Improvements in or in connection with Threshing Machines.
Year: 1894

page_text: Date of Application, 4th June, 1894-Accepted, 7th July, 1894
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in or in connection with Threshing Machines.
We, FRANZ KOмMNICK and FERDINAND BERTRAM both of Neustadt, near
Pinne, in the Empire of Germany, Manufacturers, do hereby declare the nature of
this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed to be particularly
described and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Hitherto it has not been possible with the aid of any of the usual known types
of threshing machines to obtain the seed from clover and the like plants at one
operation; the usual mode of proceeding being to first thresh off the clover heads
from the clover stalks and then to remove the seeds from the clover heads by
causing the latter to pass repeatedly through special devices called "clover rubbers."
This occupies a great deal of time and often the seed is damaged by this repeated
operation (rubbing etc.) thereon.
Now these drawbacks are obviated by the present invention which relates to a
threshing machine by means of which not only corn can be threshed and cleaned
ready for the market but also clover seed can be threshed from the stalks or straw
and can be at the same time husked and cleaned without the necessity of re-passing
the clover pods again and again through the machine and without damaging the
seed.
The new apparatus can be readily adapted to or used in conjunction with existing
types of threshing machine to which same may be applicable.
Fig. 1 of the accompanying drawings illustrated (diagrammatically) the general
arrangement of the new apparatus.
Below the ordinary threshing drum a and below the shaking tray & there is
arranged a special drum i with casing h forming the device by means of which the
clover heads that have been threshed off in the upper drum are rubbed or treated
so as to extract the seed out of the pods as hereinafter set forth.
Fig. 2 is a local view illustrating our apparatus on a larger scale. In the shaking
bottom or tray 6 and at the lowest part thereof is a kind of double flap c c which
consists of two halves joined together or abutting at an obtuse angle (or it may be
a bent plate of corresponding form) and adapted to pivot about a hinge d the said
flap being so arranged that when the one part e closes the opening e the other
part ex allows of free passage through the opening f and vice-versa.
The opening f is to be closed when clover is being treated and e is to be closed
when corn is treated.
Now if the opening f be closed up by means of the flap c* and clover is fed to
the threshing machine the consequence will be that the clover heads falling upon
the shaking tray b will pass through the open aperture e on to the tray g and thence
into the apparatus h i.
From the latter the rubbed out clover passes through the lower aperture k of the
said casing along the tray through another aperture m on to the sieve h and
thence into the sieve box o.
In place of a movable angle flap such as c ex pivotted at the point d-a single
flap (Fig. 3) pivotting at the point d' may be employed; said flap c' being
capable of being turned to the right or to the left hand to close either the inlet for
clover e or that for corn f and open the inlet for e respectively. In this case two
guiding boards g' g' for clover and for corn respectively must be provided fixed to
the shaking tray 6 instead of the flap c c* serving as guiding boards as in the
arrangement illustrated in Figs. 1 & 2.

page_text: The practical construction and arrangement of this apparatus will depend on the
circumstances of each case particularly where it is a question of altering existing
threshing machines with the object of applying the present invention thereto.
When corn is to be threshed the drum i of the clover rubbing apparatus is kept
stationary or stopped and the flap c is turned so as to close the aperture e.
The threshed corn, now passes as in every other threshing machine from the
shaking tray b on to the lower sieve bottom p and thence as usual over the sieve n into
the sieve box o and the state of things is just as if the entire clover seed extracting
apparatus were not present in the machine.
The aperture m through which the rubbed out clover passes on leaving the clover
seed extracting device may if desired be specially closed (by any suitable means
provided for this purpose). when corn is to be threshed but this is not absolutely
necessary.
This apparatus may be fitted to all threshing machines adapted to receive same
whether said machines are driven by steam power or otherwise.
Many threshing machines already in existence can be subsequently fitted with
the apparatus hereinbefore described with greater or less ease according to the
type of construction of such machines. The said apparatus may also be employed
to treat other kinds of plants such as for instance poppy-plants which require
subjecting to the same or similar treatment as in the case of clover.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of our said inven-
tion and in what manner the same is to be performed we declare that what we
claim is :-
1. The combination with an ordinary threshing machine of a clover seed
extracting apparatus fixed under the shaking tray or bottom such apparatus
consisting of an angle flap such as c c* adapted to pivot about a hinge so as either
to direct the clover heads (that have been threshed off in the threshing drum) into
a rubbing apparatus such as hi or to guide the coru (that has been threshed out in
the same drum) on to the sieve bottom p for the purpose of enabling as desired
either corn to be threshed or clover to be threshed and rubbed out in the same
machine substantially as and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.
2. In a machine as claimed in above Claim 1-the arrangement and combination
therewith of a single flap c¹ and guide boards g' instead of the angle flap c c*
substantially in the manner and for the purposes hereinbefore set forth.
3. In a machine such as claimed in above Claim 1 the arrangement of the inlet
and outlet boards g
1 for the clover seed extracting apparatus adapted to allow the
clover heads to pass without hindrance into the clover seed extracting apparatus
and the clover seed etc. to pass out from said apparatus to the sieve and sieve box
substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein before set forth.
4. A machine to either thresh corn only or instead thereof to thresh clover or
the like and extract the seed thereof arranged constructed combined and acting
substantially in the manner and for the purposes herein before described and
illustrated in the drawings hereunto annexed.
Dated this 4th day of June 1894.
TONGUE & BIRKBECK,
34, Southampton Buildings, Chancery Lane, London, W.C.,
Agents for the Applicants.