IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS TO BE APPLIED TO REAPING MACHINES
Year: 1872

page_text: COMPLETE SPECIFICATION filed by Alfred Hughes at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition and Declaration,
on the 29th November 1872, pursuant to the 9th Section of the
Patent Law Amendment Act, 1852.
5 TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
HUGHES, of Brampton Ash, in the County of Northampton, send
greeting.
WHEREAS I am in possession of an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPARATUS TO BE APPLIED TO REAPING MACHINES," and have petitioned Her
0 most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria to grant unto me, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, Her Royal Letters Patent for the same, and
have made solemn Declaration that I am the first and true Inventor.
thereof.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Hughes, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus to be
applied to reaping machines.
"
In order to enable reaping machines the better to cut laid crops, it
has often and, long since been proposed to employ "lifters or prongs
projecting in front of the cutting apparatus and beyond the fingers.
The points of these lifters were intended to pass under the laid crop,
and to raise it off the ground, so that the cutting apparatus might sever
cach straw in one place only, and that near to the root. Such lifters
have not come into general use because they have not hitherto been so
constructed as to work efficiently under the various circumstances met
with in actual work. Now I have ascertained that the conditions on
, which success depends are, that the lifter should be strong without
being heavy or rigid, or liable to bend, and that it should lift the crop
highest when it is immediately over the cutting apparatus, and yet not
higher than is requisite to allow the lifters to be of sufficient strength.
The lifters of which the use has heretofore been attempted have not
fulfilled these conditions.
According to my Invention I make the lifters of wood, and I mount
them upon the platform of the machine, placing them immediately over,
say, every third, fourth, or fifth finger. The lifters are not attached to
the fingers, but they are notched out so that the fingers are housed
bencath them. The points of the lifters are a foot or somewhat more in
front of the finger points, and are so formed as not to dig into the
ground, when in consequence of irregularities of the surface the lifters
come in contact with it.
The greatest rise of the lifters is immediately over the cutting
apparatus, and the rise is no more than is necessary to give the depth
over the fingers which is requisite for strength. The lifters may be
attached by bolts to the platform behind. the cutting apparatus, and in
this case I adjust the height of the points of the lifters as may be.
required by inserting wedges beneath their heels. When the lifters are
bolted upon the platform they will have considerable freedom to yield to
and avoid obstacles, the platform itself being very flexible. Nevertheless,
I prefer, in order to give the lifters greater freedom to fix them either
to a spring board or to a flexible plate jointed to the cutter bar or plat-

page_text: them upon a flexible iron or steel plate, as is shewn in Figure 6, which is a
longitudinal section. k is the plate, it is connected with the platform by
hinges k³, k¹, of which there may be 3 or 4 in the length of the plate.
In this arrangement the weight of the set of lifters keeps them down
resting upon the tops of the fingers until either of them meets with an
obstacle, and then, in consequence of the flexibility of the plate this
lifter is able to yield and to rise to a considerable extent independently of
the other lifters.
Figure 7 shews a similar arrangement, in which a board 7 with springs
1 beneath it is substituted for the metal plate. In this case the front
board of the platform is removed to make room for the hinged board and
a space is thus left through which short stuff can fall away off the plat-
form and leave the platform clear, which is an advantage in the arrange-
ment. Still greater freedom is given to the lifters by the arrangement
shewn at Figure 8. m is a metal shoe fixed upon the platform, it is formed
with two side cheeks m¹, m', between which the heel of the lifter enters,
and it is secured by a pin m². An end view of this shoe in shewn at
Figure 9 and a transverse section at Figure 10. The spring n placed under
the heel of the lifter holds it down except when it meets with an obstacle,
and then the lifter rises, and the spring being overpowered, yields. o is a
screw working through a nut o' let into the lifter, by it the distance the
point of the lifter is able to descend below the points of the fingers is
adjusted. This arrangement is that which I prefer where the land on
which the machine is to be used is of a very uneven character.
In each of the arrangements described it will be observed that the form
of the lifter is substantially the same, and the conditions on which
I have found that success depends are fulfilled, and in practice it will be
found that by the use of lifters such as I have described, not only is the laid
corn raised into a position to be properly cut, but also that much of the
loose stuff and weeds which usually pass through the cutting apparatus
and frequently clog it are now carried clear over the top of the cutting
apparatus and are lodged upon the platform behind.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I
claim,―
The construction of lifters, substantially as described and shewn in
the annexed Drawings

page_text: I also claim the application of springs in combination with lifters,
substantially as described and shewn in the annexed Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Hughes, have hereunto set.
my hand and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-two.