SWARD CUTTER
Year: 1788

page_text: TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, the
Honorable ROBERT SANDILANDS, send greeting.
WHEREAS I, the said Robert Sandilands, did by my petition humbly
represent unto His Majesty that I had, by great study and labour, and at a
considerable expence, invented a machine called a "SWARD CUTTER," by means
of which old grass grounds might be sooner brought into tillage than by any
other instrument hitherto contrived, and that I apprehend the same will be of
great publick utility; that I was the first and true Inventor thereof, and that
the same was not previously known to or used by any other person or persons
whatsoever, to the best of my knowledge and belief; and I therefore most
humbly prayed His Majesty that He would be graciously pleased to grant
to me, my executors, administrators, and assigns, His Majesty's Royal Letters
Patent under the Great Seal of Great Britain for the sole benefit and advan-
tage of my said Invention within England, Wales, and the Town of Berwick-
upon-Tweed, for the term of fourteen years, pursuant to the Statute in that
case made and provided; and whereas by the said Letters Patent under the
Great Seal of Great Britain, bearing date the Thirtieth day of June, in the
twenty-eighth year of the reign of His Majesty, after reciting the petition, and

page_text: also reciting that His Majesty, being willing to give encouragement to all arts
and Inventions which might be for the publick good, was graciously pleased to
condescend to my request, His Majesty, of His especial grace, certain know-
ledge, and meer motion, did, for Himself, His heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Robert Sandilands, my executors, administrators, and
assigns, His special licence, full power, sole privilege and authority, that I,
the said Robert Sandilands, my executors, administrators, and assigns, and
every of them, by myself and themselves, or by my or their deputy or
deputies, servants or agents, or such others as I, the said Robert Sandi-
lands, my executors, administrators, and assigns, should at any time
agree with, and no others, from time to time and at all times thereafter
during the term of years therein expressed should and lawfully might
make, use, exercise, and vend my said Invention within that part of His
Majesty's Kingdom of England, His Dominion of Wales, and Town of
Berwick-upon-Tweed, in such manner as to me, the said Robert Sandilands,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or any of them, should in my
or their discretions seem meet, and that I, the said Robert Sandilands, my
executors, administrators, and assigns, should and lawfully might have and
enjoy the whole benefit, commodity, and advantage from time to time
coming, growing, accruing, and arising by reason of the said Invention,
and during the term of years therein mentioned, to have and to hold, exer-
cise and enjoy, the said licence, powers, privileges, and advantages therein
granted or mentioned to be granted unto me, the said Robert Sandilands,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, for and during and to the full
end and term of fourteen years from the date of the said Letters Patent
next and immediately ensuing and fully to be complete and ended,
according to the Statute in such case made and provided; in which
said Letters is contained a proviso that if I, the said Robert Sandi-
lands, should not particularly describe and ascertain the nature of my
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, by an
instrument in writing under my hand and seal, and cause the same to be
enrolled in His Majesty's High Court of Chancery within one calendar
month next and immediately after the date of His Majesty's Letters Patent,
that then His Majesty's said Letters Patent, and liberties and advantages
whatsoever thereby granted, should utterly cease, determine, and become
void, any thing therein contained to the contrary thereof in anywise
notwithstanding.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Robert Sandilands, in compliance with
the said provisoe, do hereby declare the nature and design of my said Inven-

page_text: tion, and the manner in which the same is to be performed, in manner.
following, that is to say:―
Fig. 1, No. 1, A, A, &c, a square frame, three feet four inches from the
fore to the hind part by four feet three inches, the breadth of the machine
withinside, placed on two wheels B, B, three feet diameter, to support the hind
part of the machine. C, C, six strong pieces of wood, called bulls, three feet.
long, five inches and an half broad, the thickness six inches at E, No. 2d, and
tapering to three inches at F. Into these bulls are fixed the cutting wheels,
which are iron, thirteen inches diameter, three fourths of an inch thick at the
centre, about an inch diameter, for piercing holes to fix the iron axlism; from
that they are to be of such thickness as to allow the edges to be well steeled..
These wheels are fixed by two bolts going through the bulls, with eyes at one
end for the axles of the wheels to run in, and nuts and screws on the other to
make them very firm bý, and sunk in the bulls to prevent their interfering
with the weights L, L, resting on them. G, G, in No. 1st, are hollow pieces
of wood, called thorles, three and one half inches long, which inclose the bolt.
M, and keep the bulls G, G, at their proper distances. They are in two pieces,
and bound together and joined a strap of leather or cord. The iron bolt.
M, No. 1, goes through two pieces of wood or iron, seven inches long clear
of the wood, supported by iron stays fixed to the frame, and through all the
bulls, as at T, No. 3d. H, H, No. 2d & 3d, a sylinder or sigment of
wood, called a rocking tree, which goes across the frame, and moves on the;
pivots fixed into it, one at each end, supported by an iron bolt eight inches.
high, as appears by No. 2d & 3d, to which six chains are fixed by hooks, and.
are joined to the end of each bull in which the cutting wheels run, so that
when the rocking tree is turned about by the lever I fixed in the middle of it,
all the bulls, with their cutting wheels, are raised out of the ground at once, as.
in No. 3d, by which means the machine may be turned or moved from place to
place with great ease, without any danger of straining the wheels.-N.B. The.
rocking tree is not delineated in No. 1st, in order that the plan of the frame
may be more easily understood.-L, L, No.1st, 2d, & 3d, are weights of freestone,
twenty-six inches long, six inches broad; the under one four inches thick, the
upper one of the same dimensions, and three inches thick, all of them having
two holes in them, through which iron spikes firmly fixed in the butts pass, in
order to keep them steady. The lever I, No. 2d & 3d, which ought to be five
feet long, must have a sliding rope on it, fixed to the back part of the frame,
so that when the cutting wheels are all taken out of the ground three or four
inches, by (by) the rocking trees being turned partly round by the levers, the.

page_text: rope is then fixed to it by putting a loop at the end of the rope over the pin
R, No. 3d, (it) ought to be placed three feet four inches from the extremity of
the lever) which keeps all the cutting wheels out of the ground, till the machine
is turned, and then, by moving the loop of the pin, it slips back towards the
frame, and the levers let gently back to its place, as in No. 2d, by which the
eutting wheels are put into their former posture by the weights fixed on
the bulls in which they run. P, No. 1, a small bolt of iron, with a hook on
the end of (d); one is sufficient) to strengthen the bolt M, to be hooked to the
centre of it, and joined to the frame by a nutt and screw. The grooves in
which the cutting wheels run may be covered below at the hinder part with a
plate of thin black iron, six inches long, three inches broad, having a slit in it
where the wheels run, to prevent (if found necessary) any grass, weeds, or
small stones from filling the groves and clagging the wheels, the form of which.
is seen at the letter (i). To the frame, as seen at No. 1st, are fixed, for a
double-horse sward cutter, three shafts, as in a waggon, of such length, strength,
and distance from one another, as any workman may think proper. As the
two outer bulls next the frame are apt to get under it, so as to prevent the
cutting wheels from being taken out of the ground, a third slip of iron, fixed to:
the inside of the frame nearly opposite to the back end of the bulls, of conve-
nient length, will be found necessary.
The intention of the sward cutter is to prepare old grass ground for the
plough by cutting it across the ridges in the beginning of or during winter,
when the ground is soft, which, when ploughed, brings it effectually and
expeditiously into tilth, an object universally allowed to be of no small
importance to agriculture. This instrument is very fit for preparing ground
for burnbaling, as it will save much hand labour. It may be properly used on
cross-cutting clover of one or two years standing, to prepare the land for
wheat, if the land is stiff and moist enough. It may be applied to cutting and
cross-cutting of pasture ground intended to have manure of any kind put
upon it to meliorate the grass. In preparing land for barley the sward cutter
may be used with much advantage in reducing the large hard clods in clay
land, occasioned by a sudden drought after it's being ploughed too wet. And
it is likewise very proper for reducing such clay land when under a summer
fallow. The sward cutter is found to excell in all these different operations
any instrument hitherto contrived, from all the cutting wheels being entirely
independ of one another, so that, when any of them meets with a stone
or any other interruption, they run over it, and are by the weights on
each of them immediately forced into the ground again without interfering.

page_text: ith the other cutting wheels. This is looked upon as one of it's greatest
<cellencies.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Sandilands, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Sixteenth day of July, in the twenty-eighth
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord George the Third, by the
Grace of God of Great Britain, France, and Ireland King, Defender of
the Faith, and so forth, and in the year of our Lord One thousand
seven hundred and eighty-eight.
BE IT REMEMBRED, that it appears by the following Affidavit of
Charles Black, of the City of Edinburgh, Writer,-
(Charles Black, of the City of Edinburgh, Writer, maketh oath and saith,
that he was present as one of the witnesses to and did see the Honorable Robert
Sandilands, in the Deed of Specification hereunto annexed, named, and
described, sign, seal, and, as his own proper act and deed, deliver the said
Deed of Specification, and that the name Robert Sandilands set and subscribed
to the said Deed of Specification, as the same now appears thereto, is of the

page_text: proper handwriting of the said Robert Sandilands. And this deponent further.
saith, that Charles Scott, of the said City of Edinburgh, Writer, who was also,
present as witness with this deponent to the execution of the said Deed of
Specification hereunto annexed, did set and subscribe his name as witness to
the due execution thereof by the said Robert Sandilands. And this deponent
also saith, that the names Charles Black and Charles Scott severally set or
subscribed as witnesses to the due execution of the said Deed of Specification
are the proper handwriting of the said Charles Scott and this deponent.
Inrolled this twenty-second day of July, One thousand seven
eighty-eight.
hundred and