forks which ought to be such that all
parts of their length can penetrate into the soil in a continuous manner
to a depth corresponding to their length. For this purpose it is very
important that in proportion as one tooth penetrates into the soil its
point of entrance should be in relation to the point of tangence of the
cylinder upon the soil at a distance equal to the development of the arc
which separates this point of tangence from the point where the tooth
is attached to the cylinder. This curve is easily determined, with a
sufficient approximation to correctness, by means of a geometric drawing,
the curve of the cylinder and amount of penetration into the soil
required being given. The maximum of penetration into the soil should
never be more than ths of the curve of the cylinder, for very hard soils
not more than 2. The maker will therefore determine the degree of
penetration between these two terms according to the nature of the
soil to be worked, and the sort of work to be completed.
In the case of heavy work or where the soil has to be removed when
dug the earth dug up by the grapnel instead of being thrown back upon
the soil as in simple ploughing, continues to be lifted round the cylinder
until it reaches the top; arrived here the clod of earth is received into
a metallic strainer at the same time, and it is pushed forward by a series

page_text: of shovels mounted upon a wheel which move and work in the strainer.
The remainder of the earth which still adheres to the cylinder is
detached by blades which throw it back in the action of the current
produced by the shovels. These blades scrape against the bottom of
the strainer itself, through which they pass by means of grooves directed
towards the grapnel. The shovels move with a velocity twice as great
as that of the cylinder, for the purpose of removing promptly and
effectually any hard bodies which may be in the lifted earth before the
crossing of the forks with the blades. The clods are pushed forward by
the shovels upon a moveable flexible belt casing which has an endless
movement, and are discharged at the opposite end into a receiver. This
moveable casing is supported at the bottom and moves upon a series of
rollers.
The principal movements required by the earth working grapnel are
of four kinds.
1st. The simple movement required to remove the machine from one
place to another.
2ndly. The combined movement of the above with the work of the
grapnel executing simultaneously the digging up, raising, and distribution
of the clods throughout the movable casing.
3rdly. The movement for lifting the cylinder when the casing is
filled. For this movement the steam is turned off as well as for the
backward movement of the machine.
4thly. The movement for the discharge and transmission of the clods
into suitable receptacles.
It is necessary therefore to operate movements in four different times.
This is effected by means of three engaging and disingaging levers.
For this purpose the principal shaft carries three pinions which actuate
at the will of the driver each of the corresponding movement of the
levers. Thus the first movement, the simple progress of the machine
from one place to another, is governed by the first enggement
exclusively.
For the second movement, the first and second levers are first put in
gearing, and besides if the earth is very hard and is not easily penetrated
by the teeth, a third lever is also geared for a moment in order to exert
upon the graznel, by means of racks, the pressure necessary to cause the
whole length of the teeth or spades to penetrate into the soil. The

page_text: different organs in connection with the two first levers are so arranged
that the grapnel and motion wheel as well as the moveable case, are
actuated with equal quickness.
In the second sort of movement, which is more complicated, there is,
first, an endless chain which commands the central motion wheel; 2ndly;
the chain commanding the pinion which causes the motion of the
moveable caseing and also commands the grapnel by a chain. The same
pinion also commands, but by the other side, by means of wheelwork and
a chain the drum which carries the shovels.
For the movement all is ungeared, the steam is reversed, and the third
lever again geared, then the grapnel is lifted by means of racks before
spoken of commanded by the chain until clear of the ground, when it is
caught in a catch which is removed when desired to let down the grapnel
to earth again by means of a handle within reach of the workmen.
It is the same with the drum with regard to the strains upon which it 1
is mounted and the movements of which it follows round the centre
every time the grapnel raises or allows the strainer and its blades to
extend.
..
The characteristic features of this Invention are therefore the
following:-
1. The arrangement of blades, teeth, or spades around a cylinder
which endlessly takes its support from the soil upon which it is working.
2. The employment of spade scrapers arranged between the said
blades in order to cause the earth raised by them to fall back to the
soil.
3rdly. Working machine by means of draught animals or steam power,
the first being more particularly intended for ploughing, and the second
for carthworking on a large scale.