IMPROVEMENTS IN IMPLEMENTS FOR DRILLING LAND BY STEAM POWER
Year: 1871

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Priest and William Woolnough, both of
Ceres Iron Works, Kingston-on-Thames, in the County of Surrey,
for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN IMPLEMENTS FOR DRILLING LAND
BY STEAM POWER."
Sealed the 22nd August 1871, and dated the 23rd February 1871.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Priest and
William Woolnough at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 23rd February 1871.
We, ALFRED PRIEST and WILLIAM WOOLNOUGH, both of Ceres Iron
Works, Kingston-on-Thames, in the County of Surrey, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN IMPLEMENTS FOR
DRILLING LAND BY STEAM POWER," to be as follows:-
-
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the drilling or sowing of
grain and seeds, either with or without manure, by means of steam power.
To accomplish this to advantage it is essential that a large breadth of
land should be drilled in a given time, in order to justify the cost of
steam power employed for the operation, and that the same implement
should also be available for drilling the headlands with as small an

page_text: amount of horse labor as possible, because they cannot advantageously
be drilled by steam power.
The principle of the present Invention is to construct drills wide
enough, without being unnecessarily heavy, to drill large tracts of land
per day by steam power, which drills admit of being altered or made
into two or more drills, wherewith to drill headlands or for other
purposes by horse power when required. For this purpose two or more
drills of the usual kind are coupled or joined together side by side by
suitable means, a travelling wheel being arranged to go between, say,
two drills (desirable in consequence of great width) so that the drills so
coupled or joined together would run on one centro and two outside
travelling wheels instead of two outside wheels as heretofore. When
the drills are required to do the headlands, to drill small seeds, or other
purposes, by horse power, they are uncoupled and mounted on two
travelling wheels in the usual way.
The wheels herein referred to are quite distinct and independent of
the wheels on what is commonly known as the fore-carriage steerage
of the drill. To this steerage we attach a third wheel in the centre
arranged to raise or lower so as to take the weight of the steerage in
turning and prevent the steerage wheels dragging up the ground.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Priest and William Woolnough in the
Great Seal Patent Office on the 23rd August 1871.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, wc, ALFRED
PRIEST and WILLIAM WOOLNOUGH, both of Ceres Iron Works, Kingston- 2
on-Thames, in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-third day of February, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one, in the
thirty-fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and suc- 3
cessors, give and grant unto us, the said Alfred Priest and William
Woolnough, Her special licence that we, the said Alfred Priest and
William Woolnough, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or such
'others as we, the said Alfred Priest and William Woolnough, our
executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time agree with, and 3

page_text: 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 "IMPROVEMENTS IN
IMPLEMENTS FOR DRILLING LAND BY STEAM POWER," upon the condition (amongst
others) that we, the said Alfred Priest and William Woolnough, our
exccutors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under our, or
their, or one of their hands and scals, 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 Alfred Priest, on behalf of myself
and of the said William Woolnough, 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, and accompanying Drawings, that is to say :—
The object of this Invention is to facilitate the drilling or sowing of
grain and seeds, either with or without manure, by means of steam power.
To accomplish this to advantage it is essential that a large breadth of
land should be drilled in a given time in order to justify the cost of steam
power employed for the operation and that the same implement should
also be available for drilling the headlands with as small an amount of
horse power as possible, because they cannot advantageously be drilled
by steam power.
The principle of the present Invention is to construct drills wide
enough, without being unnecessarily heavy, to drill large tracks of land
per day by steam power, which drills admit of being altered or made
into two or more drills wherewith to drill headlands or for other purposes
by horse power when required. For this purpose two or more drills of
the usual kind are coupled or joined together side by side by suitable
means, a travelling wheel being arranged to go between, say, two drills
(desirable in consequence of the great width), so that the drills so coupled
or joined together would run on one centre and two outside travelling
5 wheels instead of two outside wheels as heretofore. When the drills are
required to do the headlands, to drill small seeds, or other purposes by
horse power, they are uncoupled and mounted on two travelling wheels
in the usual way.

page_text: The wheels herein referred to are quite distinct and independant of
the wheels on what is commonly known as the fore-carriage or steerage
of the drill. To this steerage we attach a third wheel in the centre
arranged to raise or lower so as to take the weight of the steerage in
turning and prevent the steerage wheels dragging up the ground.
Figure 1 represents a side view of the drill. Figure 2, a plan of the
samc.
a, a, shews the frame; b, b, the travelling wheels; c, the axletree
which connects the drills; and d, a piece of framing which secures the
front frames of drills together. c, c, represents the tongs of the fore-
carriage steerage, the front wheels of which "S" are acted on from
behind the drills by means of the wheels, rods, and chains g "and h" a
steering apparatus is provided to which the rope from the driving
power is affixed, and which is used for turning the drill at the headlands.
When desired to use the drills by horse power they are unconnected
by removing thic steerage apparatus, the axletree "c," and piece of
framing “d,” and an additional travelling wheel is provided so that they
form two complete drills for horse power of half the width. "k" shows
the centre wheel on steerage, which is capable of being raised or lowered
to take the weight of the steerage in turning.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Priest, on behalf of myself
and of the said William Woolnough, have hereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-third day of August, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy-one.