IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY APPLICABLE TO STEAM CULTIVATION
Year: 1864

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Richard Garrett, at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 3rd May
1864.
I, RICHARD GARRETT, junior, of Leiston Works, Saxmundham, in the
County of Suffolk, do hereby declare the nature of the said Invention.
for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINERY APPLICABLE TO STEAM CULTIVATION," to be
as follows:-
This Invention relates to certain improvements on that class of double-
action tilling implements in which the two sets of ploughs or other
instruments are carried by independent frames or beams, and wherein the
balance principle is dispensed with, in order that the set out of action may
not interfere, as it is very liable to do, with the action of the other set
that is in the ground. The frames or beams carrying the ploughs or
other tilling implements I joint to pairs of connecting arms, which are
keyed respectively to one of two transverse rock shafts mounted in the
plough or cultivator carriage. At about the centre of each rock shaft I
secure a cranked lever which projects upwards, and at about the middle of
their length I connect these levers through a coupling rod with a bell-
crank lever having its fulcrum at the end of the carriage. The frames
or beams are respectively jointed to these bell-crank levers, and serve, together
with the connecting arms before mentioned, to raise and lower them as
required. On the rock shafts are mounted guide pullies, and at the upper
part of the carriage other guide pullies to receive the ends of wire ropes
or chains, by the tension of which motion is imparted to the implement

page_text: in either direction. One rope leading from the engine or windlass is attached
to the draft bar of one frame (say No. 1), and the other to the draft bar of the
other frame, but coupled to each rope (near the end) is another piece of rope
or chain, which is led around a lower pulley up to and over a pulley above and
coupled to the cranked lever of No. 2 frame. By this arrangement, so soon as
the direction of the draft is shifted, the tension put on the rope by the engine
will first elevate the depressed frame with its implements clear of the ground,
and then set the implement in action, but to do this it will be requisite first
to lower the other or suspended set of implements. The frames are held
suspended by means of a click which takes into a ratchet wheel keyed to a
transverse shaft mounted on the carriage. On this shaft (a similar one being
provided at each end of the carriage) is keyed a spur pinion which takes into
a rack jointed to the frame; as therefore the frame is raised by the pull of the
rope the ratchet will move round under the click, but when thus raised the
click will retain it in the elevated position. In order therefore to lower the
frame it is only necessary to release the click, a hand wheel is provided on
each transverse ratchet shaft not only to regulate the descent of the frame,
but also to raise it independently of the traction rope. The above description
of raising and lowering the frames applies equally to both sets of implements.
For steering the cultivator a chain is used, it being passed round two pullies,
one at either end of the carriage, and its ends attached to a kind of tiller,
the motion of which is transmitted to the axles of the two carrying wheels.
A hand wheel is keyed to the axle of each pulley within convenient reach of
the hand of the attendant.