IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS USED IN PLOUGHING, TILLING, OR CULTIVATING LAND
Year: 1861

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Fernandez Yarrow, of Arundel Square,
Barnsbury, Engineer, and James Bracebridge Hilditch, of Barnsbury
Villas, Gentleman, both in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS USED IN PLOUGHING, TILLING,
OR CULTIVATING LAND"
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Fernandez Yarrow
and James Bracebridge Hilditch at the Office of the Commissioners of
Patents, with their Petition, on the 25th January 1861.
We, ALFRED FERNANDEZ YARROW, of Arundel Square, Barnsbury, Engineer,
and JAMES BRACEBRIDGE HILDITCH, of Barnsbury Villas, Gentleman, both in
the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS OR APPARATUS USED IN PLOUGHING, TILLING, OR
CULTIVATING LAND," to be as follows:-
The first part of our improvements relates to a combination of means adapted
to the use of steam and animal power. We employ a portable steam engine
which is conducted or propelled by its own power through the centre or on
one side of the land to be ploughed either on tramways, or not, as the work
progresses. This portable engine carries one or more drums (by preference
in front of the engine) for winding the ropes used in propelling the ploughs.
One or more implements or sets of implements may be employed on one
or both sides of the engine so as to be drawn either by the same or different
ropes alternately towards the engine. When the ploughs have in turn
arrived at the engine we employ animal power to draw them back to the
place from which the next furrow is to commence, by which means one

page_text: plough (or one on each side) is always being propelled by the engine
towards such engine, whilst the others are being drawn from the engine
for a fresh furrow by animal power. We employ ploughs capable of ploughing
the land whilst being propelled in one direction, but which when moved in
the reverse direction do not act upon to cut the soil. This we effect by
mounting them on a frame with wheels adapted at the times desire for
raising the cutting parts above the soil.
The second part of our Invention consists in drawing back the ploughs
or implements by means of the power of the engine as a substitute for
animal power. For this purpose we employ a wire or rope attached to the
hinder part of the plough to be propelled back, which by passing over a
pulley attached to an anchor arrangement is continued and passes on to the
drum of the engine. When two or more ploughs are employed on each or
one side of the engine, and are being drawn alternately by its power, the
wire is attached to the hinder part of the plough being drawn towards the
engine instead of the drum of the engine. In this arrangement the anchor
or pulley is employed solely to give sufficient resistence to enable the
implement not in action to be moved back. We also use two drums running
on the same axis and so arranged that they can be made to revolve in the
same or opposite directions if necessary, and at the same time be capable
of being locked together for the purpose of being driven as one by the engine.
We also sometimes use two or more smaller wire ropes as a substitute for
one of larger diameter. The adaptations for operating ploughs are also
unlicable in operating other implements for cultivating land.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Alfred Fernandez Yarrow and James Bracebridge Hilditch,
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 24th July 1861.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, ALFfred
FERNANDEZ YARROW, of Arundel Square, Barnsbury, Engineer, and JAMES
BRACEBRIDGE HILDITCH, of Barnsbury Villas, Gentleman, both in the County s
of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of January, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-one, in the twenty-fourth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the
said Alfred Fernandez Yarrow and James Bracebridge Hilditch, Her special
licence that we, the said Alfred Fernandez Yarrow and James Bracebridge

page_text: the
Hilditch, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others' as we,
the said Alfred Fernandez Yarrow, and James Bracebridge Hilditch, our
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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN MEANS
OR APPARATUS USED IN PLOUGHING, TILLING, OR CULTIVATING LAND,"
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Alfred Fernandez Yarrow
and James Bracebridge Hilditch, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our, 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.
upon
NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Alfred Fernandez Yarrow and James
Bracebridge Hilditch, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement, reference being had to the
Drawings hereunto annexed and to the letters and figures marked thereon
(that is to say):
:-
Our said Invention relates to a peculiar combination of means or apparatus
for ploughing, tilling, or cultivating land by steam power. In carrying out
our said Invention we employ a portable steam engine which is conducted
or propelled by its own power through the centre or along one side of the
land to be ploughed, tilled or cultivated, either on tramways or not as the
work progresses. This portable engine carries one or more drums (situate
by preference in front of the engine) for winding the ropes used in propelling
the ploughs. One or more implements or sets of implements may be employed
on one or both sides of the engine so as to be drawn either by the same
or different ropes alternately towards the engine. When the ploughs or
other implements have in turn arrived at the engine they are drawn back
to the place from which the next furrow is to commence, by a wire rope
attached to the hinder part of the plough being so propelled back, which
rope by passing over a pulley attached to an anchor is continued back and
passes on to a drum on the engine. When two or more ploughs are
employed on each or one side of the engine and are being drawn alternately
by its power, the wire rope is attached to the hinder part of the plough
being drawn towards the engine instead of to the drum on the engine.

page_text: By these arrangements one plough is always being hauled in action by the
main hauling rope towards the engine, whilst the other which is out of
action is being drawn back again from the engine so as to take up its
position for a fresh furrow by the thin wire rope. In these arrangements
the anchor or pulley is required to give sufficient resistence only to enable
the implement which is out of action to be moved back. We employ
ploughs capable of ploughing the land whilst being propelled in one direction,
but which when moved in the reverse direction do not act upon so as to cut
the soil. This is effected in the usual manner by mounting them upon
a frame provided with travelling wheels, which frame is used at the times
desired for raising the cutting parts abovo the soil.
And in order that our said Invention may be fully understood, we shall
now proceed more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose we
shall refer to the several Figures on the Sheets of Drawings hereunto annexed,
the same letters of reference indicating corresponding parts throughout all
the Figures.
Figure 4 of the Drawings represents one arrangement for ploughing
according to our Invention.
A is the portable engine placed in the midland and carrying four drums
B, B, and C, C. The large drums B, B', are employed for winding the
ropes used for propelling the implements ploughing towards the engine.
The small drums C, C¹, being employed for winding the thin wire rope used
for drawing the implements, which are out of action back again to the
headland as herein-before described. D, D' are the two ploughs or other
implements arranged one on each side of the engine, so that when the
implement D¹ is being drawn ploughing towards the engine the implement
D is being drawn back from the engine towards the headland by the thin
wire rope, and vice versa. The engine, therefore, is always employed in
drawing one implement forward ploughing, and the other implement back-
wards out of action. E, E', are the two pullies and snatch blocks employed
to resist the strain of drawing back the implements which are out of action,
and we wish it to be particularly understood that they are used solely for
that purpose, viz. drawing the implements back when not acting upon the
soil, so that they are subjected to no strain of the ploughs whilst in action,
as in the case in Fowler's system of steam ploughing. The engine carries
an apparatus similar to that now ordinarily used in steam ploughing for
moving itself forward as the work proceeds.
Figure 5 represents another arrangement for working according to our
Invention.

page_text: A is the portable engine which progresses slowly on the headland as the
work progresses carrying two drums B and B. D and D₁ are the two
implements both on one side of the engine and so arranged that when the
implement D is being drawn ploughing towards the engine, the implement
D' is being drawn back out of action by the thin wire rope, and vice versa.
E is the pulley or snatch block employed solely to resist the strain of drawing
back the implements as in the former case. The action of the implements
may be reversed when they have arrived halfway across the land, thereby
avoiding the drawing back of the implement over the ploughed ground.
Figure 1 is a side elevation; Fig. 2 is a plan, and Fig. 3 an end view
of an engine so arranged as to be adaptable for working the systems before
described.
a is a bevel wheel keyed firmly on the shaft b; c is another bevel wheel
gearing into a fixed on the horizontal shaft d. Upon this shaft the two
pinions e and slide (being feathered thereon) so as to gear into the toothed
wheels g, g', and h, h', as desired, this being effected by means of suitable
clutch levers working on a bracket fixed to the smoke box. The wheels
9, 9', and h, h', are firmly fixed or cast on the drums i, ³, and j, j¹; i, ' are
the two drums for drawing the ploughs when in action towards the engine,
and j, j, serve to draw them back to the headland again. These drums run
loosely on a shaft k, which shaft is fixed at 7 and m to castings bolted
to the two brackets n, n¹, which are themselves fixed to the smoke box.
The wheel plate is fixed upon the two beams o, o¹, bolted to the wrought
iron brackets p, p'. The fore wheels r and may be fitted with wrought
iron rings or flanges & and s', which by becoming embedded in the ground
serve to resist the side strain on the engine.
:
In witness whereof, we, the said Alfred Fernandez' Yarrow and James
Bracebridge Hilditch, have hereunto set our hands and seals, the
Twenty-fourth day of July, in the year of our Lord One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-one.
Witness,
MORGAN HOPKINS.
ALFRED. F. YARROW.
(L.S.)
JAMES BRACEBRIDGE HILDITCH. (L.S.)