IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES
Year: 1860

page_text: Sealed the 14th August 1860, and dated the 25th February 1860.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said James Gillespie and John
Gillespie at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with their Petition,
on the 25th February 1860.
We, JAMES GILLESPIE and JOHN GILLESPIE, of Kingsbarns, in the County
of Fife, North Britain, Agricultural Engineers and Implement Makers, do
hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING
AND MOWING MACHINES," to be as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention relates to improved delivering apparatus to be applied to
reaping and mowing machines. This apparatus is, by preference, arranged to
deliver laterally or across the inclined delivery board. situated behind the line
of cutters in a common arrangement of reaping machine.
In one modification of the apparatus, three or other convenient number of
slots are formed through and across the delivery board, and at each slot there
are two rods or bars furnished with spikes, by the action of which the cut grain
or crop is moved in the required direction. The spiked rods or rakes are
mounted on cranked spindles, the individuals of each pair being upon diame-
Did]

page_text: trically opposite cranks, and the rotation of one or more of the spindles causes
the spikes to be projected up through the slots of the delivery board in regular
succession, and when so projected, to move in the direction of delivery. As
the cranks make their return movements, they also draw down the respective
spikes beneath the delivery board. so that the spikes only move or act upon
the grain when moving in the direction of delivery. The uppermost and
hindmost pair of spiked bars or rakes is, by preference, made longer than the
others, so as to carry round the ear ends of the grain, and lay the grain cross-
ways. In mowing machines, one pair of rakes must be placed as close behind
the cutters as possible.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said James Gillespie and John Gillespie in the Great Seal Patent
Office on the 24th August 1860.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, JAMES
GILLESPIE and JOHN GILLESPIE, of Kingsbarns, in the County of Fife, North
Britain, Agricultural Engineers and Implement Makers. send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of February, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty. in the twenty-third year of
Her reign, did, for Herself. Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto
us, the said James Gillespie and John Gillespic, Her special licence that we,
the said James Gillespie and John Gillespie, our executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as we, the said James Gillespie and John Gillespie,
our 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 REAPING AND
MOWING MACHINES." upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said
James Gillespie and John Gillespie, our executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals
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 imme-
diately after the date of the said Letters Patent.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said James Gillespie and John Gillespie,
do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and in what manner the
same is to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and
by the following statement in writing, reference being had to the accom-
panying Drawings, and to the letters and figures marked thereon; that is to
say:-
Our said Invention relates principally to improved delivering apparatus to
be applied to reaping and mowing machines. This apparatus is, by preference,
arranged to deliver laterally or across the inclined delivery board, situated
behind the line of cutters in a common arrangement of reaping machine..
In one modification of the apparatus, three or other convenient number of
slots are formed through and across the delivery board. and at each slot there
are two rods or bars furnished with spikes, by the action of which the cut grain
or crop is moved in the required direction. The spiked rods or rakes are
mounted on cranked spindles, the individuals of each pair being upon diame-
trically opposite cranks, and the rotation of one or more of the spindles causes
the spikes to be projected up through the slots of the delivery board in regular
succession, and when so projected to move in the direction of delivery. As
the cranks make their return movements, they also draw down the respective
spikes beneath the delivery board, so that the spikes only move or act upon
the grain when moving in the direction of delivery. The uppermost and
hindmost pair of spiked bars or rakes is. by preference, made longer than the
others, so as to carry round the car ends of the grain, and lay the grain cross-
ways. In mowing machines one pair of rakes must be placed as close behind
the cutters as possible.
In connection with the improved delivering apparatus we have added and
will describe sundry minor improvements in other details of the reaping or
mowing machine.
And in order that our said Invention may be properly understood and
carried into effect, we have hereunto appended and shall proceed to describe
a Sheet of explanatory Drawings, showing machinery embodying our improve-
ments; the same reference letters mark the same or like parts in all the
Figures.
Figure 1 is a side elevation, and Figure 2 is a plan, of the reaping or mowing
machine.
Figure 3 is a sectional elevation on an enlarged scale, showing the front of
the delivery board, and the cutting knife and adjacent parts.
Figure 4 is a plan of a modification of reel to be used when mowing grass

page_text: or other short crops.
The driving gear is contained in a framework at the
right-hand side of the machine, and resting principally on the main wheel A.
It is to this framework that the horses are attached. the attachment being, by
preference, made by means of common plough wipple-irces B, whilst a pole C
is added as a guide. The cutting movement is obtained from the main wheel A
in the ordinary way, the axle of this wheel having fast on it a spur wheel D.
driving a pinion E, on a second motion shaft F. which is thrown into or out of
gear by means of a clutch actuated by a hand lever G. The second motion
shaft. F has fast on it a bevil wheel driving a bevil pinion on a third shaft II,
which has fast on its back end a disc and crank pin for giving. by means
of the connecting rod I, a reciprocating motion to the knife J. To case the
motion of this knife we introduce a series of small antifriction rollers
(Figure 3) behind it. and to improve the cutting action we form the sides of
the fingers L with serrations, as shown. The delivery apparatus consists of a
platform M inclined backwards and upwards from the cutting details. and
three pairs of rakes N. working in slots formed across the platform. The
rakes N are mounted on cranks (or eccentrics) formed (or fixed) on three
spindles P, carried in bearings attached to the under side of the platform M.
Two of the cranked spindles P carry all three pairs of rakes, the third support-
ing only the outer ends of the upper hindmost pair, this pair being longer
than the others, to carry round the grain for the purpose of laying it crossways.
Motion is imparted to the rakes N by means of the middle cranked spindle P,
which has fast at its lower end a bevil wheel in gear with a bevil wheel fast on
a transverse spindle Q. On the outer end of this spindle Q there is a pulley R
driven by a strap from a pulley S, fast on the end of the second motion shaft F,
already herein-before referred to.
In Figures 1 and 2 there is shown a reel T, of the kind we prefer to use in
cutting grain crops. Instead of the ordinary broad boards or paddles we fix
smooth round rods across the ends of the radial arms, the action of which is
not injuriously affected by wind, as is often the case with the ordinary boards.
For mowing we employ a reel having spiked bars, as shown in Figure 4; the
radial arms being fixed to the axle by wedges, so as to be capable of adjust-
ment as regards their effective diameter. The spikes are curved so as not to
throw up the grass when raking it on to the platform. the reel being adjusted
so as to work very nearly in contact with the fingers.
Having thus particularly described our said Invention. and the manner in
which the same is or may be used or carried into effect, we have to state
that we do not restrict ourselves to the precise details herein described or

page_text: delineated; but that what we claim as the Invention secured to us by the herein-
before in part recited Letters Patent is, the constructing of reaping or mowing
machines with the herein-before described improvements, and more particularly
with delivering details arranged and acting substantially as herein-before
described.
In witness whereof, we, the said James Gillespie and John Gillespie, have
hereunto set our hands and seals, this Twenty-second day of August,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty.