IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES
Year: 1870

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Charles James Fox, Robert Larchin, and John
Dodd, of Saint Pancras, in the County of Middlesex, for the Inven-
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Charles James Fox,
Robert Larchin, ánd John Dodd at the Office of the Commissioners
of Patents, with their Petition, on the 21st June 1870.
We, CHARLES JAMES FOX, ROBERT LARCHIN, and JOHN DODD, of Saint
Pancras, in the County of Middlesex, do hereby declare the nature of
the said Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO REAPING AND MOWING
MACHINES," to be as follows:-
Instead of the arrangements for giving motion to the knives or cutters
by means of the horse's power applied thereto, as hitherto adopted in
reaping and mowing machines, we use an arrangement of steam or power
generator working cylinder, piston, and piston rod, acting directly upon
the knives or cutters, which engine may be actuated by steam, air, or
other motive power, and forms part of the reaping or mowing machine.
By the above described arrangements the work is performed by the
machine much more quickly and effectively than by any arrangement

page_text: hitherto used, because the power for working the knives is not dependent
upon the motion of the horse, which motion is always slower in a heavy
crop where it is actually necessary the knives or cutters should move
with a greater speed.
The great feature of our Invention being the application of steam,
compressed air, or other motive power to the knives and cutters as
aforesaid independently of the tractive power, we include within our
Invention any modification of the above details suitable for effecting such
application.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent,
filed by the said Charles James Fox, Robert Larchin, and John Dodd
in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 21st December 1870.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, CHARLES
JAMES FOX, ROBERT LARCHIN, and JOHN DODD, of Saint Pancras, in the
County of Middlesex, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her
Letters Patent, bearing date the Twenty-first day of June, in, the year
of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and seventy, in the thirty-fourth
year of Her reign, did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and
grant unto us, the said Charles James Fox, Robert Larchin, and John
Dodd, Her special licence that we, the said Charles James Fox, Robert
Larchin, and John Dodd, our executors, administrators, and assigns, or
such others as we, the said Charles James Fox, Robert Larchin, and John
Dodd, our 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 "Ix-
PROVEMENTS APPLICABLE TO REAPING AND MOWING MACHINES," upon the
condition (amongst others) that we, the said Charles James Fox, Robert
Larchin, and John Dodd, our executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under our, or their, or one of their hands and seals,
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.

page_text: NOW KNOW YE, that we, the said Charles James Fox, Robert Larchin,
and John Dodd, do hereby declare the nature of our said Invention, and
in what manner the same is to be performed, to be particularly described
and ascertained in and by the following statement :-
Our Invention for improvements applicable to reaping and mowing
machines has reference to and consists in the following arrangements
instead of the arrangements for giving motion to the 'knives or cutters
thereof by means of the horse's power applied thereto as hitherto
adopted in reaping and mowing machines, that is to say :-We use an
arrangement of steam or power generator working cylinder, piston, and
piston rod acting directly upon the knives or cutters, which engine may
be actuated by steam, by air, or other motive power, and forms part of
the reaping or mowing machine.
By the above-mentioned arrangements the work is performed by the
machine much more quickly and effectively than by any arrangement
hitherto used, because the power for working the knives is not depen-
dent upon the motion of the horse, which motion is always slower in
a heavy crop where in point of fact it is necessary that the knives or
cutters should move with a greater speed.
The great feature of our Invention being the application of steam,
compressed air, or other motive power to the working of the knives or
cutters of reaping or mowing machines as aforesaid, independently of
the tractive power of such machines, we intend to include within our
Invention any modification of the above details suitable for effecting
such application.
Having thus far described the nature of the said Invention and
incidentally referred to the manner in which the same is to be performed
or carried out in practice, we will now proceed to particularly describe
and ascertain in what manner the said Invention is to be performed or
put in practice, which we shall do by referring to the Drawings accom-
panying these Presents as hereafter followeth.
•

page_text: reaper K, finger bar and knives; L, swathe board; M, boiler carriage;
N, wheels for tractive powers; O, draft arms; P, lever to raise sboe
and finger bar; Q, safety valve; R, frame to support engine; S, piston
rod at the end of which is a dead eye, whereby a crank arm T is
jointed thereto, which crank arm is connected eccentrically to the face
of a toothed wheel U, which gears with another wheel W on which is
a crank arm X, for communicating motion independently of the traction
power, or the wheels that serve in the traction of the machine which
is effected by a connecting rod Y (see Fig. 3) to the knives or cutters
Z, to the end of which said crank is connected as shewn.
Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the
said Invention and in what manner the same is to be performed or
put in practice, we hereby declare that we claim the herein-described
improvements applicable to reaping and mowing machines, the great
feature of our Invention being the application of steam, compressed
air, or other motive power to the working of the knives or cutters of
such machines, independently of the tractive power thereof as herein-
before described.
It being understood that we do not claim the use of the constituent
mechanical details considered per se, and apart from the purposes of
our said Invention as herein-before described and illustrated by the
accompanying Drawings.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Larchin, on behalf of myself
and the said Charles James Fox and William Dodd, have here-
unto set my hand and seal, this Twenty-first day of December,
in the year of our Lord One thousand eight hundred and
seventy
ROBERT LARCHIN. (L.s.)
Witness,
THOMAS MORGAN,
Secretary,
Inventors' Patent Right Association, Limited,
21, Cockspur Street,
Charing Cross,
London.