IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING OR CUTTING CROPS.
Year: 1853

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Isaac Frost, of 49, Tavistock Terrace, Upper
Holloway, in the County of Middlesex, for the Invention of
"IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING OR CUTTING CROPS. "
Sealed the 16th April 1853, and dated the 17th February 1853.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Isaac Frost at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on
the 17th February 1853.
. I ISAAC FROST, of 49, Taverstock Terrace, Upper Holloway, in the
County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING OR CUTTING CROPS" to be as
follows:
This Invention consists of applying circular saws in combina-
tion with instruments for receiving the stems or straw of the crop.
For this purpose several angular points or instruments project
from a bar or frame near the ground, which in use is moved
forward, by which the straw or stems of a standing crop are

page_text: received between these projections, and being thus held, the circular
saws, which are above or below, cut the crop. Each circular saw
used is of such diameter as to cut over the surface of several of such
angular points or projections.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Isaac Frost in the Great Seal Patent Office
on the 17th August 1853.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I,
ISAAC FROST, of 49, Tavistock Terrace, Upper Holloway, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her, most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Seventeenth day of February,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three,
in the sixteenth year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and
successors, give and grant unto me, the said Isaac Frost, Her
special licence that I, the said Isaac Frost, my executors, admi-
nistrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said Isaac Frost,
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 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 OR CUTTING CROPS,"
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Isaac Frost,
by an instrument in writing under my hand and seal, 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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Isaac Frost, 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):
This Invention consists of applying circular saws in combination
with instruments for receiving the stems or straw of the crop. For
this purpose several angular points or instruments project from a
bar or frame near the ground, which in use is moved forward, by
which the straw or stems of a standing crop are received between
these projections, and being thus held, the circular saws, which are
above or below, cut the crop. Each circular saw used is of such
diameter as to cut over the surface of several such angular points
or projections.
Having thus described the nature of the Invention, I will proceed
to describe the manner in which the same is to be performed. "
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1, is a side view of a machine arranged and combined
according to my Invention. Figure 2, is a plan thereof. Figure 3, is a
plan of the circular saws and instruments used therewith, and of the
apparatus by which notion is communicated to the rotatory saws.
Figure 4, shews a section of Figure 3; and Figure 5, shews an end
view of Figure 3; the instruments which guide the stems or straws
of the standing crop up to the circular saws being removed in Fig.
4. In each of these Figures the same letters indicate similar parts.
a, a, are the wheels on which the machine runs, and in order to get
holding in the land, the peripheries are formed with spikes or projec-
tions to penetrate the surface of the earth; b, is the guiding wheel
at the back, and the machine is guided by a lever or arm c, as is well
understood. The horses are harnessed to suitable shafts applied to
the back or side of the machine, in the ordinary manner, or the
harness may be attached to either side of the inachine by a hook or

page_text: otherwise. The wheels a, a, turn loosely on the axle d, except
when locked by the clutches e, e, which are moved in and out by
the levers f, f, which are moved by the levers f, f, and connecting
rods f, as shewn by the Drawings; g, g, are circular saws, which,
with their axes g', are carried by the front framing as shewn, and
on each of the axes g¹, is a screw wheel h, which is taken into and
driven by a screw i, on the shaft or axis j, which receives motion in
the following manner:-On the axle d, is fixed a cog wheel k, which
takes into and drives the cog wheel 7, on the intermediate shaft ¹,
on which there is a cog wheel P, which takes into and drives the
cog wheel m, on the screw shaft j. In front of the circular saws
there are guiding angular instruinents n, several to each saw, and
between the back ends of these instruments the circular saws rotate;
and in order to aid in cutting the stems of the crop, it is preferred
that the edges of these instruments should be sharp. The crop, as
it is cut, falls on to the platform o, o, of the machine, in which there
are two circular rotating tables, with raised and curved ledges or
projections p, p. These tables receive motion by an endless band
or chain, q, from the axle d, there being a drum q', on that axle,
and a drum 2, on the axles 1, on which axis 1", is a cog
wheel S,
which takes into and drives the cog wheel t, on the axis u, on which
there are bevilled wheels v, which take into the bevilled wheels w,
fixed under the revolving tables. The crop as it is cut, is by the
revolution of the tables moved off the platform of the machine, on
one or other side, and deposited on the land, and it is guided to the
one or other side of the machine by means of the inclined guide x,
which moves on a hinge at x¹. Hence, according as it is placed on
the one side or the other, so will be the side to which the crop is
moved.
Having thus described the nature of my said Invention, and the
manner of performing the same, I would have it understood that I
do not claim any of the parts separately of which the machine is
composed, nor do I confine myself to the precise arrangement or
forms of the parts, so long as the peculiar character of the machine

page_text: be retained; but what I claim is, the combination of parts herein
described.
In witness whereof, I, the said Isaac Frost, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, this Seventeenth day of August, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-three.
Witness,
JNO. ALCOCK.
ISAAC FROST. (L.S.)