IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR RAISING AND STACKING STRAW AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to. William Barford, of Peterboro', in the County
of Northampton, and Thomas Perkins, of Hitchin, in the County
of Hertford, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR
RAISING AND STACKING STRAW AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE."
Sealed the 28th August 1868, and dated the 29th February 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Barford
and Thomas Perkins at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 29th February 1868.
We, WILLIAM BARFORD, of Peterboro', in the County of Northampton,
and THOMAS PERKINS, of Hitchin, in the County of Hertford, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR RAISING AND STACKING STRAW AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE," to be as
follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in what under a
variety of forms are known as straw or corn elevators. These machines
as generally constructed are well adapted for use either in connection.

page_text: with a threshing machine or for driving by manual power, but when
driven by horse power, as is usually done during hay time and harvest,
an inconvenience is experienced arising from the necessity of placing
the horse gear on one side of the machine, involving the occupation of
much space and "great loss of time in fixing. Our improvements
obviate these impediments to its use by combining the ordinary and
well-known machine with one for which a Patent was granted to John
Coleman, junior, on the 11th October 1860 (No. 2481). This is effected
by the use of suitable framing to which are attached racks and pinions,
screws and nuts, or other known mode of raising or lowering the whole
machine, so that if the machine be at its lower point it is at a suitable
height for receiving the straw from a threshing machine, whilst if the
machine be raised to its higher one it admits of motion being given to it
by a horse working underneath it, while hay, corn, or other agricultural
The horse
produce may be placed upon it from a cart or otherwisc.
gear may either be wholly supported by the machine being fixed upon
it and moving with it, as in Coleman's, or it may be separate, resting
entirely on the ground when in use, with a means of slinging it to the
machine for convenience of removal; or it may be partly-fixed to the
machine and partly rest upon the ground when in use, but folding or
sliding for the purpose of travelling. The machine when in use rests on
its own travelling wheels or upon struts, legs, or framing, which may be
attached to the machine, the travelling wheels being removed.
In order also that apparatus for raising and stacking straw and other
agricultural produce may readily be moved from one stack to another,
close alongside of it, and generally to facilitate the moving of such
machines to any desired spot, we mount each of the wheels, by which the
machine is supported; like castor wheels, so that the wheels are free
to turn in any direction; the machine may thus be readily pushed
sidewise for short distances. When the apparatus is to be moved
long distances, then the vertical axes which carry the pins- or axes
of the wheels are locked to prevent, them-turning independently.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent
filed by the said William Barford and Thomas Perkins in the
Great Scal Patent Office on, the 29th. August 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, WILLIAM
BARFORD, of Peterboro', in the County of Northampton, and THOMAS
PERKINS, of Hitchin, in the County of Hertford, send greeting.
WHEREAS. Her inost Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date. the. Twenty-ninth day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the
thirty-first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said William Barford and Thomas Perkins,
Her special licence that we, the said.. William Barford and Thomas
Perkins, our exccutors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as
we, the said William Barford and Thomas Perkins, our executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others, from time to time and 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
APPARATUS FOR RAISING AND STACKING STRAW AND OTHER AGRICULTURAL PRODUCE,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said William Barford
and Thomas Perkins, our exccutors. or. administrators, by an instrument
in writing under our or their hands and seals, or under the hand
and seal of one of us.or them, should particularly describe and ascertain
the nature of the said Luvention, 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 we, the said William Barford and Thomas-
Perkins,.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, that is to say:-
This Invention, has for its object improvements in what under a
variety of forms are known as straw or corn elevators. These machines
as generally constructed are well adapted for use either in connection
with a threshing machine or. for driving by manual power; but when.

page_text: driven by horse power as is usually done during hay time and harvest,
an inconvenience is experienced arising from the necessity of placing
the horse gear on one side of the machine, involving the occupation of
much space and great loss of time in fixing. Our improvements
obviate these impediments to its use by combining the parts so that
the machine may either be worked and used like the ordinary and well
known machine, or like one for which a Patent was granted to John
Coleman, junior, on the 11th October 1860 (No. 2481). This is effected
by the use of suitable framing to which are attached racks and pinions,
screws and nuts, or other known mode of raising or lowering the whole
machine, so that if the machine be at its lower point it is at a suitable.
height for receiving the straw from a threshing machine, whilst if
the machine be raised to its higher one, it admits of motion being given
to it by a horse working underneath it while hay, corn, or other
agricultural produce may be placed upon it from a cart or otherwise.
The horse gear may either be wholly supported by the machine being.
fixed upon it and moving with it as in Coleman's, or it may be separate,.
resting entirely on the ground when in use with a means of slinging.
it to the machine for convenience of removal, or it may be partly fixed
to the machine and partly rest upon the ground when in use but
folding or sliding for the purpose of travelling.
And in order that our said Invention may be most fully understood
and readily carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the Drawings

page_text: locked to prevent them turning independently. The machine when in
use may rest on its own travelling wheels, or the travelling wheels
being removed, struts, legs, or framing may be attached to the machine.
Over the axle of the fore wheels a locking frame is provided similar
to that of a waggon, and shafts are here attached; over the locking
frame is a horizontal beam c to which the two uprights d, d, are
firmly fixed, and similar uprights d, d, are fixed to the axle of the
hinder wheels; c, d, are racks fixed on the uprights d; e is a
rectangular frame capable of sliding up and down on the uprights d,
the frame having guides e¹, e', upon it through which the uprights
pass; es, es, are other similar guides carried by the frame e at a distance
above the guides e¹ to give sufficient steadiness to the motion of the
frame on the uprights; ff, are worms, of which there are two at
opposite corners of the frame, their axes are carried in bearings formed
in the same casting with the guides e¹ which also carry the bearings of
the axes g; g¹ are worm wheels on the axes g gearing with the worms f;
and g, g, are pinions on the same axes working into the racks d', so
that by turning the axes of the worms f by means of crank handles
applied to them, the frame e and the parts which it carries may bc
raised or lowered. As it is shown in the Drawings the frame e is in
its highest position, and horse gear can then work beneath it and drive
the elevating chain which is at a suitable height to receive hay or other
crop as it is discharged from a cart. When the frame e is in its
lowest position it rests upon brackets or ledges d², d, on the uprights d,
and the machine may then be driven from a thrashing machine in the
usual way, and the lower end of the endless elevating chain is at a
suitable height for receiving the straw as the thrashing machine delivers
it; is the guide trough in which the elevating chain works, it is
made in two parts jointed at ', and at its lower end it is supported
from the frame e by centres on which it is able to turn. The lower
end of the trough his received between fence boards e³ on the frame e
which with the trough form a sort of hopper into which the crop
is fed; i is the endless clevating chain, it consists as is usual of two
side chains 2, 2, connected together by laths 3, 3, and passing around
pulleys k, k, and 1, 1, at the ends of the guide trough h. The pulleys
k, k, at the lower end are fast on an axis passing through the centres -
of the guide trough, and this axis has a belt pulley upon it so that
it is capable when the frame is in its lowest position of being driven
from a thrashing machine in the usual way. When the frame e is

page_text: raised the axis of the pulleys k is driven by a belt passing. to a
pulley m, having on its axis which is carried by the frame e, a pinion n
gcaring with a spur wheel o; o' is: a bevilled pinion on the same
axis with the wheel o and gearing with the bevilled wheel 2 on the
vertical axis p¹ which at its lower end steps into a foot q consisting
of a cross frame of wood with a metal socket upon it to receive the
end of the axis. The cross frame may be attached to the ground by
metal spikes; is a pole fixed to the axis p', a horse is harnessed to
it who by working around the axis p¹ drives the machine. The upper
end of the axis p¹ is carried in a bearing in the castings which at
its ends is mounted in bearings on the frame c. On one side thé
arm of the casting s is made tubular, and it serves as the bearing of
the axis of the wheels o and o. This arrangement admits of the
horse gear being folded for travelling in the manner shown at Figure 3,
the pole is detached, the frame e is slightly raised so as to lift
the foot of the axis p¹ out of the socket in the foot q, and the axis
is then free to be raised into the position which Figure 3. indicates.
In place of these arrangements the axis p¹ may be made telescopic.
The guide trough is raised to the required inclination for work or
lowered down for travelling by means of ropes attached at one
end to the trough at ³ and passing over sheaves at the top of the
masts 2.
At their other ends the ropes t have blocks & fixed to them
through which ropes 20 are rove. The ropes wat one end are attached
to the frame e, and at the other are received on to the windlass
barrels carried by the same frame. The windlasses are turned by
crank handles, and so the trough is raised and lowered as required.
The ropes t, it will be observed, are hitched under projections /³ on
the guidè trough; these are the points from which the trough hangs
as it is raised or lowered and whilst in action; but in packing up the
machine for travelling after the trough has been lowered the ropes t
are cleared from the projection ³ and the joint being unlocked
the ropes are used in folding the two parts of the trough / over
the one on the other. The masts are connected with the uprights d
by centres, and they are also when in use clamped to them by
the clamping screws u². For travelling these masts fold down hori-
zontally along the sides of the machine; y, y, are moveable stays which
are applied when the apparatus is set up for use with horse gear.
Having thus described the nature of our Invention, and the manner
of performing the same, we would have it understood that what we

page_text: claim is, the arranging apparatus for raising and stacking straw and
other agricultural produce in such manner that the frame which carries
the elevating chain and the parts in connection therewith may be
raised and lowered on its carriage, the arrangements being also such
that when the frame is raised horse driving gear may be worked beneath
it, and when the frame is lowered that the machine may in the
usual way receive the straw from a thrashing machine and be driven
thereby.
In witness whereof, we, the said William Barford and Thomas
Perkins, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-fifth
day of August, in the year of our Lord One thousand cight
hundred and sixty-eight.
WILLIAM BARFORD. (L.S.)
THOMAS PERKINS.
(L.S.)