IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING MA- CHINES.
Year: 1877

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Theodore Gerrard at the Office of the
Commissioners of Patents on the 24th July 1877.
THEODORE GERRARD, of Huntly, in the County of Aberdeen, North Britain,
Engineer, Millwright, and Machine Maker. "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING MA-
CHINES.
"
This Invention relates to improvements in the construction and arrangement of
certain parts of the class of reaping machines known in the trade as "back self-
delivery reapers," which improvements render such reaping machines stronger, and
more simple and durable in construction and arrangement and efficient in their
action, than heretofore.
And the nature and novelty of the Invention or improvements consist all as
follows: First, in making the two main carrying wheels of an improved con-
struction, with their rims of one strong broad welded hoop of sheet or wrought iron,
with malleable spokes of a round or other section rivetted through the tyre, and all
fixed in recesses formed in two bosses of cast iron, screwed together one on each
side of and by bolts between the arms, with one concentric eye bored through both
bosses to fit the turned part of the main shaft, where they run loose close to the side
faces of the main rectangular open frame of the machine near the end journal
bearing blocks of the main shaft, preferably screwed to the top sides of the
frame.
These improved malleable iron carrying and driving wheels are coupled or
uncoupled with their main transverse shaft so as to drive it and the cutting and
gathering mechanism, or be run loose ou it as required, by a new or improved con-
struction of ratchet or pronged and recessed clutch eye, and sliding or shifting
clutch fitting each, formed on the inner face or end of the boss of cach wheel, and
the latter fitted with sliding groove and feather on the shaft close to each clutch eye,
and put into and out of gear therewith by a new or improved arrangement of
duplex scissor-like acting, engaging, and disengaging two armed horizontal levers
jointed or fulcrumed on the lower vertical part of the back segmental stay (for
holding the main lever for lifting, lowering, and setting the front of the machine
and cutters), or it might be other equivalent centre. For the said purpose the
groove or collar segments or forks of the shifting clutches are jointed to the
De 11

page_text: extreme front ends of the long arms of the levers carried forward over the clutches
and shaft for that purpose, while the shorter or minor back arms of the levers,
which are ranged, the one close to and a little above the other, are coupled by a
new or improved construction and arrangement of actuating and holding transverse
tumbling ball or weighted hand lever, fulcrumed at a little distance from its lower
end to the extreme back end of the horizontal levers, and coupled on to the other
by a curved or segmental slot, so that when the upper weighted hand arm is tilted
in one direction it draws the clutch levers close behind, and open in front, to couple
the wheels to their shaft, and vice versa, when tilted in the opposite direction,
disengaging them, and holding them in the one position or the other as desired.
Another improvement consists in mounting an intermediate or counter-wheel
gearing transmitting shaft, longitudinally working in bearings in the front and
back rail of the frame close below the middle of the main driving shaft, so as to be
worked at a fast speed by it, through a new pair of skew bevil wheels, the wheel
being keyed on the main shaft, and the pinion on the rear part of the intermediate
shaft which drives the eccentric or crank-pin spindle through a pair of speed-
increasing spur wheels for actuating the connecting rod of the cutting bar and
cutters as usual, in front, working in an improved arrangement of finger bar, which
is jointed at the end so as to rise and fall automatically to suit the inequalities of
the ground independently of the frame of the machine. On the main axle of the
machine is also keyed or otherwise fixed three differential or conical pitch chain
wheels or pullies set or ranged opposite to a corresponding set of chain wheels on
the shaft of the gathering mechanism, or arms, and delivery rake, actuated by an
endless pitch chain passing over these wheels.
By another improvement the sheaf delivery rake of the said delivery mechanism
is attached or fitted to its carrying arms by slides, which allows it to slide up the
arms by means of small pulleys fixed on each end of the rake bar, which come in
contact with a piece of angle iron attached to the grain dividers or inner and outer
frame, so that the rake may pass from front to back over the gathering and tilting
platform in a level plane instead of passing through the arc of a circle at the
delivery part of its motion (which has been found a defect in other machines), thus
giving a more perfect and clean delivery of the sheaf than hitherto.
For regulating the depth of the cut or cutter bar, the lever for lifting the machine
out of action is so arranged as to rest on regulating horns which swivel on the back
segmental stay above the joint of the clutch coupling lever, the cutter bar being
further adjusted by holes in the slotted link, by which it is connected to the front
part of the framing.
The supports and stays of the upper driving shaft of the rake, and the gathering
arms and their stays are, according to these improvements, made of channe! iron,
which combines great strength, with suitability for these purposes.