A NEW MACHINE OR ENGINE FOR SOWING ALL SORTS OF CORN AND GRAIN IN DRILLS OR ROWS
Year: 1789

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, MOSES
BOORN, of Barford, in the Parish of Downton, in the County of Wilts,
sendeth greeting.
WHEREAS His most Sacred Majesty George the Third, by the Grace
of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of the
Faith, and so forth, in and by His Royal Letters Patent, bearing date at
Westminster, the Twenty-seventh day of August, in the twenty-ninth year.
of His said Majesty's reign, (therein reciting that the said Moses Boorn had,
by his Petition, humbly represented unto His said Majesty that having, by
long study and experience, and at a great expence, invented "A NEW MACHINE
OR ENGINE FOR SOWING ALL SORTS OF CORN AND GRAIN IN DRILLS OR ROWS,"
which would sow or plant any number of drills or rows, from three to thirteen
or upwards (according to the width of the machine), at one time, at any dis-
tance from each other, at any depth, and with any quantity of corn or grain
in each drill or row required or thought necessary, and which machine or
engine was adapted to use in all kinds of land, and to every possible different
mode of cultivation or tillage, and by the use of which much labour and
expence in sowing, and much seed corn, would be saved, as a man, with a
machine drawn by two horses only, would sow eight acres of land or upwards
in one day, and with much less seed corn than by the common way of broad-
cast sowing, and he the said Moses Boorn, hoping to be repaid his great
expence, and for his trouble in inventing the said machine, and yet wishing
to make the same publick for the promotion and advantage of agriculture,
therefore humbly prayed that His said Majesty would be graciously pleased to

page_text: grant him His Royal Letters Patent for the sole making and vending the said
machine or engine within the Kingdom of England, Dominion of Wales, and
Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years,) did, of His
especial grace, certain knowledge, and meer motion, give and grant unto the
said Moses Boorn, his exors, adññors, and assigns, His said Majesty's especial
licence, full power, sole priviledge and authority, during the term therein
expressed, to make, use, exercise, and vend his said Invention within that
part of His said Majesty's Kingdom of Great Britain called England, His
Dominion of Wales, and Town of Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to
him the said Moses Boorn, bis exors, admors, and assigns, or any of them,
should, in his or their discretions, seem meet, and that he the said Moses Boorn,
his exors, admors, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and enjoy
the whole profit, benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time coming,
growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the said Invention, for and during
the term of years therein mentioned; to have, hold, exercise, and enjoy the said
licence, powers, priviledges, and advantages therein granted or mentioned to be
granted unto the said Moses Boorn, his exors, admors, and assigns, for and
during and unto the full end and term of fourteen years from the date of the
said Letters Patent next and immediately ensuing, and fully to be compleat and
ended, according to the Statute in such case made and provided, under and
subject to several provisoes and conditions therein mentioned and contained,
and particularly under and subject to a proviso or condition that if the said
Moses Boorn should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of his
said Invention, and in what manner the same was to be performed, by an instru-
ment in writing under his hand and seal, and cause the same to be inrolled
in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar month next
and immediately after the date of the said Letters Patent, that then the same
Letters Patent, and all liberties and advantages whatsoever thereby granted,
should utterly cease, determine, and become void, anything herein-before con-
tained to the contrary thereof in anywise notwithstanding, as in and by the said
Letters. Patent, relation being thereunto had, will, amongst other things, more
fully and at large appear:
NOW KNOW YE, that the said Moses Boorn, in compliance with and in
pursuance of the proviso or condition last above mentioned, hath, in the
several Plans, or Figures drawn, delineated, and described on the Schedule
or Schedules hereunto annexed, marked respectively with the figures or
numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7, particularly described and ascertained the
nature of his said Invention, and how and in what manner the same is to be
performed, that is to say:

page_text: The Plan, Figure, or Drawing, marked No. 1, doth contain a plan or figure
or description of the frame or bed of the said machine or engine. The two
several handles or guiding pieces, parts thereof marked A, are of timber, and
are five feet long, and two and an half inches thick, square or round,
and are fastened with nuts and screws of iron to the side barrs of the said
frame or bed, and which said side barrs marked B are of timber, and each of
them four feet and six inches long and three inches by four scantling, and are
fastened by being tenanted into the first bar of the said frame marked K, which
is also timber, and is six feet long and three inches square. The front wheel
of the said machine marked C, which is on one end of the axle, is made of
wrought iron, and is two feet diameter, carrying the front of the machine
(and raised or lowered by a perpendicular bar of iron at each end of the said
axle), and on the other end of the said axle is a small wheel marked D, with
two groves, to carry a strap of leather to drive another wheel of the said
machine, as after mentioned; the largest grove is one foot, and the lesser
nine inches diameter; the wheel worked by the before-mentioned strap of
leather has three groves, one ten inches, one nine inches, and one eight inches
diameter; and on the axle of the same wheel are thirteen small wheels of cast
iron of three inches diameter, which convey the seed corn into the conductors.
Two wheels of cast iron of eighteen inches diameter, marked E, are fixed on
an axle marked H, carrying the hinder part of the machine. The bowls or
ends of the coulters, marked F, to receive the seed corn, are made of wrought
iron, fixed to the barrs of the frame by screws and nuts of iron. A nail made
of iron, marked G, is fixed at the head of the machine, with a hook to fix--the
horses to, by which the machine is drawn. Two iron screws are fixed in the
axle, marked H, of an inch and a quarter diameter, with nuts on the screws, to
raise or lower the machine, so as to sett the colters to a proper depth, and to
raise the machine to a sufficient height to be removed from one field to
another. The coulters, marked F, as before, are made of iron; fourteen inches'
long, and concave, to convey the seed corn into the ground; and are fixed by
screws in the frame, and to be removed at pleasure; so as to sow the drills or
rows at any distances from four to twenty-four inches from each other. A flat
bar of iron, marked M, is placed perpendicular through' the bar, cärrying the
axle of the front wheel of the machine, with holes, and an iron pin, to raise or
lower the front of the machine as might be necessary. Two iron handles on
screws through collars of iron, marked N, are placed on the hinder axle of the
machine, to raise or lower the machine at pleasure. An upright stud or piece
of timber, marked O, is fixed to steady the seed box. An iron pin, marked.P,
is fixed to stedy the other end of the seed box. An upright stud or piece of

page_text: timber, marked Q, is fixed to raise or lower the seed box, as might be neces-
sary, in the working. The bars of the frame, marked R, S, and T, are of
timber, three and half inches square, to which the coulters are fixed. Three
harrows, marked V, are fixed with chains to the hinder part of the machine,
to cover the seed sown. The bar carrying the axis of the front wheel of the
machine, marked U, is of timber, three and half inches square, and two feet
nine inches long.
The Plan, Figure, or Drawing, marked No. 2, with the Plates num-
bered 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, do contain a section of ends and sides of the con-
ducting boxes, marked A, which are fixed on the frame of the machine
betwixt the coulter barrs, marked R and T in Figure 1, to receive the corn
from the seed box, and convey the same into the bowl or cavity of each coulter.
The bottom of the conducting box is marked B. The four short conductors
to the middle row of coulters are marked G in the section; and C in Plate 1,
which convey the seed corn to the said middle row of coulters. The con-
ductors, marked D in Plate 1, convey the seed corn to the hindermost row of
coulters. The cavities marked F are to let the several plates into their places
on the frame.
The Plan, Figure, or Drawing marked No. 3, doth contain a profile of the
said machine when working with the handles marked A, to guide the machine,
as in Figure 1. The lifting handles or leavers, marked B, are the same as
marked Qin Figure 1, and are to tighten the strap on the wheels.
A wheel
having three groves, one of eight, one of nine, and one of ten inches diameter,
marked C, on the axle carrying the small iron wheels, conveys the seed corn
into the conductors, as in Figure 1, and is driven by the strap on the wheel
marked E, and which is marked D in Figure 1.
The Plan, Figure, or Drawing marked No. 4, doth contain the plan of the
bottom of the seed box, which shews how the seed corn is conveyed into the
conducting boxes marked H, in Figure 2, Plate 3. The steel springs screwed
down to the frame bearing the seed box, marked A, are to prevent the delivery
of more seed corn into the conductors than is required. The plate of sheet
iron, marked B, incloses the cavities betwixt the small iron wheels. The
sliders of tin and iron, marked C, draw over such of the cavities or wheels as
might be thought proper, to prevent the coulters from being all in use at a
time.
The Plan, Figure, or Drawing marked No. 5. doth contain a profile of the
seed box marked A, which has a cover to lift up to put in the seed corn,
with three different cilinders to shift, for sowing any different kinds or sizes of
seed corn required.

page_text: The Plans, Figures, or Drawings marked Nos. 6 and 7, do contain a similar
plan of the same machine or engine, and of the same dimentsions, save and
except an alteration as to grinding or directing the front wheel thereof, which
is done by a handle fixed to a perpendicular barr of iron marked G, as in
Figure 7, carrying the front wheel of the machine, the said bar of iron being
made with teeth, to raise or lower the front of the said machine, as might be
necessary in the working thereof. All which the said Moses Boorn doth
declare to be a description of his said machine or engine, and that the several
Plans, Figures, or Drawings thereof as aforesaid, and hereunto annexed, be
taken as part or parcel of these Presents.
In witness whereof, the said Moses Boorn hath hereunto set his hand
and seal, the Twenty-sixth day of September, in the year of our Lord
One thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine.