IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES
Year: 1866

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Manwaring, of the Britannia Ironworks,
Banbury, in the County of Oxford, Engineer, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES."
Sealed the 12th April 1867, and dated the 18th October 1866.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Manwaring at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th October 1866.
I, WILLIAM MANWARING, of the Britannia Ironworks, Banbury, in the
County of Oxford, Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES," to be as
follows:-
In order to obtain such a delivery of the sheaf in reaping and mowing
machines as will form a track for the next passage of the machine along the
standing crop I combine with a tilting or drop platform one or more rakes
rotating after-the manner of the vanes of a gathering reel of a reaping
machine, but I give to such rake or rakes by any known mechanical means a
reciprocating lateral movement parallel with the axis thereof, so as to remove

page_text: the cut crop sufficiently sideways before it is dropped from the platform.
With the aforesaid rake or rakes I prefer to combine reel vanes for gathering
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Manwaring in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
13th April 1867.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
MANWARING, of the Britannia Ironworks, Banbury, in the County of Oxford,
Engineer, send greeting.
year
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-six, in the thirtieth
of Her reign,
lid, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the said
William Manwaring, Пer special licence that I, the said William Manwaring,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said
William Manwaring, 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,
exercise, and, vend, within the United Kingdom of Great Britain. and
Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said William Manwaring, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands 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 Scal Patent Office within six calendar months
next and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Manwaring, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:-
.
My Invention relates to reaping machines, and is as follows:-In order to
obtain such a delivery of the sheaf in reaping and mowing machines as will
form a track for the next passage of the machine along the standing crop I
combine with a tilting or drop platform one or more rakes rotating after the
manner of the vanes of a gathering reel of a reaping machine, but I give to

page_text: such rake or rakes by any known mechanical means a reciprocating lateral
'movement parallel with the axis thereof, so as to remove the cut crop suffi-
ciently sideways before it is dropped from the platform. With the aforesaid
rake or rakes I prefer to combine reel vanes for gathering the crop before
it is .cut, rotating round the axis of the said rake.
Fig. 1 is a side elevation, and Fig. 2 a front elevation of a reaping machine
*constructed according to my Invention.
In these Drawings A represents the main driving wheel of the machine,
and B the cutting apparatus, the latter being similar to that generally
.employed in reaping machines. C is a shaft or axis having motion com-
municated to it from the drive wheel by means of the chain or band wheels
C, C; D, D, are bearings for the shaft or axis. C, which bearings are
:supported on the main frame of the machine by means of the uprights E, E;
F, F, F, are three vanes of a gathering reel, which are 'fastened to and
5 revolve with the axis C; G is a rake which is also fastened to and revolves
with the axis C, but the rake G has a reciprocating lateral movement com-
municated.to
to it .in addition to its rotary motion derived from the axis C,
causing it to swing from side to side on its supports H; H, to the position
shewn by the dotted lines H, H. This lateral movement is given to the
O rake G by means of the cam I, the friction rollers J, J, and the connecting
rod K. The cam I has an irregular or waved surface upon which the
friction rollers J, J, roll; this surface is of such a shape and so placed as
to cause the rake G to swing, as indicated by the dotted lines H, H³, at or
about that point in the revolution of the axis C when the rake has reached
5 the grain platform L. The result of this lateral movement of the rake is to
draw the cut corn lying on the platform L towards the driving wheel of the
machine. When the rake has reached the position indicated by the dotted
lines H¹, H, the platform L (which is of the kind generally known as the
drop or tilt platform) drops, as shewn by the dotted lines L', and leaves its"
O sheaf on the ground sufficiently far from the standing erop to give a clear
path for the passage of the machine on the next round without touching the
discharged sheaf. After the sheaf has been thus discharged the cam .I
returns the rake to the position in which it is shewn in the Drawing, Fig. 2,
and the movement is repeated at every revolution of the reel. The periodical
5 rising and falling of the platform L is by preference performed by means of
a motion derived from the driving wheel in a manner similar to that in
general use in self-acting back delivery reaping machines. The driver's seat
is at M, and the tractive apparatus, which it is not essential to the purposes
of this description to show upon the Drawings, acts in the usual way along

page_text: the dotted line N.. I prefer to make the grain platform L as shewn in the
Drawing, namely, partly solid and partly sparred, the spars being introduced
to assist the delivery. of the sheaf after it has been drawn by the rake to one
side, when the platform drops; and I do not confine myself to the use of one
rake, but I propose to use one or more rakes, as may be found desirable.
Having now described-my Invention, and a mode in which the same may
be carried out, I would have it understood that I do not confine myself to
the precise details shewn, nor do I claim the sliding rake by itself; but what
I claim is the combination of a tilting or drop platform with a rake or rakes
-which while having a rotary motion after the manner of a reel has a recipro-
:cating lateral motion parallel or nearly parallel with the reel axis, whereby
the cut.crop lying on the platform of a reaping machine may be drawn to
one side previously to its being discharged from the platform by the tilting or
dropping of such platform, so as to give a clear track between the sheaves
so formed and the standing.crop.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Manwaring, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirteenth day of April, in the year of our
. Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven.
TWITT TA AS” MEA MWA DING
WH
RING.