IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CLEANING ARABLE LAND AND DESTROYING THE COLLECTED WEEDS
Year: 1879

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Eli Green, of Earl Street, Coventry, in the County of
Warwick, Ribbon Manufacturer, for the Invention of "IMPROVED APPARATUS
FOR CLEANING ARABLE LAND AND DESTROYING THE COLLECTED WEEDS."
Sealed the 19th December 1879, and dated the 4th October 1879.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Eli Green at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents on the 4th October 1879.
66
ELI GREEN, of Earl Street, Coventry, in the County of Warwick, Ribbon
Manufacturer. IMPROVED APPARATUS FOR CLEANING ARABLE LAND AND
DESTROYING THE COLLECTED WEEDS."
The object of this Invention is to provide an implement for paring arable land
after the removal of the crop therefrom, and subjecting the parings to the action of
steam in a closed vessel, whereby the weeds and any seeds contained in the paring
will be destroyed.
The implement which I have designed admits of modifications in its details, but
the action will be substantially that above indicated. I provide a rectangular frame
which I mount upon carrying and steering wheels, and drive either by an engine
located on the frame, or by means of traction ropes connected with an engine or
engines at the headlands. In any case, I mount upon the frame a boiler aud furnace
for supplying steam to closed boxes which are intended to receive the parings of
the land. In the front part of the carriage framing I mount a vertically reciprocating
blade of a length equal to the breadth of land intended to be operated upon at one
bout. This vertical blade by its reciprocating motion will enter the ground to the
depth of some four inches, and divide up the same as it passes forward into vertical
slices of some two inches in thickness, more or less.
In rear of this blade I mount a drum of corresponding length, which is furnished
with rows of teeth or tines set longitudinally thereof and at equal distances
apart, and intermediate of these rows I fit upon the drum tangential blades or
shovels. This drum I set so that it will take up the slices formed by the recipro-
cating blade and throw them rearwards onto a travelling endless apron fitted with

page_text: transverse plates standing up therefrom. This apron will deposit the parings taken
up by the drum into one or other of a pair of receivers mounted in the rear of the
carriage framing. These receivers are fitted with a sliding cover which as it is
shifted will open one or other of the receivers to the apron, at the same time closing
one receiver (which is supposed to be full) ready to receive a charge of steam at a
suitable pressure.
These receivers are connected permanently with the steam boiler by pipes fitted
with steam cocks for admitting the steam to, and cutting it off from the receivers.
The bottoms of these receivers are closed by sliding plates which are withdrawn
alternately to allow of the discharge of the contents of the receptacles after their
contents have been thoroughly steamed. The opening of these receptacles both for
the admission of the parings from the apron and the discharge of the same when
steamed, will be regulated by the attendant who also guides the implement over the
land. When driving the implement by means of the engine on the carriage,
I connect its crank shaft by gearing through a counter shaft with the axle of the
travelling wheels, and from this countershaft the motions are taken for actuating
the travelling apron and the drum; and from the drum shaft motion is transmitted
to the crank-shaft or its equivalent, which actuates the reciprocating blade.
To provide for the implement travelling over roads, the steering wheels are made
capable of adjustment so as to lift the reciprocating blade and the drum clear of the
ground.
As a modification of this implement I propose to substitute for the reciprocating
blade and rotary drum a fixed inclined shovel, the front edge of which may be
formed with teeth similar to those carried by the drum.
By the progress of the implement over the ground, this shovel will pare the land
to the required depth, and the parings travelling up over the face of the shovel will
be received by an apron similar to that already described, which will carry up the
parings and deliver them into the receivers situated at the rear of the implement.