Improvements in Apparatus for Picking Up, Gathering, or Elevating Cut Corn and other Crops from the Ground, and for other Gathering and Elevating Purposes.
Year: 1890

page_text: Date of Application, 22nd Apr., 1891
Complete Specification Left, 22nd Jan., 1891-Accepted, 28th Feb., 1891
.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Picking Up, Gathering, or Elevating
Cut Corn and other Crops from the Ground, and for other
Gathering and Elevating Purposes.
I, JOHN COOK, of New Barbican, Looe, in the County of Cornwall, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention to be as follows :-
My invention relates to an improved machine chiefly designed for picking up
or gathering cut corn from the ground and delivering the same to binding apparatus,
but my improved machine is also applicable for picking up stones and rubbish from
the soil and for other purposes.
In carrying out my said invention 1 provide a suitable frame mounted upon wheels
and adapted to be adjusted thereon so as to raise it more or less from the ground.
This frame serves to support rollers carrying endless chains, between which the
gathering rakes are hung or pivoted. The rollers carrying the chains are driven
from one of the wheels of the apparatus by suitable gearing, and are placed in such
positions that the material after it is picked up from the ground will be carried to
a suitable height. An inclined board or table is provided upon which the loaded
rakes slide as they are being elevated.
Instead of employing two or more chains I in some cases use only a single
chain..
Adjacent to the upper roller is fixed an open platform or grating over which
the rakes are successively drawn. As each rake passes the said platform it drops
therethrough leaving upon the platform the material which it previously contained.
The rakes then pass down behind the inclined table or platform and are again
brought into contact with the ground when they collect fresh loads and are again
elevated and so on continuously.
The material left upon the open platform by one rake is pushed therefrom by the
next rake as it passes over the platform, then falls or is transferred by any suitable
means to any desirable point.
DL 20
1
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.
COMPLETE SPECIFICATION.
Improvements in Apparatus for Picking Up, Gathering, or Elevating
Cut Corn and other Crops from the Ground, and for other
Gathering and Elevating Purposes.
I, JOHN COOк, of New Barbican, Looe, in the County of Cornwall, do hereby
declare the nature of this invention, and in what manner the same is to be
performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement:
My invention relates to an improved machine chiefly designed for picking up or
gathering cut corn from the ground and delivering the same to binding apparatus,
but my improved machine is also applicable for picking up stones and rubbish from
the soil and for other purposes.
In carrying out my invention I provide a suitable frame mounted upon wheels
and adapted to be adjusted thercon so as to raise it more or less from the ground.
This frame serves to support rollers or shafts carrying endless chains on which the
gathering rakes are hung or pivoted. The rollers carrying the chains are driven
.

page_text: from one of the wheels of the apparatus by suitable gearing, and are placed in such
positions that the material after it is picked up from the ground will be carried to
a suitable height. An inclined board or table is provided upon which the loaded
rakes slide as they are being elevated.
Adjacent to the upper rollers is fixed an open platform or grating over which the
series of rakes are successively drawn.
To enable my invention to be fully understood I will describe the same with
reference to the accompanying drawing, in which-
Figure 1 is a side elevation of my improved gathering machine; and,
Figure 2 is a plan.
a indicates the frame of the machine which is mounted upon the travelling
wheels b, b, b, 61, the latter of which are adapted to be adjusted so as to more
or less raise or lower the said frame relatively to the ground.
c, c¹ are shafts
mounted in bearings upon the frame a; d, d are the gathering rakes, and e, e are
the chains which carry the same, the said chains running around sprocket wheels f,f
on the said shafts and similar wheels farranged to rotate in bearings in the open
platform hereinafter described.
In practice I employ several series of rakes d, d, each series being firmly secured
to a rod g carried in bearings or bushes upon the said chains.
Motion may be imparted to the chains and consequently also to the rakes by
any suitable means: in the drawing I have shewn the motion as transmitted from
one of the driving wheels & to the shaft c' through the medium of the gear-wheels i, i',
the sprocket wheels j, j and the chain k.
is a inclined table over which the rakes slide as they are being elevated,
and m is the open platform which is composed of a number of slats or laths having
between them spaces to allow the rakes to pass therethrough.
n is a platform which is also composed of slats or laths on to which the
material falls from the platform in, and from which it can be transferred to binding
mechanism or from which it can be collected.
On the ends of each rod or bar g, carrying a series of rakes, are fixed lugs o, o
adapted, when the rakes are at a certain point in their movement, to strike against
cam-surfaces P, P for a purpose hereinafter described. is the draught pole of the
machine and r, r are the shafts.
The operation of the apparatus hereinbefore described is as follows, that is to say,
as the machine is drawn forward, the several series of rakes are successively caused
to drag upon the ground and to collect the material with which they come into
contact. The said rakes then slide up the inclined table land on to the platform m:
as, however, each series of rakes reaches a certain position on this platform it drops
therethrough, thus leaving its load upon the platform. The rakes then traverse
down behind the platform until they reach the cam-surfaces p, p when, owing to
the impingement of the lugs o, o on the bar y carrying them against the said cam-
surfaces, the rakes take the position indicated by the dotted lines d' so that the
points of the said rakes are towards the ground, in position for collecting another
load. The load which is left upon the platform m by one series of rakes is pushed
therefrom onto the platform n by the next following rakes.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of my said inven-
tion, and in what manner the same is to be performed, I declare that what I
claim is :-
1. Apparatus for picking up, gathering or elevating cut corn and other crops from
the ground and for other gathering and elevating purposes, such apparatus com-
prising several series of cakes, mounted upon rods or bars carried by an endless
chain or endless chains, substantially as described.
2. In apparatus of the kind herein before described the employment of an open
platform through which the rakes can drop, substantially as, and for the purpose,
set forth.

page_text: 3. The manufacture and use of the improved apparatus hereinbefore described
and illustrated in the accompanying drawing.
Dated the 22nd day of January 1891.
G. F. REDFERN & Co.,
4, South Street, Finsbury, London, Agents for the Applicant.