CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLING MACHINES EMPLOYED FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPoses
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to John Wheat, of Hinckley, in the County of Leicester
for the Invention of "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLING MACHINES
EMPLOYED FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPoses."
Sealed the 27th October 1859, and dated the 28th April 1859.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said John Wheat at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
28th April 1859.
I, JOHN WHEAT, of Hinckley, in the County of Leicester, do hereby declare
the nature of the said Invention for "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLING
MACHINES EMPLOYED FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES," to be as follows:-
This Invention is designed for the purpose of enabling the person in charge
of the machine, when in use, to steer or keep the drill in a straight line should
the horses swerve in drawing it, and also for enabling the drill to turn in a
small compass, and to afford the power of checking the movements of the
machine, to prevent breakage thereof from any undue strain in turning
round.
The means to be employed for effecting the above-named improvements are
as follows: To a suitable framing a wooden barrel is connected by a spindle;
around this barrel a chain passes right and left, and is guided on to a half
round wood gearing, to which the ends of the chain are securely fixed; on the
top of the spindle of the aforesaid barrel a handle is placed, so that by moving

page_text: such said handle from right to left, or vicê versâ, in like manner, the course of
the machine will be directed as required. The fore and under part of the
steerage mechanism is connected to the fore wheels of the machine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said John Wheat in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
28th October 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, JOHN
WHEAT, of Hinckley, in the County of Leicester, send grecting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-eighth day of May, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said John Wheat, Her special licence that I, the said John Wheat,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said John
Wheat, 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 "CERTAIN IMPROVEMENTS IN DRILLING
MACHINES EMPLOYED FOR AGRICULTURAL PURPOSES," upon the condition (amongst
others) that I, the said John Wheat, my executors or administrators, by an
instrument in writing under my, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
should particularly describe and ascertain the nature of the said Invention,
and in what inanner 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 John Wheat, 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 is designed for the purpose of enabling the person in charge
of the machine, when in use, to steer or keep the drill in a straight line should
the horses swerve in drawing it, and also for enabling the drill to turn in a
small compass, and to afford the power of checking the movements of the
machine, to prevent breakage thereof from any undue strain in turning
round.

page_text: The means to be employed for effecting the above-named improvements are
as follows: To a suitable framing a wooden barrel is connected by a spindle;
around this barrel a chain passes right and left, and is guided on to a half-
round wood gearing, to which the ends of the chain are securely fixed; on the
top of the spindle of the aforesaid barrel a handle is placed, so that by moving
such said handle from right to left, or vice versa in like manner, the course of
the machine will be directed as required. The fore and under part of the
steerage mechanism is connected to the fore wheels of the machine.
In order to explain my said Invention as completely as possible, I now
proceed to describe the best means I am acquainted with for carrying the
same into practical effect, reference being had to the accompanying illustrative
Sheet of Drawings, and to the numeral figures and letters of reference
marked thereon respectively as follows:-
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING.
Figure 1 is a perspective view of the fore parts of a drilling machine,
shewing my improvements adapted thereto. Figure 2 is a horizontal section
through the cylinder and pullies herein-after particularly described and
referred to. Figures 3, 4, 5, are detached portions of some of my said
improved mechanism. At each of the foregoing Figures I employ similar
letters of reference to denote corresponding parts in so far as such parts appear
or can be seen at each of such said Figures respectively. A, A, marks the
wood framing of the fore part of a drilling machine, to which my improved
steering apparatus of the following construction is connected, as also the fore
and hind wheels of the machine:-The fore and under part of the steerage
consists of a wooden axle B, connected by a strong iron pin C, and brackets at
D, to the upper and lower beams or steerage poles E and G, which are
connected together by wooden uprights H and iron pins h, at their centre i is
a sliding lever; I, I, are the fore wheels of the machine, connected to the
lower beam G by short axles or arms at K fixed into said wheels; said axles
or arms revolve in metal bushes fixed to the underside of the wooden axle or
beam G; L is a semicircular shaped piece of wood, securely fixed by its ends
to the upper steerage pole E; M is a chain or rope fixed by its ends to spring
pieces of metal a, a, which should be capable of adjustment, so as to pull the
chain or rope M tight; the chain or rope M fits into a half-round groove or
recess formed in the edge of the piece L, as at Figure 4, from whence it passes
over pullies N, N, (shown at Figure 2,) and from thence in a spiral or screw
direction around a solid cylinder O fixed on a pivot P, working in bearings in
the box Q; the upper end of the pivot P passes through the top of the box Q,

page_text: and has a piece of wood R (shewn detached at Figure 3) fixed thereon, in
which are pins S serving as handles for imparting motion to the cylinder O
and parts connected therewith, that is to say, when the machine is required to
move in a straight line, the steering handle R should then be in the position
denoted by the dotted lines at Figure 2, and the fore wheels in a line with the
hind wheels; but when the machine is required to move either to the right
hand or to the left, the attendant has simply to move the steering handle R in
the same direction, the effect of which will be to pull the rope or chain M and
the upper steering pole or beam E, thus changing the position of the fore
wheels with respect to the hinder ones, and in this manner and by these
means the machine may be easily steered in any required direction.
Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of my said
Invention of Certain Improvements in Drilling Machines employed for
Agricultural Purposes," together with the best means I am acquainted with
for carrying the same into practical effect, I would remark in conclusion that
I hereby declare my Invention to consist in, and I claim, the adaptation to
drilling machines of a steerage apparatus of the construction above described
and represented, combined with the fore carriage and fore wheels of such
said machines for the purposes set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said John Wheat, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Twenty-fifth day of October, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine."
Witness,
THOS. HARROLD,
Castle Street, Hinckley.
JOHN WHEAT. (L.S.)