IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAFF MACHINES to be as follows:
Year: 1884

page_text: We SAMUEL BURLINGHAM and GEORGE HARDING INNES, both of Hitchin, in
the county of Herts, Agricultural Engineers and JOSEPH WILLIAM LEE of Avenue
Works, Cambridge, in the county of Cambridge, Engineer do hereby declare the
nature of the said invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAFF MACHINES
to be as
follows:-
"
The Invention relates to improvements in chaff machines and the improvements
consist in providing such machines with an automatic feed arrangement and with
means for conveying or elevating the cut material to any desired height such as
into silos or tanks as hereinafter described.
Hitherto portable sifting and chaff elevating chaff machines have generally been
made with a plain box in which the straw, hay or other substance to be cut is
placed and is then pressed forward to the feeding rollers by an attendant, a
revolving chain or web working on the bottom of the box being sometimes
provided which assists the attendant in effecting the feeding operation.
According to our invention we employ two revolving chains, that is to say, in
addition to the revolving chain working along the bottom of the box we place a
revolving chain or web above the box, which additional chain is placed at an
incline and serves to automatically press the hay, straw or other substance to the
feeding rollers, thereby dispensing with the above named manual assistance. The
endless chain or web may be made in any suitable manner, such as of two chains
with wood slats or iron or steel bars revolving on wheels with projections suitable
for causing the chain to revolve, and the motion to such wheels may be given by
geared wheels connected with the geared wheel on the spindle of the top feed
roller and so as to rise and fall with that roller to suit the variable feed.
motion may also be given in any other suitable manner such as by a chain or belt.
The straw, hay or other substance is placed onto the end of the box by the
attendant or by mechanical means and is carried forward by the endless chain or
web on the bottom of the box until the material comes in contact with our
additional or upper chain when it is compressed and so received by the feed rollers
in a proper yealm to be dealt with by the knife wheel.
The
It will be obvious that our automatic feed arrangement is applicable to other
kinds of chaff machines than those described.

page_text: .
By thus dispensing with the necessity of hand feeding by an attendant we not
only effect a saving of labour but avoid the risk of accident to which the attendant
is liable.
For the purpose of elevating the substance cut by chaff machines to any desired
height and more especially for elevating materials so cut into a silo to be converted
into ensilage we provide an elevator which may be advantageously constructed of
two sides connected together by wood bars so as to form a trough; the trough
may be connected with iron bars or sheet iron or boarded along the bottom if
desired but we prefer for lightness the skeleton form of bottom.
At each end are
wood or iron rollers running in suitable bearings; the upper roller is provided
with means for tightening an endless chain or band made of suitable material such
as strong dressed canvas with wood slats or carriers to carry the chaff or substances
cut up the trough.
The elevator is attached to the chaff machine under the conducting hopper by
iron or wood hangers or otherwise and may be driven in a suitable manner such as
the following: We attach a length of shafting to the frame of the chaff cutter
which shaft revolves in suitable bearings; on one end of the shaft we put a pulley
which is driven by a belt or chain from another pulley placed on the driving shaft
of the cutter, at the other end of the length of shafting we put a bevil geared
wheel which gears with a bevil wheel fixed to the spindle of the bottom roller of
the elevator.
We raise or lower the elevator to the required height by means of two poles
connected with the two sides of the trough, or if preferred by one pole with an
iron or wood lever with two arms or branches connected with the two sides of the
trough but so constructed as to allow the return of the endless chain or web. The
· pole or poles may be made of wood, iron or steel or of hollow tube in two or more
pieces with sliding or telescopic joints so as to lengthen or shorten the height and
the pole or poles may be folded up when not in use.
In cases where the elevator is required of considerable length in order to ensure
convenience when travelling it may be made to fold by means of joints or may be
constructed in a telescopic form so that the upper portion of the trough may slide
within the lower portion.
Dated the 0th 1
J
Ammi 1001

page_text: We SAMUEL BURLINGHAM and GEORGE HARDING INNES both of Hitchin, in the
County of Herts, Agricultural Engineers and JOSEPH WILLIAM LEE of Avenue
Works, Cambridge in the County of Cambridge Engineer, do hereby declare the
nature of the said invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN CHAFF MACHINES" and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described and
ascertained in and by the following statement:-
The invention relates to improvements in chaff machines and the improvements
consist in providing such machines with an automatic feed arrangement, suitable
means being provided if required for conveying or elevating the cut material to any
desired height such as into silos or tanks.
Hitherto portable sifting and chaff-elevating chaff machines have generally been
made with a plain box in which the straw hay or other substance to be cut is
placed and is then pressed forward to the feeding rollers by an attendant, a revolving
chain or web working on the bottom of the box being sometimes provided which
assists the attendant in effecting the feeding operation.
&
According to our invention we employ two revolving chains, that is to say, in
addition to the revolving chain working along the bottom of the box we place
revolving chain or web above the box, which additional chain is placed at an
incline and serves to automatically press the hay, straw or other substance to the
feeding rollers thereby dispensing with the above named manual assistance. The
endless chain or web may be made in any suitable manner, such as of two chains
with wood slats or iron or steel bars revolving on wheels or rollers with projections
suitable for causing the chain to revolve, and the motion to such wheels or rollers
may be given by geared wheels connected with the geared wheel on the spindle of
the top feed roller and so as to rise and fall with that roller to suit the variablo
feed.
The motion may also be given in any other suitable manner such as by a chain
or belt
In order to enable our invention to be fully understood we will proceed to
describe the same by reference to the accompanying drawing in which figure 1
represents a side elevation of a chaff machine with our improvements applied
thereto; figure 2 is a longitudinal section on a larger scale of a portion of the
machine shewing our improved feed arrangement. Similar letters in both the
figures represent similar parts.
a is a revolving chain or web such as it has sometimes been the practice to
employ in chaff machines the said chain or web working along the bottom b of the
usual feed trough or box A on the usual toothed rollers c and d; e is the revolving
chain or web which we employ in addition to the chain or web a the said chain or
webe being placed at an incline above the chain or web a and travelling over a
toothed pressure roller f geared as herein after described and placed vertically at a
suitable distance above the roller c and over chain wheels g working in adjustable
bearings h bolted to the sides of the trough A; the chain or web e serves to
automatically press the hay, straw or other substance to the ordinary feeding

page_text: rollers and the opening between which is somewhat smaller than the opening
between the chains à and e where they pass over the rollers c and f respectively;
the hay, straw or other material is thereby gradually compressed to a certain
extent by the chains or webs a and e as it passes between them and is finally
further compressed by the feed rollers i and j before passing to the ordinary knives,
one of which is shewn at k upon the knife wheel ; the endless chain or web e is
constructed of two sets of links or chains m connected by iron or steel bars n (or
slats of wood) the roller f, having teeth at each end in which teeth gear the rods n
of the chain or web; motion is communicated to the automatic feed arrangement
in the following manner :-
A bevel wheel o mounted on one end of the shaft p of the roller c, gears with a
bevil pinion (not shown in the drawing) on the main shaft q of the machine; a
suitable clutch arrangement is employed to allow of driving in either direction; on
the other end of the shaft p is a pinion r, which gears with a wheel s mounted on
a bracket t; the wheel 8 gears with a wheel u fixed on the shaft v of the top feed
roller ; the wheel u gears with a pinion w which also gears with a wheel a
mounted on the shaft y of the roller f; the pinion also gears with a wheel z,
fixed on the shaft a¹ of the lower feed roller j; the wheel z, gears with a pinion b¹
on a shaft c¹ on which is another pinion (not shewn in the drawing) which gears
with the wheel d¹ fixed to the roller c.
The top rollers f and i are mounted in a moveable cheek or plate e¹ on each side
of the trough or box b to which cheeks or plates are fixed rods or bars f¹, pivotted
at gl to the sides of the said trough; in a suitable position on the frame of the
machine is jointed a weighted forked lever h¹ to which is jointed on each side of
the fork at a link j; the said links are attached at their upper ends to the cheeks
or plates e¹.
By our improvements the straw, hay or other substance being placed into the
end of the trough or box A by the attendant, or by mechanical means, it will be
carried forward by the endless chain or web a on the bottom of the trough or box b
until the material comes in contact with our additional or upper chain e when it
will be compressed and so received by the feed rollers in a proper yealm to be dealt
with by the knife wheel Z.
By means of the cheeks or plates e¹ which in rising and falling carry with them
the rollers fand the said rollers (by reason of their connection with the weighted
lever ) will be caused to automatically adjust themselves to the varying thickness
of material passing between them and the bottom rollers c and j, the weighted
lever h¹, and link ¹, always tending to keep the rollers i and the bars n of the
chnin or web e tightly pressed on the material as it passes between the two sets of
rollers.
The wheel u carried on the shaft of the roller i by being geared as hereinbefore
described can rise and fall with the said roller while in gear with the wheel 8.
It will be obvious that our automatic feed arrangement is applicable to chaff
machines of other construction than that described and shewn,
By thus dispensing with the necessity of hand feeding by an attendant we not
only effect a saving of labour but avoid the risk of accident to which the attendant
is liable.
For the purpose of elevating the substance cut by our improved chaff machines
to any desired height we employ any suitable elevator.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said
invention and in what manner the same is to be performed We declare that what
we claim is
(1) In a chaff machine an endless travelling web or chain placed at an incline
above and operating in combination with a chain or web working in the ordinary
manner along the bottom of the box or trough, the said inclined chain or web
serving to gather the material to be cut into a compressed form and to force it

page_text: through the front or feed rollers on to the knives of the machine substantially as
herein before described.
(2) In a chaff machine the combination with the inclined endless web or chain
herein before described of a geared pressure roller automatically adjustable to the
varying thickness of feed substantially as herein before described and represented
in the accompanying drawing.
(3) The improved chaff machine hereinbefore described and represented in the
accompanying drawing.