MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DIGGING AND CULTIVATING LAND
Year: 1859

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PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Wilhelm Adolphe Von. Kanig at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
1st January 1859.
I, WILHELM ADOLPHE VON KANIG, of Leipsic, in the Kingdom of Saxony,
Gentleman, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR DIGGING AND CULTIVATING LAND," to be
as follows:
mover.
i
This Invention relates to certain arrangements, whereby mechanical diggers
or workers are contrived for digging up, working, and cultivating land under
various circumstances under the operative power of steam, or other available
As fitted up for working by steam power, the machinery consists of
three parts, the actuating steam engine with its appurtenances, the actual dig-
ging or working apparatus, and the traversing movement for the forward con-
veyance of the machine. The engine and boiler is of the ordinary locomotive
or agricultural class, set upon a long frame carried by four grond wheels,
which may or may not be arranged with jointed or linked rail pieces to form a
continuous railway for the machine to pass over the ground by. The crank
or first motion shaft actuates a train of gearing working a transverse horizontal
shaft carrying cams or eccentric pieces, which operate upon open frame pieces,
one at each side of the main framing. These frame pieces carry detents or
catches gearing with ratchet teeth upon or in connection with the after pair of
ground wheels. In this way the cams being formed to suit the machine is
impelled forward when at work with a step-by-step motion over the land, a

page_text: pause being made at each turn of the cams to allow of the digging action
going on properly. The same, train. of gearing also actuates another shaft at
the back end of the framing; which shaft also carries cams working in open
frames for the actuation of the diggers.. These diggers are in the form of
spades set side by side across the machine to the intended width, each spade
being attached to a lower cross shaft, working in bearings carried by a pair
of the open frame pieces actuated by cams, so as to have an up-and-down
vertical motion in suitable guides for putting the spades into and taking them
out of the earth. The shaft on which the spades turn also carries curved arms,
against which other cams are made to work so as to turn the spades upwards
upon their shaft as a centre.
In this way one set of cams raises and lowers the spades in a vertical line,
and the other working in combustion with them, turns the spades upwards
to throw the earth over. These combined motions effectually dig up the earth,
and the loosened surface is then raked over and levelled by a mechanical
leveller at the extreme after end of the machine.
This raker consists of a set of teeth carried by pendant lever arms from a
shaft or moveable support above, adjustable as to height. The same shaft
which actuates the digging cams also carries cranks with connecting rods, for
causing these raking teeth to vibrate, and in this way they are passed back
and. forward over the loosened earth, so that the machine leaves it well.
levelled. The machine is steered at the front end by a. hand. wheel and chain,
barrel, the chain from which is connected at each end to a forward. central.
lever piece connected with the travelling frame and vertical. spindle of, the
front pair of wheels. This machine or, modifications of it may also be used
for excavating.