IMPROVEMENTS IN. MACHINERY FOR DIGGING AND DISINTEGRATING THE EARTH FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to George Tomlinson Bousfield, of. Loughborough.
Park. in the County of Surrey for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN.
MACHINERY FOR DIGGING AND DISINTEGRATING THE EARTH FOR AGRICULTURAL
PURPOSES."
."-A communication from abroad by Elias Howe; junior,
residing at Brooklyn, State of New York, United States of America.
MACHINERY FOR DIGGING AND DISINTEGRATING THE EARTH FOR AGRICULTURAL
PURPOSES." A communication from abroad by Elias Howe, junior,
residing at Brooklyn, State of New York, United States of America.
Sealed the 12th September 1862, and dated the 14th March 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th March 1862.
I, GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, in the County of
Surrey,, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY FOR DIGGING AND DISINTEGRATING THE EARTH FOR AGRICULTURAL
PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in machinery for digging,
and disintegrating, the earth for agricultural purposes. For this purpose a
series of rotating digging tools are combined with a carriage frame, by means
of which they are moved forward, and with mechanism which causes the series
of diggers to enter the earth in such manner as to divide, the earth into
successive slices,, whose. sides are perpendicular to the line of progres-
sion. of the machine, and after penetrating to pry off and raise the slices
in a. manner. analogous to the operation of a hand spade or fork by the con-
tinued rotation. of the series. In order to break the clods effectually after

page_text: they are raised and to detach them from the diggers the series of rotating
diggers are combined with cleansers, which extend between the diggers after
they rise from the earth, so that the slices; or.. clods raised by the diggers are
operated upon by the said cleansers, and are broken. In order to enable the
diggers to be set to penetrate the earth to different. depths, as desired, and to
carry the diggers above the ground when not in use, the carrying wheels are
combined with the carriage of the digging machine by means of cranked axles
controlled by a lever and winch or their equivalent, so that the carriage and
diggers can be lowered or raised upon the carrying wheels by operating said
winch. In some cases, in order to enable the digging mechanism to be
operated and propelled in a simple and effectual manner by steam power, so
that the machine may constitute a digging locomotive, the steam engine or
engines of the locomotive are combined with the diggers in such manner that
the latter not only dig the earth but also constitute the drivers by means of
which the digging locomotive is caused to progress. In the horse machine
the carriage frame is similar to that of an ordinary cart, there being a pair of
shafts, between which the hindmost horse is hitched, and two carrying wheels,
upon which the weight is sustained when the diggers are not operating in the
earth. The diggers are arranged around the periphery of a drum, the number
of sets or circles of diggers depending on the length of the drum. Three sets
is a convenient number. The corresponding diggers of each series are secured
to a rock shaft, and the series of rock shafts are sustained by two drum heads,
which are connected by a tubular shaft, so that diggers, rock shafts, drum heads,
and tubular shaft constitute the compound digging cylinder. When the
digging cylinder is lowered to its lowest position the rims of the drum heads,
which are broad, form bearings upon which the digging cylinder rolls forward
as it is drawn along by the carriage. The digging blades are secured to their
respective rock shafts in such manner that the planes of their blades are
parallel to the axis of the digging cylinder, so that as they all revolve
the edges or points of each row of blades enter the earth in à line crosswise
to the direction in which the machine is moved forward, and as the digging
cylinder is caused to rotate by the contact of its diggers with the soil,
its weight combined with that of the carriage causes the diggers to penetrate
the soil. In order that the body of each digger blade may follow in the
track of the entering edge or point, each rock shaft to which the diggers
are secured is caused to rock in continuous succession, and the extent and
period of this rocking is regulated by the following mechanism:-The end of
each rock shaft, after it passes into one or other drum head, is fitted with a
crank, and the pin of this crank has a friction wheel upon it which travels in

page_text: a cam-formed groove formed in the inner face of a stationary cam which is
held in the drum head upon the axle. The form of the cam groove in which
the friction wheels of the cranks traverse is such that the rock shafts to which.
the diggers are secured rock in succession the extent requisite to cause the
blades, when penetrating the earth, to follow as nearly as is desirable in the
tracks of their entering edges or points as the digging cylinder rolls forward. In.
order to break effectually the slices or clods which are pried off and raised by.
the diggers in their revolution a set of cleansers are employed. In the horse
machine each of these cleansers consists of a bar of metal, which is secured at
its hinder extremity to the carriage and projects forwards beside the adjacent
series of diggers, at the same time inclining downwards until its front extremity
nearly touches the cylinder of rock shafts. As these cleansers extend in close
proximity with the diggers the slices or clods raised by the latter, as they rise
in rotation, are broken by contact with the cleansers, are also detached from
the diggers and fall into the trench. In the machine thus far described the
cams have been described as held in fixed positions to the frame of the machine,
but the hubs of these cams may be made cylindrical so as to turn in their
boxes, and they may be fitted with levers controlled by winches or other means,
so that the conductor of the machine may adjust the positions of the cams
as he may deem expedient to vary the angular movement of the diggers.
When, however, steam power is to be employed to propel the machine the
power is applied to the digging cylinder, so that the diggers perform the double
purpose of digging and acting as drivers. Advantage is thus taken of the
secure hold which they take upon the ground to secure the propulsion of the
machine. The steam engines are located at the opposite sides of the main
frame of the machine in such positions that their connecting rods are applied
to cranks located at the ends of the shaft of the digging cylinder. Hence the
movement of the steam engines causes the digging cylinder to revolve in a
manner analogous to the driving wheels of an ordinary locomotive engine, and
as the diggers in penetrating take a firm hold of the soil, the latter is not only
dug but the machine is propelled forward with certainty and without material
slip. In this case it is preferred to employ curved diggers or tines fixed on
the cylinder. The cleansers, in place of being arranged as before described,
may be constructed to revolve upon an axle, and they have the form of the
diggers, but are set upon their axle in reversed positions. As these cleansers
intervene between the diggers the slices or clods of earth raised by the latter
and projecting laterally from them strike the cleansers, and cause the whole
series to revolve, and as in this revolution the diggers and cleansers are drawn
from each other after passing above the plane of their axes of revolution, the

page_text: '
slices and clods are broken and disengaged from the diggers and are permitted:
to fall into the trench. As this disengagement of the clods takes place first.
at the inner ends of the diggers where the upper portion of the original soil is,
this portion falls first into the trench, so that the soil left by the digger is not
only dug but reversed. The hinder wheels of the machine are arranged on a
separate crank axle in such manner that when the carriage is raised upon
them for the purpose of lifting the diggers from the ground the peripheries of
the carrying wheels are brought into contact with the peripheries of the drum
heads of the digging cylinder, so that the turning of the digging cylinder by
the engines causes the carrying wheels, which then become the driving
wheels of the digging locomotive, to revolve. By this arrangement and com-
bination the necessity of a special connection of the engines with the carrying:
wheels, to cause the machine to progress when it is not digging, is dispensed
with.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 13th September 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, GEORGE
TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD, of Loughborough Park, in the County of Surrey, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her. Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of March, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself; Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said George Tomlinson Bousfield, Her special licence that I, the said George
Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, 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 MACHINERY FOR DIGGING AND DISINTEGRATING THE EARTH FOR
AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES," a communication to me from abroad by Elias Howe,
junior, a person resident at Brooklyn, State of New York, United States of
America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said George Tomlinson
Bousfield, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under

page_text: my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, 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 tho
date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE; that I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, reference being had to the accompanying Draw-
ings, in which Figure I represents a side view of a horse machine constructed
according to the principles of the Invention, and with the digging cylinder
raised from the ground, a portion of the casing of the digging cylinder being
removed to permit the interior construction to be seen; Figure 2 represents a
plan of the same machine; Figure 3 represents a longitudinal section of the
machine with the diggers lowered into the ground; Figure 4 represents a
view of the regulating mechanism of the diggers detached from the machine;'
Figure 5 represents a plan of portions of a digging locomotive constructed
according to the principles of the Invention; and Figure 6 represents a 'side
elevation of the same.
The object of the Invention is to dig up soil by rotating tools, which enter
and pry off soil in a manner analogous to the operation of a hand spade or
fork. To this end the first part of the Invention consists in the combination
of a series of rotating digging tools with a carriage frame, by means of which
they are moved forward, and with mechanism which causes the series of
diggers to enter the earth in such manner as to divide the earth into suc-
cessive slices, whose sides are perpendicular to the line of progression of the
machine, and after penetrating to pry off and raise the 'slices in a manner
analogous to the operation of a hand spade or fork by the continued rotation
of the series.
.
The object of the second part. of the Invention is to break the clods
effectually after they are raised, and to detach them from the diggers. This
part of the Invention consists in combining the series of rotating diggers,
constructed and operated substantially as above set forth, with cleansers which
extend between the diggers after they rise from the earth, so that the slices or
clods raised by the diggers are operated upon by the said cleanser and are
broken.
The object of the third part of the Invention is to enable the diggers to bo
set to 'penetrate the earth to different depths as desired, and to carry the
diggers above the ground when not in use. It consists in combining the

page_text: carrying wheels with the carriage of the digging machine by means of cranked
axles controlled by a lever and winch, or their equivalent, so that the carriage
and diggers can be lowered or raised upon the carrying wheels by operating
said winch.
The object of the fourth part of the Invention is to enable the digging
mechanism to be operated and propelled in a simple and effectual manner by
steam power, so that the machine constitutes a digging locomotive, and it
consists in combining the steam engine or engines of the locomotive with the
diggers in such manner that the latter not only dig the earth, but also con-
stitute the drivers, by means of which the digging locomotive is caused to
progress.
:
The various parts of the Invention may be embodied in machines propelled
by animals or by steam power, the machine represented in the accompanying
Drawings being an example of one to be drawn by horses. In it the carriage
frame is similar to that of an ordinary cart, there being a pair of shafts A, A,
between which the hindmost horse is hitched, and two carrying wheels B, B,
upon which the weight is sustained when the diggers are not operating in the
earth. The diggers are in this instance arranged in three series, each of
which is composed of a set of diggers c, c, c, rotating from a central axis.
The corresponding diggers of each series are secured to a rock shaft d, and
the series of rock shafts are sustained by two drum heads f, f, which are
connected by a tubular shaft g, so that diggers, rock shafts, drum heads, and
tubular shaft constitute a compound digging cylinder, which in the present
case is capable of digging up the soil to a breadth of about twenty inches.
The digging cylinder is constructed to revolve on an axle H, which crosses
the carriage frame, and is fitted at its opposite ends with cranks j, j, upon the
crank pins of which the hubs of the carrying wheels B, B, are fitted. These
cranks are connected with a bent lever I, whose outer extremity k is con-
nected by a cord or chain with the axle of a winch L, so that by turning the
winch handle m the cranks are turned down to raise the carriage on its
carrying wheels, and lift the diggers from the earth, as shewn at Figure 1.
The winch axle is fitted with a ratchet wheel n, whose teeth engaging with a
pawl i, hold the digging cylinder in the position to which it is raised. When
the digging cylinder is lowered to its lowest position, the rims of the drum
heads f, f, which are broad, form bearings upon which the digging cylinder
rolls forward as it is drawn along by the carriage. The digging blades are
curved, as shewn in the Drawing, and are secured to their respective rock
shafts d, d, in such manner that the planes of their blades are parallel to the
axis of the digging cylinder, so that as they all revolve the edges or points of

page_text: each row of blades enter the earth in a line crosswise to the direction in which
the machine is moved forward, and as the digging cylinder is caused to rotate
by the contact of its diggers with the soil, its weight, combined with that of
the carriage, causes the diggers to penetrate the soil. In order that the body
of each digger blade may follow in the track of the entering edge or point,
each rock shaft to which the diggers are secured is caused in the horse
machine represented in the Drawings, to rock in continuous succession, and the
extent and period of this rocking is regulated by the following mechanism :-
The end of each rock shaft, after it passes into one or other drum head f,
is fitted with a crank r, and the pin of this crank has a friction wheel upon
it, which travels in a cam-formed grooves, formed in the inner face of a
stationary cam T, which is held in the drum head upon the axle H, and is
prevented from turning by a square hub, which is retained in the box U on
the carriage frame. The form of the cam groove in which the friction wheels
of the cranks traverse is such that the rock shafts to which the diggers are
secured rock in succession the extent requisite to cause the blades when
penetrating the earth to follow as nearly as is desirable in the tracks of their
entering edges or points as the digging cylinder rolls forward. After the
diggers have penetrated, their crank wheels reach a portion of the groove
which is concentric with the axis of the digging cylinder. At this part of the
cam the groove approaches the rim so closely that the ends of the cranks bear
against the interior perimeter of the drum head, so that the crank pins are
relieved of the strain caused by the raising of the soil by the diggers as the
digging cylinder continues to roll forward.. In the machine represented there
are two cam blocks, one in each drum head, and the cranks of one half the
series of rock shafts are controlled by one cam block, while those of the
remaining half are controlled by the other cam block; by this division of
the cranks into two alternating sets space is obtained in the drum heads to
receive cranks of sufficient strength.
In order to break effectually the slices or clods which are pried off and
raised by the diggers in their revolution a set of cleansers are employed. In
the horse machine represented in the Drawings each of these cleansers
consists of a bar of metal V, which is secured at its hinder extremity to the
hinder cross bar W of the carriage, and projects forwards beside the adjacent
series of diggers, at the same time inclining downwards until its front
extremity nearly touches the cylinder of rock shaft. As these cleansers extend
in close proximity with the diggers, the slices or clods raised by the latter as
they rise in rotation are broken by contact with the cleansers, are also detached
from the diggers and fall into the trench.

page_text: In the machine thus far described the diggers have the form of flat curved
spades, but diggers having the form of the prongs of forks may be used in the
same combination. I have also described the cams T as held in fixed positions
to the frame of the machine, but the hubs of these cams may be made
cylindrical so as to turn in their boxes, and they may be fitted with levers
controlled by winches or other means, so that the conductor of the machine
may adjust the positions of the cams as he may deem expedient to vary the
angular movement of the diggers.
take
upon
The machine thus far described is constructed to be drawn by horses; when
however steam power is to be employed to propel the machine I apply the power
to the digging cylinder, so that the diggers perform the double purpose of digging
and acting as drivers. Advantage is thus taken of the secure hold which they
the ground to secure the propulsion of the machine. An example
of a digging locomotive constructed on this principle is represented in part at
Figures 5 and 6. In this example the diggers c; c, c, are fixed to the digging
cylinder D, and their blades are curved sufficiently to cause them to penetrate
the soil point foremost. The steam engines E, E, are located at the opposite
sides of the main frame of the machine in such positions that, their connecting
rods t, t, are applied to cranks a, a; located at the ends of the shaft. of the
digging cylinder, which in this example is, fast to said cylinder. Hence the
movement of the steam engines causes the digging cylinder to revolve in a
manner analogous to the driving wheels of an ordinary locomotive engine, and
as the diggers in penetrating take a firm hold of the soil, the latter is not
only dug but the machine is propelled forward with certainty and without
material slip.
In the digging locomotive represented the cleansers V are constructed to
revolve upon an axle, and they have the form of the diggers, but are set upon
their axle in reversed positions. As these cleansers intervene between the
diggers the slices or clods of earth raised by the latter and projecting laterally
from them strike the cleansers, and cause the whole series to revolve, and as
in this revolution the diggers and cleansers, are drawn from each other after
passing above the plane of their axes of revolution, the slices and clods are
broken and disengaged from the diggers, and are permitted to fall into the
trench. As this disengagement of the clods.takes place first at the inner ends
of the diggers where the upper portion of the original soil is, this portion falls
first into the trench, so that the soil left by the digger is not only dug but
reversed.
In the machine represented the hinder carrying wheels and their appur-
tenances have been removed to show the remainder more clearly. These

page_text: hinder wheels are arranged on a separate crank axle in such manner that
when the carriage is raised upon them, for the purpose of lifting the diggers
from the ground, the peripheries of the carrying wheels are brought into
contact with the peripheries of the drum heads of the digging cylinder, so that
the turning of the digging cylinder by the engines causes the carrying wheels
which then become the driving wheels of the digging locomotive to revolve.
By this arrangement and combination the necessity of a special connection of
the engines with the carrying wheels to cause the machine to progress when
it is not digging is dispensed with.
In the machine represented the revolving cleansers are constructed to be
revolved by contact with the earth raised by the diggers; if deemed necessary;
gearing may be employed to insure their rotation by the engines, and this
gearing may be arranged to cause the cleansers to move faster or slower than
the diggers if such an arrangement be deemed desirable.
The boiler of the digging locomotive should be mounted on the part of the
carriage which is between the steam cylinders, and the machine should be
fitted with a tank to carry the supply of water, and an injector or a small force
pump to feed it to the boiler. The leading wheels B', B', of the locomotive
are mounted upon vertical spindles, so that they can be turned to vary the
course of the locomotive; this turning is readily effected by securing a
segment of a cog wheel to each spindle, and arranging the teeth of these
segments to engage with those of an intermediate pinion, by turning which the
two leading wheels can be turned simultaneously in the proper directions to
cause the locomotive to turn to the right or left as it progresses. The
turning of the intermediate pinion may be effected by a worm wheel and
screw.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twelfth day of September, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
GEO. T. BOUSFIELD. (L.S.)