IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING MACHINES
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Norfolk, of Beverley, in the County of
York, Managing Director of the Beverley Iron and Wagon
Company, Limited, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING
MACHINES."
Sealed the 25th May 1869, and dated the 14th December 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Norfolk at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
14th December 1868.
I, RICHARD NORFOLK, of Beverley, in the County of York, Managing
Director of the Beverley Iron and Wagon Company, Limited, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING
MACHINES," to be as follows:-
In reaping machines of the present construction the platform on
which the corn is collected has been raised and lowered by the attendant
acting on a treadle. Now my Invention consists in performing these
operations by self-acting machinery actuated from the driving wheel or

page_text: other convenient part of the machine, whereby not only is the labor
reduced but the work is performed with more regularity than heretofore.
A convenient mode of performing my Invention is as follows:-To
the driving wheel or its axle is fixed a toothed wheel gearing into
another wheel, to which is attached a cam, which acts on a lever
projecting from the platform. The cam is made with a long dwell to
hold the platform up while the corn is accumulating upon it, and with
a recess to allow the platform to drop suddenly when a sufficient
quantity of corn for making a sheaf has been cut. The toothed wheels.
above referred to can be changed so as to vary the rotary speed of the
cam according to the state of the crop or to the size of the sheaf. The
machinery for effecting this object may be considerably modified.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Richard Norfolk in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 3rd June 1809.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME I, RICHARD
NORFOLK, of Beverley, in the County of York, Managing Director of the
Beverley Iron and Waggon Company, Limited, send greeting.
WHEREAS, Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of December, in the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
second year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Richard Norfolk, Her special license
that I, the said Richard Norfolk, my exccutors, administrators, and
assigns,, or such others as I, the said Richard Norfolk, my executors,
administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and no
others,, from time to, time and at all times thereafter during the term
therein expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, excrcise, and
vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the
Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN
REARING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said
Richard Norfolk, my executors or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should parti-
cularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in

page_text: what manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same to be filed
in the Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Richard Norfolk, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement (that is to say) :-
In reaping machines of the present construction the platform on
which the corn is collected has been raised and lowered by the attendant
acting on a treadle. Now my Invention consists in performing these
operations by self-acting machinery actuated from the driving wheel
or other convenient part of the machine, whereby not only is the
labor reduced, but the work is performed with more regularity than
heretofore.
A convenient mode of performing my Invention is as follows:-To
the driving wheel or its axle is fixed a toothed wheel gearing into
another wheel, to which is attached a cam, which acts on a lever
projecting from the platform. The cam is made with a long dwell to
hold the platform up while the corn is accumulating upon it, and with
a recess to allow the platform to drop suddenly when a sufficient
quantity of corn for making a sheaf has been cut. The toothed wheels
above referred to can be changed so as to vary the rotary speed of the
cam according to the state of the crop or to the size of the sheaf. The
machinery for effecting this object may be considerably modified.
And in order that my Invention may be fully understood and readily.
carried into operation I will proceed to describe the accompanying Sheet
of Drawings, reference being had to the figures and letters marked.
thercon.
Figure 1 is an elevation, and Figure 2. a plan of a reaping machine.
to which my improvements are applied; Figure 3 is an edge view, and
Figure 4 an elevation of my improved machinery drawn full size.
In Figures 1 and 2, is the framework of the machine; b, the driving.
wheel, and c, the outer supporting wheel, revolving on a stud fixed
to the frame of the cutters d; these parts of the machine are made in
the usual manner. e is the platform on which the corn is collected; this.
platform is hinged to the framework as usual, but instead of being
raised and lowered by the attendant acting on a treadle, as heretofore

page_text: customary, I now propose to raise and lower it by self-acting machinery,
either in the manner herein-after described, or by any other equivalent
apparatus. To the driving wheel or to its axle is fixed the toothed
9, which
wheel, seen best in Figures 3 and 4, gearing into the wheel
is mounted on a stud fixed to the framework a; to the boss of the
wheel g is fixed the grooved cam h, which is made with a long dwell,
and with a recess corresponding in shape to the curved lever i, which is
fixed to the rail of the platform e.
The Drawings represent the parts in the positions they occupy when
the platform is down, but as the machine progresses over the field the
cam / acting on the curved lever causes the platform to risc rapidly
until it assumes the position shewn in dots in Figure 1, and it will be
held in this position by the dwell on the cam h, during the time required
for the accumulation of sufficient corn to form a sheaf; the recess in the
cam then again comes opposite the curved lever i, and the platform is
then at liberty to fall rapidly to deposit the corn on to the ground. The
toothed-wheels fand g are or may be made to be changed-so-as-to-vary
the rotary speed of the cam h to suit the state of the crop or the size
of the sheaf required.
Having thus stated the nature of my Invention, and described the
manner of performing the same, I wish it to be understood that I do
not intend to limit myself to the precise arrangement-of machinery
for raising and lowering the platform, as shewn and described, as the
same may be varied or modified without departing from the nature of
my Invention; but what I do claim is, the application to reaping
machines of self-acting machinery for raising and lowering the platform.
In witness whereof, I, the said Richard Norfolk, have hereto
set my hand and seal, this First day of June, One thousand
eight hundred and sixty-nine.