IMPROVE- MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR BREAKING UP, DISINTEGRATING, OR PULVERISING LUMPS OR CLODS OF SOIL IN THE PROCESS OF AGRICULTURE
Year: 1870

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Henry Aitken at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 10th May
1870.
1
I, HENRY AITKEN, of Falkirk, in the County of Stirling, North
Britain, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention of "IMPROVE-
MENTS IN MACHINERY OR APPARATUS FOR BREAKING UP, DISINTEGRATING, OR
PULVERISING LUMPS OR CLODS OF SOIL IN THE PROCESS OF AGRICULTURE," to be
as follows, that is to say :-
This Invention has for its object the breaking up and pulverising or
reducing to small pieces or particles, in the process of agriculture, of
clods or lumps of earth, in order to make the soil fitter for the reception
and germination of cereal and other seeds, and it is carried into effect
by a process of removing the clods or lumps from the surface of the
ground and subjecting them to pressure, so as to break them up between
surfaces or by side pressure between surfaces and then letting the
pulverised soil fall back again upon the ground.
The apparatus employed is constructed of a frame of iron or other
material which is placed upon wheels. Below this frame and attached

page_text: to it is a plate of iron or other material, and this is provided with a
pointed front having gratings so as to allow the small soil to pass
therethrough. Immediately above the front of this plate a paddle
wheel or one or more wipers or chain of buckets is placed so as to drive
the clods on to the plate and thence in between the rollers situated
immediately behind it. One or more rollers may be so placed, and the
fincness to which the soil is to be reduced or pulverised may be regulated
by the distance at which these rollers are placed from the plate. The
rollers may either be made of sufficient weight in themselves to break
up the clods, or springs may be used to assist the operation. The
paddle wheel, or wiper or wipers, or chain of buckets and rollers may
be driven by india-rubber or other belts placed over pulleys and attached
to the wheels which carry the machine, and the speed of the propeller,
wiper or wipers, and rollers may be regulated so that no soil shall be
allowed to accumulate on the plate. In place of using the belts herein-
before mentioned, the paddle wheel, wiper. or wipers, or chain of buckets
and rollers may be driven by means of friction gearing, or by toothed
wheels, or other mechanical equivalent. In breaking up the clods on the
top of a turnip or other drill this is effected by means of a similar
arrangement to what is herein-before described, with the addition of
side plates, so as to prevent the paddle wheel or wiper from breaking
down the drill. Edgings or lips are also placed along the side of the
plate so as to retain the pulverised soil and cause it to drop off on the
top of the drill behind the machine.
In place of using the plate herein-before mentioned, rollers set at about
the angle of the drill are caused to revolve by means of power taken
from the wheels which carry the machine, and thus to break up the clods.
In place of using the rollers herein-before mentioned, the clods may
be broken up by means of plates which are to be raised and lowered
from and to the plate on which the soil is placed by the paddle or wiper,
or chain of buckets by means of cranks driven by the wheels that carry
the machine. When breaking up clods upon a drill, the bottom plate
may be dispensed with, and plates placed opposite each other, so as to
move in a nearly horizontal direction, and so crush the clods between
them, motion being given to these plates by means of cranks driven
by the wheels that carry the machine.
In place of any of these arrangements the clods may be broken up by
means of a wheel, the periphery of which may be made in pieces, which

page_text: descending open upon the drill by an arrangement of wheels, springs,
and cranks, are caused to close or partially close on the top of the drill,
as the wheel is drawn or pushed along, and so to crush and break up the
clods.
The motive power of my said clod crushing and soil pulverising
machine may be either manual, animal, steam, or other locomotive
power.