IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PLOUGHING OR CULTIVATING LAND
Year: 1869

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Thomas Perkins, of Hitchin, in the County of
Hertford, Agricultural Implement Maker, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PLOUGHING OR CULTIVATING LAND."
Sealed the 6th May 1870, and dated the 8th November 1869.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Thomas Perkins at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 8th
November 1869.
I, THOMAS PERKINS, of Hitchin, in the County of Hertford, Agricul-
tural Implement Maker, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS FOR PLOUGHING OR CULTIVATING LAND," to
be as follows:-
The Invention relates, firstly, to improvements on ploughs, such as are
described in the Specification of a Patent granted to Thomas Pirie, on
the 16th day of July 1867 (No. 2088). Heretofore in ploughs of this
description the land wheel has been mounted on the lower end of a lever,
and to throw the ploughs out of the land the opposite end of the lever

page_text: arm has been forced upwards to bring the lever arm more nearly into a
vertical position, and so raise the land side of the plough,
In place of thus employing a simple lever to raise and lower the wheel
I link the upper arm of the lever carrying the wheel to the shorter arm
of a bent lever in such a manner that by drawing downwards the longer
arm of this lever the wheel may be lowered and the land side of the
plough raised. The axis of this second lever may be caused to pass
across from the land side to the opposite side of the plough, so that the
lever arm which has to be drawn downwards to raise the land side of the
plough may not be on the land side, but on the side opposite to it. To
regulate the depth of work the lever arm may be sprung under one or
other of a number of teeth or notches in in the vertical toothed rack,
Heretofore also in ploughs of the class above mentioned the plough has
been steered by the leading wheel only, the axis of the trailing wheel
being a fixture.
According to my Invention I couple up the axis of the trailing
wheel with the axis of the leading wheel, so that when one wheel is
inclined to turn the machine in one or other direction the other wheel
shall also be free to turn as a castor wheel, or free to be inclined to turn
the machine in the same direction, or the vertical axis carrying the
spindle of the wheel may by an arrangement similar to that described in
the Specification of a Patent granted to me on the 4th day of May 1869
(No. 1369), he made self-locking, and yet so that it may yield and work
as a castor wheel when great stress is placed upon it, as when turning at
a headland, or the vertical axis carrying the spindle of the wheel may by
a suitable clutch be locked in any desired position, and be released at
the time the ploughs are lifted out of the land by the motion of the land
wheel lever, or be otherwise set free when desired. I also form the
plough with a seat upon which the man who guides and controls the
implement may be seated in place of the plough being steered by a man
walking behind it as heretofore. The traction of the horses on the
chains by which the implement is drawn forward may also be arranged
to raise the ploughs out of the land when desired. For this purpose the
draft chain of the implement may be connected to a bar or slide retained
by a catch, such slide being also connected by a chain or link or other-
wise to the lever which carries the spindle of the land wheel, so that if
the catch is released to set free the bar or slide the traction chain shall
act upon the land wheel. lever and force the wheel down to throw the

page_text: ploughs out of work. This arrangement may be employed either when
working with horse or steam power.
In working ploughs or cultivating implements by steam power, par-
ticularly by what is known as the roundabout or Smith's plan, frequent
breakages of the rope and other parts of the machinery occur in con-
sequence of the control of the cultivating apparatus resting with the
engine driver, who is frequently a long distance from the cultivating
implement.
The object of my improvements is to give the power of arresting the
progress of the implement to the ploughman. To effect this I in place of
connecting the ends of the rope separately to the implement connect
them to a bar, which by a suitable catch is capable of being coupled to
the implement, and of being released therefrom when the ploughman
desires to stop the plough. The rope will then continue to run whilst
the implement remains stationary. The engine driver would then stop
the engine, and the rope would be wound back to again attach the
coupling bar to the implement, when the work may be again proceeded
with. The rope employed may or may not be an endless rope, and a
short length of it may be coiled round a barrel or barrels or drum or
drums on the implement, the drum or drums being locked or released at
pleasure by a clutch or stop; or the rope may be locked to the implement
by a clamp caused to bind upon the ropes, the rope in this case may
be set free from the implement by releasing the clamp, and subsequently
the implement may be again coupled to the rope by again causing the
clamp to bind upon the rope.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Thomas Perkins in the Great Seal Patent Office on
the 7th May 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, THOMAS
PERKINS, of Hitchin, in the County of Hertford, Agricultural Imple-
ment Maker, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Eighth day of November, in the
year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine, in the
thirty-third year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors,

page_text: give and grant unto me, the said Thomas Perkins, Her special licence,
that I, the said Thomas Perkins, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, or such others as I, the said Thomas Perkins, 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 PLOUGHING OR CULTIVATING LAND," upon the condition
(amongst others) that I, the said Thomas Perkins, my executors or
administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or their, or one
of their bands 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 immediately after the date
of the said Letters Patent.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Thomas Perkins, 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 thereof, that is to say:-
The Invention relates, firstly, to improvements on ploughs such as are
described in the Specification of a Patent granted to Thomas Pirie on
the Sixteenth day of July One thousand eight hundred and sixty-seven
(No. 2088.) Heretofore in ploughs of this description the land wheel
has been mounted on the lower end of a lever, and to throw the ploughs
out of the land the opposite end of the lever arm has been forced
upwards to bring the lever arm more nearly into a vertical position, and
so raise the land side of the plough.
In place of thus employing a simple lever to raise and lower the wheel
I link the upper arm of the lever carrying the wheel to the shorter arm
of a bent lever in such a manner that by drawing downwards the longer
arm of this lever the wheel may be lowered and the land side of the
plough raised. The axis of this second lever may be caused to pass
across from the land side to the opposite side of the plough, so that the
lever arm which has to be drawn downwards to raise the land side of the
plough may not be on the land side but on the side opposite to it. To
regulate the depth of work the lever arm may be sprung under one or
other of a number of teeth or notches in a vertical toothed rack. Here-

page_text: tofore also in ploughs of the class above mentioned the plough has been
steered by the leading wheel only, the axis of the trailing wheel being
a fixture.
According to my Invention I mount the axis of the trailing wheel on
a vertical axis, and I couple up the vertical axis of the trailing wheel
with the vertical axis of the leading wheel, so that when one wheel is
inclined to turn the machine in one or other direction the other wheel
is also inclined in such way as to turn the machine in the same
direction, or is set free to turn as a castor wheel, or the vertical axis
carrying the spindle of the wheel may by an arrangement similar to that
described in a Specification of a Patent granted to me on the Fourth
day of May One thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine (No. 1369) be
made self-locking, and yet so that it may yield and work as a castor
wheel when great stress is placed upon it, as when turning at a head-
land. The vertical axis carrying the spindle of the wheel may by a
suitable clutch be locked in any desired position and be released at the
time the ploughs are lifted out of the land by the motion of the land
wheel lever, or be otherwise set free when desired.
At Figures 1 and 2 of the Drawings hereunto annexed are shewn a
side view and plan of a plough supported upon wheels in the manner
described in the Specification of the before-mentioned Patent granted to
Thomas Pirie, and having applied to it my improved arrangements of
apparatus for tilting the implement to throw the ploughs out of the
land, and also having the steering gear arranged according to my
Invention.
a
In these Figures is the frame of the implement formed in the
manner described in the Specification of a Patent granted to Reginald
Wigram on the Eighth day of January 1869 (No. 60), and having
ploughs attached to it in the manner therein described; the frame of
the plough might, however, be made in any other suitable manner. The
frauic of the implement is supported by three wheels, a leading wheel
and a trailing wheel to run in the furrows, and a third wheel to run on
the land. This third wheel is carried on one arm of a lever b turning on
a fixed pin at 6', the other arm of the lever is connected by a link c to
the short lever arm d on the end of the axis d'; this axis is carried
across the framing of the machine, and on the opposite end of the axis
is the long arm d³. The axis need not, however, necessarily be carried
across the machine. By drawing downwards this long arm the land side

page_text: of the framing of the implement will be raised and can be kept raised
by springing the arm d' under one or other of the notches of a toothed
rack e, shown separately at Figure 3. f is a screw stop carried by the
lever b for regulating the depth of ploughing, as in the plough described
in the Specification to Pirie's Patent before mentioned. I would remark
that the arrangement above described of fixing the lever arm & on to an
axis which is carried across the machine, and at its opposite end has a
Jever arm upon it to raise or lower the land wheel, is equally applicable,
whether this arm is connected by a link, as. above explained, to a lever
carrying the land wheel or whether it is itself arranged to carry the land
wheel. The advantage of carrying the axis across the machine when
the land-side of the plough is-arranged; as hercin described, to be raised
by the drawing downwards of a lever arm is that this arm may be placed
on the opposite side of the plough to that which has to be raised.
I will now describe the arrangement of apparatus for steering the
implement -The axis of the trailing wheel is carried by a vertical axis
turning in a bearing supported by the framing of the implement. This
vertical axis has arms projecting from it which are coupled by links g
crossing one another, as shewn, to arms on the vertical axis which
carries the axle of the leading wheel; by this means when the leading
wheel is inclined in one or other direction by means of the lever arm h,
as is usual, the trailing wheel will be inclined in the opposite direction,
so as to assist in turning the implement; or in place of the ends of the
links being attached to arms on the vertical axes carrying the axis of
the wheels they may be attached to chains passing around chain wheels
on these vertical axes, as shown at Figure 4.
As before stated, in place of the trailing wheel being coupled up with
the leading wheel so that the two shall be compelled to incline in
opposite directions the vertical axis which carries the axis of the trailing
wheel may be set free to turn at the time when the ploughs are lifted
out of the ground, so that whenever it is desired to turn the implement
the trailing wheel may be free to turn as a castor wheel. Two arrange-
ments by which this may be effected are shown at Figures 5 and 6.
In the arrangement shewn at Figure 5 there is a sliding clutch k
embracing the vertical axis and carried by a clutch lever k¹. When the
clutch is raised by depressing the longer arm of the clutch lever the
clutch is set free from the notch in the collar on the vertical axis and
the wheel is then free to swivel around this axis.
The depressing of the

page_text: lever
may be effected by lengthening the stem of the screw f so as to
cause it to strike against this clutch lever whenever the lever arm dis
drawn downwards to throw the ploughs out of the land, or the depressing
of the lever ¹ may be otherwise effected at the time when it is desired
to set the trailing wheel free to turn as a castor wheel.
In the arrangement shown at Figure 6 a clutch similar to that
described in the Specification of the before-mentioned Patent granted to
me, and numbered 1369, in the year 1869, is employed. By this clutch
the vertical axis is retained from turning until great stress is put upon
it, as when turning at a headland, the clutch then gives way and allows
the trailing wheel to swivel round with its vertical axis. The con-
struction of this clutch is clearly shown by the Drawing, so that it is
unnecessary to give any further description of it.
The arrangements of steering gear herein-before described are equally
applicable whether the vertical axis at the front of the plough carries a
single wheel to run in the furrow and the land wheel is carried on a
separate axis or whether the vertical axis is attached to an axle having
a pair of wheels mounted on it.
What I claim as respects these parts of my Invention is,―
1. The employment of lever apparatus, arranged substantially in the
manner herein described, for raising and lowering the land wheel of
ploughs which are supported on wheels, substantially in the manner
described in the Specification to Pirie's Patent herein-before mentioned.
2. I also claim the mounting the axis of the trailing wheel of ploughs
which are supported on wheels, substantially in the manner described in
the Specification of Pirie's Patent herein-before mentioned, on a vertical
axis and coupling such axis with the vertical axis of the leading wheel,
so that when one of the vertical axes is turned to steer the implement
the other vertical axis is turned also in such a way as to steer the imple.
ment in the same direction.
3. I also claim the coupling together the vertical axis of the leading
wheel or wheels and trailing wheel of ploughs supported on wheels,
substantially in the manner herein-before mentioned, by means of crossed
links, as herein described and shown by the Drawings annexed.
4. I also claim the mounting the axis of the trailing wheel of ploughs
which are supported on wheels, substantially in the manner hercin-before
mentioned, on a vertical axis which has clutch apparatus combined with

page_text: It by means of which the vertical axis may either be locked or set free
to turn when required to allow the trailing wheel to swivel round as a
castor wheel.
In working ploughs or cultivating implements by steam power, par-
ticularly by what is known as the roundabout or Smith's plan, frequent
breakages of the rope and other parts of the machinery occur in con-
sequence of the control of the cultivating apparatus resting with the
engine driver, who is frequently a long distance from the cultivating
implement.
The object of my improvements is to give-the-power-of arresting the
progress of the implement to the ploughman. To effect this I in place
of connecting the ends-of the-rope.separately to the implement connect
them to a bar, or it might be a chain or rope, which by a suitable catch
is capable of being coupled to the implement and of being released
therefrom when the ploughman desires to stop the plough. The rope
will then continue to run whilst the implement remains stationary. The
engine driver would then stop the engine, and the rope would be wound
back to again attach the coupling bar to the implement, when the work
may be again proceeded with. The rope employed may or may not be
an endless rope, and a short length of it may be coiled round a barrel or
barrels or drum or drums on the implement, the drum or drums being
locked or released at pleasure by a clutch or stop, or the rope may be
locked to the implement by a clamp caused to bind upon the ropes; the
rope in this case may be set free from the implement by releasing the
clamp, and subsequently the implement may be again coupled to the
rope by again causing the clamp to bind upon the rope.
-At Figures 7 and 8 of the Drawings hereunto annexed is shewn the
manner in which I prefer to carry out this part of my Invention. In
these Figures a is part of the framing of the implement; b is a length
of rope or chain which at its ends is connected to the rope by which the
implement is to be drawn to and fro across the field; c is a clamp by
which the implement can be clamped to the rope or chain b. The lower
jaw of this clamp is attached to a lever d by which it may be drawn
towards the upper and fixed jaw of the clamp and caused to nip the rope
or chain ; the lever d may then be sprung under a notch in a fixed
notched bar on the framing of the inplement, or it may be otherwise
locked. In place of employing a lever to give motion to the moveable

page_text: jaw of the clamp a screw or other suitable apparatus may be used in
place thereof.
What I claim as respects this part of my Invention is, the employment
of a catch or clamp, substantially as herein described, to attach a plough
or cultivating implement to the hauling rope by which it is to be drawn
across the land so that the plough or implement may at once be set
entirely free from the hauling rope when desired.
In witness whercof, I, the said Thomas Perkins, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, the Sixth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and seventy.