AN IMPROVED STEAM CULTIVATOR
Year: 1862

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Tolhausen, of 17, Faubourg Montmartre,
Paris, in the Empire of France, Civil Engineer and Patent Agent, for
the Invention of "AN IMPROVED STEAM CULTIVATOR."-A communication
from the Marquis Emmanuel de Ponçins, residing at Feurs, Loire,
France.
Sealed the 20th March 1863, and dated 'the 25th September 1862.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Tolhausen at
the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the
25th September 1862.
FREDERICK TOLHAUSEN, of 17, Faubourg Montmartre, Paris, in the.
Empire of France, Civil Engineer and Patent Agent, do hereby declare the
nature of the said Invention for "AN IMPROVED STEAM CULTIVATOR," a com-
munication from the Marquis Emanuel de Ponçins, a person resident at
Feurs, Loire, France, to be as follows:-
The improvements embodied in this steam cultivator or steam plough
consist in contrivances for using the said steam cultivator either as a deep
tiller or sub-soil plough, or as a hoe or tooth cultivator, or for common
ploughing, so as to perform with one implement (instead of three as hitherto)
the three successive operations of breaking the soil, dividing the sods, and
ploughing the land. The implement I use for the purpose first-named has
the shape of a bent pickaxe, the second has the shape of a double or forked

page_text: cultivator tooth, and the third implement is composed of the common plough-
share; one or the other of these may be applied in turns to the steam
cultivator, which is constructed and works as follows:-A strong iron frame
is mounted on four large wheels, and there is a seat in the middle of the
frame for the conductor. There are two of these frames, one to work during
the forward travel and the other during the backward travel. The frames
have horizontal cross bars, which carry each of them three or more sniveling
bars, the two sets sniveling in opposite directions, so that the shares of the
front frame work the soil whilst those of the back frame slide on it, and
The sniveling bars are so constructed that any of the implements
may be fixed thereon according to the work required. The implements of the
two sets are so placed that they do not work in the same furrows, but in those
next adjoining respectively. The sets of implements may be raised or lowered
by means of holes and pins. The cultivator is set in motion by a steam engine
by means of bands or cables passing over sheave pulleys which are placed on
the steam engine and on the cultivator.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick Tolhausen in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
24th March 1863.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, FREDERICK
TOLHAUSEN, of 17, Faubourg Montmartre, Paris, in the Empire of France,
Civil Engineer and Patent Agent, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Twenty-fifth day of September, in the year of
our Lord One thousand eight hundred and sixty-two, in the twenty-sixth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto me, the said Frederick Tolhausen, Her special licence that I,
the said Frederick Tolhausen, my executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as I, the said Frederick Tolhausen, 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 "AN IMPROVED STEAM CULTIVATOR," a communication from the
Marquis Emmanuel de Ponçins, a person resident at Feurs, Loire, France,
upon the condition (amongst others) that I, the said Frederick Tolhausen,

page_text: my executors or administrators, by an instrument in writing under my, or
their, or one of their hands and seals, should particularly describe and ascer-
tain 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said Frederick Tolhausen, do hereby
declare the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is
to be performed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the
following statement :-
In reference to the preceding Provisional Specification Fig. 1 of the
annexed Sheet of Drawings is a side view of the improved steam cultivator;
Fig. 2 shows the deep tiller or sub-soil plough; Fig. 3 the double-forked
cultivator tooth, the plough-share for ordinary ploughing being embodied in
Fig. 1; Fig. 4 is a front elevation of a moveable or portable carrier for pre-
venting the rapid wear of the cable or wire rope dragging on the ground, the
said cable or wire rope being attached to a "locomobile" or portable steam
engine for working the steam cultivator.
The apparatus consists of two frames or wheel trains A, B, which work
alternately, one for the up travel and the other for the down travel. Each
frame carries three tools or implements placed diagonally on different lines, so
as to produce three furrows close to each other. Fig. 1 shows three plough-
shares a, a, a, on the frame actually at work, and three like shares a¹, a¹, a³,
on the other frame then out of work. The cultivator is drawn by means of
the
rope attached at b, and is directed so as to produce the furrows desired by.
the operator on the seat c, by means of the rod d, which acts on the axles of
the front wheels, by this contrivance the driver or operator is enabled to incline
the said axles in relation to the axis of the cultivator, and thus drive it
in any required direction.
As shown by the Drawing, the cultivator works in the line of the arrow e,
and the operator is seated so as to look towards the unbroken ground. The
frame B which is before him remains inactive during that time, the shares
a', a, a, dragging on the ground being hinged or jointed at 9. By with-
drawing the hinge pins or bolts g, any of the other cultivating tools herein-
before mentioned may be inserted. A line of three furrows having been
traced at one travel, the operator turns round on his seat, and the return travel
is operated without moving the steam engine, the wire rope and a windlass
being arranged to that effect, and the cable or wire rope being also attached
at b'. The tools a, a, a, by pressing on the ground then swivel on their

page_text: hinges and become inactive, whereas those a¹, a¹, a¹, get into action for tilling.
The height of the frame above the ground is regulated by means of the set
screws h, h¹; m, are blades acting as guards or fingers for clearing away
stones.
Fig. 4 represents the moveable or portable cable carrier, and Fig. 5 the
connection of the cable or rope carriers placed at each end of the cultivator.
These carriers are round and contain castors or bowls on which the wire rope
is free to run in every direction, suiting (as they do) their motion to that of
the rope without being liable to tumble. As the cultivator progresses it is
made to pick up the carriers that have been left in the preceding row of
furrows, and at the same time others are being deposited in the rear. The
operation first named is evidently self-acting, the latter being performed by
an assistant who opens or releases a lever at stated intervals so as to let one
carrier drop.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Tolhausen, have hereunto
carrier drop.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Tolhausen. have hereunto
set my hand and seal, this Eighteenth day of March, A.D. 1863.
F. TOLHAUSEN. (L.S.)