IMPROVEMENTS IN DIGGING MACHINERY
Year: 1865

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Ormrod Coffeen Evans, a Citizen of the United
States of America, at present residing at Birmingham, in the County of
Warwick, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN DIGGING MACHINERY."
Scaled the 20th October 1865, and dated the 22nd April 1865.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Ormrod Coffeen Evans
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 22nd April 1865.
I, ORMROD COFFEEN EVANS, a Citizen of the United States of America,
at present residing at Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DIGGING
MACHINERY," to be as follows:-
My present improvements in digging machinery consist in re-arranging and
altering the general construction of the whole as well as parts of the machines
for which Letters Patent were granted to me dated December 17th, 1855,
No. 2848, and Letters Patent dated 29th October 1863, No. 2676, inso-
much that, together with the addition of several new contrivances, the machino
is much more simple in construction, more effective in its action upon soils,

page_text: its cost of manufacture is greatly reduced, it is more readily adjusted by those
unaccustomed to handling and adjusting machinery, is made to turn in most
soils without the teeth (preparatory thereto) having been lifted out of the
ground an action not contemplated or provided for in the machines de-
scribed in the Specification of the Patents before referred to.
The same
machine may be readily adapted to soils of opposite natures by simply adding
to and taking from parts of the same; so that by this means the farmer
can break up and comminute his different soils to any degree of fineness
required.
My present improved construction of machine is provided with two separate
frames, and is mounted upon side truck wheels, as described in the Specifica-
tion of the Patent last referred to, but instead of mounting the front end of
the frame upon a "castor" wheel I introduce for the same purpose a pair of
truck wheels with broad faces, and supported upon so short an axle as that
when made to turn at a short angle the wheels from "out to out" may
describe any part of a horizontal circle very little greater than is the diameter
of each wheel. By this means the machine is more equally balanced in the
act of turning than when supported by a caster wheel, and allowing at the
same time the digging part to be attached and brought almost as near the
power required to draw it as in the previous machine. This truck is con-
nected with the frame by a "king bolt," or any other suitable means which
will secure freedom in turning or swivel action. The inner frame consists of
two side pieces composed of metal or wood, and held together by the shafts
which support the drum wheel or wheels and roller or rollers. The front end
of this frame, as in the machine described in the Specification of the Patent
last referred to, is attached to the outside frame by pins which form fulcra,
and about which the frame turns when raised or lowered. A toothed rack
is formed upon the back end of each side piece of the inner frame, and into
which work pinions supported on a shaft, which extends from outside to out-
side of the outer frame and resting upon it. Hence, when this shaft is made
to turn by means of a winch attached at either end, the whole digging part of
the machine is raised and lowered at will; and by means of an appropriate
sliding bolt or locking instrument working into and between the teeth of the
pinions and attached to the outside frame, the inner frame may be held at
any required elevation, so that the machine is made to dig deep or shallow.
Or, when the inner frame and digging part of the machine is lifted on to the
carrying, or the carrying on to the digging part, in order to increase its
weight; in either case the combined parts are equally held in whatever
Lowered or elevated position relatively they may be made to assume.
Instead

page_text: of using two or more rollers to each drum wheel or section, as in the machines
before referred to, I use only one roller to each drum wheel or section, and so
arrange the drum wheel and this roller to each other as to give to the chain
the same inclined plane in that part where the teeth enter the ground, and
the same angle or turn at that part where the teeth are made to lift, break
up, and comminute the soil. To this end the drum wheel is raised in distance
from the ground the length of the teeth (be they longer or shorter), and the
roller is placed on the ground underneath the drum wheel in such manner
that the chain is made to form an inclined plane from the under front side of
the roller to the under front sido of the drum wheel, and from the back side
of the roller to the back side of the drum wheel; the chain forms nearly a
perpendicular line with the ground.
By this arrangement it will be seen that the digging part of the machine
is much shorter with the same size drum wheels and rollers than are the
machines before referred to, and the whole weight of the machine may be
brought much nearer the power required to draw it, when putting on the
chain, in order to readily connect or hook its ends together, and then to cause
it to assume any desired tension; or that at any time it may be unhooked and
again hooked at will; or that the relative position of the drum wheel to the
roller, and of the roller to the drum wheel, may be so adjusted as to increase
or decrease the angle of the inclined plane of the chain, or to give to the
vertical part of the chain any required inclination from the perpendicular,
either back or forward. I provide a horizontal slotted opening in each side
piece of the inner frame, and into which are inserted the boxes of the roller
shaft in such manner that by an adjusting screw or other means the roller
may be drawn back and forward at will. There are also in the same side
pieces perpendicular slotted openings for the boxes of the drum wheel shaft,
which are capable of being moved up and down by similar means.
From this arrangement it will be seen that if the drum wheel is lowered and
the roller drawn forward so as to bring them in contact, the shortest chain
that can be used may be easily hooked when made to encircle the drum wheel
and roller; and then if the drum wheel is raised and the roller drawn back,
the chain is adjusted by this means to any required tension; or that by moving
forward the roller and raising the drum wheel the inclined plane of the chain
is greater, and when the drum wheel is lowered and the roller drawn back its
inclined plane is less. Or if it be required to make the teeth more or less
effective upon the soil, the vertical part of the chain is made to assume by this
means any angle from the perpendicular that may be required. For the
purpose of making the inclined plane of the chain as low as may be required

page_text: for the shortest teeth, and at the same time secure the equal means of
adjusting the chain in the way previously described, instead of the ordinary
roller I use two flanged discs to each drum wheel, placed so far apart upon
the shaft supporting them and upon which they revolve, as that their flanges
will become bearings for the ends of the links when passing over them.
In this arrangement it will be seen the centres of the drum wheel and
roller may be brought nearer each other than otherwise their respective
diameters would admit. Or if front rollers are used for the purpose of forming
the inclined plane, as in machines described in the Patents before referred to,
I use the flanged discs previously described for the purpose of shortening the
inclined plane. And to prevent the clattering noise which the chain makes
in passing around the rollers and back, and lifting rollers especially, I cover
the flanges of the same with india-rubber bands, or with some kind of soft
metal, such as lead.
To better adapt the same machine to soils of quite opposite natures, I
provide in the centre of each hook link, and equally intermediate between the
sockets in each end of the link another socket, into which may be inserted a
third tooth to be used in soils of a very friable nature, and capable of being
removed at will when the machine is used on other soils of greater tenacity,
which from the rapid acting force of the teeth upon is sufficiently comminuted
without such extra teeth. These teeth, as well as others, are held in position
when inserted into the sockets of the links by means of a recess in the upper
or sbank end of each tooth, which fits over a corresponding projection on the
inside of the socket of the link, a key either of metal or wood being driven
home on the front side of the shank of the tooth opposite the recess. I
provide also two projections of about two inches in height, which project
from the under side face of each link, and in distance apart a little more than
the width of the face of the drum wheel which runs between them, and from
outside to onside of each in distance a little less than is the distance between
the flanges of the flanged discs between which they travel. By this arrange-
ment the chains are held in position upon the drum wheel and flanged discs,
even when the machine is made to turn at a short angle with the teeth in the
ground.
In case it is desirable to form the inclined plane as described in the
Specifications of 1855 and 1863 before referred to, instead of rollers I use
dises the same in form as those above described, and used in place of the
lifting roller, the shaft of which is adjust in a similar manner to the front
roller shaft in the machine of 1863; in which case the perpendicular elongated
openings in the side frames must be of sufficient length to admit of lowering

page_text: the drum wheel on to the ground. This arrangement admits of adding the front
discs whenever soils are hard and more difficult of penetration by the teeth,
and when light and easy of penetration, the inclined plane and lifting angle of
the chain may be formed by the drum wheel and lifting discs alone.
Whenever it is desirable to make the same machine convertible into one or
the other form, instead of making them separate machines, as they sometimes
will be, it is necessary that the carrying frame should be provided with two
separate places for attachment of the front trucks one bebind the other, as far
apart as the teeth of the chain will allow, when the front discs are removed,
the drum wheel raised, and thereby the chain is materially shortened.
To enable the operator to raise the digging part of the machine much higher
from the ground than otherwise is provided when about the convey it from
farm to farm, or field to field, I insert the arms of the side truck wheels into a
vertical sliding plate, which is held in position on the carrying frame by means
of slides firmly secured to the frame. These plates are raised and lowered by
means of adjusting screws or otherwise.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Ormrod Coffeen Evans in the Great Seal Patent Ollice on
the 21st October 1865.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ORMROD
COFFEEN EVANS, a Citizen of the United States of America, at present
residing in Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-second day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five, in the twenty-eighth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Ormrod Coffeen Evans, Her special licence that 1, the said Ormrod
Coffeen Evans, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said Ormrod Coffeen Evans, 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, au
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DIGGING MACHINERY," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Ormrod Coffeen Evans, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of

page_text: 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 Ormrod Coffeen Evans, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement:-
The improvements in digging machinery consist in re-arranging and
altering the general construction of the whole, as well as parts of the machines
for which Letters Patent were granted to me, dated December the 17th,
1855 (No. 2848), and Letters Patent dated October 29th, 1863 (No. 2676),
insomuch that, together with the addition of several new contrivances, the
machine is much more simple in construction, moro effective in its action
upon soils, its weight materially lessened, and is in nearly all respects a far
more practically useful machine.
My former machines consisted one of a framework mounted upon two
truck wheels, and the other having a castor wheel for the support of the
front end of the frame, with an additional frame inside attached to the outside
frame; and in which framework revolved sido by side a series of endless chains
with teeth or digging forks attached, each chain arranged upon a broad-
faced drum wheel, as well as two rollers placed at different levels, one before
and the other behind the drum wheel, and resting on that part of the chain
which was on the ground, so that as the machine was drawn forward the
digging forks were pressed into the ground and made to break and turn up
the soil.
1863, I use two frames, as repre-
side view with front truck partly
For this purpose, as in the machine of
sented in Fig. 1, which is a vertical or
turned; and in Fig. 2. which is an end view of the inside frame and drum
wheels and rollers, the same letters in the different Figs. representing the
same parts.
The outside frame A, Fig. 1, is mounted upon two side truck wheels C,
the axle arm of each of which is fixed in a boss on the lower end of the
slide plate a, which is sustained on the side of the frame by the slideway e. In
an ear on the top of the slideway works an adjusting screw u, the lower
end of which is fixed by means of collars, one above and one below, in an ear
projecting from the face of the slide plate in a manner so as to freely turn
in the same, and for this purpose:-If the screw is turned in one or the other

page_text: direction the slide plate and wheel is raised and the frame lowered, or the
frame is raised and the slide plate and wheel is lowered, and by which means.
the digging forks are raised high enough from the ground to clear obstructions
when about to be moved or drawn from field to field or farm to farm. Instead
of a castor wheel for the support of the front end of the frame I use a pair
of truck wheels E, E, supported upon so short an axle as that when made to
turn at a short angle, the wheels from "out to out" may describe any part of
a horizontal circle very little greater than is the diameter of each wheel. The
same arrangement of circle or fifth wheel, as is common in carriages, is
adjusted between the truck axle and frame, and held in position under the
front end piece of the frame by a king bolt 6 which passes from and up
through the axle, axle block c, and front end piece of the frame, and held in
place by either a nut or key as may be thought best. The pole, or thills
instead, by which the machine is drawn is attached to the axle block as high
up as the fifth wheel will allow. The inner frame, Fig. 2, consists of two
side pieces B, composed of either metal or wood, or both, and are held
together by the shafts d, d, which support the drum wheels D, D, D, D, and
rollers I, I, I, I. The front end of the side pieces of this frame are attached
to the outside frame by pins f, f, Figs. 1 and 2, fixed in the side pieces, and
inserted into sliding boxes g made to slide up and down in the slotted openings
of metal supports fixed on the top of the side pieces of the outside frame by
means of adjusting screws h, and thus arranged form fulcra about which the
inner frame turns when either raised or lowered. A rack is formed on the
back end of each side piece in conformity with their fulera, and into which
work pinions supported on a shaft that extends from outside to outside of
the outer frame, and rests upon it. A winch is attached to either end of
this shaft, and when turned in either direction the inside frame is raised or
lowered accordingly. A suitable locking instrument is fixed on the top of
the outside frame in this wise:-Two levers, the one end of each of which
is attached to the top of the side or end piece of the frame, one at the right
of the right hand pinion, and the other at the left of the left hand pinion m by
a machine, wood screw, or bolt, in a manner so that these points of attach-
ment form fulcra about which the levers turn, and are set in line with the
end piece of the frame with their other or handle ends approaching each
other. A tongue projection n is formed on the inside edge of each lever in
a manner to fit into and between the teeth of the pinions; and over these,
projections each is a strap y securely fixed to the frame in order to resist the
upward pressure force of the pinions upon the levers when the insido frame,

page_text: is raised so that its weight rests on the pinions. By this or any other suitable
means the inside frame is sustained at any desired elevation from the ground;
and also when the tongue projections are drawn out from between the teeth
of the pinions, the inside frame and digging apparatus drops into a working
position preparatory to the outside frame being raised so high as to clear the
side truck wheels from the ground, and then and there held as a part of the
digging weight of the machine by locking the pinions as before. I further
provide in the side pieces of the inner frame horizontal slotted openings, in
which slide the boxes p of of the roller shaft, and are drawn back and forward
by means of the adjusting screws q. Vertical, and at right angle with these
slotted openings, are others in which slide the boxes of the drum wheel shaft
(sec dotted lines), and are raised and lowered by means of adjusting screws s,
and held at any point of elevation from the ground required, so that when the
drum wheels are raised several inches above the ground, and the rollers are
placed so near the ground as to rest on the chains L, and the chains on the
ground, the chains which extend from the under front side of the drum
wheels to the under front side of the rollers may form an inclined plane of
several degrees, or as much as will allow the teeth or digging forks m', m³, m³,
m, m³, in succession, one after the other, to have commenced entering the
ground, and at right angle with the inclined plane, at the time they reach
in succession the top of the same m; and, also, so that when the back of the
drum wheels are arranged vertical to the back side of the rollers, this part of
the chains will be vertical accordingly, and therefore cause the teeth or
digging forks m', immediately underneath the rollers, to be suddenly lifted
outward, upward, and above the ground with great velocity and force, breaking,
lifting, mixing, and comminuting the soil accordingly.
In my former machines, of which Fig. 3 is an outline side view of the
arrangement of drum wheels and rollers, the inclined plane is formed by
placing the drum wheels on the ground and the rollers H in front of them,
and raised as high as would allow the teeth to enter the ground at right
angle with the inclined plane. From the under side of the drum wheels to
the under sido of the back or lifting roller the chain rests on the ground, and
two rows of teeth o¹, 0%, crosswise of the machine, and sometimes three,
required weight to drive them into the ground additional to so much as was
only necessary to drive those of the inclined plane into the ground, or nearly
double the weight required to drive the teeth of this my improved machine
into the ground, which has no part of its chains on the ground except that
which is immediately underneath the lifting rollers. The slotted openings in

page_text: the side pieces of the inner frame which allows the drum wheels to be placed
on the ground or raised above the ground.
Figs. 1 and 3 provides the means of making the same machine so as to be
used either with or without front rollers.
Instead of rollers as in my former machines I use two flanged disc
1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, 1, Fig. 2, to each drum wheel, and placed so far apart
upon the shaft supporting them as will allow their flanges to become bearings
for the onds of the links 2, 2, when passing over them. By this arrangement
the shaft of the discs may be, if necessary, brought nearly up to the face of
the drum wheels, and thereby cause the chains to be made much shorter
than if rollers were used instead, as well as that by means of discs the chains
render without binding around a much smaller diameter, and give accordingly
greater velocity to the teeth when coming out of the ground than can be
obtained when rollers are used with the present construction of chain, Fig. 5.
For the purpose of keeping the chains in place, and allowing the machine
to turn while working without lifting the teeth out of the ground, I provide
two projections upon the under face side of each hook link n', n², Figs. 1
and 4, about two inches high, and in distance apart a little more than the
width of the face of the drum wheels, and from outside to outside in distance
a little less than is the distance between the flanges of the flanged discs, and
between the drum wheel and which they travel.
And also to adapt the same machine to different soils and of opposite natures
I provide in the centre of each hook link a third tooth 2, Fig. 1, which may
be removed or inserted as required. And for the greater convenience in
adjusting the teeth in the links I provide on the shank end of each tooth a
recess s, Fig. 4, which fits over a corresponding projection on the inside of
the socket of the link. A key 7 is driven home on the front sido of the
tooth and opposite the recess, and it as well as the tooth is readily removed
or inserted when required.
Having now described and ascertained the nature of my Invention, and the
manner in which the same is to be performed, I remark in conclusion that I
do not limit myself to the precise details herein expressed and shewn, as the
same may be modified in various ways without departing from the principles
upon which my Invention is based; but what I claim under the in part
5 recited Letters, Patent are, the various combinations and appliances in
the manner and for the purpose herein-before described, viz., the mode and
manner of forming the inclined plane of the chain by means of only one roller
to each drum wheel, the flanged dises for purposes to which they are herein

page_text: applied, the method of securing the teeth in the links, and the general
construction of the machine as shown in Figs. 1, 2, 3, and 4.
In witness whereof, I, the said Ormrod Coffeen Evans, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-five.
Witness,
C. J. Gooсд,
Clerk to
ORMROD COFFEEN EVANS. (L.S.)
Messrs. Tongue & Birkbeck.