AN IMPROVED ARRANGEMENT VE MACHINERY TO BESEMPLOYED IN STEAM CULTIVATION
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Aveling, of Rochester, in the County
of Kent, Engineer; for the Invention of "AN IMPROVED ARRANGEMENT
VE MACHINERY TO BESEMPLOYED IN STEAM CULTIVATION:
Sealed the 27th April 1869, and dated the 16th December 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Aveling at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
16th December 1868.
I, THOMAS AVELING, of Rochester, in the County of Kent, Engineer;
do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED
ARRANGEMENT OF MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED IN STEAM: CULTIVATION," to be as
follows:-
This Invention relates to an improvement in the driving gear of
travelling steam engines which are used in pairs to draw the cultivator
across the field under cultivation. It has been found that with engines
as at present arranged, the winding on drum of that engine which, has:
the driving wheel on the hedge side is subjected to excessive vibration
which causes rapid wear and tear of the bearings and journals of the
drum spindle, whereas the drum of the other engine works with
sinootliness.

page_text: In order to avoid this great inconvenience and at the same time to
economize power I propose to construct the engines in pairs, or as
counterparts the one of the other, so that two engines when placed
opposite each other in the field will both drive (as well as draw) from
the land side. The drums whether fitted with internal or external teeth
are driven by a spur pinion on a vertical shaft which receives through
hevil gear rotary motion from the transverse crank shaft. The drum is
mounted as usual below the boilcr.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
--filed-by-the said Thomas Aveling in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 16th June 1869.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
AVELING, of Rochester, in the County of Kent, Engineer, send greeting..
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Sixteenth 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 Thomas Aveling, Her special licence that
I, the said Thomas Aveling, my executors, administrators, and assigns,
or such otliers as I, the said Thomas Aveling, my executors, adminis-
trators, 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, exercise, and vend,
within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, the Channel
Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "AN IMPROVED ARRANGEMENT
OF MACHINERY TO BE EMPLOYED IN STEAM CULTIVATION," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Aveling, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of
their bands and seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the
nature of the said Invention, and in 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.

page_text: 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, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thercon (that
is to say):-
This Invention relates to an improvement in the driving gear of
travelling steam engines which are intended to be used in pairs to draw
the cultivator across the field under cultivation. It has been found
that with engines fitted, with winding drums working on vertical stud
axles under the boiler as at present arranged the winding on drum of
that engine which has the driving wheel or pinion on the hedge side is
subjected to excessive vibration, which causes rapid wear and tear of the
bearings and journals of the drum spindle, whereas the drum of the
other engine works with smoothness.
In order to avoid this great practical inconvenience and at the same
time to economisc power, I propose to construct the engines in pairs,
or as counterparts the one of the other, so far as respects the driving
gear, so that the two engines when placed opposite cach other in the
field will both drive (as well as draw) from the land side.
This arrangement is shewn in the accompanying Drawing where
Fig. 1 represents in plan view a pair of engines fitted for steam ploughing
and placed opposite to each other with the traction rope extended across
the field to be ploughed; Fig. 2 is a side elevation of one of thesc
engines. By comparing the two engines together it will be seen that
the position of the vertical driving shaft (shown at A in the elevation
Fig. 2) is reversed it being on the right-hand side of the boiler in the
one, and on the left-hand side of that of the other engine. At the
lower end of this shaft A is a spur pinion B which gears into a ring of
spur teeth C on the drum D. The drum is mounted as usual below the
boiler and is fitted with apparatus for assisting the coiling on of the
rope D', which draws the plough or cultivator to and fro across the
field. The vertical shaft A receives through bevil gears E, F, rotary
motion from the transverse crank shaft G. In respect of the rest of
the gearing its position on the two engines is reversed, but in other
respects the engines are alike in construction, no further description,
therefore, of the engines will be required.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention, of an improved
arrangement of machinery to be employed in steam cultivation, and

page_text: explained the manner of carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be
understood that under the above' in part recited Letters Patent I claim,
the means above described whereby I am enabled to remove the
excessive vibration hitherto experienced in one of two travelling steam
engines when operating upon ploughs or cultivators: as above explained.
In witness. whereof, I, the sail Thomas Aveling; have hereunto.
set my hand and seal, the Fifteenth day of June, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-ninc..