IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOUGHS
Year: 1843

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, HENRY
Lowcock, of Westerland, in the County of Devon, Yeoman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her present most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-eighth day of December, in the seventh year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said Henry Lowcock, Her especial license, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Henry Lowcock, my exors, admors, and assigns,
or such others as I, the said Henry Lowcock, my exors, adñiors, or assigns,
should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all
times during the term of years therein expressed, should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend, within England, Wales, and the Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, my Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN PLOUGHS;" in which
said Letters Patent is contained a proviso that I, the said Henry Lowcock,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, to be iurolled in Her said Majesty's
High Court of Chancery within six calendar months next and immediately
after the date of the said in part recited Letters Patent, as in and by the
same, reference being thereunto had, will more fully and at large appear.
NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the said proviso, I, the said
Henry Lowcock, do hereby declare that the nature of my said Invention, and
the manner in which the same is to be performed, are fully described and

page_text: ascertained in and by the following statement thereof, reference being had to
the Drawing hereunto annexed, and to the figures and letters marked thereon
(that is to say)—
My Invention relates to improvements in that class of ploughs which going
up and down a field cause the land of the furrows as they are made to
be turned over in the same direction, in consequence of there being two
coulters and two shares, one of each at either end, and the draft being applied
alternately to either end of the beam. And in order that the improvements
may be fully understood and readily carried into effect, I will proceed to
describe the Drawings hereunto annexed, in the various figures of which the
same letters are used to indicate similar parts:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 represents the land side of a plough having my improvements
applied thereto. Figures 2 and 3 shew the opposite or mould board side of
the plough when ploughing in two opposite directions. Figure 4 is a plan of
the plough. Figure 5 is a plan of the body of the plough partly in section,
shewing how the double mould boards or plates are applied in an opening in
the body of the plough. Figure 6 shews a side view of the body of the
plough separately, and Figure 7 shews the different views of the double mould
boards or plates separately. a, a, is the beam of the plough, which it will be
seen is formed straight, the two ends rising to a proper position for the draft
being applied. bis a rod affixed to one side of the beam in such manner that
the ring c to which the means of draft are applied, as is well understood, may
slide from end to end when about to change the direction in which the plough
is to work. The beam is constructed of two side plates of iron, having wood
between them, there being openings through the wood for the coulters and for
the stems which carry the bearings of the wheels, and also for the passage of
the projections on the upper part of the body of the plough. d, d, are
handles the stems of which are framed together by means of rods d¹, and the
stems turns on an axis at e, as is shewn; and such handles and their arrange-
ments for turning over to either end of the plough, together with the rod,
form no part of my Invention, they being similar to what have before been
used with these descriptions of ploughs. At each end of the beam of the
plough is a hole f to receive the catch g for retaining the handles to either
end of the beam. The nature of this spring catch g is shewn in the Drawing,
and forms no part of the Invention, being such as has before been used for such
purposes. h is the body of the plough, having an opening formed therein to
receive the double mould boards or plates i, j, which turn on an axis k, and

page_text: in such manner that the inner end of the plates i or j will rest against the
outer parts of the opening through the body of the plough; therefore the
mould boards or plates will be well supported, and will not prejudicially press
on the axis k. The mould boards or plates will be made with such form of
working surfaces as may be desired, and as heretofore, according to the judg-
ment of the workman. At the upper part of the body of the plough there are
two projections 1, 1, by which the body of the plough is affixed to the beam,
there being screws and nuts m, as is shewn, the projection passing through
the beam of the plough, and are affixed by the screw nuts as shewn. n, o, are
the two shares affixed to the body of the plough with screws and nuts, or they
may be fixed by other means. It will be seen that the lower part of the body
of the plough is so constructed that when the share n is at work the plough
will slide as a sledge from the point (1) to the point (2), whilst the surface
from 1 to 3 will be off the ground, and offer no friction to the working of the
plough; and it is important that this arrangement should be observed, as a
plough so arranged only offers a like friction to a single plough, in place
of dragging the whole length of the bottom of a double plough of this descrip-
tion. And in order to reduce the friction on the land side of the plough I
form or apply the surfaces p, q, in such manner that there is an inclined plane
from the point (4) to the point (5), and from the point (5) to the end of the
share n, and another inclined plane from (4) to (6), and from (6) to the end
of the share o, so that the land side of the plough will rest only by the middle
(4) of the two inclined planes, and not from end to end of the land side of the
plough; and it is important that such should be the construction of these
double ploughs, in order that the great length of the body of the plough neces-
sary to this construction may not, as heretofore, offer so great a resistance
by rubbing and moving against the land side of the furrow.
r, s, are the two
coulters, the stems of which pass through the beam, and are fastened by means
of the wedges t, t, and by means of the set screws v, v. At the sides of the
openings, where are the stems of the coulters and of the wheels, there are side
plates w, a, fixed as is shewn.
Having thus described the nature of my Invention, I would remark, that I
do not confine myself to the precise details, so long as the peculiar character of
either part of my Invention be retained, But what I claim is,-
First, the application of the double mould boards or plates on an axis, as
herein described.
Secondly, I claim the forming the lower surfaces of the plough, so that when
one is in action the other may be off the bottom of the furrow.

page_text: AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-seventh day of June,
in the year of our Lord 1844, the aforesaid Henry Lowcock came before our
said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the Specification
aforesaid, and all and everything therein contained and specified, in form
above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped according
to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Enrolled the Twenty-eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-four.