NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR THE CULTIVATION OF LAND.
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Keddy, of Handsworth, in the County of
Stafford, Factor, for the Invention of "NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR
THE CULTIVATION OF LAND.".
Sealed the 12th February 1858, and dated the 18th August 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Keddy at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
18th August 1857.
I, THOMAS KEDDY, of Handsworth, in the County of Stafford, Factor, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "NEW OR IMPROVED MACHINERY
FOR THE CULTIVATION OF LAND," to be as follows:-
My Invention consists of machinery to be worked by horse, steam, or other
power. The said machinery consists essentially of three parts. The anterior
part consists of guiding machinery for the purpose of directing the motion of
the whole machine. The said guiding machinery consists of a roll or rolls
capable of being turned in any desired direction, and is made to take a firm
bearing on the land, either by being depressed or by the raising of the middle
portion of the machinery. The second, or middle portion of the machine,
consists of a carriage moving on two heavy rollers, the said rollers by pre-
ference not being cylinders, but prisms of ten, twelve, or other number of
sides. The said rollers are geared together and a jointed endless band of
metal works over them. A series of small cylindrical rollers within the

page_text: endless band cause the lower. portion to bear in its whole length on the land,
and the upper part of the band is supported by other small rollers. The third,
or posterior part of the machine, consists of two portions; the first of the said
portions is a series of screws or blades, arranged in a screw-like direction upon
their axis; these screws are placed vertically and in a line at right angles
to the line of draught. These screws are put into motion by being geared to
the last-described part of the machine, and the distance to which they
penetrate the ground is returned by guide rollers, which can be set to any
desired depth. The last portion of the machine consists of a series of
vertical prongs somewhat resembling a harrow; these prongs are fixed in a
moveable frame, beneath which is a fixed plate, having holes through which
the prongs pass. The use of the said plate is to clean the prongs, for when
the frame carrying them is raised, the prongs are drawn through the holes in
the plate, and thereby scraped clean. The machine is drawn over the land to
be cultivated in the order in which the parts have been described, that is
to say, first, the guiding mechanism, next the roller carriage, which may be
loaded to any desired extent, next, the vertical screws, and lastly the harrow.
A drilling or sowing machine follows the harrow.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Thomas Keddy in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
17th February 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
KEDDY, of Handsworth, in the County of Stafford, Factor, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Eighteenth day of August, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said Thomas Keddy, Her special licence that I, the said Thomas Keddy, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas
Keddy, 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 "NEW OR IMPROVED
MACHINERY FOR THE CULTIVATION OF LAND," upon the condition (amongst others)
that I, the said Thomas Keddy, iny exécutors or administrators, by an instru-

page_text: ment 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 Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and
immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Keddy, do hereby declare the
nature of the 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 thereof, that is to say:-
My said Invention consists of the machinery herein-after particularly
described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings for the cultivation
of land. The said machinery may be worked by horse, steam, or other power,
but I prefer the use of steam power, and will describe my Invention carried
into effect by the use of steam power. When my Invention is carried into
effect by means of horse or other power, I make such alterations as are
necessary to adapt it to the power to be used, and omit such parts as are only
suitable to be actuated by steam power; but as a machinist accustomed to
agricultural machinery is competent to make the said alterations and omissions
I do not think it necessary to describe the same.
Figure 1 of the accompanying Drawings represents my Invention in side
elevation; Figure 2 represents the same in end elevation; and Figure 3
represents a plan of a portion of the same. Figure 4 represents an end
elevation of a portion of my Invention. The same letters are employed to
indicate the same parts in the different Figures. The anterior part of the
machine consists of guiding mechanism for the purpose of directing the
motion of the whole machine. The said guiding machinery consists of a roll
or rolls a, the bearings of the said roll a turning upon a vertical shaft b. A
guide handle c is geared by the bevil gearing d to the shaft e, and a pinion f
on the bottom of the shaft e engages with the teeth of the wheel g carrying
the guide roll a. By turning the handle c the guide roll a may be turned in
any direction. The shaft e may be prolonged upwards and a handle fixed on
the top thereof, as represented. The shaft b on which the roll a turns has.
at its top a piston 17, which said piston works in a cylinder 18. Steam-from
the boiler may be admitted either over or under the piston 17, by which
means the said piston 17 may be raised or depressed in the cylinder 18,
and the guide roll a raised or lowered to accomodate it to undulations or
inequalities in the land.
The second or middle portion of the machinery consists of a carriage
carrying the steam engine and boiler by which the machinery is actuated.

page_text: The said carriage moves on two heavy rollers h, i, the said rollers either being
cylindrical or prismatic, that is to say, having a series of ten, twelve, or other
number of sides. One of the said rollers is shown in elevation in Figure 4.
The said rollers h, i, are geared together as represented, and a jointed endless
band or platform k works over the said rollers h, i. The said band or plat-
form k consists of a series of metallic plates jointed together in a manner
which will be understood by an inspection of Figure 1 and the plan of the
inside of the said platform Figure 7, the joints giving flexibility to the endless
band or platform, and allowing it to work freely upon the rollers h, i. The
said rollers h, i, have a series of nearly semicylindrical grooves or depressions
made upon them, for the purpose of receiving the joints of the platform k, as
will be understood by an inspection of Figure 1. A series of small rollers l, l
are fixed upon a frame within the endless band k; the said rollers 1, 1,
cause the lower portion of the endless platform or band k to bear in its whole
length on the land, the said rollers 1, 1, being so formed that they engage with
the joints of the said platform k. The said rollers 7, 7, alternate with one
another, as will be understood by an examination of the Drawing, and thereby
give great rigidity to that portion of the platform which presses upon the
land. The machinery is moved upon the land to be cultivated by gearing the
rolls h, i, to the steam engine by cranks, as represented, or otherwise. The
upper portion of the platform k may be supported by small cylindrical rollers.
The third or posterior part of the machinery consists of two portions. The
first of the said portions consists of a series of screws, blades, or rotatory tillers
marked m. The said screws or rotatory tillers are of the form represented,
and are fixed at the bottoms of the vertical shafts n. Rotatory motion is
communicated to the said shafts n by the bevil gearing o, the said bevil
gearing being driven by an endless chain or band p driving the pulley q upon
the shaft r. The manner in which the shafts n are geared together will
be understood by an examination of Figure 2. It will also be seen by an
examination of the said Figure 2 that one half of the screws or rotatory tillers
m have rotation in a direction contrary to that in which the other half rotate.
Coulters 20 precede or are placed between the tillers m. The frames which
carries the screws or tillers m is capable of being raised or depressed, so as to
cause the said screws or tillers to operate upon the land, or to raise them
above the surface of the land. The vertical motion of the frame s is effected by
two screws t, the said screws being situated at opposite extremities of a diagonal
to the said frame s, as seen in Figure 3. At the top of each screw t is
a worm wheel u, in which worms on the axis w engage. By the handle
motion may be given to the axis w, and through it to the screws t. The screw

page_text: boxes y attached to the frames are raised or lowered by the motion of the
screws t, and the tillers m thereby raised or depressed. The precise depth to
which the tillers m enter the ground may be regulated with the greatest
nicety by the action of the screws t.
The second portion of the posterior part of the machine is represented in
elevation in Figure 5, and plan in Figure 6. It consists of a series of prongs
2 fixed to a moveable plate 3, beneath which moveable plate 3 is a fixed
plate 4, the said plate 4 having slots 5 through which the prongs 2 pass. The
plate 3 carrying the prongs is raised from time to time by means of a crank 6
on the shaft 7, by which raising the prongs are scraped clean by the plate 4.
An oscillating or zig-zag motion is given to the plate 3 by means of the
shaft 8. The said shaft 8 carries a cam 9, and a pin on the lower plate 4
passing through a slot in the plate 3 engages in the zig-zag slot 10 in the
cam 9. Rotation is given to the shaft 8 by means of a pulley 11. A chain
or band passing over the pulley 11 takes motion from a pulley on the shaft r,
Figure 1. By the rotation of the cam 9 an oscillating motion is given to the
plate 3 carrying the prongs 2. A series of curved prongs 12 follow the
straight prongs 2; the said prongs 12 are situated on an axis 13, and by
the handle 14 the said prongs 12 may be raised through the slots 15 in the
plate 4, and thereby cleaned. The curved prongs 12 serve to collect switch or
other vegetable matter from the land operated upon by the machine. The
position of the harrow, Figures 5 and 6, on the machine, Figure 1, will be
understood by the plate 4, Figure 1, the said plate 4, Figure 1, being the plate
marked 4 in Figures 5 and 6.
Two large driving pullies may be placed one on either end of the shaft 16,
Figure 1. These pullies act as a fly wheel in giving uniformity to the motion
of the machine, and when the said machine is not being used for cultivating
land the rollers h, i, may be disconnected from the steam engine, and the said
steam engine employed as a stationary agricultural steam engine. In this
case the large driving pullies serve to transmit the power from the steam
engine to a thrashing machine or any other machine which it is wished
to actuate.
When it is wished to transport the machine from place to place it is raised,
so that the weight of the said machine is not borne by the rollers h, i, and
platform k, but by a pair of wheels z; the axle of the said wheels = is
connected with the frame of the machine by a hydraulic ram or rams 1. By
forcing water into the hydraulic rams 1 the carriage is raised, and its weight
taken off the rollers h, i, and thrown upon the wheels and the guide roll a,
upon which the machine may be moved from place to place; or the wheels

page_text: may be depressed and the carriage raised by means of an excentric worked by
a worm and tangent wheel. The mechanism for raising the carriage may
either be worked by hand or by the steam engine. A drilling or sowing
machine may be be attached to and follow the oscillating harrow or prongs.
Having now described the nature of my Invention, and the manner of
carrying the same into effect, I wish it to be understood that I do not limit
myself to the precise details herein described and represented, as the same
may be varied without departing from the nature of my Invention; but
I claim as my Invention,-
Firstly, the steam cylinder and piston over the guide roller or rollers,
herein-before described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
Secondly, the endless metallic platform, herein-before described, and illus
trated in the accompanying Drawings.
Thirdly, the rotating tillers or screws, herein-before described, and illustrated
in the accompanying Drawings.
Fourthly, the self-cleaning oscillating prongs or harrow, herein-before
described, and illustrated in the accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Thomas Keddy, have hereunto set my
band and seal, this Fifteenth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.
Witness,
GEORGE SHAW.
THOMAS KEDDY. (L.S.)