A NEW AND IMPROVED SELF-ACTING MACHINERY FOR SOWING POTATOES
Year: 1874

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Henri Adrien Bonneville, of the British and
Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Rue de la Chaussée d'Antin, Paris,
France, and 6; Piccadilly, in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent,
for the Invention of "A NEW AND IMPROVED SELF-ACTING MACHINERY
FOR SOWING POTATOES."-A communication from Louis Adrien Couteau,
11
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Henry Adrien
Bonneville at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
his Petition, on the 6th July 1874.
I, HENRI ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent
Offices, 18, Rue de la Chausée d'Antin, Paris, France, and 6, Piccadilly,
in the County of Middlesex, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature
of the said Invention for "A NEW AND IMPROVED SELF-ACTING MACHINERY
FOR SOWING POTATOES," communicated to me by Louis Adrien Couteau,
a person resident at Leouville, France, Agricultor, to be as follows:
This Invention relates to and consists of certain modifications and
:―

page_text: improvements in the construction of the self-acting potato sowing
machine, patented September 8th, 1873, and numbered 2948.
Instead of suspending the plough share d of the Drawings annexed
to the above-mentioned Patent to the bar e articulated with the upright f
mounted on the shaft g worked by the lover h and of the cross piece i
and the two segments guides j, all of which parts are suppressed, the
share is fixed to the cross end bar of an iron frame moving under the
framework of the machine and operated by means of a lever fulcrumed
at the back of the framework, which serves to raise or lower the frame,
and consequently the share, in order to place the latter at any required
height.
Instead of suspending the two shares k of the Drawings of the before-
mentioned Patent to the bars worked by the levers m moving between
the parallel segments o, all which parts are suppressed, the two shares
are fixed to moveable bars in slides formed at the back end of the
moveable iron frame above mentioned, in which slides the said bars are
fixed by means of screw nuts at any required height in order to place
the shares at a suitable elevation.
•
Instead of moving forward and backward the inclined plane u of the
Drawings of the before-mentioned Patent by the moveable frame the
the steel blads v, the shaft x provided with projections, and the spiral
springs y, all which parts are suppressed, the inclined plane is fixed,
and the upper surfaces of the bars which compose it are alternatly flat
and rounded, and the ends of the said bars are curved in order to
surround the lower part of the raising and distributing apparatus.
Instead of the shaft provided with eccentrics z of the Drawings of the
before-mentioned Patent, which are suppressed, three rotary shafts
provided with projecting bent fingers, instead of two only, are used,
being placed at intervals beneath the inclined plane to push the potatoes
forward.
Instead of the single funel or hopper d' of the Drawings of the
before-mentioned Patent of the hinged valve-e' of the lever f', and of
the projections g', all of which are suppressed, the hopper has two or
niore compartments, in each of which successively and alternately a
potato is thrown, and the lower end of this hopper is closed by a rotary
drum provided with openings or hélicoïdal passages directed towards

page_text: the centre of the furrow which correspond to each compartment, and by
which each potato falls into the furrow formed by the ploughshare in
succession and at equal intervals perpendicularly, the potato being pre-
vented from being thrown forward by a flexible sheet iron plate sur-
rounding the front outer part of the drum, and consequently placed in
front of the outlet orifice of each helicoidal passage.
Instead of the pinions j', l', and p' of the toothed wheels and n"
of the endless chains m' and o' of the Drawings of the before-mentioned
Patent, which are suppressed, the rotary movement is transmitted from
the turning axletree of the back wheels of the machine by cog wheels
keyed on the end of the axletree, and by cog wheels keyed on the end
of the axe of the raising or distributing apparatus, as in the patented
machine, by means of two horizontal articulated connecting rods along
each side of the framework, to the shaft on which the cloth forming thie
bottom of the potato recipient is formed, and to the three shafts provided
with bent fingers, and by means of a vertical connecting rod to the axe
of the drum which closes the openings of the hopper.
Instead of the coupling box of the rods q' and r' of the spring s′ of
the lever t' of the Drawings of the above-mentioned Patent, which are
suppressed, the forward motion of the potato recipient is stopped at the
end of its course by a rod fixed on the back side of the said recipient which
turns over on its pivot a catch operating the cog wheel keyed on the
shaft of the cloth which draws forward the recipient, and the motion of
the whole machinery is operated or stopped by means of a lever and a
clutching apparatus placed on the side of the framework which connect
and disconnect the cog wheel keyed on the axletree with with the cog
wheel keyed on the shaft of the raising and distributing apparatus.
At last an extracting apparatus is placed above the latter which
consists of a rotating brush or other suitable contrivance which expels
from the curved points or hooks of the raising apparatus the potatoes
which may would retained between the said points, the extracting
apparatus receiving a rotary motion from the axle of the raising
apparatus by means of a connecting rod.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Henri Adrien Bonneville in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 5th January 1875:
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRI
ADRIEN BONNEVILLE, of the British and Foreign Patent Offices, 18, Rue
de la Chausée d'Antin, Paris, France, and 6, Piccadilly, in the County
of Middlesex, Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixth day of July, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-four, in the thirty-
eighth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, Her special
licence that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, my executors, adminis-
trators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Henri Adrien
Bonneville, 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
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 NEW AND IMPROVED SELF-ACTING MACHINERY FOR SOWING
POTATOES," communicated to me by Louis Adrien Couteau, a person
resident at Leouville, France, Agricultor, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, my executors or ad-
ministrators, 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 Henri Adrien Bonneville, 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 :-
This Invention relates to and consists of certain modifications and

page_text: improvements in the construction of the self-acting potato sowing
machine, patented Sept. 8th, 1873, and numbered 2948.
Instead of suspending the ploughshare d of the Drawings annexed to
the above-mentioned Patent to the bar e articulated with the upright ƒ
mounted on the shaft 9 worked by the lever h, and of the cross piece i
and the two segment guides j, all of which parts are suppressed, the
share is fixed to the cross end bar of an iron frame moving under the
framework of the machine and operated by means of a lever fulcrumed
at the back of the framework which serves to raise or lower the frame,
and consequently the share, in order to place the latter at any required
height.
Instead of suspending the two shares % of the Drawings of the before-
mentioned Patent to the bars I worked by the levers m moving between
the parallel segments o, all which parts are suppressed, the two shares
are fixed to moveable bars in slides formed at the back end of the
moveable iron frame above mentioned, in which slides the said bars are
fixed by means of screw nuts at any required height in order to place
the shares at a suitable elevation.
Instead of moving the inclined plane u of the Drawings of the before-
mentioned Patent backwards and forwards by means of the moveable
frame, the steel blades v, the shaft provided with projections, and the
spiral springs y, all of which parts are suppressed, the inclined plane is
fixed and the upper surfaces of the bars which compose it are alternately
flat and rounded, and the ends of the said bars are curved in order to
surround the lower part of the raising or distributing apparatus.
Instead of the shaft provided with excentrics of the Drawings of the
before-mentioned Patent, which are suppressed, three rotary shafts pro-
vided with bent projecting fingers, instead of only two, are used, being
placed at intervals beneath the inclined plane to push the potatoes
forward.
· Instead of the single funnel or hopper d' of the Drawings of the
before-mentioned Patent, of the hinged valve e', of the lever f', and of
the projections g', all of which parts are suppressed, the hopper has two or
more compartments, in each of which, successively and alternately, a
potato is thrown, and the lower end of this hopper is closed by a rotary

page_text: drum provided with openings or helicoïdal passages directed towards the
centre of the furrow which correspond to each compartment, and by
which each potato falls into the furrow formed by the ploughshare in
succession, and at equal intervals perpendicularly, the potato being pre-
vented from being thrown forward by a flexible sheet-iron plate sur-
rounding the front outer part of the drum, and consequently placed in
front of the outlet orifice of each helicoidal passage.
Instead of the pinions j', l', and p' of the toothed wheels k' and 'n' of
the endless chains m' and o' of the Drawings of the before-mentioned
Patent, which are suppressed, the rotary movement is transmitted from
the twining axletree of the back wheels of the machine by cog wheels
keyed on the end of the axletree, and by cog wheels keyed on the end of
the axis of the raising or distributing apparatus, as in the patented
machine, by means of two horizontal articulated connecting rods along
each side of the framework to the shaft on which the cloth forming the
bottom of the potato recipient is rolled, and to the three shafts, provided
with bent fingers, and by means of a vertical connecting rod to the axis
of the drum which closes the openings of the hopper.
Instead of the coupling box of the rods q' and ' of the springs s' of
the lever of the Drawings of the above-mentioned Patent, which are
suppressed, the forward motion of the potato recipient is stopped at the
end of its course by a rod fixed on the back side of the said recipient
which turns over on its pivot, a catch operating the cog wheel keyed on
the shaft of the cloth which draws forward the recipient, and the motion
of the whole machinery is operated or stopped by means of a lever and a
clutching apparatus, which, placed on the side of the framework, connect
or disconnect the cog wheel keyed on the axletree and the cog wheel
keyed on the shaft of the raising and distributing apparatus.
Lastly, an extracting apparatus is placed above the latter and consists
of a rotating brush or other suitable contrivance which expels from the
curved points or hooks of the raising apparatus the potatoes which may
be retained between the said points, the extracting apparatus receiving
a rotary motion from the axle of the raising apparatus by means of a
connecting rod.
Having thus briefly described the said Invention, I now proceed to do
Jeshi wefarance heine had to the accompanying Drawings

page_text: in which Fig. I. is a longitudinal side view; Fig. II., a plan top view;
and Fig. III., a longitudinal sectional elevation through the line A, B,
Fig. II. In these Figures similar. letters indicate similar parts.
In putting together and comparing these Drawings with those annexed
to the before-mentioned Patent, the modifications will be easily seen
without the trouble of mentioning them, particularly in the following.
description of the improved machine. No essential modification has
been made in the essential parts which really constitute the Invention,
that is to say, the moveable potato recipient; the inclined plane which is
now fixed, and the raising and distributing apparatus. The most
important improvement consists in substituting a hopper with one or a
greater number of compartments, and a core or drum with helicoïdal
passages for the single hopper and for the automatic hinged valve for
the distribution of the potatoes.
8
a, b, is the frame or framework made of wood or cast iron carried on
the four running wheels c; d is the ploughshare which traces the furrow
into which the potatoes fall one by one at equal distances one from
another. This ploughshare is suspended from two vertical bars & fixed
on two transversal bars, forming a part of a moveable frame under the
framework and operated by a lever ƒ mounted on a pivot on a support g
fixed under the back part of the framework, and which serves by means
of the double segment of circle h to raise or lower the frame e, and thus
the ploughshare d, which can thus be raised above the ground or be
lowered more or less to trace a furrow more or less deep. K, K, are the
two shares which turn back the earth into the furrow after the fall of
the potatoes. These shares are fixed at the lower end of vertical iron
bars sliding in sockets in the back ends of the longitudinal bars of the
framework a. These shares can be adjusted to whatever height is
required by means of screw nuts i pressing on the bars in the sockets.
The potatoes are placed in the recipient p moving on the grooved
rollers y running on projecting flanges on the upper part of the frame-
work b. The bottom of this recipient is formed of the cloth ṛ resting
on the series of close rollers p', the ends of which turn in bearings in
the framework b. One of the ends of this cloth is fixed behind the
recipient p, while the other end is rolled around the beam t under the
recipient. The rotating motion is imparted to the said beam, so that the

page_text: cloth being rolled round the latter draws the recipient forward very
slowly beyond the bearing rollers. The cloth being drawn from under
them the potatoes fall successively on the inclined planêu. The front
side of the recipient is inclined from bottom to top so as to avoid too
large à supply of potatoes when the machine is set in motion. The
inclined plane u is composed of bars placed some distance apart in a
fixed frame. The potatoes slide on to this inclined plane u pushed
successively by the curved fingers or rods 8 mounted on three rotating
shafts j, and passing through the spaces between the bars of the inclined
plane u. The upper faces of the latter are alternately flat and round so
as to form a sort of track in which every row of potatoes slides to reach
the raising and distributing apparatus herein-after described.
This apparatus is composed of discs a' mounted on a rotating shaft
at equal intervals, between which are lodged the loose ends of the bars
forming the inclined plane u. These ends at a certain distance from the
discs are bent so as to embrace these latter lower down and to form a
cavity into which the potatoes fall to be carried up by the bent fangs or
points c fixed three by three on the circumference of the discs. Each
series of three hooks corresponds to a cavity formed by the cutting off of
a part of the periphery of the discs in which the potato is lodged when it
is carried up by the series of hooks. The series are four in number; they
are alternately fitted and the cavities of the discs cut cantwise in such a
manner that a potato is thrown alternately and successively in each
compartment of the hopper m during the rotation of the discs. The
series of forks and the number of compartments can be increased as well
as the ploughshares if an accelerated motive power is to be used. The
lower part of the compartments of the hopper m is closed by a solid
drum n, in which are hollowed or cut helicoïdal passages o whose outlets
converge towards the centre of the hopper so that each potato may fall
exactly in the furrow. A curvilineal sheet-iron plate V, the upper part
of which is fixed a little in advance of the drum, whilst its lower part is
loose so that it may have a certain elasticity, causes the potatoes to fall

page_text: whose axis turning on supports on the framework 6 receives a more
accelerated rotary motion than that of the shaft b' of the distributing
apparatus a' by means of an endless chain or any other connecting
device.
The rotary motion of the shafts and drums is transmitted by the
turning axletree of the back wheels of the machine through the cog
wheel keyed on this axletree, and through the cog wheel keyed on
.
the axis b' of the raising apparatus a' to the beam t on which the cloth "
is to be rolled, and to the three shafts j by means of two horizontal con-
necting rods pivoted on each side of the framework a, b,.on the ends
of [the axis b', and connected with the beam t and shaft j, and with the
axes of the drum n by means of two vertical rods whose upper ends
are pivoted on those of the two rods x, and the lower crank ends on the
ends of the axis of the drum n. The potato recipicnt p must be
stopped at the end of its course. This stopping is obtained by the
blocks d' which are fixed at each side of the back part of the recipient,
and which raise the ratchets pivoted on the sides of the framework,
thus freeing the teeth of the wheels w. As the rotary motion of the
said cog wheels w keyed on the ends of the beam t on which the cloth 1
which moves the recipient is rolled is caused by drawing ratchets ƒ'
articulated on the ends of two connecting rods and working into the
teeth of these wheels w, whilst the ratchets e' fall of their own weight
into these same teeth and prevent these wheels from being drawn in a
contrary direction, it follows when these ratchets e' oscillate that the
wheels w are no longer kept in position, that the ratchets f' remain fixed
in the teeth in which they have fallen, that the wheels w only undergo
a partial reciprocating rotating motion so that the beam remains
stationary, the cloth is no longer rolled, and the recipient is suddenly
stopped.
The machine is set in motion or stopped by means of a system of
coupling herein-after described, and of a horizontal lever carrying a
crown gwhich operates this coupling. On the shaft of the raising and
distributing apparatus a' is mounted the loose cog wheel which works
into that l′ keyed on the axletree; on the outside face of this wheel & is
fixed a ratchet wheel worked by means of two ratchets l' pivoted on a

page_text: .
disc m' keyed against the ratchet wheel j' on the end of the shaft b'.
The ratchet ends l' are each provided with a curved tooth n'. When the
lever is pushed and kept against the framework in the notch of a
support o' on the side of this framework, the crown presses on the
outside face shaped like a cam of these teeth n', to which a slight
rotating motion is imparted which turns and raises the ratchets l' from
the teeth of the ratchet wheel j', the latter and the wheel being thus
disconnected with the rotating shaft b'. The motion of the horizontal
and vertical connecting rods x and z is then stopped. If on the contrary
the lever is drawn out of the notch of the support o', the ratchets l'
under the action of springs fall back into the teeth of the ratchet
wheel which is thus, together with the cog wheel b', connected with
the disc m' and the rods again set in motion.
Having thus described the Invention and the manner of carrying it
into effect, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself to
the precise details above enumerated as these may obviously be modified
without departing from the principle of the Invention, but what I claim
is,―
1stly. The moveable recipient p, cloth r, beam t, inclined plane u,
rotating finger shafts j, raising and distributing apparatus a', divided
hopper m, drum n, helicoïdal passages o, and the combination of all
these parts with each other.
2ndly. The moveable frame e in combination with the lever f,
support g, shares d and k, bars 1, and the screw nut slides i.
3rdly. The inclined plane z with flat and round bars in combination
with the rotating finger shafts j.
4thly. The cog wheels in combination with the cog wheels h', con-
necting rods x, z, ratchets e', f', beam t, shafts j, axis u' of the
drum n.
5thly. The blocks d in combination with the ratchets c'..
6thly. The cog wheels i', ', and the ratchet wheel j in combination
with the ratchets l', disc m', crown lever g', support o', and axis u' of
the drum n.
7thly. The cleansing apparatus q' in combination with the cog
wheels ',, shaft b', and raising and distributing apparatus a'.

page_text: Lastly. The conception, the arrangement, and the combination of all
the parts of the machinery operating for the purposes above described
and represented in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Henri Adrien Bonneville, have
hereto set my hand and seal, this Thirticth day of December,
☐ in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-
four.