IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLS FOR SOWING SEEDS AND DISTRIBUTING MANURE OR WATER
Year: 1856

page_text: This Invention received Provisional Irotection, but notice to proce w
application for Letters Patent was not given within the time prescribed
by the Act.)
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Leakey Bowhay at the Offico
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 19th May
1856.
I, JOHN LEAKEY BOWHAY, of Modbury, in the County of Devon, Agri-
cultural Implement Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLS FOR SOWING SEEDS AND DISTRIBUTING
MANURE OR WATER," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates, first, to a mode or modes of effecting the longitudinal
adjustment of the sced or manure box of drills, so as to keep such box level
on passing along hill sides or sidelong ground; and, second, to an arrangement
of gearing for imparting the necessary rotatory motion to the seed or manure
barrel or shaft of the main supporting or running wheels of the drill, whatever
may be the position of such barrel or shaft. The drill box is supported by a
curved bar in the form of a quadrant, semicircle, or other portion of a circle, or
a complete circle, and this curved bar rests upon two or more antifriction
pullies, or on a spur pinion or pinions (the teeth of which, in the latter case,
gear into rack teeth on the outside edge of the curved bar for adjusting the
same) carried in suitable supports, which are secured to the main axle or frame
of the drill. The seed or manure box will thus be free to adjust itself, or be
adjusted, or brought to a level, whilst the drill is passing along sidelong ground,
as the curved or circular bar will turn freely on its supporting rollers.

page_text: By attaching a perpendicular arm or lever, with a weight on the lower end
to the crown of the curved bar, so as to hang downwards or perpendicularly,
when the seed or manure box is level, the box may be made to adjust itself,
as the weighted arm or lever will always tend to hang vertically in whatever
lateral position the body of the drill may be placed. This self-acting arrange-
ment will be found more applicable to small drills, but for large-sized seed
boxes I propose to effect the adjustment of the level by means of adjusting
racks and pinions, which may be arranged in any convenient manner. For
example, the interior of the curved bar may be toothed or formed into an
internally toothed segmental rack, into the teeth of which gears a spur pinion,
which may be rotated either direct by a winch handle at the back of the drill,
or indirectly through the agency of bevil gearing by a winch handle at the
side of the same, which latter mode will be found best suited for liquid or
solid manure distributors, or for irragating purposes.
According to another arrangement, the seed or manure box may have a
curved rack fixed on to one end of it, into which rack gears a spur pinion,
which may obviously be driven or worked either from the front, back, or side
of the drill, as found most convenient; but I do not confine or limit myself to
any particular mode of obtaining the motion for effecting the adjustment of the
seed or manure box, so long as the main feature of my Invention be retained,
which is the supporting of such box on a bar, which is curved into a circle or
any portion of a circle, and rests upon two or more antifriction pulleys or
pinions. In order that the spur wheel on the end of the seed or manure
barrel or shaft may always remain in gear with the train of wheels which
drive it, whatever may be the position of the seed or manure box, I propose to
employ a peculiar arrangement of gearing for that purpose, which arrangement
forms the second head of my Invention.
According to one mode of driving the seed barrel, the ordinary driving spur
wheel is attached to the nave of one of the main supporting or running wheels
of the drill, and this wheel gears into a second or No. 2 spur wheel, carried in
suitable sliding brackets, and having a third wheel fast on its spindle, which
third wheel gears into a fourth wheel, the stud or centre of which works in
curved slots in the upper part of the supporting brackets. The curve of these
slots is struck from the centre of the 3rd wheel, so that the 4th wheel may
move along the slots without becoming disengaged from the 3rd wheel. To
the axis or stud of the 4th wheel are attached two links, which work freely
thercon, and are connected at their outer ends to the seed or manure shaft in
such a manner as to ensure that the 5th spur wheel, which is keyed on to the
end of the seed or manure shaft, shall always be in gear with the 4th wheel,

page_text: by which means the seed or manure shaft will be free to rise or fall vertically,
without its spur wheel being disengaged from the 4th wheel of the train, which
wheel traverses along its curved slots according to the amount of rise or fall
of the seed shaft.
According to another, mode of driving the seed barrel, a shaft is placed
across the drill, connected at one end to a universal joint to the axis of the 2nd
and 3rd wheels herein-before referred to, and working in an ordinary bearing
at the other. This bar has a spur wheel on it, driven from a spur wheel on
the nave of the running wheel, opposite to that which drives the seed mecha
nism direct, and herein-before referred to, but arranged to give a faster
motion, so that the seed barrel may be driven faster on going up hill than
when coming down. This shaft may be easily removed when not wanted. The
curved slotted standards or brackets are formed with a dovetail socket to slide
forward and back, for the purpose of putting on a larger or smaller No. 2
wheel as may be required, and this wheel may be thrown in or out of gear
when there are two wheels on the nave stock, by means of a crank or lever
handle, and by raising or lowering it the wheels may be thrown forward and
back in the same socket. When only one wheel, however, is on the nave
stock, it can have a sliding action on the bar, which is done when the box or
tank is very heavy.