IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES
Year: 1860

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by Thomas Law at the Office of
the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 20th March
1860.
I, THOMAS LAW, of Uppingham, Rutland, do hereby declare the nature of
the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES," to be
as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in reaping and mowing
machines. Heretofore the cutting apparatus of reaping and mowing machines
has commonly been composed of a number of knives of a V-form attached to
a bar, having a to-and-fro motion communicated to it, the knives working in
and out of slots in stationary fingers, the points of which project beyond the
cutters. It has also been proposed to connect knives working between slots
in fingers to an endless belt supported by two pullies turning on vertical axes,
one pulley being at each end of the finger bar, in order to give a continuous
motion to the knives.
Now, according to one part of my Invention, I form the cutter of an endless
belt of steel, supported on pulleys placed at the four corners of a rectangular
frame, the pulleys turning on horizontal axes. The rectangular frame I con-
nect to the main frame of the machine, so that it stands in a vertical position,
and the frame is of sufficient height for the upper part of the frame to be
above the top of the crop to be cut. The part of the belt between the two
lowest pulleys passes between slots on stationary fingers similar to those
beretofore used, the points of the fingers projecting beyond, and the top of the
fingers overlapping the front edge of the belt. The endless belt I prefer to

page_text: form of a strip of steel rolled to about three inches in width, the ends of the
strip being rivetted together to form an endless belt. The cutting edge of
the belt may be either plain, or it may be serrated. The endless belt, as it
passes between the two upper pullies, may be caused to rub against a stone
or other sharpening apparatus so placed that one or other of the sides of the
serrations (if any) of the belt may be sharpened whilst the machine is in
motion. The back edge of the endless belt of steel may, if desired, be rivetted
to an endless band of leather or other flexible material of less width than the
band of steel, the leather or other band being made to slide in suitable grooves
in the fingers to prevent the edge of the band getting out of its proper
position.
The cutting apparatus may also be composed of an endless belt of leather,
supported by rollers at the four corners, of a vertical rectangular frame,
having a number of knives of a V or other form rivetted to its exterior, the
rivets passing through the centre of the knives, so that the belt may pass
readily over the rollers. I communicate motion to the endless cutter by
transmitting motion from the main wheel of the machine to one of the upper
rollers, around which the belt passes by toothed wheels or otherwise, means
being provided for throwing the wheels out of gear when the machine is not
being employed for reaping or mowing.
In order to deliver the crop as it is cut to the side of the machine, I employ
two or more spirals made of bar steel or other material bent into an open
spiral form, the ends of the rods being supported in bearings so that a rotary
motion may be given to them; the spiral bars are placed behind the cutter,
and parallel with it, and the under sides of the spirals rest on a flat stationary
board. By this means the crop, as it is cut, falls on to the spiral bars,
which, by the rotary motion given them, deliver it at the side of the
machine.