CERTAIN IMPROVED THRASHING MACHINERY, A PORTION OF WHICH MAY BE USED AS A MEANS OF TRANSMITTING POWER TO OTHER MACHINERY
Year: 1840

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
PAYNE MACKELCAN, of Birmingham, in the County of Warwick, Civil
Engineer, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date at Westminster, the
First day of October, in the fourth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs
and successors, give and grant unto me, the said Frederick Payne Mackelcan,
my exors, adñiors, and assigns, Her especial licence, full power, sole privilege
and authority, that I, the said Frederick Payne Mackelcan, my exors, admors,
and assigns, and such others as I, the said Frederick Payne Mackelcan, my
exors, admors, and assigns, should at any time agree with and no others,.
from time to time and at all times hereafter during the term of years therein
expressed, should and lawfully might make, use, exercise, and vend, within
England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, and also in all Her
said Majesty's Colonies and Plantations abroad, my Invention of "CERTAIN
IMPROVED THRASHING MACHINERY, A PORTION OF WHICH MAY BE USED AS A MEANS
OF TRANSMITTING POWER TO OTHER MACHINERY;" in which said Letters Patent
there is contained a proviso that I, the said Frederick Payne Mackelcan,
shall cause a particular description of the nature of my said Invention, and in
what manner the same is to be performed, by an instrument in writing under
my hand and seal, to be inrolled in Her said Majesty's High Court of Chan-
cery within six calendar months next ensuing after the date of the said in part
recited Letters Patent, as, upon reference thereunto, will fully appear.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that in compliance with the proviso, I, the said Frederick
Payne Mackelcan, do hereby declare that the "nature" of my said Invention
consists :-
First, in certain improved combinations of machinery for communicating the
force of the prime mover, but particularly that of horses, to the drum of a
thrashing machine, or at any other machine of suitable construction.
Second, in a peculiar mode of combining the concave surface, commonly
denominated the "bed," to the framing of the thrashing machine.
Third, in the application of a broad endless band as a substitute for the
ordinary "feeding table."
I will now proceed to describe in what manner the same are to be con-
structed with reference to the accompanying Drawings.
Figure 1 exhibits a side elevation, and Figure 2 a plan, of one modification
of my improved horse engine; Figure 8 represents a side elevation of another
modification of the said engine; Figure 4 shows a side elevation of my
improved thrashing machine, and Figure 5 represents a plan of the same.
Figure 6 exhibits a vertical and transverse sections of Figure 4, and Figure 7
merely represents a plan or upper view of the hexagonal drum, which is shown
endways in Figure 6; and Figure 8 exhibits a plan of my improved feeding
table. The same letters of reference, wherever they occur in the foregoing
Figures, indicate the same parts, though differently viewed.
In the first place I will describe the horse engine. At a is vertical axis
with a cross head at top, and a pole b bolted to it for the horse to draw by.
This pole has a counterpoise weight C. The axis a carries a. spur wheel d,
which drives a pinion e on a separate axis f, and on the lower part of the
same axis f is a large pulley g. This large pully, which acts as a fly wheel
by its weight, carries a band h, and that band is made to drive the thrashing
machinery, or any other apparatus that has a pulley to receive it. The large
pulley is not keyed upon the axis f, but is carried forward by a ratchet wheel
and paul immediately above it. This allows the horse to stop or go back-
wards without injury to the machinery, as the ratchet acts forward only, and
runs free when reversed.
The other modification of the horse engine before mentioned is exhibited at
Figure 3, where the large pulley is within the framing instead of below it.
In this arrangement the spur wheel is made large and the pulley smaller than
in the other already described; but the velocity of the periphery of the pulley
is the same as in both cases. In this arrangement of geer, as well as in that
previously described, the power is communicated by the bands passing through
wooden troughs under the horse path, as sufficiently illustrated in the Drawing.

page_text: The
The next machine to be described is that which thrashes. At i, i, i, is, a
raming of wood; at j is a horizontal axis which revolves in plummer blocks
On this axis as a centre
ixed in the framing on each side of the machine.
s formed an hexagonal drum in the following manner:-At each end a
circular plate or disc of iron is keyed upon the axis, and to it six wooden
arms k, k, are bolted. The two sets of arms are opposite to each other, and
are united together at their outer ends by six iron bars or beaters 1, 1, 1, parallel
to the axis. These beaters are bolted to the ends of the arms.
ends and sides of the drum are close boarded, and some small holes are
bored to let out the air when expanded by centrifugal force. The drum thus
completed is shewn in its place in Figures 4 and 6. The bed m consists of a
square frame with two diagonal braces, and made concave on the under side.
This frame is close boarded on both sides, and fluted plates of iron n, n, arc
screwed up to the under side. The bed m is hinged to the back post of the
framing, so that a line drawn from the hinge should be a tangent to the centre
The distance of
part of the arch formed by the concave fluted surface.
the fluted plates from the drum is regulated by two screws o, o, resting on the
feeding table. In the operation of thrashing, the corn is pushed into the
mouth, and is immediately struck upwards and carried by the beaters along
In
the surface of the concave, after which it is thrown out upon the floor.
case too large a mass of straw should be introduced, or any improper substance
that could not pass in the space allowed between the drum and the concave,
the bed which is kept down by its weight only rises bodily by turning on its
hinges, and affords a larger space. (In the thrashing of barley and other
unbound grain, I give the preference to a cylinder, and concave, studded with
large-headed nails in the manner shewn in Figures S and T.)
At
My improved substitute for the ordinary feeding table of thrashing machines
I will now describe, with reference to the Diagram marked Figure 8. There is
pair of rollers close to the mouth of the machine of the usual construction.
The lower roller is driven by a band p from the drum spindle, and the two
rollers move together by virtue of a pair of pinions 7 at one end of them.
the outer end of the feeding table is another roller r moving freely on its axis.
An endless band S, of the breadth of the feeding table, passes around the
lower roller at the mouth, and the single roller at the other end. This band,
5 when in motion, carries the corn into the mouth.
Having now explained the nature of my improvements in thrashing
machinery, and the manner of carrying them into practice, I desire it to be
distinctly understood that I do not claim as of my Invention all the arrange-

page_text: TIVI
AYNE (L.S.) MACKELCAN.
AND BE IT REMEMBERED, that on the Twenty-third day of March, in
the year of our Lord 1841, the aforesaid Frederick Payne Mackelcan came
before our said Lady the Queen in Her Chancery, and acknowledged the
Specification aforesaid, and all and every thing therein contained and specified,
in form above written. And also the Specification aforesaid was stamped.
according to the tenor of the Statute made for that purpose.
Inrolled the Thirty-first day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and forty-one.