IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PLOUGHING OR CULTIVATING LAND
Year: 1862

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Frederick Roberts and Alexander
Roberts at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 25th January 1862.
We, FREDERICK ROBERTS, of Maiden Newton, and ALEXANDER ROBERTS,
of Frome Vauchurch, both in the County of Dorset, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PLOUGHING
OR CULTIVATING LAND," to be as follows:-
This Invention consists in a carrying frame or carriage mounted on wheels;
the frame being divided into two halves, each half being occupied by a
moveable frame, with its set of ploughs, trench ploughs, or other implements.
At certain points the carriage is provided with toothed racks, and at cor-
responding points in the moveable frame mortices are forged which slide up
and down the toothed racks. By means of an arrangement of spindles,
pinions, worm wheels, and worms actuated by a crank handle and the toothed
racks, the moveable frame with its implements is raised or lowered, the object
being to enable the ploughman to raise one set out of its work, and lower the
other in at the turnings, and to allow him to regulate the depth of their
penetration. A pin may be inserted through the racks, in order that the
weight of the moveable frame and the implements may not fall on the pinions.
The moveable frame is furnished with cross-bars and longitudinal beams,
which slide on the cross-bars for the purpose of regulating the width of the
furrows. The implements are bolted to the longitudinal beams. By pro-
longing these longitudinal beams, and making holes through them, draw hooks
may be inserted therein, whereby we can apply the power of the engine
directly to the moveable frame, if we prefer so to do, or to each longitudinal
beam, and thus draw each plough in the direct line of its work. To guide

page_text: the apparatus a wheel is fitted or keyed on the vertical stem of the copse
that carries the travelling wheels, and gearing with this wheel is a worm
fixed to the end of a short spindle, which is turned by a steering wheel; or,
by lengthening the spindle, the implement may be steered from the other end.
At the steering end. there are two wheels, the larger one is to run in the
furrow, the smaller on the land. The travelling wheels are carried on axles
having vertical stems, which pass upwards through mortices forged at the
end of the axle bar or the front bar of the carriage. The near side wheel
will run in the furrow one way, and return on the ploughed land, and, in
order to raise or lower it there, are extra mortices placed above, and by means
of a screw furnished with a centre point working in a hollow centre on the
top of the vertical stem of the axle the carriage is raised or lowered on the
axle. The upright stems of the axles of the travelling wheels being round,
and placed at the extreme corners of the apparatus, may be turned round in
their mortices, so that by means of suitable levers, or otherwise, the wheels
may be thrown round, the one to the right, and the other to the left; they
will then stand in the same line one with the other, but at right angles to
the line of the implement, or their former position, the advantage of this being
that we can plough close up to the engine or anchor, and then throw the
wheels round as described, and the engine being moved a few feet the plough
is drawn straight across on the fresh ground over its new work without any
difficulty. This apparatus will only require to be shifted on arrival at the
headland every alternate time.
A distinctive feature of the apparatus is its adaptability both to direct and
indirect traction. When it is to be adapted to the traction engine or ropes,
one-half of the implement is detached and removed from the other by the
following means:-The central bar of the carriage, where it is bolted to the
axle bar, has a foot on one side, and an angle piece on the other, and the
axle bar is made in three parts. In removing one half of the implement,
the foot and angle piece are unbolted, and the middle portion of the axle
bar, the angle piece, the whole of the carriage on the right side of its central
bar, together with its moveable frame and set of ploughs, is removed, then by
bringing and bolting together the ends of the remaining portions of the axle,
the implement would be equally capable of travelling as before. At the other
end there is, of course, provision made for detaching.