IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES
Year: 1863

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Richard Hornsby, junior, and James Edwin Phillips,
both of Spittlegate Ironworks, Grantham, in the County of Lincoln, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Richard Hornsby and
James Edwin Phillips at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents,
with their Petition, on the 14th July 1863.
We, RICHARD HORNSBY, junior, and JAMES EDWIN PHILLIPS, both of Spittle-
gate Ironworks, Grantham, in the County of Lincoln, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES,".
to be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in reaping and mowing
machines. For these purposes, in order to give the requisite reciprocating
motion to the cutter bars of such machines, in place of forming the zig-zag
groove in the upper or inner surface of the ring or felly of the driving wheel
as heretofore, a ring is affixed intermediate of the nave and the outer ring or
felley of the driving wheel, and the zig-zag groove is made, by preference, in
the periphery or outer surface of such ring, by which dirt and other matters
will be prevented clogging or filling such grooves; but the groove may be
made on the inner surface of such ring. In some cases the zig-zag groove is
formed through the ring and the two sides of such ring are secured together
by transverse connecting pieces, on which in some cases the tyres of the wheels

page_text: are shrunk. In giving motion by means of such zig-zag groove a connecting
rod is used, on one end of which is a truck or roller to run in the zig-zag
groove, whilst the other end of such rod is connected by a ball-and-socket
joint to a lever which at one of its ends-is connected by a similar joint to a
connecting rod which is connected to the cutter bar, and such ball-and-socket
joints are case-hardened or otherwise suitably formed in order as much as may
be to resist wear. The axis of the lever in some cases is arranged to be move-
able in order to vary the length of motion of the cutter bar. The link or
connecting rod by which the cutter bar is suspended is elastic and capable of
being bent first in one direction and then in the other, and it has a constant
tendency to assume a central position. In some cases an elastic rod or link is
applied to a lever and produces a similar action indirectly to that above-
mentioned on the cutter bar.
When using a platform composed of a series of parallel bars, in place of the
bars being, as heretofore, straight, and so as to incline from the fore end, 1
where the platform is hinged to the cutter bar, and only come to the ground
at the outer or back end of the platform, the parallel bars of which a plat-
form is composed are each cranked or bent at the fore end, where the
platform is hinged to the cutter bar, so that the bars come to the ground near
the cutter bar and rest on the ground for the most part of their length, by which a
the stubble of the cut crop can rise to a greater extent up through the spaces
between the parallel bars, and more effectually act on and remove the part of
the cut crop which is on the platform when the platform is lowered to have.
such cut part of the crop discharged from the platform. In place of the bars
of which a platform is constructed being of a rectangular section, they are
each made of a wedge or tapering section, the narrower surface being that
which comes to the ground, by which a larger quantity of the stubble will pass
through between the spaces of the platform and be more effective in removing
or discharging the cut crop from the platform.
In some cases, when using the zig-zag groove or cam action to give motion
to the cutter bar of a reaping or mowing machine an endless cloth band or
bands is or are used, which, moving laterally, deliver the cut crop from the
platform on one side of the machine. To such cloth or bands uprights or
pegs may be applied at intervals, and when desired, such cloth or bands is or
are arranged to deliver at intervals or continuously; and in some cases, when
using such bands, bars are applied above them to receive the cut crop, and
from time to time to deposit such cut crop on to the travelling bands. The
reel is driven by an endless chain actuated by a chain wheel on the driving
wheel of the machine, and the endless chain also gives motion to a rake

page_text: similar in arrangement with hay rakes, and the teeth of such rakes are allowed
to drag along the ground for a distance, and are then raised to deliver the
accumulated quantity, the length of the ground passed over when the teeth of
the rake are down being capable of being varied from time to time, depending
on the state of the crop which is being cut at different parts of a field. The
rake is situated at the back of the machine and so as to take the cut crop as
it is delivered from the platform. The hinder parts of the framing of a:
machine, when arranged to deliver from one side, is connected to and carried
by arched connecting pieces from the front framing, so that the cut crop may:
pass under the arched pieces. When not using such arched pieces, in order
to give motion to the endless cloth or bands a chain wheel gives motion to a
shaft at the back end of the machine close to the finger bar, and so that the
cut crop may pass over one end; and by such shaft motion is communicated to
the shaft which gives motion to the endless cloth or band.
In some arrangements of reaping and mowing machines a wheel is applied
under the platform. capable of sliding on its axis, but a spring is applied on
each side of the nave of the wheel by which there is at all times a tendency to
keep the wheel in a central position on its axle; this arrangement facilitates
the turning of the machine, and it is sometimes preferred to apply another
wheel under the hinder framing, about the middle of its width, to support the
same..
The framing of a reaping and mowing machine is arranged to be raised and.
lowered, in respect to the axle of the driving wheel, by means of a screw and
hand wheel. The screw-passes through a bridge over the top of the driving
wheel, and the two brasses or bearings of the axle are combined by means of
two slides which, at their upper ends, are connected by a cross head, in which
the screw acts so as to raise or lower the framing. When the man who rides
on a reaping or mowing machine uses a hand rake to remove the cut crop
from the platform an india-rubber spring is applied in order, when the man
has moved the rake to the front of the platform, the reaction of the spring
may aid in starting the movement of the mass of cut crop on the platform.
In applying shafts to a reaping or mowing machine they are connected to
the fore end of a frame between the two side bars of which the driving wheel
is received, and the hinder ends of the shafts come on either side of such
frame. The back ends of the shafts turn on a bolt which passes through them
and through the fore end of the frame just mentioned, and the fore ends of
the shafts are arranged to be raised or lowered by a hand wheel and screw
acting on the hinder ends of the shafts. The height of the cutter-bar when
used behind the driving wheel in combination with a side delivery, and the

page_text: use of an endless cloth or band, is adjusted by the hind wheel before men-
tioned and the adjustment of the shafts just described. In order that the
finger bar may not tilt on being raised the pin joint which connects the drag
or continuation rod to the finger bar is arranged to be fastened or locked in
such manner that when the finger bar is being raised it is prevented turning
on such joint, the drag or continuation rod rising with it as if it were a con-
tinuous bar without joint.
In some cases, in order to obtain higher speed to the cutter bar an inter-
mediate wheel is introduced which receives motion from the teeth of an
internal wheel and gives motion to the pinion which, by gearing, gives motion
to the cutter bar.
In making a band mowing machine, when using a reciprocating cutter bar
the frame is mounted on four wheels, two hinder or main wheels, and two
forward wheels. One or both of the hinder wheels is or are a driving wheel
or driving wheels, having a zig-zag groove or cam to give motion to the cutter
bar; or motion may be given to the cutter bar by gearing or cam movement.
Two handles are applied to the hinder part of the frame for the man to hold
when using the machine. One of the hinder wheels may be an assisting
wheel or run freely on the axle of the driving wheel.
The driving wheel, by its zig-zag groove or cam, gives motion, through a
cranked lever, to the cutter bar, one end of such lever being connected at or near
the middle of the cutter bar. The axles of the two fore wheels are capable of
adjustment in slots formed in front part of the framing. The reel, which is
fitted with brushes, receives motion by an endless chain or band which derives
its motion, by preference, from the wheel which is on the axle of the driving
wheel.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Richard Hornsby and James Edwin Phillips in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 14th January 1864.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, RICHARD
HORNSBY, junior, and JAMES EDWIN PHILLIPS, both of Spittlegate Ironworks,
Grantham, in the County of Lincoln, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Fourteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, in the twenty-seventh year of 8
Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto

page_text: us, the said Richard Hornsby and James Edwin Phillips, Her special licence
that we, the said Richard Hornsby and James Edwin Phillips, our executors.
administrators, and assigns, or such others as we, the said Richard Hornsby
and James Edwin Phillips, our executors, administrators, and assign's,
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 REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES," upon the condition
(amongst others) that we, the said Richard Horusby and James Edwin
Phillips, our executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under
our, or their hands and seals, or under the hand and seal of one of us or them,
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 we, the said Richard Hornsby and James Edwin
Phillips, 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 :-
In reaping and mowing machines, as at presented constructed, the cut crop
is in some cases discharged in sheaves or bundles by means of a hinged plat-
form composed of parallel bars. The crop as it is cut by the knife falls on to.
this platform, which in front is hinged to the back of the finger bar, and at
the back is carried some distance above the land, and when sufficient has
accumulated on the platform, the workman by a treddle depresses the back
end of the platform until it touches the land, and then the stubble rising up
between the parallel bars enter amongst the cut crop and hold it, and then as
the machine travels on the platform is drawn from beneath it.
Now according to our Invention when a platform composed of a series of
parallel bars, in place of making the bars, as heretofore, straight, and so as
when discharging the crop to incline gradually from the fore end where the
platform is hinged to the cutter bar, and only come to the ground at the outer
or back end of the platform, we make the parallel bars of which the platform
is composed cranked or bent at the fore end where the platform is hinged to
the cutter bar, so that the bars come to the ground near the cutter bar, and
rest on the ground for the most part of their length, by which arrangement
the stubble of the cut crop is enabled to rise to a greater extent up through
the spaces between the parallel bars, aud more effectually to act on and

page_text: remove the part of the cut crop which is on the platform, and in place of
making the bars of which the platform is constructed of a rectangular section,
they are each made of a wedge or tapering section, the narrower surface being
that which comes to the ground, and thus a larger quantity of the stubble
will be enabled to pass through between the spaces of the platform, and the
apparatus is thus rendered effective in discharging the cut crop.
Figure 1 is a plan of a reaping and moving machine thus constructed;
Figure 2 is a transverse section thereof illustrating the action of the delivery
platform, and Figure 8 shows on a larger scale a section of a portion of the
platform.
a, a, is a rectangular frame of timber, on the under side of which are
bearings for the axis of the carrying and driving wheel, b, this wheel. by
means of spur teeth within it drives the axis c, the bearing of which is also on
the under side of the frame a, and this by a bevilled wheel and pinion drives
the inclined axis d, having at its lower end a crank which actuates the knife e;
fis the cutter or finger bar, it is connected in the usual manner with the
frame a; it has on it fingers f¹, in which the knife e slides to and fro; 9 is a
dividing board fixed at the outer end of the cutter or finger barf, and with
an adjustable wheel h beneath it. The parts of the Drawing which have been
referred to so far are not novel. The delivery platform consists of a 'bar i
placed immediately behind the cutter or finger bar, and firmly jointed to it at the
two ends, and 2, 2, are parallel bars inserted and fixed in it. The form given
to these bars to render them more efficient than heretofore the Drawings
clearly shew. The platform is actuated by means of a lever on the bar i,
which by a link is connected with the lever k, turning at k¹ on a centre sup-
ported by a standard on the platform on which the driver stands. The further
end of the lever k forms a treddle, and so long as the driver keeps his foot
thereon the outer end of the platform is raised, and immediately he removes
it the platform falls by its own weight, and the delivery takes place. In order
more conveniently and simply than heretofore to attach shafts to a reaping
machine, and to allow of the more ready adjustment of the height of the
cut, we connect the shafts to the fore end of the frame between the two side
bars of which the driving wheel is received, and the hinder ends of the shafts
come on either. side of such frame. The back ends of the shafts turn on a
bolt which passes through them, and through the fore end of the frame just
mentioned, and the fore end of the frame is arranged to be raised or lowered
by a hand wheel and screw acting on the hinder ends of the shafts. This
arrangement is also illustrated by Figure 1 of the Drawings. 1, 1, are the
shafts at the fore part of the frame a, and coming for a short distance along

page_text: the sides thereof; m is a bolt passing through the shafts, and also through the
fore part of the frame, and serving as a centre for the shafts to turn about;
n is a screw capable of turning in a bearing on the cross piece m¹ of the
shafts, and screwing into a nut fixed on the front of the frame a; by turning
this screw the height of the knifee at its inner end will be adjusted, and at
its outer end the adjustment is obtained by the adjustable wheel h.
In constructing reaping machines according to our Invention where the
delivery of the cut crop from the platform takes place at one side, we support
the hinder parts of the framing of a machine by causing them to be connected
to and carried by arched connecting pieces from the front framing, and the
cut crop as it is being delivered passes under these arched pieces. In some
cases in machines where the delivery of the crop is at the side, we employ a
rake to collect it after it falls from the platform of the machine into sheaves
or bundles; this however is not in itself new, but according to our Invention
we cause the same chain which drives the reel, and which is actuated by a
chain wheel on the driving wheel of the machine to give motion also to the
rake. This rake is similar in arrangement with a hay rake, and the teeth of
such rake are allowed to drag along the ground for a distance and are then
raised to deliver the accumulated quantity of cut crop. We also in side
delivery reaping machines apply a wheel under the platform. The wheel is
according to our Invention made capable of sliding on its axis, but a spring
on each side of the nave of the wheel has at all times a tendency to keep the
wheel in a central position on its axle; this arrangement facilitates the turning
of the machine.
Figure 4 is a side view, and Figure 5 a back view, of a reaping machine to
which these improvements are applied.
The frame of the machine is constructed in the following manner:-a is a
piece of timber to which the pole of the machine is connected; at its rear end
is fixed the upright 6; parallel to this and on the other side of the main
driving and carrying wheel c is another upright d, higher than the first and
connected to it at the bottom by the cutter or finger bar e, and at the upper
end of the upright 6 by a cross piece f. Fixed to the upright d and running
parallel to the piece a, is a horizontal bar which at the front meets the cross
piece. g, shewn in dotted lines in Figure 4, and this angle is stayed by a
diagonal tie to the piece of timber a. Thus a rectangular frame is made up
around the wheel much resembling the frame a of Figure 1. From the top
of the upright d is fixed one end of the arch piece h, which bridges over the
space between the front and back of the platform. The angle between the
upright d and the arch piece h it is sometimes advisable to strengthen by a

page_text: diagonal tie, but this is not shewn in the Drawing. . i is a cross piece running
along the upper edge of the platform. At one end it is fixed to the rear end
of the arch piece h, and at the other it is supported by the piece k, which runs
down to the outer end of the cutter or finger bar e, and is secured to it;
Z, Z, are inclined pieces running up from the cutter or finger bar e to the cross
piece, and on these the planks forming the platform are fixed; m is a bar
jointed to the upper end of the piece k, and the angle which it makes with it
can be adjusted by means of the strut n, in which are holes, through one or
other of which a bolt is passed connecting the bar m and strut n. On the
outer end of the bar m is the bearing of the axis of the reel o, and by adjusting
the bar m the axis o can be raised or lowered, the bearing of the real axis is
capable also of sliding on the bar m, and thus horizontal adjustment is obtained.
The inner end of the reel axis is carried by a bearing which is adjustable up
and down on the upright p; this upright is at its lower end centred to the
frame, and to move the axis horizontally it can be caused to incline in either
direction, and it is in the position required secured by a bolt to the perforated
bar q, fixed to the frame. The method of arranging and driving the cutter is
sufficiently illustrated by the Drawing. The wheel c is adjustable in, height,
as the Drawing shews, to regulate the height of the cutter at its inner end, and
at its outer end the adjustment is obtained by means of the wheel r; its axis l
is carried in a frame 1, which is jointed to the cutter or finger bare; at r³, ³,
this frame has a tail r passing through the guide s, projecting down from
the under side of the platform. By depressing the tail and securing
it by a pin near to the lower end of the guide s, the cutter or finger bar
is raised so as to cut some distance from the land, and vice versa, by raising
the tail, the cutter or finger bar is lowered, and the cut then is nearer to
the land. The wheel r is capable of turning freely on its axis r³, and also of
sliding along it, but the two spiral springs around the axis pressing on the
nave of the wheel tend to keep it in a central position; theso springs yield
however when pressure comes upon them, and this will be found to make
the machine turn with greater facility than it otherwise would. The reel o
is driven by a chain t passing round a chain wheel on the axis of the main
driving and carrying wheel c; this chain passes over a chain wheel on the
axis of the reel, and then around a chain pinion on the axis u, which runs
along the back of the platform; t¹, t, are two guide pulleys for the chain,
and t is a third guide pulley adjustable up and down the upright d to take
up the slack of the chain, and we would remark that the carrying the chain
which drives the reel to the back of the platform to actuate apparatus for the
collecting and delivering the cut crop is a novel feature of our Invention. At

page_text: the further end of the axis u is a bevilled wheel u', which gears with another
bevilled wheel on the roller v, the upper bearing of this roller is carried by
the cross piece i, and the lower bearing is secured to the cutter or finger bar.
Round this roller three endless belts w, w, pass, they run across the platform
from side to side thereof, then around the pulleys w³, and they return on the
under side of the platform; these endless belts have projections w³ upon them,
and they serve to carry the crop as it is cut, and falls on to the platform
towards the side of the platform where they discharge it-on to the land. •The
cut crop immediately it falls upon the land is caught by the rake teeth a,
which drag along the ground behind the machine; these teeth are fixed in a
bar or axis ¹, this is able to turn in bearings on the under "side of the
platform. To one of the teeth x, or to an arm on the axis a¹, a connecting
rod is fixed; the further end of the connecting rod is jointed to one arm of
a bell crank lever, the other arm of which is attached to a sliding bolt 2³.
In order to discharge the crop collected by the rake in bundles from time to
time, this bolt is drawn back and the rake raised. The bolt is actuated by
the wheel y, which is driven by a pinion on the axis u. There is on the
wheel y a tooth y', and this at each rotation of the wheel catches the sliding
bolt and draws it back.
In witness whereof, we, the said Richard Hornsby, junior, and James
Edwin Phillips, have hereunto set our hands and seals, this Thirteenth
day of January, in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred
and sixty-four.
and sixty-four.
RP. HORNSBY, JU³. (L.B.)
J. E. PHILLIPS.
(L.B.)