IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLS
Year: 1854

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Ball, of Rothwell, Kettering, in the County
of Northampton, Iron Founder and Agricultural Implement Maker, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLS."
Sealed the 12th January 1855, and dated the 19th July 1854.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Wliliam Ball at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th July
1854.
I, WILLIAM BALL, of Rothwell, Kettering, in the County of Northampton,
5 Iron Founder and Agricultural Implement Maker, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLS"
follows:-
My Invention consists in constructing drills with cast iron press wheels
running on a spindle, for the purpose of pressing grooves or furrows on ploughed
O land on the flat to receive grain or other seeds.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Ball in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 19th
January 1855.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
BALL, of Rothwell, Kettering, in the County of Northampton, Iron Founder
and Agricultural Implement Maker, send greeting...
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Nineteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-four, in the eighteenth year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Ball, Her special licence that I, the said William Ball, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William Ball, my
executors, administrators, and 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 DRILLS," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said William Ball, by an instrument in writing
under my hand and seal, should particularly describe and ascertain 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 William Ball, do hereby declare the
nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement thereof, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed,
(that is to say)-
My Invention consists in constructing drills with cast-iron press wheels
running on a spindle, for the purpose of pressing grooves or furrows on
ploughed lands on the flat to receive grain or other seeds.
In the Drawings hereunto annexed I have shewn so much of an ordinary
drill as is necessary to explain the manner in which I carry my Invention into
effect. The mode of feeding and depositing the seed or other grain, and the
method of driving or working the same, are similar to machines of the ordinary
construction, and are therefore well understood. Figure 1 represents a side
elevation, and Figure 2 a back view, of a machine exemplifying my improve-
A, A, is the framework of the machine; and B, the seed hopper;
ments.

page_text: C, C, are two wrought-iron frames, bolted firmly to the under side of the
machine, one on each side thereof; D is a spindle or shaft, supported in
boxes in the side frames C; E, E, are a series of cast-iron wheels, which
are so placed upon the spindle D as to be free to revolve each independently
of the others. The faces of these wheels are made flat, or slightly rounded in
the centre, and then bevilled off on each side, in the form of a V. F, F, are
collars or rings, which are placed upon the shaft D and between each wheel,
so as to keep them equidistant from each other. These collars may be loose,
and thereby capable of being removed, or the wheels may be cast with bosses of
the required width. G, G, are the coulters, which are placed immediately
behind each wheel, there being one wheel to each coulter. Care should be
taken in fixing these coulters that they coincide as nearly as possible with the
centre of the breadth of the wheel, in order that they shall act upon the flat
part of the furrow or groove caused by the flat portion of the circumference of
the wheel. These coulters are retained in their proper position by passing the
top and screwed end of each of them through a series of levers G', centred
upon a cross shaft H, fixed in arms projecting from and attached to the sides
frames C, C. I, I, are weights suspended from hooks formed in the ends of
the levers G, and serve to hold the coulters to their work. The centre
wheel E' is keyed fast upon the spindle D, in order that by its revolution it
shall impart a like rotary motion to the spindle, and thereby through it
convey the necessary motion by means of the ordinary gearing to the feed
apparatus.
And having now described the nature of my said Invention, and the manner
in which the same is to be performed, I declare that I claim the constructing
of drills with cast-iron press wheels running on a spindle, for the purpose of
pressing grooves or furrows on ploughed land on the flat to receive the grain or
other seed, as herein-before described and represented in the Drawings bere-
unto annexed.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Ball, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of January, One thousand eight
hundred and fifty-five.
WILLIAM BALL. (L.s.)