IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES TO BE. EMPLOYED IN COLLECTING AND BINDING CORN, STRAW, OR HAY
Year: 1874

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by John Clayton Mewburn at the
Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with his Petition on the
30th September 1874.-A communication from abroad by Emile
Saladin, of Nancy, France, Civil Engineer.
I, JOHN CLAYTON MEWBURN, of 169, Fleet Street, in the City of
London, Patent Agent and Consulting Engineer, do hereby declare.the
nature of the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN MACHINES TO BE.
EMPLOYED IN COLLECTING AND BINDING CORN, STRAW, OR HAY," to be as
follows:-
1
The scarceness and dearness of hand labor for some years past have
given rise to the very general adoption of reaping machines, but harvest
work can only be readily and economically performed when the sheaves
are collected and bound mechanically.
Inventors have already endeavoured to improve reaping machines, so
that they may make complete sheaves, but these improvements are ·
of doubtful advantage; firstly, because good reaping machines were
already so expensive as to interfere with their general adoption, and the
addition of complicated mechanism only added-to this-drawback;

page_text: secondly, because farmers who already have reaping machines are not
disposed to purchase new ones; and thirdly, because it is not always
desirable or possible to bind corn into sheaves immediately on account
of the parasitical herbs which it is indespensable should be allowed to
dry before binding into sheaves.
The object of the present Invention is to construct separate machines
for making the sheaves to be worked by one, two, or three persons.
Any reaping machine can be used to cut the corn provided it lays it
regularly on the ground.
E
According to one modification which may be used for making sheaves 1
of corn, or trusses of straw or hay, the novel machine is composed of a
barrow which is supported on a wheel and carries a frame. This frame
has four uprights in the space between which the corn to be bound is
piled. A lever in the form of a prolonged oval or parallelogram and
which has its fulcrum at one end on the frame serves to produce a 1
pressure on the middle of the pile which is then fastened by a band of
straw in the usual way. For this purpose the Inventor has found that
in some cases hemp bands provided with a buckle may be used. The
bands are made durable by a solution of acetate of copper.
To make the sheaf, four movements are sufficient, 1st., to lay the band a
along the bottom of the frame; 2nd., to place a sufficient quantity of
corn between the uprights; 3rd., to lower the lever, which is then retained
by a notched bar; and 4th., to fasten the band.
The machine it will be observed consists of two main parts, the
barrow and the frame which carries the mechanism. The latter can be a
dismounted so that it can be carried to any place where it is desired to
make trusses of hay or straw. For use in fields it is refixed to the
barrow. The machine may however be made without the movable
frame, the uprights being then placed on cross bars.
According to another medification the machine is composed of a.
barrow mounted on two wheels the front of the barrow forming a sort of
fork with five prongs, slightly turned up at the ends.
The middle prong
is composed of two pieces jointed together, one of them being likewise
jointed to a transverse shaft. The two intermediate prongs have ratchet
teeth to prevent the corn slipping back. These two prongs have a bearing a
on the bent axle of the wheels, so as to be lifted with the middle prong.

page_text: Under the bent axle is a small shaft carrying an arm for lifting the
three middle prongs.
•
The action of this machine is as follows:-A band is placed on the
table of the machine, the machine is then pushed forward, so that the
five pronged fork may pass under the corn, and the corn thus becomes
collected thereon. When enough for a sheaf has been collected a lever
mounted on the small shaft, before described, is drawn backwards so
that the arm on this shaft lifts the jointed prong and two intermediate
prongs, and thereby moves the corn to the table at the back of the
machine. This operation may be facilitated by a vertical board which
is drawn back by means of a rod. One part of the jointed prong is now
at the side of the sheaf, while the other, which is the outer and longer
part, forms a lever by which pressure is exerted on the middle of the
sheaf; the sheaf is then bound in the usual way.