AN IMPROVED THRESHING MACHINE
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Robert Lake at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
13th December 1873.-A communication from abroad by M.
Moncomble-Carly, of Boulogne-sur-Mer, France.
I, WILLIAM ROBERT LAKE, of the Firm of Haseltine, Lake, & Co.,
Patent Agents, Southampton Buildings, London, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED THRESHING MACHINE,'
communication, to be as follows:-
"
The said Invention relates to an improved threshing machine which is
constructed as follows :-It has a platform of boards or planks laid upon
joists fixed upon two longitudinal cross beams or sleepers of wood;
two uprights or standards are secured in these sleepers by mortices and
tenons and kept in a vertical position by inclined braces or struts also
secured by mortices and tenons, the whole being securely bolted
together. One of the aforesaid standards is wider than the other and
has an aperture formed in it for the reception of two toothed wheels,
whose purpose is herein-after described. A part of the said standard is
made removable to permit the introduction of the said wheels and to
facilitate their putting in place and removal; this moveable part is
secured by bolts and nuts. When this part is removed the said aperture

page_text: will be uncovered, and the wheels may be readily taken out. In the
top of the said standards there is a tenon for the reception of a morticed
cross tie designed to maintain the said standards at the proper distance
apart. The larger of the two wheels placed in the aforesaid opening in
the standard is provided with a crank handle carried on its spindle
outside of the said standard. This wheel transmits its rotative move-
ment to the small wheel or pinion which is fixed upon a shaft extending
across the machine; this shaft is preferably formed of wood square in
cross section. The shoulders at its extremeties are made round and hooped
with metal to prevent the splitting of the wood where the iron pivots or
bearings of the said shaft are inserted. In each of the four faces of the
said shaft are tenoned four wooden blades, whose extremeties, when the
said blades are in motion, barely pass the surface of the platform. The
said blades, which are cut to resemble the blade of a knife, are so
arranged that neither of them-passes in turning over the same place as
either of the other blades.
To diminish the labour of the operator at the crank I place at the
opposite end of the aforesaid shaft and outside of the standard a fly
wheel of suitable weight and size.
When the said machine is in motion the attendant takes one by one
the sheaves or bundles of wheat or other grain and presents the end of
the sheaf to the machine, placing it on the platform and advancing it
gradually while turning it slightly upon itself and jerking it gently from
right to left and from left to right till the whole has been threshed or
beaten which will be in a very short time.
My improved machine may be driven by steam or by any other
suitable motive power the crank handle being for that purpose replaced
by a gear wheel or belt pulley. In this case the beater shaft may be
lengthened, so that a number of sheaves may be presented at the same
time to the machine; the strength of the said shaft must be varied in
proportion and the fly wheel will not be necessary.