A MACHINE FOR DRILLING AND ROLLING LAND
Year: 1856

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Peacock Savage, of Roxham, in the County
of Norfolk, Farmer, for the Invention of "A MACHINE FOR DRILLING AND
ROLLING LAND."
Sealed the 24th June 1856, and dated the 23rd April 1856.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Peacock Savage
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28rd April 1856.
I, WILLIAM PEACOCK SAVAGE, of Roxham, in the County of Norfolk,
Farmer, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention for A MACHINE
FOR DRILLING AND ROLLING LAND, to be as follows:-
My Invention of a machine for drilling and rolling land consists in adapting
to an axle shaft or axis, travelling on wheels and guided by a front steering
wheel, worked from behind, discs or wheels, wedge-shaped at their circum-
ference or outer edge, with scrapers, seed box, hollow coulter, harrow, and
other suitable implements for depositing the seed in a solid seed bed, covering
it over, and rolling the land. The wheel or discs employed are of two kinds
the one a revolving coulter, the other an angle press wheel.
When the machine is to be employed for rolling and drilling light land, two
of the angle press wheels are placed on each side of the revolving coulter,
and as the machine travels or is drawn in the usual manner, a solid seed bed
with ridges on either side is formed, the seed being deposited in such seed bed
from a seed box, communicating by tubes with a hollow coulter, having a

page_text: harrow or projection on either side for covering the seed by means of the soil
from the ridge on either side.
For drilling strong land, the angle press wheels on either side of the
revolving coulter may be dispensed with, and collars placed between the
coulters, so as to keep them at the proper distances apart, and secure the
revolving coulters working in a verticle plane. By removing the revolving
coulters and substituting angle press wheels of suitable diameter, the land may
be rolled and left in a series of ridges and angular hollows, or rolled over down
each drill of growing corn. The seed box is shaped at the top in such manner
as to shoot off the wet, and the sced is conveyed from the seed box to the
hollow coulter, by which it is deposited in the solid seed bed by gutta percha or
other suitable tubes. The number of revolving coulters and angle press
wheels adapted to the axis will depend on the length of the axle to which they
arc adapted.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Peacock Savage in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 20th October 1856.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
PEACOCK SAVAGE, of Roxham, in the County of Norfolk, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of April, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six, in the nineteenth year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me, the
said William Peacock Savage, Her special licence that I, the said William
Peacock Savage, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others
as I, the said William Peacock Savage, 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
A MACHINE FOR DRILLING AND ROLLING LAND, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the William Peacock Savage, my executors or administrators,
by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and
seals, should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said In-
vention, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Peacock Savage, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same
is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by
the following statement, and the Drawings herein referred to (that is to
say):
My Invention consists in adapting to an axle shaft or axis a series of discs
or wheels, wedge-shaped at their circumference or outer edge, with revolving
coulters, a seed box, and other apparatus, constituting a machine for drilling
and rolling, of which a front and back view is shewn in Figures A and B of
the accompanying Drawings. When this machine is moved from place to
place and not in use for rolling or drilling it has adapted to it travelling
wheels and shafts, not shewn in the said Drawings, which can be added or
removed by bringing the rolling surfaces to bear on the ground or any inclined
surface, or placing the travelling wheels on lower ground than that on which
the rolling surfaces rest. The travelling wheels and shafts being removed,
the tractive power is applied by whipple-trees attached to the front of the
machine. The seed box, shewn in detail in Figure C of the accompanying
Drawings, has an angular top, and is covered with boards overlapping each
other in such manner as to shoot off the wet and be waterproof. The
Figure D of the accompanying Drawings shews the details or parts of the
above machine, represented in the Figures A and B.
The wheels marked No. 1 are the travelling wheels.
No. 2 is the main or middle stay, in which the axis revolves in a brass at the
angle or centre of the stay.
No. 3 are two angle press wheels, having their outer edges of the form or
section shewn immediately below the Drawings of each wheel, and in which,
for a press wheel of 3 feet diameter, the following dimensions answer well,
that is to say, a, b, 3 inches; a, c, of an inch; c, e, 1 inches; e, f, an inch.
No. 4 is one of the revolving coulters, having its outer edge of the form or
section below the Drawing thereof. The revolving coulters are about four
inches larger in diameter than the angle press wheels, as shewn in the Draw-
ings A and B; they are also narrower except at the truncated edge, which is
the same width, namely, about half an inch..
No. 5 is one of the stops, provided with a screw, and adapted so as to be
fixed to the axis and keep all the wheels in their proper position, that is, working
at right angles to the axis.
No. 6 are loose stops for filling up the space when fewer wheels than in the
entire machine are used.
No. 7 is also a stop to be employed between the larger discs, for the pur-

page_text: pose of keeping them in their proper position, and insuring their working at
right angles to the axis.
"
No. 8 is the scraper for the angle press wheels, adapted so as to be reversible
as either side becomes worn, and narrower scrapers are adapted for cleaning
the revolving coulters; all the scrapers are fitted on the same rod and are
reversible; they have steel edges, and the rod on which they slide may remain
as shewn in the Drawing B, or it may be fixed lower, so that the scrapers may
scrape the lower part of the wheels instead of the top.
No. 9 is the steering wheel in front of the machine; it has a semicircular
iron above it, as shewn in the Drawing, which is fastened by bolts to the frame
of the machine. The wheel is worked from behind on either side.by iron rods,
rack, and pinion, as shewn in Drawing No. 10.
No. 11 is the hollow coulter, through which, when placed behind the
revolving coulter, the seed is deposited in the seed bed, as hereafter mentioned.
The centre holes of the angle press wheels are larger than and fit loose on
the axis, and by reason thereof rise and fall about an inch, according to the
variations of the lands over which they have to pass; but the revolving or wheel
coulters fit close to the axis, going about a uniform depth, pressing or making
the solid seed bed with the angle press wheels on each side, to assist in keeping
the land close to the revolving coulters, while the latter press the land and
form the solid seed bed.
When the machine is employed in rolling or drilling light land, the revolving
coulters with the angle press wheels on each side (as the machine travels
or is drawn on) form a solid seed bed, in which the seed is deposited from the
'seed box through tubes communicating with the hollow coulters behind the
revolving coulters.
In drilling strong land, the angle press wheels on either side of the revolving
coulters may be dispensed with, and collars or stops, such as.No. 6 or No. 7,
placed between the coulters, to keep them in their places, at proper distances
apart. If the revolving coulters be removed, and angle press. wheels of
suitable diameters substituted, with or without wheels or collars, like No. 7,
between them, the land may be rolled, or left in a series of ridges or angular
hollows, or rolled over down each drill of growing corn.
The cup for expelling the seed from the seed box has an angular shank with
the sharp edge upwards, the effect of which is, that no seed can be expelled
but by the cup itself; the seed so expelled is received by a tin hopper, from
which it descends into a spout or tube, and thence into the hollow coulters,
which follow in the seed bed made by the revolving coulters, and from which
the seed is either strewed or dropped. If dropped, it is done by means of cog

page_text: wheels, as shewn by Figure No. 12, fixed on an iron rod or bar in front of the
seed box, which cog wheels, as they revolve, press the heads of other iron bars,
one being at each side of the machine, connected with suitable irons for opening
the chaps or mouths of the hollow coulters, and which are closed again by a
spring after the seed is deposited. When the corn is to be strewed, the lids at
the mouths of the hollow coulters, to which the spring is attached, are kept
open, by a hook on each side of the machine. The seed box is lifted out of its
work by means of a flat bar or lever, which can be operated on from the side
of the machine behind, on which are none of the driving wheels, by pressing a
handle which acts on the lever bar.
The machine, as shewn in the accompanying Drawing, consists of sixteen
discs and eight revolving coulters, but the number of these may be diminished
or increased, as required; but in the construction of any such machines, the
midde stay and stops for insuring the proper position and working of the discs
are some of the essential parts of the Invention.
Having now described the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner
the same is to be performed, I hereby declare that what I claim, as the Inven-
tion intended to be secured by the said Letters Patent, is, a machine for drilling
and rolling land, constructed and arranged as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Peacock Savage, have hereunto
set my hand and affixed my seal, this Twentieth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-six.
WILLIAM PEACOCK SAVAGE. (L.B.)