IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING STEAM POWER TO TILLING LAND BY MEANS OF A DIGGING LOCOMOTIVE
Year: 1862

page_text: Brixton, in the County of Surrey, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS
IN APPLYING STEAM POWER TO TILLING LAND BY MEANS OF A DIGGING
LOCOMOTIVE." -A communication from abroad by Elias Howe, junior,
residing at Brooklyn, State of New York, United States of America.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield
at the Oflice of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 7th May 1862.
1. GEORGE TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD. of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in
the County of Surrey, do hereby declare the nature of the Invention for
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING STEAM POWER TO TILLING LAND BY MEANS OF A
DIGGING LOCOMOTIVE," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in applying steam power to
tilling land by means of a digging locomotive. On the 14th of March last a
Provisional Specification (No. 707) was filed by me at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents. and Provisional Protection has been granted to
me thereon. This Provisional Specification described amongst other things a
digging locomotive.
One object of the present Invention is to enable a digging locomotive to be
directed with great facility, and it consists-in securing the front pair of wheels
[Price 8d.]

page_text: to separate upright spindles, which can be turned simultaneously in the
same direction to cause both wheels to assume the required obliquity to the
frame of the machine.
Another object of this Invention is to enable a digging locomotive to be
turned with facility in a short space, and consists in combining two independent
driving wheels at the opposite sides of the carriage with the driving mechanism
in such manner that by raising the carriage upon one of said wheels a greater
distance than upon the other, one of said wheels is put into gear with the
driving mechanism, while the other is not, whereby the driven wheel can
propel the carriage round in a circle nearly concentric with the opposite and
independent wheel.
The machine is conveniently arranged as follows:-The power is applied to
the digging cylinder, so that the diggers perform the double purpose of digging
and acting as drivers. Advantage is thus taken of the secure hold which the
diggers take upon the ground to secure the propulsion of the machine. The
digging cylinder is conveniently mounted upon a four-wheeled carriage, which
also carries a steam boiler, a pair of steam engines, a series of cleansers, and
the gearing and other appurtenances of the machine. The diggers are fixed
to the digging cylinder, and their bodies are curved sufficiently to cause them
to enter the soil point foremast as the digging cylinder rolls forward. The
steam engines are located at the opposite sides of the carriage of the loco-
motive, each having an oscillating cylinder, whose valve ports are located in
its trunnions. The piston rod of each cylinder is connected with a crank on a
shaft to which a pinion is secured, and this pinion communicates motion to a
cog wheel secured to the shaft of the digging cylinder through the intervention
of an intermediate wheel. Hence the movement of the steam engines causes
the digging cylinder to revolve in a manner analogous to the driving wheels of
an ordinary locomotive; and as the diggers in penetrating take a firm hold of the
soil, the machine, is propelled forward by their action at the same time that the
soil is dug up. In the arrangement preferred the cleansers are constructed to
revolve; to this end a series of them is secured to an axle which runs in boxes
upon the carriage, and these cleansers have the form of the diggers, but are
secured to their axle in reversed positions. As the cleansers intervene between
the diggers, the slices or clods of earth raised by the latter, and projecting
laterally from them, strike the cleansers, and cause the whole series to revolve;
and as in this revolution the diggers and cleansers are drawn from each other
after passing above the plane of their axes of revolution, the slices and clods
are broken and disengaged from the diggers, and are permitted to fall into the
trench. As this disengagement of the clods takes place first at the inner ends

page_text: of the diggers. where the upper portion of the original soil is, this portion falls
first into the trench, so that the soil left by the diggers is not only dug but
reversed. The revolving series of cleansers thus described revolves by the
action of the soil carried by the diggers. but if deemed expedient, the series
may be caused to revolve by power, by connecting their axle with the crank
shaft of the steam engines, or with the digging cylinder through the inter-
vention of cog wheels: and in this case the series of cleansers may be caused
to revolve faster. slower. or at the same speed as the diggers, as deemed
expedient, by giving to the cog wheels the proper relative dimensions required
to produce these motions. The cleansers may then also be caused to revolve
in the reverse direction, if deemed expedient. by arranging the cog wheels for
that purpose.
water in a tank
supplied to the
The boiler of the locomotive is of the upright tabular variety, that form
being preferred on account of simplicity and efficiency.
The fuel may be
carried on the carriage of the locomotive, and a supply of
thereon provided for the purpose. The feed water may be
boiler either by an injector or by a force pump driven by a donkey engine.
The front pair of carriage wheels are mounted upon short axles, each of which
is secured to a forked upright spindle in a manner analogous to a castor
wheel, and each spindle is sustained in an upright position by bearings in the
carriage frame. so that it can turn to place the wheel at any desired obliquity
to the length of the carriage. Each spindle is fitted with a worm wheel, and
a pair of screws are provided to operate upon the two worm wheels; these
screws are secured to a shaft having a hand steering wheel at its centre, by
turning which the screws are caused to turn the worm wheels and the spindles
and carriage wheels secured thereto simultaneously in the same direction, so
as to vary the obliquity of the leading carriage wheels, and direct the move-
ment of the locomotive as desired. In order that the two leading wheels may
be turned to the greatest extent without interfering with each other, these
wheels are not set directly beneath their spindles, but are set sidewise thereto,
a larger portion of each wheel being outside of the axis of the spindle than
inside thereof. By this arrangement the wheel that is at the inner side of the
curved track in turning is carried backwards, while the wheel that is at the
outer side of the track is carried forwards, whereby the leading wheels can be
turned a greater distance than they otherwise could. The carrying wheels at
the opposite sides of the locomotive are each fitted to a separate crank axle,
and cach crank axle is fitted with a. lever, so that either carrying wheel may
be depressed without the other, and that the two may be depressed different
distances to raise the two sides of the locomotive carriage unequally. The inner.

page_text: periphery of each carrying wheel is fitted with a cog wheel, and a córre-
sponding pinion is secured to cach end of the shaft of the digging cylinder in
such a position with reference to the cog wheel that the teeth of the two are in
gear when the carrying wheel is depressed to its lowest position: hence at this
time that carrying wheel will be caused to propel the locomotive. while. if the
other opposite carrying wheel be not depressed far enough to throw the 'teeth
of its cog wheel into gear, it will carry its side of the carriage without pro-
pelling it, and as the locomotive will thus be propelled on one side only, it will
tend to turn when its leading wheels are properly steered in a circular curve
nearly concentric with the passive carrying wheel. In order to hold the
carrying wheels in the proper relative positions, a ratchet is secured to each
side of the locomotive, with the notches in such positions that when the
adjacent lever is engaged in the lower notch, the cog wheel of the corre-
sponding carrying wheel is in gear, and the carrying wheel is driven by the
engines; and when the lever is engaged in an upper notch of the rack, the cog
wheel of the corresponding carrying wheel is not in gear, so that this carrying
wheel then carries the weight of the locomotive without propelling it. In
the digging locomotive thus described, the carrying wheels are driven
when required by cog wheels: they may, however, be driven by friction, by
means of frictional gearing. or by so constructing the machine that the inner
peripheries of the carrying wheels when depressed are, borne against drums
secured to the ends of the digging cylinder.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said George Tomlinson Bousfield in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 7th November 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME. I. GEORGE
TOMLINSON BOUSFIELD of Loughborough Park, Brixton, in the County of
Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-fifth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself. Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said George Tomlinson Bousfield, Her special licence that I, the said George
Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, should at any time agree with, and no others, from time to time

page_text: 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPLYING STEAM POWER TO TILLING LAND BY MEANS OF
A DIGGING LOCOMOTIVE," a communication to me from abroad by Elias Howe,
junior, a person resident at Brooklyn, State of New York, United States of
America, upon the condition (amongst others) that I. the said George
Tomlinson Bousfield, my executors, or administrators, by an instrument in
writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should par-
ticularly 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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I. the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to
be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement thereof, that is to say:
This Invention has for its object improvements in applying steam power to
tilling land by means of a digging locomotive.
On the 14th of March last a Provisional Specification No. 707, was filed by
me at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, and Provisional Protection
has been granted to me thereon. This Provisional Specification described..
amongst other things, a digging locomotive; now one object of the present
Invention is to enable a digging locomotive to be directed with great facility,
and it consists in securing the front pair of wheels to separate upright
spindles. which can be turned simultaneously in the
same direction to
cause both wheels to assume the required obliquity to the frame of the
machine.
Another object of this Invention is to enable a digging locomotive to be
turned with facility in a short space, and consists in combining two independent
driving wheels at the opposite sides of the carriage with the driving mechanism
in such manner that by raising the carriage upon one of said wheels a greater
distance than upon the other, one of said wheels is put into gear with the
driving mechanism, while the other is not, whereby the driven wheel can'
propel the carriage round in a circle nearly concentric with the opposite and
independent wheel.
The machine is conveniently arranged in the manner shown in the annexed
Drawings, of which Figure 1 represents a side view of the more important
parts of a digging locomotive constructed according to the principle of the

page_text: Invention, and with the diggers in the ground; Figure 2 represents a plan
of the same; Figure 3 represents a rear view of the same: and Figure 4
represents a side view of the same, with the diggers raised from the ground.
The power is applied to the digging cylinder so that the diggers perform the
double purpose of digging and acting as drivers. Advantage is thus taken
of the secure hold which the diggers take upon the ground to secure the
propulsion of the machine. The digging cylinder D is mounted upon a four-
wheeled carriage A, which also carries a steam boiler, a pair of steam engines.
a series of cleansers, and the gearing and other appurtenances of the machine.
The diggers c, c, c. are fixed to the digging cylinder D, and their bodies are
curved sufficiently to cause them to enter the soil point foremost as the digging
cylinder rolls forward. The steam engines are located at the opposite sides of
the carriage of the locomotive, each in this instance having an oscillating
cylinder E, whose valve ports are located in its trunnions. The piston rod
t of each cylinder is connected with a crank on a shaft a, to which a pinion
b is secured, and this pinion communicates motion to a cog wheel d. secured
to the shaft of the digging cylinder through the intervention of an intermediate
wheel. Hence the movement of the steam engines causes the digging
cylinder D to revolve in a manner analogous to the driving wheels of an
ordinary locomotive, and as the diggers in penetrating take a firm hold of the
soil, the machine is propelled forward by their action, at the same time that
the soil is dug up.
In the digging locomotive represented in the Drawings the cleansers V
are constructed to revolve; to this end a series of them is secured to an axle g,
which runs in boxes upon the carriage, and these cleansers have the form of
the diggers, but are secured to their axle in reversed positions, as shewn in
the Drawings. As the cleansers intervene between the diggers the slices or
clods of earth raised by the latter, and projecting laterally from them strike
the cleansers, and cause the whole series to revolve, and as in this revolution
the diggers and cleansers are drawn from each other after passing above the
plane of their axes of revolution, the slices and clods are broken and disengaged
from the diggers, and are permitted to fall into the trench; as this disengage-
ment of the clods takes place first at the inner ends of the diggers, where
the upper portion of the original soil is, this portion falls first into the trench,
so that the soil left by the diggers is not only dug but reversed. The revolving
series of cleansers thus described revolves by the action of the soil carried by the
diggers, but if deemed expedient the series may be caused to revolve by power,
by connecting their axle with the crank shaft of the steam engines, or with
the digging cylinder through the intervention of cog wheels, and in this case

page_text: the series of cleansers may be caused to revolve faster, slower, or at the same
speed as the diggers. as deemed expedient, by giving to the cog wheels the
proper relative dimensions required to produce these motions. The cleansers
may then also be caused to revolve in the reverse direction, if deemed expedient
by arranging the cog wheels for that purpose. The boiler of the locomotive
is in this example, of the upright tubular variety, that form being preferred
on account of simplicity and efliciency. The fuel may be carried on the
carriage of the locomotive, and a supply of water in a tank thereon provided
for the purpose. The feed water may be supplied to the boiler either by an
injector, or by a force pump driven by a donkey engine.
The front pair of carriage wheels B¹, B', are mounted upon short axles,
cach of which is secured to a forked upright spindle M in a manner analogous
to a castor wheel, and each spindle is sustained in an upright position by
bearings in the carriage frame, so that it can turn to place the wheel at any
desired obliquity to the length of the carriage. Each spindle is fitted with a
worm wheel N, and a pair of screws P, P, are provided to operate upon the
two worm wheels; these screws are secured to a shaft S, having a hand steering
wheel R at its centre, by turning which the screws P, P, are caused to turn
the worm wheels and the spindles and carriage wheels secured thereto simul-
taneously in the same direction so as to vary the obliquity of the leading
carriage wheels and direct the movement of the locomotive as desired. In
order that the two leading wheels may be turned to the greatest extent
without interfering with each other, these wheels are not set directly beneath
their spindles, but are set sidewise thereto, as shown at Figure 2, a larger
portion of each wheel being outside of the axis of the spindle than inside
thereof. By this arrangement the wheel that is at the inner side of the curved
track in turning is carried backwards, while the wheel that is at the outer
side of the track is carried forwards, as shown in dotted lines at B2, B²,
Figure 2, whereby the leading wheels can be turned a greater distance than
they otherwise could. The carrying wheels B. B, at the opposite sides of the
locomotive are each fitted to a separate crank axle, and each crank axle
is fitted with a lever I, so that either carrying wheel may be depressed
without the other, and that the two may be depressed different distances to
raise the two sides of the locomotive carriage unequally. The inner periphery
of each carrying wheel is fitted with a cog wheel r, and a corresponding
pinion s is secured to each end of the shaft of the digging cylinder D in such
a position with reference to the cog wheel r, that the teeth of the two are in gear
when the carrying wheel is depressed to its lowest position; hence at this time
that carrying wheel will be caused to propel the locomotive, while, if the other

page_text: opposite carrying wheel be not depressed far enough to throw the teeth of its
cog wheel into gear, it will carry its side of the carriage without propelling it;
and as the locomotive will thus be propelled on one side only, it will tend to
turn when its leading wheels are properly steered in a circular curve nearly
concentric with the passive carrying wheel. In order to hold the carrying
wheels in the proper relative positions a ratchet is secured to each side of
the locomotive with the notches in such positions that when the adjacent
lever I is engaged in the lower notch, the cog wheel of the corresponding
carrying wheel is in gear, and the carrying wheel is driven by the engines; and
when the lever is engaged in an upper notch of the rack u, the cog wheel of
the corresponding carrying wheel is not in gear, so that this carrying wheel
then carries the weight of the locomotive without propelling it. If deemed
expedient each lever I may be operated by a separate winch similar to that
represented on the horse machine described in the Specification to my said
former Patent.
In the digging locomotive above described the carrying wheels are driven,
when required, by cog wheels, they may, however, be driven by friction, by means
of frictional gearing, or by so constructing the machine that the inner peripheries
of the carrying wheels when depressed are borne against drums secured to the
ends of the digging cylinder D. Moreover, in this description it has been
assumed for convenience of description, that the drawing down of the front
ends of the levers I, I, actually depresses the carrying wheels, while in point
of fact as the carrying wheels roll upon the ground, they are not depressed
but the locomotive is raised upon them. the relative positions of the parts
of digging locomotive when so raised being shown in side elevation at
Figure 4.
In witness whereof, I, the said George Tomlinson Bousfield, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Fifth day of November, in the year of
our Lord One thousand cight hundred and sixty-two.
GEO. T. BOUSFIELD. (L.S.)