A NEW OR IMPROVED TURNIP THINNING MACHINE
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Hugh Thomson at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th October
1874.
I, HUGH THOMSON, of Melbourne, Australia, presently residing at
Girvan, in the County of Ayr, North Britain, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "A NEW OR IMPROVED TURNIP THINNING
MACHINE," to be as follows: —
This said Invention has reference to a new or improved construction
and arrangement of the parts of a machine for turnip thinning, whereby
such work will be better executed with less subsequent hand labour than
has been the case with machines as heretofore constructed, and the
nature and novelty of the Invention consist all as follows:-The main
frame of the machine, is constructed preferably of an open frame of
malleable iron of flat or angled iron bars, rectangular towards the back,
and having the sides at the forward part angled towards each other, and
welded or joined so as to form the centre or middle drawing arm or eye,
which carries the vertical shifting or fixed spindle of the front swivelling
central supporting and guiding wheel, which runs in the hollow below

page_text: the machine between the two drills to be thinned. The main axle, or it
might be the strong studs, are secured to the upper back part of this
frame, and having the main carrying and driving wheels running loose
on the overhanging ends at the sides projecting behind, so as to run in
the bottom of the furrows outside of the two drills being thinned. These i
wheels give motion either by internal teeth or by an ordinary spur wheel
on their boss or axis (when it revolves) to pinions on a transverse shaft,
preferably working in bearing blocks secured to the upper back part of
the said frame, so as to reciprocate by bevilled wheels working into
pinions on two short longitudinal shafts or spindles, which by crank 1
discs with crank pins at right angles to each other and connecting rods
respectively, two frames, an open one, and central single one, both
working transversely in horizontal guides attached to the lower and
upper side of a strong transverse open frame of iron or wood, made to
shift and be set and fixed at any position up or down in guides at the 1
sides and front part of the main frame by screws, rack and pinions, or a
holding and fixing lever, or other equivalent used for raising and setting
parts of other agricultural machines; all in this case for raising and
lowering the front ends and crank discs of the actuating spindles, and
the lower cutting or acting parts of the two sets of thinning knives or
tools, secured to and projecting down from the said open and central
transverse reciprocating frames over the two drills, so as to thereby thin
or carry away broad divisions of the young plants off the top of each drill
simultaneously and quickly in both directions to opposite sides, while the
machine has during its slower forward motion only travelled the mere
fractional part of an inch; so as not to disturb the plants, carth, or
manure to be left between the parts so cut away and removed into the
furrows on both sides.
There are two cutting and removing knives made of plate or sheet
metal, preferably malleable iron or steel, secured to and projecting down
from the transverse end rail of the open reciprocating frame, and over
and in a line with the centre of each of the drills when the frame is in
the middle of its stroke and to the width and depth it is desired to cut
away the top of the drill and young plants. These cutters have their
lower corners sharp and curved forward in both directions, so as to
thus cut away the plants at the centre of their reciprocating motion,
when their crank pin is passing through the quickest acting part of its
revolution over a horizontal sheet metal plate of the same breadth, with

page_text: its advance and rear edges curved forward towards the corners, preferably
more at the back, towards the drill at the extreme and slow part of their
stroke, so as to enter and cut the earth and plants there below the other
cutters, which each thin or remove the whole portion in front of it over
and on to one of the two horizontal cutters, which being carried one on
each side of the former, each by a long stem down from the central
reciprocating frame, both the vertical cutter and the horizontal one on
either side of the drill carry the plants thus cut away to the middle of
the furrow on the side to which they are traversing, and deposit them
there alternately and respectively as their said open and central frames
are reciprocated.
In some cases drill rollers in two parts (with the central part cut away
where the plants are not to be touched or injured) may be carried on
kneed horizontal and vertical swivelling spindles in the frame in front of
the knives, to further guide the whole machine when desired.
The new or improved parts and features of this Invention and machine
are, the thinning away of the portions of plants by one broad thin
vertical knife passing to and fro, over or through the top of the drill to
each side simultaneously with a horizontal knife on each side of it which
only travel up to the drill; also the double action of these vertical and
horizontal knives in cutting with sharpened bent or curved parts at their
corners; the former narrow to present little breadth in the direction of
the motion of the machine, and broad in the direction of its own motion,
and the latter only broad enough to receive and carry the plants pressed
on to and over it at the back edge by the former or by some stationary
scraper, which would leave them in the furrows between the drills; and
the two reciprocating frames and their duplex arrangement of cranks,
spindles, and gearing for actuating the same from the main carrying and
rolling wheels of the machine.