IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES
Year: 1864

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Fletcher, of Winterton, in the County of
Lincoln, Agricultural Engineer, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN
REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES."
Sealed the 16th September 1864, and dated the 17th May 1864.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Fletcher at the.
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 17th
May 1864.
I, JOHN FLETCHER, of Winterton, in the County of Lincoln, Agricultural
Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to that part of reaping and mowing machines known
as the fingers or knife-guides, and consists in fitting a piece of steel into one
or both sides or surfaces of the slot in each finger or guide, so that the knife
will work in contact with such steel mouth-piece or pieces, whereby a better
cutting action is obtained, as the steel edges are less liable to be injured or
blunted by stones or grit than when a softer metal is employed.

page_text: SPECIFICATON in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Fletcher in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 5th
November 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
FLETCHER, of Winterton, in the County of Lincoln, Agricultural Engineer, send
greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-four, in the twenty-seventh year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
me, the said John Fletcher, Her special license that I, the said John
Fletcher, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the
said John Fletcher, my executors, administrators, or assigns, should at
any time agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times there-
after 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 John Fletcher, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, or under the hand and
seal of one of them, 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 John Fletcher, 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, reference being had to the accompanying Drawings, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon, that is to say:-
My said Invention relates to that part of reaping and mowing machines
known as the "fingers" or knife-guides, and consists in fitting a piece of
steel into one or both sides or surfaces of the slot in each finger or guide, so
that the knife will work in contact with such steel mouth-piece or pieces,
whereby a better cutting action is obtained, as the steel edges are less liable
to be injured or blunted by stones or grit than when a softer metal is
employed.

page_text: And in order that my said Invention may be fully understood I shall refer
to the Drawing annexed, which represents a full sized perspective view of
my improved "finger" or knife-guide detached.
A is the body of the "finger," which may be of the ordinary or any other
form, and B is the usual bolt hole for the reception of the bolt by which it
is secured to the finger bar of a reaping or mowing machine; C is a steel plate
which is securely fixed into the lower side of the mouth or slot of the "finger,"
being retained therein by fixing its front end into a groove or slot made for
that purpose at a in the "finger," and by rabiting its rear end into a notch
or recess made at b in the base of the "finger" and passing a rivet c through
it at or near this part.
Having now described and particularly ascertained the nature of my
said Invention, and the manner in which the same is or may be used or carried
into effect, I would observe in conclusion that what I consider to be novel
and original, and therefore claim as the Invention secured to me by the
herein-before in part recited Letters Patent is, the application and use to
and in the "fingers" or knife-guides of reaping and mowing machines, of a
steel mouth-plece or lining secured to one or both surfaces of the mouth or
opening through which the knife works, substantially as and for the purpose
herein-before described and illustrated by my Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Fletcher, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Third day of November, One thousand eight
hundred and sixty-four.
JOHN FLETCHER. (L.S.)