IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM DIGGING APPARATUS SUITABLE FOR DRAINING AND EXCAVATING PURPOSES, PARTS OF WHICH ARE APPLICABLE TO REAPING
Year: 1857

page_text: (This Invention received Provisional Protection, but notice to proceed with the
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Archibald Brooman at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
20th February 1857.-A communication.
I, RICHARD ARCHIBALD BROOMAN, of 166, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN STEAM DIGGING APPARATUS SUITABLE FOR DRAINING AND
EXCAVATING PURPOSES, PARTS OF WHICH ARE APPLICABLE TO REAPING," (com-
municated to me by a foreigner residing abroad), to be as follows:-
This Invention consists of improvements in and modifications of the steam
digging machinery patented as a communication from abroad, by J. H. John-
son, on the 10th May, 1853. The improvements consist,―
First, in placing the large motive or running wheels behind the furnace for
the better adjustment of the weight.
Second, in forming the wheels with a sheet-iron felloe, bolted or rivetted to
flat or T iron spokes, shaped like a truncated isosceles triangle converging to
and supported by the nave.
Third, in dividing the nave of the large wheels into two parts, so that the
wheels may slightly incline on the axle.
Fourth, in leaving a certain amount of play between the nave and axle.
Fifth, in substituting for the chain wheels used for throwing the motive or

page_text: running wheels out of gear, an arrangement of coupling or clutches, forks and
levers, allowing the axle to turn freely in its bearings, and attaching it by
couplings or clutches to the running wheels, in such manner that one wheel
might be thrown out of gear without stopping the revolution of the axle.
Sixth, in modifying the arrangement of gearing for driving the fore-carriage
wheels simultaneously with the large motive or running wheels, by employing
bevil wheels mounted on a shaft gearing into other and corresponding bevil
wheels, placing a chain wheel on the centre of axle, and providing chain
wheels supported by couplings and cotters.
Seventh, in placing shoes, skids, or guards on the peripheries of the motive
wheels.
Eighth, in so arranging the axle of the fore carriage, that it may follow the
undulations of the soil, and which is done by surrounding the axle by clutches,
against which press springs connected to a shaft with pins or studs carrying a
beam, which is bolted to stays or bars fitted under the lower platform.
Ninth, in employing steam to tilt or incline the fore-carriage in working a
curve or turning the machine.
Tenth, in connecting in a straight line the digger, frame, or carrier, and
the framework of the engine.
Eleventh, in so arranging the digger shaft that it may be moved nearer to
or further from the soil without interfering with the other parts of the machine.
Twelfth, in effecting the up and down action of the diggers by cams and
connecting rods, by toothed wheels, or by cranks and levers.
Thirteenth, in the employment of a stop on the frame to regulate the back
stroke of the diggers, elastic washers being provided to break the force of the
shock of the diggers against the stop.
Fourteenth, in the employment of two diggers or diggor cylinders of different
lengths placed at a greater distance from each other than the thickness of the
strip of soil to be loosened, contrived to effect a better division of loosening
of the soil.
Fifteenth, in the employment of three or moro diggers or digger cylinders
on the same stock at a greater distance one from the other than the thickness
of the strip of earth to be loosened, the length increasing as they approach the
bottom of the stock.
3
Sixteenth, in applying the machinery for excavating and digging canals and 3
drains.
Seventeenth, in mounting forks or teeth behind the engine drivers seat, or
the digger carrier to pulverize and break up the earth.
Eighteenth, in employing fixed cylinders instead of oscillating cylinders with

page_text: connecting rods for transmitting the action of the piston to the levers which
carry the digging shaft.
Nineteenth, in dispensing with one of the shafts which carry the gearing
wheels, (and employing other gear wheels.
Twentieth, in applying the apparatus for reaping by employing reaping
apparatus in place of diggers.