Improvements in Agricultural Machines Adapted for Earthing up Crops or for Digging Potatoes and the like.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 27th Mar., 1899-Accepted, 9th Sept., 1899
Improvements in Agricultural Machines Adapted for Earthing up
Crops or for Digging Potatoes and the like.
A communication from abroad by JOHN FRANCIS CARROLL, of 128, Central Street,
in the City and County of Worcester, State of Massachusetts, United States
of Amercia, Box-maker.
I, REGINALD WILLIAM JAMES, of the Firm of Fell and James, of 1, Queen
Victoria Street, in the City of London, Chartered Patent Agent, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention and in what manner the same is to be
performed to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
The object of this invention is to provide a light, strong, simple and efficient
machine for cultivating vegetables, which machine has been especially designed
for banking the earth about vegetables which are planted in hills, and which
may also be employed for forming a ditch or trench between vegetables which
are planted in rows, or which may be employed for digging up the vegetables
when desired.
To this end this invention consists of the parts and combinations of parts
as hereinafter described and more particularly pointed out in the claims at the
end of this specification.
In the accompanying three sheets of drawings,
Fig. 1 is a plan view of a machine for hoeing vegetables constructed according
to this invention.
Fig. 2 is a side view of the same.
Fig. 3 is a detail sectional view taken on the line 33 of Fig. 2.
Fig. 4 is a detail view of one of the adjustable hoeing blades.
Figs. 5 and 6 are detail views taken on the line 55 illustrating different
relative positions of the hoeing blades.
Fig. 7 is a plan view of a machine constructed according to this invention,
arranged for digging vegetables.
Fig. 8 is a side view of the same.
Fig. 9 is a sectional plan view taken on the line 9-9 of Fig. 8, and
Fig. 10 is a detail sectional view taken on the line 10-10 of Fig. 9.
In cultivating growing vegetables, it is now the usual custom to bank the
earth up about the vegetables by hand.
This is necessarily laborious, and on the other hand, the use of travelling
cultivators is objectionable, as growing vegetables are liable to be hit or damaged
thereby.
The especial object of this present invention is, therefore, to provide a
stationary cultivating machine, which may be set into position to bank the earth
up against a hill of growing vegetables, and which may be employed, if
desired, for forming trenches between successive rows of vegetables, or for digging
up said vegetables.
To these ends, a cultivating machine, constructed according to this invention,
Price S

page_text: preferably comprises a framework, a vertical shaft journalled in said frame-work,
one or more arms extending from said vertical shaft, and one or more hoeing or
digging-blades carried by said arm or arms.
Referring to the drawings and in detail, a frame of a hoeing machine, con-
structed according to this invention, as berein illustrated, comprises disks or
plates A and B carried by inclined legs C.
The inclined legs Care provided with stop-pieces c which limit the depth to
which said legs may be forced into the soil.
Journalled in the plates A and B is a vertical shaft e, which may be turned
or operated by a crank E.
Secured on the lower end of the shaft e is a socket-piece F, carried by which
are supporting-arms g.
Journalled in the supporting-arms g are up-right shafts f which carry hoeing-
blades D secured in place thereon by screws d.
Fastened on the upper ends of the shafts f by means of set-screws j, are
adjusting-pieces or sectors k.
The adjusting-pieces or sectors are provided with a series of perforations i,
so that the same may be clamped in different relative positions by means of bolts,
as h, to hold the hoeing-blades at different relative angles with respect to the
supporting-arms g.
In the preferred form of construction, the blades D are longitudinally slotted,
and may be adjusted to different relative positions on their back pieces, as
illustrated most clearly in Fig. 4.
In the operation of a horing machine as thus constructed, the frame of the
machine is first placed in position over the vegetables which are to be cultivated,
the hoeing-blades, by means of the connections described, are set at the desired
angle with respect to their supporting arms g, and the vertical shaft may then
be turned to bank the earth up in a hill about the vegetables being cultivated.
The size of the hill which will be formed may be regulated by setting the
hoeing-blades at different relative angles.
When a hoeing machine, constructed according to this invention, is to be
employed for cultivating vegetables planted in rows, the machine is set in such
position, that the hoeing-blades will stand on relatively opposite sides of a
row, so that by oscillating the vertical shaft the soil may be operated in the
opposite direction, and by then moving the machine along the row which is
being cultivated, a ditch or trench may thus be formed between successive rows
of vegetables.
Potatoes and other vegetables are now ordinarily dug up from the ground either
by hand or by plowing the same up by moveable plowing machines.
Hand digging is necessarily laborious, while travelling plowing or digging
machines do not work thoroughly, and are apt to bruise and spoil the potatoes
or other vegetables being dug.
When a machine constructed according to this invention is to be employed for
digging up vegetables, the arrangement illustrated in the third sheet of drawings
may be employed.
Referring to said drawings and in detail, the frame of the machine comprises
plates or disks 10 and 11, secured to which are inclined legs 12, each of said
Tegs being provided with an adjustable lower section or foot-piece 13, said
foot-pieces being connected to their legs by clamping frames 14, clamping-
screws 15, and followers 16.
Journalled and vertically movable in the frame is an up-right shaft 17.
Secured on the lower end of the shaft 17 is a socket-piece 19 carrying a
radial arm 20.
Secured on the arm 20 is a digging-blade 21.
The digging-blade 21 is preferably provided with a plurality of sharpened
teeth or points 22, and extending rearwardly from the digging-blade 21 are a

page_text: Secured on the upper end of the shaft 17 is an operating handle 18, and
also preferably adjustably secured on the shaft 17 is a stop 24.
In using a cultivating machine constructed according to this invention for
digging potatoes or other vegetables, the legs of the machine are adjusted, so
that the machine will stand substantially up-right in proper position with
relation to a hill of growing vegetables which is to be dug.
The vertical shaft is then pushed down and turned, so that the digging-blade
will seat itself as illustrated by dotted lines in Fig. 8, so that the vegetables
will be dug or turned up, and the dirt will be practically freed therefrom by
means of the receiving-rods extending to the rear of the digging-blade.
Skilled mechanics may make many other changes in the construction and
application of cultivating machines constructed according to this invention.
It is not desired, therefore, that the claims should be limited to the special forms
herein shown or described, but
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of this
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is:
1. In a cultivating machine for hoeing, banking up or digging vegetables, the
combination of a frame, a vertical shaft journalled therein, a supporting arm
extending from said vertical shaft and a blade attached to said supporting arm,
substantially as described.
2. In a cultivating machine arranged for hoeing vegetables, the combination
of a frame, a vertical shaft journalled therein, a supporting-arm extending from
said vertical shaft, a hoeing-blade, and means for setting the hoeing-blade at
different relative angles with respect to its supporting-arm, substantially as
described.
3. In a cultivating machine arranged for digging vegetables, the combination
of a frame, an upright vertically movable shaft journalled in said frame, and a
digging-blade extending radially substantially from the axis of the upright shaft,
substantially as described.
4. In a cultivating machine for hoeing or banking up vegetables, the com-
bination of parts, substantially as described and illustrated in Figures 1 to 6
of the accompanying drawings.
5. In a cultivating machine for digging vegetables the combination of parts
substantially as described and illustrated in Figures 7 to 10 of the accompanying
drawings.
Tha
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1000