A MACHINE FOR REAPING AND CUTTING CORN, GRASS, AND OTHER ARTICLES
Year: 1811

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
DONALD CUMMING, of Whitefield, in the Parish of Rothbury, in the
County of Northumberland, Farmer, send greeting.
WHEREAS His most Excellent Majesty King George the Third did,
by His Letters Patent under the Great Seal of the United Kingdom
of Great Britain and Ireland, bearing date at Westminster the Twenty-
sixth day of July, in the fifty-first year of His reign, give and grant unto
me, the said Donald Cumming, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, his especial licence, full power, sole privilege, and authority, that
I, the said Donald Cumming, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
during the term of years therein mentioned, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "A MACHINE FOR REAPING AND
CUTTING CORN, GRASS, AND OTHER ARTICLES;" in which said Letters Patent.
there is contained a proviso, that if I, the said Donald Cumming, shall
not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my said Invention,
and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in
writing under my hand and scal, and cause the same to be enrolled in
His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within four calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said recited Letters Patent,
that then the said Letters Patent and all liberties and advantages what-

page_text: soever thereby granted, shall utterly cease, determine, and become void,
as in and by the same, relation being thereunto had, may more fully
and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the
said Donald Cumming, do hereby declare that the nature of my said
Invention, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, are
particularly described by the drawings hereunto annexed, and the fol-
lowing references thereto and description thereof, that is to say:
A, dissecting frame, representing the cutters and pinions; B, the cle-
vation; C, ground plan; D, cross section, or end view of the machine.
Fig. 1st, on elevation, ground plan, and cross section, represents the
travelling wheels, on which there is a segment that drives the whole
machinery; Fig. 2d, on ground plan and cross section, represents the
holdfasts bearing the corn to the cutters, Fig. 3d; Fig. 3rd, on A, B, C,
D, represents the cutters; Fig. 4th, on D, the gatherers; Fig. 5th, on
B, and C, represents the pole by which the machine is pushed forward;
Fig. 6th, the wheel by which the machine is directed and turned;
Fig 7th, the fluted rollers which work the endless cloths delivering the
corn from behind the machine. The cutters are to driven at five
times the speed of the horse, more or less, as required. The gatherers
and rollers are to be driven at the speed of the horse, more or less, as
required. Gatherers and holdfasts to be increased or diminished,
screwed or pointed, as may be required. With regard to the small gears
which convey the motion from the segment to the different workings,
to wit, the gatherers, cutters, and rollers, I deem it unnecessary to
particularize them on the annexed drawings; the motions are per
formed by spur or bevelled wheels, belts, ropes, or chains placed
at such angles as may be required, according to the size of the machine
The machine, being hung upon screw bolts, can be raised and
lowered at pleasure. A machine on this scale cuts nine feet wide as
the horses go forward. I here observe, that what I claim as my
Invention consists of the following articles; viz., first, the form o
shape of the machine, being an angle or angles of more or less degrees
secondly, the principle of gathering, cutting, and delivering the corn
The materials used for this machine are wood, iron, steel, and cast

page_text: etal. This machine may be either extended or diminished in size,
required.
In witness whereof, I, the said Donald Cumming, have hereunto
set my hand and seal, the Thirteenth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and eleven.
DONALD CUMMING. (L.S.)
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, That on the Thirteenth day of
November, in the year of our Lord 1811, the aforesaid Donald Cumming
came before our Lord the King in His Chancery, and acknowledged
the Specification aforesaid, and all and everything therein contained
and specified in form above written, and also the Specification aforesaid
was stampt according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Sixteenth day of November, in the year of our Lord