IMPROVEMENTS IN HORSE HOES AND DRILLS
Year: 1857

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to William Smith, of Kettering, in the County of
Northampton, Agricultural Implement Manufacturer, for the Invention
of "IMPROVEMENTS IN HORSE HOES AND DRILLS."
Sealed the 1st January 1858, and dated the 7th July 1857.
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said William Smith at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition, on the 7th
July 1857.
I, WILLIAM SMITH, of Kettering, in the County of Northampton, Agri-
cultural Implement Manufacturer, do hereby declare the nature of the said
Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN HORSE HOES AND DRILLS," to be as
follows:-
The object of this Invention is to render the hoes of horse hoes and the
coulters of drills self-adjusting when the implement is working upon sloping.
ground or the hill side. To effect this, instead of connecting the bars which
carry the hoes by means of rods to hooks on the adjustable shaft irons at the
sides of the machine, I provide a central adjustable shaft iron and attach
thereto a sway bar, which carries at its opposite ends the hooks for the con-
necting rods to take into. The hooks will therefore sway as the varying..
undulations of the ground are presented to the hoes, and thus the tendency of

page_text: the hoes to rise from the ground when one of the running wheels is elevated
will be removed. It will be obvious that the like arrangement of sway bar
may be employed for rendering the coulters of drills self-adjusting.
In order to permit the rows of hoes (when the hoes are applied directly to
cross bars) to adapt themselves to hollows in the ground, I propose to joint
them at one or more places along their length, and thus permit of their
yielding and allowing some of the hoes to dip lower than the others in the
same line.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said William Smith in the Great Seal Patent Office on the
7th January 1858.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, I, WILLIAM
SMITH, of Kettering, in the County of Northampton, Agricultural Implement
Manufacturer, send greeting.
WHEREAS IIer most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Seventh day of July, in the year of our Lord
One thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, in the twenty-first year of Her
reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto me,
the said William Smith, Her special license, that I, the said William Smith,
my executors, administrators, and assigns, or such others as I, the said William
Smith, 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 HORSE
HOES AND DRILLS," upon the condition (amongst others), that I, the said
William Smith, 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.
NOW KNOW YE, that I, the said William Smith, do hereby declare
the nature of my said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be per-
formed, to be particularly described and ascertained in and by the following
statement, reference being had to the Drawings hereunto annexed, and to the
letters and figures marked thereon (that is to say):-

page_text: The object of this Invention is to render the hoes of horse hoes and the
coulters of drills capable of self-adjustment, to suit sloping ground or the hill
side, and thus ensure the proper action of the hoes or of the coulters as the
case may be.
'
In the accompanying Drawings I have shewn the manner of applying my
Invention both to a horse hoe and to a drill. Fig. 1 shews in longitudinal ver-
tical section so much of a horse hoe as will serve to explain my improvement
in that implement, and Fig. 2 is a sectional plan view of the same. a, a, arc
cross bars which carry the hocs b, b, in the ordinary manner, but instead of
these bars being connected by means of rods to adjustable hooks on the shaft
irons c at the sides of the machine, I provide a central shaft iron d, to which is
attached an adjustable fulcrum pin e, by passing a screw bolt through it and
through a slot in the shaft iron. Upon the fulcrum pin e is mounted a sway
bar f, which is provided at its opposite ends with draught hooks to receive the
hooked ends of rods g, g, by which the bars a that carry the hoes are connected
to the sway bar and so through the shaft iron with the framing h of the imple-
ment, instead of those rods taking into fixed hooks as heretofore on the side
shaft irons. The draught hooks of the sway bar being thus free to accom-
modate themselves to the undulations of the ground over which the implement
is drawn, all tendency of the hoes to rise from the ground when one of the
running wheels is elevated above the other will thereby be removed.
When the implement is intended to be thrown out of action, the hoes are
lifted by the chains i, i, clear of the ground, and held fast in a raised position
by means of the pendent hook k as usual.
Fig. 3 represents in sectional elevation a drill, with my improvement
alapted thereto. In this Figure, is the sway bar carried as before by a
central fulcrum pin, which is firmly secured to a cross bar m, attached to or
forming part of the framing of the implement. The sway bar 7 carries a rod n,
which forms the fulcrum for the set of coulter levers o, in which the coulters
pare fixed as usual. It will now be understood that if one of the running
wheels is raised above the other by reason of the irregularity of the ground, it
will not affect the position of the coulters, which, by means of the sway bar,
will be free to adjust themselves to the inclination of tho land. I would also
remark, that the like arrangement is applicable to horse hoes constructed with
levers to carry the hoes instead of cross bars, as shewn at Figures 1 and 2, the
fulcrum rod n, Fig. 3, of the sway bar being in that case replaced by the
slotted bar now commonly used in lever horse hoes.
Having now set forth the nature of my Invention of "Improvements in
Horse Hoes and Drills," and explained the manner of carrying the same into

page_text: effect, I wish it to be understood that under the above in part récited Letters
Patent, I claim the application to such implements of a sway bar for securing
the self-adjustment of the hoes or coulters (as the case may be) when' working
on the hill side, as above described.
In witness whereof, I, the said William Smith, have hereunto set my
hand and seal, the Fifth day of January, in the year of our. Lord One
"thousand eight hundred and fifty-eight.