IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TILLING LAND
Year: 1876

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Algernon Clarke, of Ladbroke Grove Road, Notting
Hill, in the County of Middlesex, Gentleman, for the Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TILLING LAND."
ed the 23rd March 1877, and dated the 27th September 1876.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Algernon Clarke at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents on the 27th September 1876.
JOHN ALGERNON CLARKE, of Ladbroke Grove Road, Notting Hill, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TILLING LAND."
The object of my Invention is to provide cheaper and more economical machinery
than any yet in use for tilling land by steam power. For this purpose I employ
ploughing or cultivating instruments, which are adapted to a suitable framing
attached to the actuating engine or to a travelling anchor connected by ropes with
the actuating engine. The construction, arrangement, and mode of applying the
working parts are such as to utilize approximately the maximum possible proportion
of the motive power for actuating the tillage implements and the minimum pro-
portion of power in merely conveying the motive power.
In carrying out my Invention in connection with a travelling engine which takes
the tilling implements along with it across the field to be tilled, I prefer a steam
engine of the ordinary road locomotive or traction engine type, having travelling
wheels with broad tyres for supporting its weight over soft ground.
This locomotive engine should be provided with one or more speeds for slow
onward motion and a quicker speed for travelling when the tilling instruments are
not in work, and for transporting the apparatus from place to place.
My improved tilling machine is so arranged and placed as to plough or cultivate
the land in a transverse direction either behind the engine or by preference on one
side of the engine, so that the thrust or side draught due to the passage of the
implements through the soil in a direction transverse to the direction of advance of
the engine may not tend to divert the engine out of its course. By this arrange-
ment also the whole weight of the engine may be available as a resistance to such
thrust or side draught.
The direction of the tilling may be at right angles or in other angular directions
from the line of progress of the engine, and I provide for making this angular

page_text: position adjustable so that the engine may be steered within limits to the right or
to the left without altering the parallelism of the furrows or tracks made by the
tilling implements.
The plough bodies, cultivating tines, or other tilling implements employed are
attached to heads which traverse along guides in the main frame. This tilling frame
is supported at one end by the framing of the engine and it is further supported at
intervals along its whole length upon travelling wheels. This frame may be rigid,
and the plough bodies or tilling implements may be made to rise and fall on their
own wheels on the land, but I prefer to have the frame jointed so as to be flexible
vertically, so that the several sections of its length may rise, and fall, and conform to
the contour of the ground passed over.
Or the
The ploughs or other tilling implements (when in work) may traverse either
toward the engine or away from it, but when making their return motion they will
be raised clear of the ground. In order that they may not require to be turned
over or reversed I propose to shunt them into a different track or guide, which may
be directly over the implements in work or partly on one side of them.
implements may be made double acting so that on traversing to and fro they will
act in both directions, for which purpose they must be shunted at cach end into
tracks at different angles. I drive the heads or moving frames to which the tilling
implements are attached by an endless chain or other ordinary means of effecting a
reciprocating motion through long traverses, and they are raised out of work and
again dropped into work at the ends of their course by inclined guides or curves
and other appliances adapted for the purpose.
To obviate the difficulty of abrupt penetration I cause the tilling implements to
enter the ground in a gradually deepening incline and at a delayed speed.
For the purposes of my Invention I adapt either ploughs, ridge ploughs, diggers,
sub-soilers, cultivators, scarifiers, or other forms of tillage instruments to the same
construction of traversing heads or frames, and I provide for adjusting the angular
position of the implements in relation to the guide frame according to the width of
work to be executed and the rate of advance of the engine over the land.
Provision is made for raising the guide frame upon its own wheels when turning
at the ends of the field.
The tilling machine can be detached from the engine so as to ride upon its own
wheels when travelling from field to field or upon a road, and as it is made in sections
jointed together it may admit of being folded up for the convenience of transport.
The machine may be fitted with any convenient number of ploughs or other
tilling implements, but to illustrate the advantage of my Invention I will suppose
the machine to have a set of four single ploughs, two working two furrows, while
the other two are returning inoperative.
If the pace at which the tilling instruments traverse in the guides be two miles
per hour and they make furrows about 20 feet long with the furrows each
about 10 inches wide, the rate of advance of the engine in proportion to the speed
of the tilling instruments will be about one-sixth of a mile per hour. Hence nearly
the whole of the effective motive power of the engine is applied to the actual tillage,
and the power moreover is applied close to the point where it is generated, while for 4
propelling the engine and apparatus over the land only a fractional part of the
power of the engine is consumed, namely, the very small force requisite for
moving the weight of the engine and all the appliances at the slow pace of about
one-sixth of a mile per hour. Thus my Invention enables me to use for the purpose
of steam tillage engines of lower power than can be economically employed either 5
when a traction engine is used in directly hauling the implements or when the
power is stationed on the headland or any other part of the field.
As a modification of the above described arrangement I connect the jointed frame
(to which the ploughs or other tilling implements are fitted) with a travelling anchor
provided with disc shaped blades or with an endless chain of spades or its equivalent 5
for entering the soil and taking the lateral thrust of the tilling instruments. This
anchor I fit with suitable driving gear and connect it in any approved manner by

page_text: driving ropes with an engine situate at the headland or other convenient part of
the field under cultivation so that the anchor and tilling frame may receive a slow
onward motion therefrom, while a more rapid motion is communicated to the end-
less chains used to actuate the tilling implements.
This modification it will be understood will render it unnecessary for the engine
to travel across the field with the tilling implement frame, and will thus allow of the
Invention being extended in its application to hilly and other land unsuited for the
traverse of an engine over it.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said John Algernon Clarke in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 27th
March 1877.
JOHN ALGERNON CLARKE, of Ladbroke Grove Road, Notting Hill, in the County
of Middlesex, Gentleman. "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY FOR TILLING LAND."
The object of my Invention is to provide cheaper and more economical machinery
than any yet in use for tilling land by steam power. For this purpose I employ
ploughing or cultivating instruments which are adapted to a suitable framing
attached to the actuating engine, or to a travelling anchor connected by ropes with
the actuating engine. The construction, arrangement, and mode of applying the
working parts are such as to utilise approximately the maximum possible pro-
portion of the motive power for actuating the tillage implements and the minimum
proportion of power in merely conveying the motive power.
In carrying out my Invention in connection with a travelling engine which takes
the tilling implements along with it across the field to be tilled I prefer a steam
engine of the ordinary road locomotive or traction engine type, having travelling
wheels with broad tyres for supporting its weight over soft ground.
This locomotive engine should be provided with one or more speeds for slow
onward motion and a quicker speed for travelling when the tilling instruments are
not in work, and for transporting the apparatus from place to place.
My improved tilling machine is so arranged and placed as to plough or cultivate
the land in a transverse direction on one side of the engine, so that the thrust or
side draught due to the passage of the implements through the soil in a direction
transverse to the direction of advance of the engine may not tend to divert the
engine out of its course. By this arangement also the whole weight of the engine
may be available as a resistance to such thrust or side draught.
The direction of the tilling may be at right angles to or in other angular
directions from the line of progress of the engine; and I provide for making this
angular position adjustable, so that the engine may be steered (within limits) to the
right or to the left without altering the parallelism of the furrows or tracts made by
the tilling implements.
The plough bodies, cultivating tines, or other tilling implements employed, are
attached to heads which traverse along guides in the main frame. The tilling
frame is supported at one end by the frauning of the engine and at the other by a
travelling wheel. This frame may be rigid, and the plough bodies or tilling imple-
ments may be made to rise and fall on their own wheels on the land; but prefer
to have the frame jointed so as to be flexible vertically, so that the several sections
of its length may rise and fall and conform to the contour of the ground passed
over.
The ploughs or other tilling implements (when in work) may traverse either
toward the engine or away from it, but when making their return motion they will
be raised clear of the ground. In order that they may not require to be turned
over or reversed I shunt them into a raised track or guide which is in the same
vertical plane as that which carries the implements while in work. I drive the

page_text: tilling implements by an endless chain or other ordinary means of effecting a reci-
procating motion through long traverses.
For the purposes of my Invention I adapt either ploughs, ridge ploughs, diggers,
sub-soilers, cultivators, scarifiers, or other forms of tillage instruments to the same
construction of traversing heads or frames, and I provido for adjusting the angular
position of the implements in relation to the guide frame according to the width of
work to be executed and the rate of advance of the engine over the land.
In the accompanying Drawing Fig. 1 shews in end elevation a traction engine
fitted with my improved arrangement of tilling apparatus; Fig. 2 is a plan view
of the same; and Fig. 3 is a transverse section of the tilling apparatus taken in the
line 1, 2, of Fig. 1.
To the side of the boiler A is attached a bracket B, the face of which is grooved
vertically to receive a sliding bracket C and permit of its adjustment to any desired
elevation. In this bracket C is mounted a short shaft c, which carries a chain
wheel c¹ connected by a chain c with the driving shaft & of the engine. This
shaft c carries also a forked driver c³, which engages with the cross pin on the end
of a short shaft e mounted on a casting E which is hinged to the adjustable
bracket C. This casting E is made fast to the first section of the tilling frame, in
the guides of which the tilling implements are caused to traverse. This tilling
frame, as shewn in the Drawing, consists of four sections, which are connected
together by hinges and adjusting screws, or their equivalents, to allow of the
framing (which I prefer to make about thirty feet in length) conforming to any
natural irregularities of the land. In other respects the tilling frame may be con-
sidered to be rigid. This frame consists vertically of two horizontal girders F, F¹,
set one above the other, and so formed that the opposite edges will constitute
guides, over which the antifriction rollers of carriages G, G, provided with pro-.
The upper
jecting arms for receiving the tilling implements are caused to run.
and lower girders F, F¹, of each section are braced together at their back by vertical
bars f. The outer end of the tilling frame is carried by a wheel H, the axle of
which runs in adjustable bearings in a casting H¹ made fast to the outermost
section of the tilling frame. The upper girder of this section is caused to approach
the lower girder to facilitate the transference of the carriages G, G, from the lower
Transverse
to the upper race when they have arrived at the end of their course.
ways are also made through both upper and lower girder, as at f¹, to allow of the
passage through them of the hinder rollers of the carriages during the transference
of the carriages from the lower to the upper race. A similar provision is made in
the first section of the tilling frame to allow of the descent of the hinder rollers of
the carriages through the girders F, F¹, as shewn at f2.
Mounted at opposite ends of the tilling frame are the chain wheels I, II, around
which passes an endless chain i for imparting the traverse motion to the carriages
G and the tilling implements attached thereto, for which purpose the carriages are
severally connected to the chain i by pins i¹.
On the face of the wheel I is a bevilled wheel, into which gears a bevilled pinion
e¹ on the short shafts e. When therefore rotary motion is conveyed from the engine
by the chain to the shaft c on the bracket C, a traverse motion will be given to
chain, and consequently to the carriages and to the implements fitted thereto.
In the Drawing I have shewn a pair of plough bodies K with their coulters
attached to the two carriages G, G, but as before mentioned other tilling implements
may be employed.
The plough body K is bolted to a horizontal bar K' which is socketted vertically
to receive the coulter, and is formed with square sockets at its opposite ends to fit
on to pins projecting from the side of the carriage. This carriage consists of a vertical
frame fitted at its extremities with four rollers g, the upper ones of which run on the
upper edge of the girders, and the lower ones on the under side thereof. The endles
chain is connected to the lower part of the carriage, and the connecting pin when
travelling past either of the chain wheels acts as a crank pin, and lifts or lowers (as
the case may be) the plough out of or into work. Supposing now the plough and

page_text: carriage to be in the elevated position shown by drawn lines in Fig. 1, and the chain
i to be running in the direction of the arrow, the hinder uppermost roller will pass
along the upper edge of the top girder until it reaches the end thereof, when it will
fall to a lower level. In order that this roller may reach the end of the girder it is
necessary to bridge the space f³, and this is done by means of a switch 5, the tail
of which projects upwards and forms a tappet; the roller in passing this switch
strikes the tail thereof and tips the switch into the dotted position of Fig. 1, the
forward upper roller of the carriage now coming opposite the opening f³ runs down
the incline thus opened to it to reach by a short cut the lower race. The opening f
in the lower girder is similarly fitted with a switch f which is weighted to keep it
open. As therefore the forward upper roller passes down through the opening the
forward lower roller will pass through the opening of the lower girder F¹, the
hinder lower roller meanwhile running under the top girder to the end thereof. The
continued progress of the coupling or crank pin i will bring the carriage with its
plough body into the dotted position of Fig. 1, and as the ploughshare enters the
ground the forward lower roller of the carriage will pass under the girder F¹, at
which time the plough carriage will have assumed its lower position. The plough
will now, by the continuous motion of the chain i be moved forward through the
ground away from the engine a distance equal to the length of the tilling frame, or
until it has completed its course, as indicated by dots at the right hand end of Fig. 1.
In doing this the carriage will be caused to take the dotted position shewn, the
hinder rollers of the carriage moving respectively up the openings f¹ and f² in the
girders to bring the carriage on to the upper race. The forward rollers will at the
same time move upwards, the lower roller running over the inclined edge at the
extremity of the lower girder, and lifting a switch f7 to allow it to pass upwards.
This switch is provided in order to allow of the upper forward roller running past
the end of the upper girder. When the carriage has arrived in the lower dotted
position the crank pin will be in a position marked 1, and as it rises to the position
marked 2, the carriage will be lifted on to the upper race ready to commence its
backward movement. A switch is provided to close the opening f after the back
upper roller has passed out of the opening and allow the upper forward roller to
run over the opening. In order to give stiffness to the tilling frame struts L, L, are
provided, which are secured at one end to the frame and at the other to the forward
part of the engine. The connection of these struts with the engine I prefer to make
through adjustable nuts which will admit of the tilling frame being set at a greater
or less angle than a right angle to the engine.
The forward motion of the engine during the tilling action is continuous, and the
supporting wheel H is driven at the speed of the engine's motion through the chain &
The axle of the chain wheel I¹ carries a worm which gears into a worm wheel on a
countershaft, the motion from which is conveyed by a band and pullies to the shaft
of the wheel H.
Supposing the pace at which the ploughs traverse to be two miles per hour, and
they make furrows about thirty feet long, with the furrows each about ten inches
wide, the rate of advance of the engine in proportion to the speed of the plough will
be about one-ninth of a mile per hour. Hence nearly the whole of the effective
motive power of the engine is applied to the actual tillage, and the power moreover
is applied close to the point where it is generated, while for propelling the engine
and apparatus over the land only a fractional part of the power of the engine is
consumed, namely the very small force requisite for moving the weight of the engine
and all the appliances at the slow pace of about one-ninth of a mile per hour. Thus
my Invention enables me to use for the purpose of steam tillage engines of lower
power than can be economically employed either when a traction engine is used in
directly hauling the implements or when the power is stationed on the headland or
any other part of the field.
A further advantage which I obtain in applying the power as above described is
that I obviate the difficulty of abrupt penetration by causing the ploughs to enter

page_text: the ground at a delayed speed owing to the coupling pin ¹ passing over the dead
point on the chain wheel at the time when the plough is entering the ground.
As a modification of the above described arrangement I connect the frame (to
which the ploughs or other tilling implements are fitted) with a travelling anchor
provided with disc-shaped blades, or with an endless chain of spades or its
equivalent for entering the soil and taking the lateral thrust of the tilling in-
struments. This anchor I fit with suitable driving gear and connect it in any
approved manner by driving ropes with an engine situate at the headland or other
convenient part of the field under cultivation, so that the anchor and tilling frame
may receive a slow onward motion therefrom, while a more rapid motion is com-
municated to the endless chains used to actuate the tilling implements.
This modification it will be understood will render it unnecessary for the engine
to travel across the field with the tilling implement frame, and will thus allow of
the Invention being extended in its application to hilly and other land unsuited for
the traverse of an engine over it.
This arrangement is shewn in diagram at Sheet II., Fig. 4 being a plan view of
the apparatus. In this Figure A is the engine stationed at the headland; B, a fixed
anchor; and C, a travelling anchor carriage to which the tilling frame D with its
attachments is connected; E is an endless rope passing from the engine to the fixed
anchor and back from the anchor over a pulley e on the carriage C to an adjustable
tension pulley e¹ on the tilling frame. From this pulley the rope passes round a V
grooved pulley c on the carriage C, and thence back to the engine. E, F, are rope
porters for supporting the rope clear of the ground. From the axle of the grooved
pulley c motion is communicated through suitable gearing to the driving chain
wheel of the tilling frame, the arrangement of which will be in all respects
substantially the same as that described with reference to Sheet I. I would remark
that for the purpose of transporting the tilling frame short pins may be fitted to the
frame to receive carrying wheels, which are to be removed when the apparatus is to
be worked.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in
machinery for tilling land," and explained the manner of carrying the same into
effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part recited Letters
Patent I claim,-
First. A travelling tilling frame, which forms a race for the advance and retraction
of tilling implements that point always in the same direction.
Second Attaching a tilling frame fitted with traversing implements to a
travelling actuating engine as described, or to a travelling anchor carriage connected
by a driving rope with a stationary engine for the purpose above set forth.
Third. Constructing the tilling frame race in sections, and so coupling the same
as to allow of an irregular vertical adjustment thereof.
Fourth. Mounting the tilling implements on traversing carriages constructed as
described, and so coupled to an endless driving chain as to ensure the implements
entering the ground at a speed less than that of their traverse motion.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Algernon Clarke, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, the Twenty-seventh day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-seven.
TATHAT
JOHN ALGERNON CLARKE. (L.S.)