IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CULTIVATING AND PULVERISING LAND
Year: 1854

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by William Southall at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 18th June 1854.
I, WILLIAM SOUTHALL, of Swan Lane, in the City of London, Gentleman,
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR CULTIVATING AND PULVERISING LAND" to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to an improved construction and arrangement of
mechanical parts for effecting the cultivating and pulverising of land, whereby
the breaking and ploughing up the soil, and harrowing or pulverising the same,
may be accomplished by one operation, and with a less expenditure of
mechanical force than has been hitherto effected. The improved apparatus
consists of a suitable framework of wood or metal, supported by two pairs of
running wheels. The front or leading wheels are connected to the frame by a
pair of links, which, by means of a connecting rod and lever handle, may be
raised or lowered, at the same time raising or lowering the leading pair of
wheels. By this means the front of the frame may be adjusted in height, and
the angle or depth of cut of the soil loosener or cutter, which is carried by the
frame, regulated, according to the nature of the ground to be operated upon.
The instrument employed in loosening and breaking up the land consists of a
screw or cutter, which may be of a gradually increasing pitch and diameter,
the point or that part which enters the land first being of a very small diameter,

page_text: whilst the other end of the screw may be of sufficient diameter to be just above
the surface. Immediately behind the blade of the screw, and fitted into tho
same spindle, are a series of radiating pins or arms, which may be arranged
also, if found desirable, in a spiral or helical form. Theso pins or arms act
as pulverisers upon the soil already loosened and turned up by the action of
the screw or cutter, and consequently the machine leaves the land perfectly
loosened and pulverised at one operation. A rotatory motion is communicated
to tho screw or cutter by means of suitable bevel and spur gearing, in con-
nection with the axis of the hind pair of running wheels, from which the motion
of the screw is derived. The machine may be worked by horse or other power,
and may be fitted with one or more screws or cutters, arranged in the manner
herein-before described. Previous to transporting the machine from one place
to another, the lever handle before mentioned is brought down, thereby raising
the front of the frame and withdrawing the screw or screws or cutters entirely
out of the ground, so that the whole may be transported with facility. Although
the screw or cutter is mentioned as entering the soil at an angle, yet it is
proposed in some cases to work it horizontally, the main feature of the Inven-
tion being the application and use of revolving cutters of any kind, such cutters
revolving in a direction at right angles with the movement of the machino in
place of in tlie same direction, as has hitherto been effected in instruments of
this class. The mechanism for; effecting this is of course capable of great
variation.