IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR REAPING, MOWING, AND DELIVERING DRY OR GREEN CROPS
Year: 1852

page_text: TO ALL TO
HOM
DHALI
GEORGE STACEY, of Uxbridge, in the County of Middlesex, Engineer
and Machinist, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster the Twenty-fourth day of January in the fifteenth year of
Her reign, did give and grant unto me, the said George Stacey, my exe-
cutors, administrators, and assigns, Her special licence, full power, sole
privilege, and authority, that I, the said George Stacey, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said George Stacey,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree
with, and no others, from time to time and at all times hereafter during
the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might make,
use, exercise, and vend, within that part of the United Kingdom of
Great Britain and Ireland called England, Wales, and the town of
Berwick upon Tweed, and in the Islands of Jersey, Guernsey, Alderney,
Sark, and Man, and in all Her Majesty's Colonies and Plantations
abroad, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR REAPING,
MOWING, AND DELIVERING DRY OR GREEN CROPS;" in which said Letters
Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said George Stacey, shall par-
ticularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing

page_text: under my hand and seal, to be enrolled in Her Majesty's High Court
of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately after
the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as, reference being
thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
George Stacey, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention,
and the manner in which the same is to be performed and carried into
effect, is fully set forth and described according to the aforesaid requi-
sitions in manner following, having reference to the explanatory drawings
thereof hereunto annexed; that is to say, my said Invention, intituled as
aforesaid, for improvements in machinery, for reaping, mowing, and de-
livering dry or green crops, relates to the construction and action of reap-
ing machines for reaping crops of wheat and other grain or straw, and
for cutting grass and other green crops; and consists,-First, in the
construction and arrangement of parts composing a machine for perform-
ing the operation of cutting the straw or stalk of the grain, and the grass
or other green crops, close to or at a small distance from the surface of
the ground, according to the ordinary practice of reaping such said crops;
and also of gathering together, placing, and delivering the produce so
cut in a state of perservation for the binding the same into sheaves, or
otherwise, as the nature or the condition of the crop may require. In
the drawing No. 1, hereunto annexed, Figure 1, represents in a hori-
zontal plan a geometrical view of such machine, under the forms and
arrangements I adopt in my construction. The Figure 2, of the draw-
ing No. 1, represents a side or profile view of the same,
the same parts
being respectively marked with the same letters of reference. A, the
framework of the machine, which I prefer being made of metal, because
being lighter and of capability to be more accurately brought into the
forms suited to the requirements of the machine than if of wood, as
generally employed in the construction of agricultural implements
upon this framework is mounted the bearing wheel B, by which, and in
combination with a second bearing wheel B', of smaller dimensions fixed
at the end of the reaping and cutting frame, the entire weight of the
machine is supported; the bearings of these wheels are adjustable at
pleasure, so as to regulate the height at which the operation of the reap-

page_text: ing or cutting takes place from the surface of the land. Upon the shaft
or axis of the bearing wheel B, is fixed the spur wheel C, gearing unto
and giving motion to the pinion C', by which and through the action
of the bevel wheel and pinion D, the shaft D', is made to revolve; the
end of this shaft is cranked, and by means of a connecting-rod E, a rapid
alternate back-and-forward or vibratory motion is given to the bar F;
to this vibrating bar F, and at equal distances thereon, a series of cutter-
blades G, G, G, &c. are attached, and they are attached by and they
move freely upon pins or studs (marked x, x, x, x, &c. in the Figure 1,
of the drawing No. 1,) at their inner extremities or the ends opposite
their front or cutting edges. These cutter-blades G, G, G, &c. also
are arranged upon the frame-bar H, by their respective centres,
and are attached thereto at those centres also by pins or studs,
marked y, y, on which they can severally and simultaneously be
freely moved; they are placed at equal distances apart, and in
the equal intervals between them are placed as fulcra the fixed
or stationery blades I, I, &c. These latter are immoveably fixed
upon the frame-bar H, and having their cutting edges projecting
forwards frame the frame-bar to the same extent as the moveable cutter-
blades G, G, G, &c. Thus, as the cutting-blades G, G, G, &c. are
made to vibrate, the cutting edges of the blades G, G, G, &c. pass the
cutting edges of the fixed or stationary blade II, &c. both to their right
or left sides, after the manner of ordinary scissors or shears; each of the
cutting-blades I, I, &c. is thus fixed and immoveable, and each of the
vibratory cutter-blades G, G, G, &c., becomes a lever of the first order,
having its moving power at one of the points a, on the vibrating bar F,
its fulcrum at one of the centres 2, 2, 2, &c. and the weight to be moved,
or its place of action, at its extremity w. The Figure 3, of the drawing
No. 1, is also a side or profile view of the machine, but taken in its
opposite side; the same parts in this Figure also being respectively marked
with the same letters of reference as in the Figure 2, of the same draw-
ing: The Figure 4, of the drawing No. 1, is a back or hinder view of
the machine, taken from the direction shown in the Figure 1, by the
dotted line X, X: The Figure 5, of the drawing No. 1, is a repetition of

page_text: a portion of the Figure 3, of the same drawing, to show a modified con-
struction of a portion of the machine; thus, in some crops, and in some
conditions of land, I find it advantageous to substitute a sledge bar or
skid S, for the small bearing wheel shown at B', in the Figure 3, of the
drawing No. 1. In this Figure also the same parts shown in the a
Figures 1, 2, and 3, as far as they can be seen in this Figure, are
respectively marked with the same letters of reference as in the Figures
1, 2, and 3. The working action of the machine is performed in the fol-
lowing manner-As the machine progresses over the surface of the land,
the straw of the crop to be cut, or the crop itself, as the case may be,
as it presents itself between the two lines of cutter-blades G, G, G, &c.
and I, I, &c., is cut and reaped, and immediately falls upon and is re-
ceived by an endless and circulating or travelling apron L, which passes
over rollers which are hung and revolve in the frame of the machine;
the edges, sides, or borders of the circulating cloth or apron are attached
to pitch chains moving over such rollers, the rollers themselves being
thus turned by the action of such pitch chains, and the apron so receives
its progressives motion by the action of the connecting-rod by which
the cutter-blades are put in action, and this, by means of a small con-
necting-rod, with click, which, gearing into a ratchet wheel R, set upon
the axis one of the rollers, thus constitutes a self-moving apron, which,
in its operation, I discharge of its contents by any of the ordinary modes
of self-delivery for such apparatus. This method as above described is
one of the methods I employ for the progressive motion of the endless
or travelling apron, and the mode of discharging it, and I also use the
method shown in the Figure 6, of the drawing No. 1. In this the motion
transmitted by the bevel gear shown at M, M, is carried by a shaft N,
to the spur wheel O, which gears into P, fixed on the end of the roller
Q, of the apron. At the extremity of the shaft N, I place a universal
joint R, for the purpose of bringing the shaft N, into the proper direction
for its due action on the wheel O. As the cut produce is thus carried
forward and delivered by the apron, it is received by the suspended frames
or arms O, O, which are hung from the shaft O'; and when a quantity
of produce is thus received or deposited, the arms are elevated by a pro-
jecting pin or stud upon the bearing wheel, and acting as a comb upon

page_text: pre-
a lever or arm upon the shaft O'. P, is one of a pair of ordinary shafts,
to which the horses are attached, or other draught power is applied. In
the drawing No. 2, Figure 1, represents on a larger scale that portion
of the Figure 1, of the drawing No. 1, which includes the cutter-blades
G, G, &c., and I, I, &c., with the vibrating bar H, and has each of its
parts respectively marked with the same letters of reference as in the
Figure 1, of the drawing No. 1. Having thus described the nature of
my said Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed,
I would here have it to be understood, that although I have herein set
forth particular examples and instances of express organizations, in
showing, referring to, and in describing the same, and various arrange-
ments, more or less in detail, of the machinery and apparatus used and
applied by me in carrying out my said Invention, yet I say that I
sent the same in this my specification of the same rather as modes of
elucidation of the principle of construction, and as giving some posetive
modes of organization for those principles of construction, than as ex-
clusively and strictly confining myself to or giving them as the only
definite and positive modes of practical construction in which my In-
vention is to be carried out; but that I claim them generally in the
manner and as they are herein stated, not confining myself to such
precise organizations, such actual combinations, or such definite and
fixed applications, provided the peculiar character of any or either part
of the said Invention or the entirety thereof, in its principle of construc-
tion and practical use, be used, retained, or put in practice under any
change or changes of form and configuration, any transposition of parts,
or any modification thereof whatsoever.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Stacey, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Nineteenth day of July One thousand
eight hundred and fifty-two.
GEORGE STACEY. (L.S.)

page_text: specification aforesaid, and all and everything therein contained and
specified in form above written, and also the specification aforesaid was
stamped according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-second day of July in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-two.