IMPROVEMENTS IN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Chambers at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 16th
May 1874.
I, THOMAS CHAMBERS, of Colkirk, in the County of Norfolk, Farmer,
do hereby declare the nature of my said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS
IN AGRICULTURAL IMPLEMENTS," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to implements or machinery to be employed
for the purpose of cutting out or thinning and setting out mangold
wurtzel or other crops, in either ridges, drills, lines, or rows, and consists
in affixing any suitable number of hoes in bearings on a disc, which is
fast on or carried or driven by a spindle or shaft, to which rotatory
motion is imparted, such spindle or shaft being arranged parallel with
the line of the ridge, drill, row, or line of plants to be operated on. The
hoes are so arranged on the discs that the cutting away of the plants
in the ridges, drills, lines, or rows is effected either by a succession of
cuts by small hoes or by a cut by one wide or large hoe.
The hoes are attached to shanks, which are carried in the bearings

page_text: whole of such bevil wheels being in gear with a large bevil wheel
working loose on the said spindle or shaft, but capable of being secured
in any circumferential position on the disc by a handle, and a suitable
catch or catches, so that by means of the motion of such large bevil
wheel round the axis of the disc the angles of the hoes on the shanks
may be altered or the hoes reversed as desired.
In applying the Invention to the cutting out or thinning of two
ridges, drills, lines, or rows of plants, for example, it is proposed to
arrange the apparatus in the following manner:-Two disc shafts with
similar discs and hoes are carried on bearings in a frame, such frame
being suspended in swinging bearings, and capable of being removed
sideways, and to, from, and parallel with the drill, line, or row of plants,
and the course of the carriage of the apparatus, and such frame is also
moveable round centre bearings, and is capable of being depressed or
raised so as to lower the hoes or raise them out of action as required.
A sleeve or hollow axis is carried in suitable bearings in this frame, the
centre of such sleeve being coincident with the centres round or on
which such frame swings or moves in a vertical direction, and on the
centre of such sleeve or hollow axis is fixed a pulley or chain wheel,
which is driven as herein-after mentioned.
1
In each end of the sleeve or stem or spindle carrying a bevil wheel
called the intermediate bevil wheel slides, which stem or spindle may be
fixed to suit the distance between the drills, lines, or rows of plants, and
be maintained at a suitable distance for its bevil wheel to gear with
other bevil wheels herein-after referred to.
Each intermediate bevil wheel gears with two bevil wheels on each of
the disc shafts, either of which bevil wheels may by suitable means be
connected and put in gear with the said intermediate bevil wheel, and
by this means the direction in which the disc shafts and the discs and
hoes thereon are driven may be reversed or altered as required. The
bearings of the disc shafts are arranged to slide sideways, so as to suit
the distance between the drills, lines, or rows of plants.
The whole of the machinery or apparatus before described is affixed
to or carried by the said swinging bearings which are attached to the
frame of a carriage to be drawn by a horse or other motive power. On
the hub of one of the wheels of the said last-mentioned carriage is fixed
a spur wheel; which gears with and drives another spur wheel fixed on a

page_text: shaft extending across the carriage, such shaft being capable of being
raised or lowered, but in such a manner that the said spur wheels may
remain constantly in gear.
On the last-mentioned shaft there is secured a pulley or chain wheel,
which is driven therewith, so that by means of chains or straps con-
necting the last-mentioned pulley or chain wheel with the pulley or
chain wheel on the before-mentioned sleeve or hollow axis rotatory
motion is constantly imparted to the disc shafts, discs, and hoes,
whatever may be the position of the frame carrying the disc shafts.