IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TILLING LAND BY STEAM POWER
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Alison, of Brightlands, Reigate, in the County
of Surrey, for the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR TILLING
LAND BY STEAM POWER."
Sealed the 4th April 1862, and dated the 24th January 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Alison at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 24th January
1862.
I; JOHN ALISON, of Brightlands, Reigate, in the County of Surrey, do
hereby declare the nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
FOR TILLING LAND BY STEAM POWER," to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus for tilling land
by steam power. For this purpose, in order to haul the implement I employ
portable steam engines, having winding drums mounted on them on horizontal
axes, and in order that when at work the winding drum which is winding the
implement forward may be able to accommodate itself to the direction which
the rope takes in passing to the implement I mount the axes of the winding
drums in frames, which are themselves capable of turning or swinging hori-
zontally on a pin or centre carried by the frame of the engine. On each
of the swinging frames a curved rack is fixed, into this a worm gears, and on

page_text: the axis of the worm a handle is fixed, by turning which the drum may be
set as required. To drive the drum a bevilled wheel is fixed on its axis, and
this is made to gear with a bevilled pinion on a vertical axis concentric with the
pin or centre of the swinging frame, and this axis itself is driven by bevilled
gear from the main shaft of the engine. The engine may be made to haul
the implement by means of a rope, as is now usual in steam ploughing. I
prefer, however, to employ a flat steel band for the purpose. I also prefer to
employ when at work two engines, each having one winding drum, arranged
as above described, mounted on it, the engines are then placed at a distance
apart and draw the implement to and fro between them. One engine only
with two drums may, however, be employed; the hauling band in this case
-being directed by a pulley or pullies, as required.
In order to move the engines along the land as the work progresses, I
mount on each of them a separate drum for the purpose, and I lead from this
drum a steel band or a cord, and make it fast ahead; the drum is driven in
order to. cause it to wind up the band or cord by gearing it with an axis, on
which is a ratchet wheel driven by pawls worked by a crank or excentric on
the main shaft of the engine. The instrument which I employ when ploughing
or tilling land consists of a frame mounted on three wheels; this frame carries
two sets of ploughs or tilling tools, each set is attached to an axis of its own,
and the axes are carried in bearings on the frame. By moving about its axis
either set of tools may be raised up out of the land or lowered down into it,
and the sets of tools are arranged, so that one set will come into action when
the implement is travelling in one direction, and the other set when it is
travelling in the contrary direction without requiring the implement to turn
round. The wheels are arranged two on one side and one on the other; the
two wheels on the one side are exterior of the frame, and are mounted in a
manner herein-after described, so that they can pivot or incline freely to either
side, as is necessary, in order that the implement may, when required, be able
to travel in a direction inclined to its length. The third wheel remains always
parallel to the length of the frame, near the centre of which it is mounted
between the two sets of tilling tools in such a position that the innermost
plough or tilling tool of the set in action comes immediately behind the wheel
and ploughs or cuts up the land directly it has passed over it, thus all the three
supporting wheels are brought to bear constantly on the unworked land. The
implement is steered by shifting the point of attachment of the hauling band
or rope towards or from the centre line of the implement; this it is preferred
to do by attaching the ring or eye which receives the hauling band to an
endless rope passing round two pulleys or drums, one on each side of the imple-

page_text: ment. The endless rope takes several turns round one of these pullies, and
this one has a hand wheel mounted on its axis, by turning which the point of
attachment of the hauling band or. rope may be traversed as required; this.
arrangement is made at each end of the implement. In order to-assist in
guiding the implement when in its work ploughing, a wheel is brought down
at the leading end of the implement to bear against the edge of the land,.
that is to say, it enters iuto the outermost furrow made at, the previous bout,
and bears against the land side thereof, this prevents the leading end of the
implement running outwards away from its work, and it is prevented from
running inwards by so setting the steering apparatus as to give it a slight
tendency to deviate to the opposite side..
The pivot wheels, before mentioned, I arrange in the following manner :-
The axis of the wheel is mounted in bearings carried by a horizontal frame
which encircles the wheel, and is made with a point or angle at each end;
this frame is separate from the frame of the implement, which simply rests
upon it.
In the frame of the implement two pins are fixed, which project
downwards, and enter within the circumference of the wheel frame; the
distance between these pins is less than the length of the frame. It will thus
be seen that when the implement commences to travel in either direction the
wheel with its frame will lag until the forward pin on the implement frame
gets into the front angle of the wheel frame, which then travels on with the
implement, being drawn by the pin, and this pin serves as a pivot or centre for
the wheel and its frame to turn upon, in order that the wheel may accom-
modate itself to the direction in which the implement travels. When the
direction in which the implement travels is reversed, the wheel lags until the other
pin on the implement frame enters the opposite angle of the frame, and the
wheel then works as before. The frame of the implement is so formed that
it will bear fairly on the wheel frame, whatever be the positions of the two.
This arrangement of pivot wheel is applicable to other implements for tilling.
land by steam power, and where required a handle may be affixed to the
wheel frame to convert it into a steering wheel.. In constructing scarifiers to
work by steam power I employ a frame in the form of an equilateral triangle;
this, I make with a central bar, and I hinge one side of the frame to this
bar, so that it can turn or fold up over the other portion of the frame, which is
done to reduce the width of the implement, either when at work or for passing
through gateways. The frame of the implement is mounted on four wheels, all
placed within the frame; two of them are mounted on the central bar of the
frame one near each end thereof, and one of these is made a steering wheel,
being mounted in a pivotting frame and furnished with a lever handle. On

page_text: the two sides of the frame, making acute angles with the central bar, a series
of tines are mounted, their stems pass up through slots in the frame, the tines
bear on the land only by their own weight, their stems being able to slide up
through the frame to allow them to avoid an obstacle, but they cannot
descend below the proper working level, being stopped by pins; the tines are
so formed as to cut properly in whichever direction the implement be made
to travel, and the slots in the frame are so formed that the stems of: the tines
can incline therein towards either end of the. implement; this is for the
purpose of causing the cutting edge of the tine; whichever end of. the imple-
ment may be travelling foremost, to set itself whilst the cutting edge, which
for the time is out of use, is tilted out of it. The point of attachment of the
hauling band or rope is made to traverse, as in the case of the ploughing
implement before described.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Alison in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 23rd
July 1862.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
ALISON, of Brightlands, Reigate; in the County of Surrey, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters:
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fourth day of January; 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 John Alison, Her special licence that I, the said John Alison,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Alison, 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 "IMPROVEMENTS, IN APPARATUS
FOR TILLING LAND BY STEAM POWER," upon the condition (amongst others)-that-
I, the said John Alison, my executors or administrators, by an instrument
in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals, should parti-
cularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention, and in what.
manner the same was to be performed, and cause the same be filed in the.
Great Seal Patent Office within six calendar months next and immediately.
after the date of the said Letters Patent.
.
1

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said John Alison, do hereby declare the
nature of. the said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-.
formed, 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 apparatus for tilling land
by steam power. For this purpose in order to haul the implement, I employ
portable steam engines having winding drums mounted on them on horizontal
axes, and in order that when at work the winding drum which is winding
the implement forward may be able to accommodate itself to the direction
which the rope takes in passing to the implement, I mount the axis of the.
winding drums in frames which are themselves capable of turning or swinging
horizontally on a pin or centre carried by the frame of the engine; on each of
the swinging frames a curved rack is fixed, into this a worm gears, and on
the axis of the worm a handle is fixed, by turning which the drum may
be set as required. To drive the drum a bevilled wheel is fixed on its axis,
and this is made to gear with a bevilled pinion on a vertical axis concentric
with the pin or centre of the swinging frame, and this axis itself is driven by
bevilled gear from the main shaft of the engine. The engine may be made
to haul the implement by means of a rope, as is now usual in steam ploughing.
I prefer, however, to employ a flat steel band for the purpose; I also prefer to
employ when at work two engines each having one winding drum arranged as.
above described mounted on it, the engines are then placed at a distance apart
and draw the implement to and fro between them. One engine only with
two drums may however be employed, the hauling band in this case being
directed by a pulley or pulleys as required.
In order to move the engines along the land as the work progresses, I
mount on each of them a separate drum for the purpose, and I lead from
this drum a steel band or a cord and make it fast a-head, the drum is driven
in order to cause it to wind up the band or cord by gearing it with an- axis
on which is a ratchet wheel driven by pawls worked by a crank or excentrio:
on the main shaft of the engine.
.
Figure 1 is a side view of a portion of a portable engine having apparatus
such as above described applied to it for hauling agricultural implements and.
for winding itself forward, and Figure 2 shows some of the parts in plan.
a, a, are hoops or clips put on the boiler of the engine, they are connected
together by bars and plates as shown, and carry the bearing for the axis b of
the frame c; c' is a curved rack, it forms part of the frame c, and is a portion
of a circle the centre of which is in the axis 6, the rack c' is supported by a
bracket d bolted to the engine; e is a worm gearing with the curved rack c

page_text: the worm e is mounted in bearings on the bracket d, and has a hand wheel e'
on its axis fis the drum for winding up the hauling band or rope g, as shown
in the Drawing; the drum is suitably. constructed for. working with a flat
steel band, and this it is preferred to employ; his the axis of the drum f,
it is mounted in bearings in the frame c, and carrys in addition to the drum
a bevilled wheel i, this gears with a pinion on the vertical axis j, the lower
bearing of which is fixed on the clip frame a, and the upper bearing is bolted'
to the boiler of the engine; j¹ is a bevilled pinion on the upper end of the
axis which is made to gear with another pinion on the crank shaft of the
engine. The axis j is capable of being lifted by the lever k to throw the
pinions out of gear; 1, 1, are spring rollers to keep the band g tightly wound
on the drum f. For the purpose of hauling the engine forward a drum.m
is employed, this winds up a steel band or wire rope, the further end of which
is made fast to an anchor. a-head, this drum has a spur wheel fixed to it which
gears with a pinion n, and on the same axis there is a ratchet wheel o actuated
by drivers or pawls p, p, jointed to the rocking lever q, this lever is centred
on a stud fixed to the engine and is worked by a connecting rod r which
receives its motion from an excentric pin on the extremity of the crank shaft
of the engine; s, s, are retaining pawls to prevent the drum. m. turning
backwards. The speed at which the engine. is wound forward may be
diminished one half by lifting one of the pawls p by pulling on the rope t..
The speed of the gear is so adjusted that any necessary amount of progression
may be attained by leaving the second pawl, or both, in action for a longer
or shorter period. I would remark that the winding forward gear in the
position in which it is shewn in the Drawing to some extent limits the range
of motion of the hauling drum, this may if desired be avoided by shifting
the winding forward drum and gear into the position shewn by the red lines
in Figure 1. The instrument which I employ when ploughing or tilling
land consists of a frame: mounted on three wheels, this frame carries two
sets of ploughs or tilling tools, each set is attached to an axis of its own, and.
the axes are carried in bearings on the frame, or a single axis may be employed
about which the sets of tilling tools are capable of independent motion. By
moving about its axis, either set of tools may be raised up, out of the land
or lowered down into it, and the sets of tools are arranged, so that one set
will come into action when the implement is travelling in one direction, and
the other set when it is travelling in the contrary direction without requiring
the implement to turn round. The wheels are.. arranged two on one side, and
one on the other, the two wheels on the one side are exterior of the frame,
and are mounted in a manner herein-after described, so that they can pivot

page_text: or incline, freely to either side as is necessary in order that the implement
may when required be able to travel in a direction inclined to its length.
The third wheel remains always parallel to the length of the frame, near
the, centre of which it is mounted between the two sets of tilling tools in
such a position that one of the ploughs or tilling tools of the set in action
comes behind the wheel and ploughs or cuts up the land directly it has passed
over it; thus all the three supporting wheels are brought to bear constantly
on the unworked land..
The implement is steered by shifting the point of attachment of the hauling
band or rope towards or from the centre line of the implement. This it is
preferred to do by attaching the ring or eye which receives the hauling band
to an endless rope passing round two pulleys or drums, one on each side of the
implement. The endless rope takes several turns round one of these pulleys,
and this one has a hand wheel mounted on its axis, by turning which the point
of attachment of the hauling band or rope may be traversed as required. This
arrangement is made at each end of the implement. In order to assist in guiding
the implement when in its work ploughing, a wheel is brought. down at the
leading end of the implement to bear against the edge of the land, that is to say,
it enters into the outermost furrow made at the previous bout, and bears against
the land side thereof; this prevents the leading end of the implement running
outwards away from its work, and it is prevented from running inwards by 'so
setting. the steering apparatus as to give it a slight tendency to deviate to the
opposite side. The pivot wheels, before mentioned, I arrange in the following
manner: The axis of the wheel is mounted in bearings carried by a hori-
zontal frame which encircles the wheel, and is made with a point or angle at
each end. This frame is separate from the frame of the implement, which
simply rests upon it. In the frame of the implement two pins are fixed which
project downwards and enter within the circumference of the wheel frame:
The distance between these pins is less than the length of the frame. It will
thus be seen that when the implement, commences to travel in either direction
the wheel, with its frame, will lag, until the forward pin on the implement
frame gets into the front angle of the wheel frame, which then travels on
with the implement, being drawn by the pin, and this pin serves as a pivot or
centre for the wheel and its frame to turn upon, in order that the wheel may
accommodate itself to the direction in which the implement travels. When
the direction in which the implement travels is reversed, the wheel lags until
the other pin on the implement frame enters the opposite angle of the frame,.
and the wheel then works as before. The frame of the implement is so
formed that it will bear fairly on the wheel frame whatever be the positions

page_text: :
of the two. This arrangement of pivot wheel is applicable to other imple
ments for tilling land by steam power, and where required a handle may be
affixed to the wheel frame to convert it into a.steering wheel.
Figure 3 is a side view, and Figure 4 a plan of an implement constructed
for the most part as above described. a, a, is the frame of the implement, it
is supported on three wheels b and c, c, two of which, viz., the wheels c, c, are
pivot wheels, they are furnished with steerage handles c', c'. The wheels
here shown are arranged in accordance with my Provisional Specification,
dated the 10th of June last, and numbered 1731. Figure 4*, however,
shows one of the pivot wheels arranged in the manner herein-before set forth.
d is the centre axis, and e, e, are the two plough frames, each of which is con-
nected separately with the axis, and is capable of turning thereon; f,f, are
arms attached to the plough frames and connected together, as is shown, by
a wire rope g, so that when one set of ploughs descends into its work, the
other set is drawn up out of the land; h, h, are the hauling bands or ropes,
they are attached to eyes to which endless chains i, i, are connected. These
endless chains pass round pulleys j, j'; round the pulleys j they take several
turns, so that by turning these pulleys the line of draught may be adjusted in
position as may be required to keep the implement properly at its work; k, k,
are guide pulleys; 2, l, are small wheels attached to the ends of the imple-
ment, and capable of being turned up out of the way or down on to the land
as may be required; the axes on which they rotate being fixed to other
transverse axes, as the Drawing shows. The wheel-l, which is for the time
being at the leading end of the implement is alone made use of, it bears
against the edge of the unploughed land, and assists in the steerage of the
implement, as already described.
In constructing scarifiers to work by steam power, I employ a frame in the
form of an equilateral triangle. This I make with a central bar, and I hinge
one side of the frame to this bar, so that it can turn or fold up over the other
portion of the frame, which is done to reduce the width of the implement;
either when at work or for passing through gateways. The frame of the
implement is mounted on four wheels, two of them are mounted on the central
bar of the frame, one near each end thereof, and one of these is made a
steering wheel, being mounted in a pivotting frame and furnished with a
lever handle. On the two sides of the frame making acute angles with the
central bar a series of tines are mounted; their stems pass up through slots
in the frame. The tines bear on the land only by their own weight, their
stems being able to slide up through the frame to allow them to avoid an
obstacle; but they cannot descend below the proper working level, being

page_text: stopped by pins. The tines are so formed as to cut properly in whichever
direction the implement be made to travel; and the slots in the frame are so
formed that the stems of the tines can incline therein towards either end of
the implement. This is for the purpose of causing the cutting edge of the
tine, whichever end of the implement may be travelling foremost, to set itself
into the land, whilst the cutting edge, which for the time is out of use; is tilted
out of it. The point of attachment of the hauling band or rope may be made
to traverse as in the case of the ploughing implement before described.
Figure 5 is a side view and Figure 6 a plan of an implement so con-
structed. a, a, is a frame, to the centre bar of which another frame 6 is
jointed at 6', 6', so that the frame 6 can be folded over on to the frame a; c, c,
are the wheels, of which there are four, as shown. I find it convenient to
make three of these pivot wheels, as already described; one of them is made
a steerage wheel, being furnished with a handle c', by which it may be turned
as required; d is the hauling band, and e the return or slack band; f,f, are
the tines mounted on the frame, so as to be able to adjust themselves to their
work in whichever direction the implement is drawn.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Alison, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two.
JOHN ALISON. (L.S.)