Improvements in Potato Planting Machines.
Year: 1899

page_text: Date of Application, 13th Apr., 1899 -Accepted, 29th July, 1899
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Potato Planting Machines.
I, GUSTAV ZAHL, Agriculturist, of Paulshof, near Alt-Landsberg, in the Pro-
vince of Branderburgh in the Kingdom of Prussia, do hereby declare the nature
of this invention and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particu-
larly described and ascertained in and by the following statement:-
In
In the case of the machines hitherto used for planting potatoes a plough had
to precede the machine in order to make the furrows required for the reception
of the seed potatoes, or else the machines themselves were fitted with a suitable
arrangement for making furrows or continuous grooves for this purpose.
both cases there resulted an altogether disproportionate expenditure of power,
seeing that all that ought to be required, if the work were executed in a similar
way as when done by hand, would be to distribute comparatively few deep holes
in rows over the field, and fill them with seed potatoes, ploughing up the entire
surface should be unnecessary.
Apart from this excessive requirement of power the modes of execution hitherto
in use were, moreover, subject to the disadvantage that the distribution of the
seed potatoes was by no means a reliable one owing to the unsatisfactory construc-
tion of the appliances serving for this purpose. The appliances for the distribu-
tion, attached to the body of the machine, deliver the various lots of seed potatoes,
through a feed channel, direct into the furrow, so that the discharge of the
potatoes into the furrow (owing to the difference in size and weight of the potatoes
belonging to each lot, and the varying velocities resulting therefrom in the
oblique feed channels, which in most cases are very long), would ensue one by
one; hence, frequently, the potatoes belonging to one lot would not be delivered
into the furrow in one heap, but in a row, one after the other. The object of
the present invention is to remedy these drawbacks. Its leading idea is to
imitate the operation of planting by hand, by making single holes only in the
field, and delivering the whole of each lot of seed potatoes into these, all at
once.
The form of execution thus resulting is shown in the annexed drawings where
Fig. 1 is a side view, the front wheel being removed.
Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section along the line A, B.
Fig. 3 is a plan.
The machine has an axle a provided with wheels at its two ends, and on
which a frame is suspended in bearings c, which frame carries the feed-hopper f
supported on saddle-bars e. A cylindrical extension at the bottom of this feed-
hopper contains a disc g of a certain thickness, which is provided with a number
of perforations h arranged concentrically around the axis. This disc is set in
motion by the axe a by means of a bevel wheel. The axle a also serves to set
in motion a revolving cross or "spider" arranged at the side of the hopper f,
and the arms of which terminate in pointed shovels or spades. This revolving
cross or spider" carries an annular disc m, placed concentrically to the axle
and which is provided with holes to a number equal to that of the pointed
spades. A tube o issues from the bottom of the cylindrical extension of the
"

page_text: hopper, from a place over which the holes h in the disc must pass, the orifice
of the tube being close to, but clear of, the disc itself, and placed so that the centre
of the orifice will coincide with the centre of any of the holes in the disc, when
placed above the tube.
If now, the machine travels over the field, having the hopper filled with seed
potatoes and placed in its normal horizontal position, the spades 7 which revolve
with the axle, and which project beyond the periphery of the travelling wheels
to the extent required for the depth of a furrow, will penetrate into the ground,
making a consecutive row of holes, which are intended for the reception of the
seed potatoes. The seed potatoes are gradually delivered, owing to the revolution
of the disc g through the holes h of the disc, into the tube o. The size of the
lots is regulated by a board or plate p, and their distribution into the holes is
effected by the annular disc m which retains the lots at the mouth of the tube o
up to the moment when the spade has penetrated to its greatest depth into the
ground, at which moment one of the holes n. passing in front of the orifice of
the tube, will let the potatoes pass. As the latter have then only a short distance
to descend before reaching their destination, this form of distribution affords
a greater guarantee as to exact distribution than was the case in former arrange-
ments, in which the potatoes were allowed to drop freely from the body of the
machine down to the bottom of the furrow.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said
invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what
I claim is
+6
In potato planting machines, the arrangement of a number of pointed shovels
or spades on a revolving cross or 'spider" arranged on the axle a, which
shovels or spades project to an extent equalling the depth of a furrow beyond the
periphery of the wheels and which revolve concentrically with the latter, thus
producing a number of consecutive holes in the ground, into which the continuous
lots of seed potatoes are discharged with the aid of a concentrically revolving
annular disc m, provided with distribution holes n, and passing close to the orifice
of the delivery tube o, fed by the hopper f
Dated this 12th day of Anvil 1800.