A NEW OR IMPROVED. ANCHOR TO BE USED IN THE PLOUGHING OR CULTIVATING OF LAND BY STEAM POWER AND APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREWITH
Year: 1871

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Saint John Vincent Day at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 3rd August 1871.-A communication from abroad by Alexander
Campbell and Robert Clark, both of Sacramento, in the State of
California, United States of America.
I, SAINT JOHN VINCENT DAY, of No. 166, Buchanan Street, Glasgow,.
in the County of Lanark, North Britain, Consulting Engineer, do.
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "A NEW OR IMPROVED.
ANCHOR TO BE USED IN THE PLOUGHING OR CULTIVATING OF LAND BY STEAM POWER
AND APPARATUS TO BE USED THEREWITH," to be as follows, that is to say:―
This Invention, which relates to a new or improved arrangement of
anchor to be used in the ploughing or cultivating of land. by steam
power, consists in an improved construction of pulley over which the
rope or chain for hauling the cultivating apparatus passes. In the rim
of the pulley a piece of india-rubber or other similar elastic material is
inserted at that part over which the rope passes, by which means the
friction on the said rope is lessened. On the axis of the pulley a bevil
wheel is placed, which gears into a similar wheel placed on the end of a
shaft at right angles to the axis of the pulley. The bevil wheel last

page_text: referred to is thrown in and out of gear by means of a clutch, and on
the opposite and outer end of its axis a bevil pinion is situated and
geared with a corresponding wheel situated on a shaft extending across
one end of the anchor. This bevil wheel is formed with a long boss,
and on each side of the wheel discs are cast having radial grooves formed
therein in which a number of flukes are fastened. When it is required
to move the anchor from one position to another, these discs are rotated
by the bevil gearing above described, and the flukes thereto attached
dig into the ground and draw the apparatus after them to any required
position. The anchor is raised and lowered by worm screws and seg-
ments attached at one end of the apparatus to the shaft whereon the
anchor flukes are fastened, and at the other end to a similar shaft which
may or may not be provided with the said flukes. On these shafts
projecting arms are rigidly secured, in which the axes of two pairs of
plain dises are carried. The anchor is fixed at any desired position by
turning the worm screws herein-before referred to, which, through the
intervention of the worm segments, has the effect of depressing the arms
fixed on the axes of the segments and thereby also depressing the axes of
the last-mentioned discs, sinks their peripheries into the ground and
thus retains the anchor. When it is desired to relieve the anchor the
worm screws are turned in the opposite direction, thereby producing a
movement of the various parts of mechanism the reverse of that above
described. The whole apparatus is carried on four wheels provided with
broad tyres, and the axis of the leading pair of these wheels is carried on
a pivot joint in order that the anchor may be quickly and easily turned.
Amongst other improvements resulting from the arrangement of
mechanism herein-before described one is that the anchor is constituted
self-propelling and can with facility be raised or lowered to suit any
nature of soil.