IMPROVED MACHINERY POR GATHERING HAY AND OTHER CROPS FROM THE GROUND
Year: 1868

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Alfred Vincent Newton, of the Office for Patents,
66, Chancery Lane, in-the-County of Middlesex, Mechanical
Draughtsman, for the Invention of "IMPROVED MACHINERY POR
GATHERING HAY AND OTHER CROPS FROM THE GROUND."-A communication
from abroad by John Marcus Boorman, of Scarborough, in the State
of New York, United States of America.
Scaled the 2nd October July 1868, and dated the 17th April 1868.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Alfred Vincent Newton
at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition,
on the 17th April 1868.
I, ALFRED VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery
Lane, in the County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, do hereby
declare the nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR
GATHERING HAY AND OTHER CROPS FROM THE GROUND," to be as follows:-
This Invention relates to a novel arrangement of mechanism for
gathering hay and other like crops from the ground on which the same
may have been spread after being cut or mown, and transferring the

page_text: same to the vehicle employed to convey it to the place of storage or
deposit. The lifting portion of the mechanism, when used alone, will
serve for tedding the crop. Upon a carriage intended to receive the
load a horizontal frame is fitted, and pivoted upon opposite sides of this
frame near the end of the carriage are the side pieces of a compound
rocking frame. The lower end of this rocking frame carries a transverse
shaft, to the ends of which arc keyed spur pinions which
gear into
spur
wheels made fast to the hind running wheels of the carriage, and
receive rotary motion therefrom as the carriage travels over the field.
This transverse shaft is also fitted with band pulleys, and in the upper
part of the rocking frame are similar and corresponding band pulleys
mounted in independent adjustable frames carried by a fixed cross bar.
Over these pulleys pass endless bands which are fitted with double tines
or forks (set at suitable distances apart) for the purpose of gathering up
the hay and discharging it on to the carriage. Fitted to the front of
the rocking frame is a detachable frame which carries a series of slats
that stand up on either side of the endless belts, and are so placed as to
intercept the upward progress of the hay carried up by the forks and
push the hay off the prongs on. to the carriage. The lower ends of the
slat frame fit into sockets on the rock frame, and the upper ends thereof
are secured by loose pins. The slats are made fast at their upper ends
to a cross bar of the slat frame and at their lower ends to the rock
frame by a transverse rod (within the belts) passing through the frame
and through eyes formed in the slats. To throw the lifting mechanism
out of action it is only necessary to rock the frame which carries it on its
pivots. This is effected by pulling down a crank lever (by means of
an attached cord or chain) which bears upon a projection on the front
of the rock frame, and the frame will then be tipped sufficiently to
throw the spur pinions out of gear with the teeth of the driving wheels.
When the machine is to be used for tedding the slat frame has to
be removed. This can be readily done by first drawing out the loose
pins and the transverse rods which connect it with the rocking frame, and
the slat frame may then be lifted off its supporting sockets. When the slats
are no longer present the forks will carry up each their load of hay and
throw it into the air leaving it to fall lightly and distribute evenly over
the ground. The forks are each formed of one piece of bar iron or steel.
The middle of the bar, in length about equal to the width of the band
to which it is to be applied, is retained straight, and the remainder is
bent at right angles thereto. The extremities, of a length sufficient to

page_text: form the tines, are then bent at right angles, or nearly so, to the face of
the bent bar. The forks thus formed are secured to metal plates on the
bands. The plates have their sides turned up to form clips and are
rivetted to the bands, and the forks being slipped into these clips may
be made fast by a clinched pin, or the forks may be attached directly to
the bands by screw bolts.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Alfred Vincent Newton in the Great Scal Patent
Office on the 15th October 1868.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, ALFRED
VINCENT NEWTON, of the Office for Patents, 66, Chancery Lane, in the.
County of Middlesex, Mechanical Draughtsman, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of April, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, in the thirty-
first year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,
give and grant unto me, the said Alfred Vincent Newton,-Her-special-
licence that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Alfred Vincent
Newton, my executors, administrators, and 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 "IMPROVED MACHINERY FOR GATHERING HAY AND OTHER CROPS
FROM THE GROUND," being a communication to me from John Marcus
Boorman, of Scarborough, in the County of Westchester, and State of
New York, in the United States of America, upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, my executors or adminis-
trators, by an instrument in writing under my, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, 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, reference being had to the Drawing
hereunto annexed, and to the letters and figures marked thereon (that
is to say):
This Invention is designed for gathering hay or other like crops from
the ground on which the same may be spread after being mowed or cut,
and transferring the same to the vehicle employed to convey it to the
place of storage or deposit.
The improved machinery contains a series of slats so combined and
arranged in relation with carrier belts, which are furnished with suitable
forks for gathering and lifting the hay or like crop from the ground, that
the slats will effectually discharge the hay from the belt forks on to the
vehicle to which the apparatus is attached. The gathering apparatus is
so pivotted to the vehicle that it may be tilted to throw its driving
pinions out of contact with gears or toothed rims affixed to the wheels
of the vehicle, and designed to operate the carrying portions of the
machine. This permits of the gathering apparatus being very convc-
niently stopped without necessitating the detachment of that apparatus
from tho vehicle. The carrying tincs or forks of the apparatus are of
a peculiar construction, and they are attached to the endless belts by
means of plates of peculiar construction and suitable rivets, whereby
such attachment is rendered very firm and secure. The machine is
provided with a novel combination of parts for ensuring the delivery of
the hay or like material from the carrying appliances to the vehicle,
which parts may be readily removed or detached when required.
In the accompanying Drawing, Fig. 1 is a side view of a wagon or
vehicle furnished with a gathering and delivery apparatus made according
to this Invention; Fig. 2 is a vertical longitudinal section of the same;
Fig. 3 is a front view of the apparatus; Figures 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10,
and 11 are detached views on an enlarged scale of different portions of
the same. Similar letters of reference indicate corresponding parts
in all the Figures.
The wagon or vehicle to which it is desired to convey the hay or other
crop as gathered from the ground may be of any suitable kind. Secured
upon the outer side of each of its rearmost wheels a is a toothed rim

page_text: or gear b, the purpose of which will herein-after appear.
Shown
at c is a horizontal framework or rigging placed upon the box d of the
vehicle and of any appropriate construction. Situated behind the vehicle
in the backwardly inclined position indicated in Fig. 1 is a rectangular
frame A, provided at each side with a forwardly extending supporting
framework, which may consist of the four bars a, b, c, d, arranged and
secured together, as shown in Figures 1 and 3. These supporting frame-
works are pivotted to the rear end of the rigging c, as represented at e,
in such manner that by forcing downward their forward ends the lower
end of the frame A may be swung back, as herein-after fully set forth.
Situated transversely in the lower portion of the frame A is a shaft f
provided with any desired number of pulleys f¹. At the top of this
frame is a transverse bar g, upon which at points over or in line with the
pulleys are pulley frames g*, the forked lower portions g² of which
are placed astride of the bar g', and which are made vertically adjustable
by screws f*, represented in Fig. 5, each of the pulley frames being
provided in its upper part with a pulley g³. Passing from each of the
pulleys g to a pulley f' below it is an endless belt or band B, which is
provided at suitable intervals with forks h, the construction-of-which--
and method of their attachment to the belts will be herein-after fully set
forth. The belts B are strained or tightened to any requisite degree by
moving the pulley frames upward or outward to the necessary extent
by means of the screws f*. The shaft f at the lower part of the
frame A, and hercin-before described, is furnished at its two ends with
two spur pinions m, which when the machine is in opcration gear
respectively into the toothed rims 6 on the rearmost wheels a of the
vehicle, the pinions being retained in contact with the rims by the
loverage excrted thercon by the backwardly extending upper portion of
the frame A. Extending from one side to the other of the frame A and
through the spaces within the endless belts B is a transverse rod or barn,
which is situated at a height nearly or quite corresponding to that of
the rigging c. From this bar n there extends upwards in a forwardly
inclined position, as shewn in Fig. 1, a series of slats r, the upper ends
of which are attached to a cross piece ¹, which connects the upper
ends of two triangular side frames s, the rear corners of which are
connected by a cross piece s', which rests upon the upper ends of the side
pieces i of the frame A, and is fixed thereto by removable pins ** passing
down through the said cross piece into suitable holes provided in the
tops of the side pieces just mentioned. The lower ends of the side

page_text: frames & are fitted into straps or sockets a" provided upon the side
picces i.
When it desired to remove the series of slats r it is only necessary to
withdraw the rod n and pins *, and the said slats, together with the
triangular side frames s which support the same, may be lifted from the
frame A.
As the vehicle is drawn along the toothed rims bacting through the
pinions and pulleys f¹ drive the endless belts B in the direction
indicated by the arrow in Fig. 1, whereupon the forks / passing close to
the ground lift the hay therefrom and carry it upward past the rear end
of the vehicle, after which the hay passes in front of the slats r. As
the forks move upward, the said slats being inclined forward with
reference to the path of the forks gradually push the hay from the latter,
the momentum acquired from the forks being sufficient to throw the
hay upward high enough to ensure its falling upon the rigging c, upon
which it is arranged in suitable position by the attendant. The forks h
are each made of a single piece of steel or other suitable metal bent to
form two tines united by a cross piece b", the said tines being formed
with a straight portion c adjacent to the cross picce 6", and situated at
an acute angle to a line drawn from the outer end of such part c¹ to
the extremity of the tinc, as represented in Fig. 4. Each of the forks is
attached to the endless belt carrying the same as follows:-A plate u
is rivetted fast upon the belt, and has its two lateral edges turned over,
as indicated more fully in Fig. 6, so as to form two lips or flanges e",
underneath which are thrust the portions c¹ of the tines of the forks,
and in front by the cross picce 6" of the fork is placed one or more
rivets or stiff pins or studs f", which prevent the fork from slipping
forward, and thus serve to retain the inner portions c¹ of the tines c¹¹
under the lips or flanges e" which hold the forks against the strain
exerted thereon by the weight of the hay when the latter is carried
upward, as herein-before explained. By this means the forks may be
securely and very easily attached to the belts, at the same time that
when required they may be very readily detached therefrom by simply
cutting off the rivet or rivets f*. In some cases, however, the forks
may be secured to the belts by bolts and nuts, as indicated at a³ in
Figures 7 and 9.
When it is desired to stop the motion of the lifting portion of the

page_text: Fourth, Fitting "the slats to the machine in the manner and for the
purpose above set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Alfred Vincent Newton, have
hereunto set my hand and seal, the Twelfth day of October, in
the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-
eight.