A POTATOE PLANTING MACHINE
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Eduard Tempelhoff, of Dombrówka, near Posna,
in the Kingdom of Prussia, Proprietor, for the Invention of "A
POTATOE PLANTING MACHINE."
Sealed the 16th March 1869, and dated the 18th September 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Eduard Tempelhoff
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 18th September 1868.
I, EDUARD TEMPELHOFF, of Dombrówka, near Posna, in the
Kingdom of Prussia, Proprietor, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention for "A POTATOE PLANTING MACHINE," to be as follows:-
This invention relates to an improved machine for planting potatoes,
and consists of a series of "elevators" or "Jacob's ladders" mounted
on a suitable frame carried on wheels, the said elevator or Jacob's
ladders conducting the potatoes from the hoppers to the planting tubes
in regular succession, as hereafter described. The hinder part of the
frame consists of iron girders or baulks of wood strengthened by trans-
verse girders or baulks and supported at the rear by a pair of wheels.

page_text: From one of the transverse beams near the centre of the length of the
frame project a pair of shear legs, their ends terminating in an angle
over the centre of the shaft of the leading wheels and being supported
thereon by means of a pin passing through a socket fixed at or near
the angle produced by the shear legs, the said pin serving as a pivot
on which the driving shaft and its wheels may be partially rotated to
guide the machine. Also a link with a hook attached passes through
the said shear legs, to which hook a horse or other animal may be
harnessed, or the apparatus may be driven by a windlass and steam
power if preferred.
.
It will be observed that before this apparatus is used the field should
be ploughed; and small ploughshares, which may be swung up when
the machine is passing from one field or place to another, are fixed
to the shaft or other convenient position and pass in front of the lead-
ing wheels, thus clearing a passage for them through the ridges and
preventing the unsteadiness that would otherwise arise from the
machine passing over the said ridges. The machine may be fitted
with three or more elevators, each elevator planting a separate row of
potatoes, so that several rows can be planted at the same time. At
the rear end of the machine are hoppers working on a hinge fixed to
the frame of the machine into which the potatoes to be planted are
placed, and are emptied therefrom at intervals into troughs or channels
by raising the rear ends of the said hoppers and causing them to be
tilted forward on their hinges. The said troughs or channels are placed
directly over and parallel with the elevators, so that on the potatoes being
emptied therein each of the "steps" or "buckets" on the elevators
catches one potatoe and carries it forward. The chains of buckets
are arranged in a triangle and are each supported upon three wheels, the
two forward wheels revolving upon pivots secured to the frame, and the
hind wheel revolving on and being driven by the shaft of the trailing
wheels of the machine. When required, however, the shaft can be
unclutched from the wheels by any well known means, so that the
chain of buckets will not be set in motion thereby. When the
potatoes have arrived over the highest wheel on which the chain of
buckets is carried they descend with the buckets in an almost perpen-
dicular line, being prevented from falling out by a series of rods
placed around and in close proximity to them, and on arriving at the
lowest point where-the buckets are inverted they fall into a small

page_text: hopper where they are retained, and afterwards liberated by a cam
working on a beam of wood or iron pivotted to a convenient part of
the frame. To the said cam is attached the planting tube, having at
either side plates of tin or other suitable material bent at their lower
ends into a cylindrical form, so that when they pass over the ridges they,
together with the planting tube, are forced upwards whilst the cam
on the other side of the pivot is forced downwards, thus allowing oue
potatoe to fall to the lowest part of the small hopper above mentioned,
from which it is prevented from escaping by the curved form of the
said hopper, until on reaching the succeeding furrow the planting.
tube descends, raises the cam, and thereby pushes the potatoe into
the planting tube, from which it falls into its proper position in the
furrow and is covered over with mould by a ploughshare fixed at the
rear end of the machine. Baskets are hung near the ends of the
troughs or channels and under the small feeding hopper to catch
any surplus potatoes that the chain of buckets may have carried with
them. Between each series of elevators are props or supports which
pass through the ridges and serve to set the frame carrying the planting
gear at any required height from the ground.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Eduard Tempelhoff in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 18th March 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, EDUARD
TEMPELHOFF, of Dombrowka, near Posna, in the Kingdom of Prussia,
Proprietor, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of September, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in
the thirty-second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Eduard Tempelhoff, Her
special licence that I, the said Eduard Tempelhoff, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as: I, the said Eduard
Tempelhoff, 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

page_text: ·
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 "A POTATOE PLANTING MACHINE," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Eduard Tempelhoff, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under 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 the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Eduard Tempelhoff, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and, in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement, reference being had to the accompanying
Sheet of Drawings (that is to say):
-
This Invention consists of a new contrivance for planting potatoes,
which operation having been hitherto performed by manual labour
involved great expense and loss of time. By my system three rows of
potatoes are planted simultaneously, but so that they form regular
squares. The work is by this means rapidly completed, numerous hands
being dispensed with, and the Invention admits of the possibility of
covering the potatoes in two directions, crossing each other. The
machine itself rests chiefly on the hind part of a carriage and is
connected by shears by means of a clutch with a fore part to direct the
course of the machine. Three parallel rows of elevating apparatus are
united perpendicularly at their longitudinal axes and convey the single
potatoes from the principal receptacle into the actual planting apparatus
or planting pipe close to the soil, whence they can drop singly at any
desired intervals. The potatoes thus planted are then covered by a
plough attached to the hind part of the apparatus. As the machine
plants three rows of potatoes simultaneously there must evidently be
three sets of the elevating apparatus and their appendages, but one of

page_text: A is the fore part of the carriage for guiding the machine. Attached
to it are two arms b, b, united at q, and forming an oblong eye into which
the hook r engages, which latter may be revolved by the bar s, s, round
the vertical bolt when required. The machine when working is
guided by the bar 8, 8. a, a, are small ploughshares which divide
rectangularly the ridges of the furrows (and it will be understood that
previous to planting the field must be furrowed), and thereby produce
even ruts and a steady movement of the hind part of the carriage.
When the machine is being transported or turned the said ploughshares
arc raised so as not to be in the way. The hook p serves to draw the
whole apparatus. The hind frame B of the machine with the chief part
of the apparatus is combined with the fore part thereof by shears F, F,
which are maintained in position by a pin placed in the opening of
the bolt. The fore wheels c, c, of the hind frame, which may be
regulated as desired by means of the rack d to which their axle is
attached, determine the distance the planting apparatus (herein-after
described) is to be lowered. When the machine is drawn by the hook p
straight across the furrowed field its fore wheels c, c, move along the
ruts formed by the ploughshares a, a, but the cylindrical pieces k, k,
bend backwards as soon as they encounter any ridge and have tho
position marked in dotted lines in Figure 3. The potatoes are contained
in, the box G, wherein two three-cornered strips x, x, form a channel in
which one elevator works. The said elevator turns on the two pivots
n, o, and the pivot w fixed to the hind axle, and is set in motion by the
apparatus shown in Fig. 4, which is placed on the axle, and when the
catch held by springs is put on forces the said axle u, the pivot w, and
therefore the elevators, to follow the revolving motion of the wheels.
These elevators convey the potatoes in the boxes m, m, along the
channel to the point D, where the strips x, x, terminate and where a
narrow tin slip prevents the potatoes from falling out; the others,
separated by the elevators, fall over the tin slip back into the box.
From D to the potatoes between the boxes are kept in their position
by the bars 2, 2, and slide into the tubes or channels h, h, which are
supplied with slots geared into by the cogs g, which by their per-
pendicular position prevent the potatoes from falling out at h. The
cogs are fixed to a strip f revolving on the pivot 7, and a rotary
motion can therefore be imparted to them when required. Attached
to the stripfis also the planting tube e and the bolts G, G, and near
the middle planting pipe there are two pieces K, K, bent cylindrically

page_text: at the lower end (see Fig. 1). The stripf, f, with its cogs, tubes, &c.
having attained the position marked in dotted lines in Figure 3, the cog g
lets go its hold of the channel h, h, and so allows the potatoe to roll
as far as g, where it is stopped by a lid formed of a steel spring and
fixed to the axle of the octagon pivot o. The position of these parts
marked in dotted lines is regulated according to the size of the ridges
of the furrows, which when encountered by the part K cause the tube e
to rise, and the strip f with the cog g and bolt G to sink. The machine
moves on, and in the succeeding furrow between the ridges the tube
regains a vertical position, the bolts G, G, open the lid y, and the cog g
again gearing in the tube h, h, conducts a potatoe out of into the
tube e, down which it descends and is deposited into the furrow (see the
position of these parts marked black in Fig. 3). At i, i, there is a
piece of sacking hanging in the form of a bag to receive all the
superfluous potatoes from the elevators. The quantity of potatoes
supplied by the said elevators evidently depends on the diameter of the
hind wheels H, and is so calculated as to slightly exceed the quantity
required, lest any part of the soil should be omitted, as might be the
case if there were no superfluous potatoes between the boxes m, m, and
to cover the potatoes when planted there are two ploughshares E, E,
fixed at B to the hind frame of the carriage.
Having now described the nature and particulars of my said Invention,
I claim, the construction of the machine for planting potatoes according
to the principles laid down in this Specification and illustrated in the
accompanying Sheet of Drawings, and particularly the mechanism of 2
the channel h, h, with the lid y, y, the cog with the strip f, the
bolt G of the tube e and the part K, and I do not confine myself to any
material or construction of the said machine.
In witness whereof, I, the said Eduard Tempelhoff, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Eleventh day of March, in the year of 3
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine.