IMPROVEMENTS IN THRASHING MACHINES
Year: 1868

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by David Fender at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 2nd July
1868.
I, DAVID FENDER, of the Town and Borough of Berwick-on-Tweed,
Millwright and Engineer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN THRASHING MACHINES," to be as follows,
that is to say :-
This said Invention has reference mainly and generally to improve-
ments in the construction and arrangement of the parts or mechanism
of thrashing or combined thrashing and dressing machines for beating,
stripping, or separating the grain or seeds from the heads, stalks, and
straws of the ripe corn or crop while passing through these said
machines, which render such machines more efficient in their action
than they have been as heretofore constructed, and consists essentially
and particularly under one modification in making four or other number
of longitudinal, angular, or spiral rows of short tapered pins or teeth
projecting nearly radially at intervals across the surface of the beating and
stripping drum, by preference formed of malleable cast iron in one piece,

page_text: with their stripping bars screwed or otherwise secured to the drum at
regular intervals round its circumference. These pins, teeth, projections,
or rubbers (which may be of a round, elliptical, or other suitable
section) work within grooves or recesses of nearly the same depth as
the height of the pins formed on a segmental part of the hollow casing
round the drum, close to and above or below the usual feeding rollers,
according as the drum is driven up or down from them, the grooves
having obtuse, angular, or curved radial ridges undulating round their
sides or edges, by preference formed of projecting ribs cast on the inside
surface of the segmental part which is made to oscillate on a joint or axis
near the feeding rollers, set at a proper distance from the pins or rubbers
to allow of the heads of the corn or crop entering and being carried
round the grooves by the pins so as to strip off the grain by rubbing on
the surface and edges of either or both sides of the radially ridged
grooves, the segment being of such a circumferential length as to enable
the grain to be stripped or separated from the heads before they are
carried through or past the grooves formed on it; and to ensure that
being effected and to regulate the proper working depth of the segmental
grooves off the stripping pins and drum, and friction or proper rubbing
effect on the grain towards the back edge of the segment, it is fitted and
arranged with set screws or other equivalent mechanism to regulate and
fix it at the required distance from the stripping pins to suit the growth,
weight, or size of the particular crop being thrashed or treated. The
stripping studs are by preference formed narrowest towards their points,
and the radial ridged grooves correspondingly narrowest towards the
bottom or outer part, so that as the segment is pressed near to or removed
from the drum and rows of pins or teeth a corresponding greater or less
rubbing or stripping effect is produced by the fast revolving drum
and pins over the sides of the grooves. And in some cases the surface
of the bottom of the groove and perimeter of the ridges forming them
are serrated or formed with ridges, and have their ends nearest the
feeding rollers bevelled away considerably so as to assist the entrance
of the heads of the corn or grain into the grooves, and this entrance and
jointed oscillating end of the grooved segment is made capable of being
set at various distances to or from the stripping drum and pins by
pinching screws or other equivalent by itself or along with one or both
of the feeding rollers, so as to regulate the proper feeding and acting
of the machine. It is preferred to angle the stripping pins or teeth

page_text: backwards towards their points, so as to clear the stalks or straw while
throwing the same upon the removing carriers, and in all other respects
this new or improved thrashing mechanism may be arranged the same
or to suit any of the various forms of thrashing machines as heretofore
constructed.