IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING. MACHINES
Year: 1873

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Bickerton and Ralph
Bickerton at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their
Petition, on the 1st March 1873.
We, RICHARD BIOKERTON and RALPH BIOKERTON, both of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, in the County of the Town and Borough of Berwick-upon-
Tweed, Great Britain, Agricultural Implement Makers, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING.
MACHINES," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This said Invention consists in the modes and means of giving different
speeds to the gathering arms and delivery rakes of self-delivery reaping
machines (capable of being used as mowing machines also) to suit light
and heavy crops, so as to regulate the size and weight of the delivered
bundles or sheaves to be tied up by the attendants following the
machine.
One of the improvements of this Invention consists in giving two
different maximum and minimum speeds to the vertically disposed
spindle carrying the boss and the tilting gathering arms and rakes,
practically suitable for effecting the said purpose with the lighter and

page_text: heavier class of grain and crops, to make the bundles sufficiently near
the desired weight and size for carrying and handling by a counter or
intermediate shaft, placed nearly parallel to the axis of the driving wheel
or wheels and first motion spur wheel, which gives motion to the gearing
for actuating the cutting mechanism, and by or through a large and a
small spur wheel fast on the latter axis, geared into a corresponding
converse small and large spur wheel respectively, mounted loosely on the
said intermediate shaft, so as to actuate it fast or slow, according as the
latter small or large spur wheel is put into gear with the shaft by
shifting them or a clutch into action with the shaft, and one or the
other wheel by a lever or other equivalent, otherwise in an ordinary
manner, all so that a bevel pinion on the inner overhanging end of this
intermediate shaft in gear with a bevel wheel on the vertical axis of the
gathering rakes and arms actuates them fast or slow respectively,
according as the crop being cut is light or heavy; or otherwise, by a
slight modification of this arrangement, where the main axle of the
rolling and driving wheel is driven or made to revolve, and could be
arranged in the same transverse vertical plane with the countershaft and
vertical spindle of the rakes and gathering arms, by making a bevel
pinion on the main shaft to work the latter vertical spindle by a bevel
wheel on the under side of the bevel wheel worked by the pinion on the
countershaft, and at a corresponding fast or slow speed, according to
whichever bevel pinion was put into gear, and the respective speeds of
the main shaft or countershaft, which, in this case might be driven from
the former by one set of spur wheels instead of two.
I
Another improved mode of so actuating the vertical spindle or axis of
the rakes and gathering arms at two different speeds consists in dis--
pensing with the said counter or intermediate shaft, and putting a short
worm or screw on the end of the first motion shaft for actuating the
cutting mechanism, and gearing this worm into a small screw spur or
large bevel wheel fast on the same boss, sliding by a feather and groove
on the vertical spindle of the rakes and gathering arms, and so as to
actuate these fast or slow, according as this boss is moved by a lever or
other equivalent, so as to put the small or large worm wheel into gear
with the worm or screw; or by a modification of this arrrangement the
said worm or screw may be made to work a second screw spur wheel on
a stud spindle, so as to actuate a small bevel wheel gearing into a bevol
wheel on the boss of the first screw spur wheel of the axis of tho rake -

page_text: arms, and which would drive these fast or slow, according as it was
shifted up or down, as explained, to put the latter screw spur wheel or
the bevelled wheels into gear.
Another improvement consists in the use of a counter or intermediate
driving shaft disposed parallel to the nearly vertical spindle, which
carries and actuates the rakes and gathering arms, and geared to it by
any or several pairs of spur wheels of various proportions to each other,
so as to give two, three, or four speeds, as desired, those on one or other
of these spindles being made loose and coupled into gear by raising or
lowering them, the countershaft being driven direct in the way the shaft
of the rakes and arms have heretofore been driven by a bevel pinion on
the main axle shaft or other intermediate spindle gearing into a bevel
wheel on it, or by a pitch chain and pitch chain pulleys, or it might be
by a screw on the before-mentioned first motion shaft of the cutting
mechanism gearing into a screw wheel on the said vertical counter-
shaft.