IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR PLOUGHING, TILLING, OR CULTIVATING LAND WHEN STEAM POWER IS EMPLOYED."
Year: 1859

page_text: LETTERS PATENT to Frederick Roberts, of Maiden Newton, and Alex-
ander Roberts, of Froome Vanchurch, both in the County of Dorset, for
the Invention of "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR PLOUGHING,
TILLING, OR CULTIVATING LAND WHEN STEAM POWER IS EMPLOYED."
PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Frederick Roberts and
Alexander Roberts at the Office of the Commissioners of Patents, with
their Petition, on the 31st May 1859.
We, FREDERICK ROBERTS, of Maiden Newton, and ALEXANDER ROBERTS, of
Froome Vanchurch, both in the County of Dorset, do hereby declare the
nature of the Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS EMPLOYED FOR
PLOUGHING, TILLING, OR CULTIVATING LAND WHEN STEAM POWER IS EMPLOYED," to
be as follows:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus employed for
ploughing, tilling, or cultivating land when steam power is employed. For
these purposes a rectangular frame is mounted on wheels in such manner that
the frame may be raised or lowered as may be required. This rectangular
frame carries several horizontal bars, to which ploughshares and coulters,
cultivating tines, or other suitable tilling tools are bolted or fixed. Each of
the horizontal bars has a vertical stem attached to each of its ends, and these
stems pass up in guides or sockets fixed on the frame; they have toothed
racks formed on them, into which gear pinions mounted on axes carried by
the frame, each such axis carries two pinions gearing into the two stems of
one of the horizontal bars, and it receives motion from a worm gearing with
one of the pinions,, so that by turning the worm by means of a crank handle

page_text: mounted on its axis the horizontal bar, together with the tilling tools it carries,
may be raised or lowered as may be required.
The rectangular frame is carried by means of three wheels, one in front and
two behind. The front wheel is used as a steering wheel, and is mounted on
a standard which passes up through guides on the frame, and may be turned
round to set the wheel at an angle to the frame when it is desired to turn
either by gearing or otherwise. By means of suitable levers the front of the
frame may be raised to a greater or less distance above the steering wheel as
may be required. The hinder wheels are mounted on studs formed at the
extremities of arms, which at their other ends turn in bearings carried by the
frame. The arms or studs should be forged in one piece with the arms to
obtain sufficient strength; these arms by suitable levers and connecting rods,
or otherwise, may be set in a more or less inclined position to the frame, the
wheels are thus capable of being raised and lowered independent one of the
other, and by means of them the distance of the frame from the land may be
adjusted, or it may in this manner be raised so as to lift the shares or tilling
tools entirely off the land as is necessary when travelling on a road, or at other
times when the apparatus has to be moved when not at work. The apparatus
above described is particularly applicable to be used in conjunction with a
traction engine.
SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent, filed
by the said Frederick Roberts and Alexander Roberts in the Great
Seal Patent Office on the 30th November 1859.
TO ALL TO WHOM THESE PRESENTS SHALL COME, we, FREDERICK
ROBERTS, of Maiden Newton, and ALEXANDER ROBERTS, of Froome Vanchurch,
both in the County of Dorset, send greeting.
WHEREAS Her most Excellent Majesty Queen Victoria, by Her Letters
Patent, bearing date the Thirty-first day of May, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine, in the twenty-second year of Her reign,
did, for Herself, Her heirs and successors, give and grant unto us, the said
Frederick Roberts and Alexander Roberts, Her special licence that we, the
said Frederick Roberts and Alexander Roberts, our executors, administrators,
and assigns, or such others as we, the said Frederick Roberts and Alexander
Roberts, 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

page_text: Islands, and Isle of Man, an Invention for "IMPROVEMENTS IN APPARATUS
EMPLOYED FOR PLOUGHING, TILLING, OR CULTIVATING LAND WHEN STEAM POWER IS
EMPLOYED," upon the condition (amongst others) that we, the said Frederick
Roberts and Alexander Roberts, our executors or administrators, by an instru-
ment in writing under our, or their hands and seals, or under the band and
seal of one of us or them, 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 Frederick Roberts, on behalf of
myself and the said Alexander Roberts, do hereby declare the nature of the
said Invention, and in what manner the same is to be performed, to be
particularly described and ascertained in and by the following statement
thereof, that is to say:-
This Invention has for its object improvements in apparatus employed
for ploughing, tilling, or cultivating land when steam power is employed.
For these purposes a rectangular frame is mounted on wheels in such manner
that the frame may be raised or lowered as may be required. This rectan-
gular frame carries several horizontal bars, to which ploughshares and coulters.
cultivating tines, or other suitable tilling tools are bolted or fixed. Each of
the horizontal bars has a vertical stem attached to each of its ends, and these
stems pass up in guides or sockets fixed on the frame; they have toothed
racks formed on them, into which gear pinions mounted on axes carried by
the frame. Each such axis carries two pinions gearing into the two stems of
one of the horizontal bars, and it receives motion from a worm gearing with
one of the pinions, so that by turning the worm by means of a crank handle
mounted on its axis, the horizontal bar, together with the tilling tools it carries
may be raised or lowered as may be required.
The rectangular frame is carried by means of three wheels, one in front and
two behind. The front wheel is used as a steering wheel, and is mounted on
a standard which passes up through guides on the frame, and may be turned
round to set the wheel at an angle to the frame when it is desired to turn
either by gearing or otherwise. By means of suitable levers the front of the
frame may be raised to a greater or less distance above the steering wheel
as may be required. The hinder wheels are mounted on studs formed at the
extremities of arms, which at their other ends turn in bearings carried by the
frame. The arms or studs should be forged in one piece with the arms to
obtain sufficient strength; these arms by suitable levers and connecting rods
or otherwise may be set in a more or less inclined position to the frame, the

page_text: wheels are thus capable of being raised and lowered independent one of the
other, and by means of them the distance of the frame from the land may be
adjusted, or it may in this manner be raised so as to lift the shares or tilling
tools entirely off the land as is necessary when travelling on a road, or at other
times when the apparatus has to be moved when not at work. The apparatus
above described is particularly applicable to be used in conjunction with a
traction engine.
And in order that our said Invention may be most fully understood and
readily carried into effect, we will proceed to describe the Drawings hereunto
annexed.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS.
Figure 1 shews a side view, Figure 2 a plan, and Figure 3 an end view of
an apparatus constructed according to our Invention for ploughing, tilling, or
cultivating land when steam power is employed. a, a, is a retangular frame
of wrought iron, the back of this frame is supported by the wheels b, b, and
the front by the wheel c; the front wheel c is mounted on the standard d,
which passes up through the guide d' on the frame a, and through a guide in
the crosshead d² carried by the uprights d³ from the framing a. e is a toothed
wheel which is capable of turning around the standard d and also of being slid
up and down upon it by means of the forked lever f. On the under side of the
toothed wheel e there are projections which are capable of entering notches in
the upper part of the ring 9. The standard d is capable of sliding up or down
through the ring g, but the ring is prevented from slipping down the standard d
by the bar d', the ring g is also prevented from turning around the standard d
by the end of a screw screwing through the ring 9, entering a slot in the
standard d. h is a hand wheel, upon which there are projecting pins ', which
take into the toothed wheel e, and when the toothed wheel e is depressed by
the forked lever f, so that the projections on its under side enter the notches
in the ring g, the standard d, and in consequence the wheel c may be moved
in one or other direction in order to steer the apparatus by turning the hand
wheel h. On the upper part of the standard d a screw thread is cut, and on
this screw a nut i works; the exterior of this nut is circular and turns within
the upper guide in the crosshead d, and on the lower part of the nut there is
a projecting ring, which prevents the nut rising up through the guide, and
thus causes it to sustain the weight of the front part of the carriage. On the
under side of this projecting ring there are notches, into which projections
on the upper part of the boss of the toothed wheel e may be made to enter.
When the toothed wheel e is lifted by the forked lever f, so that the projec-
tions on the upper part of the wheel e enter the notches in the nut i, the

page_text: nut i may be caused to rotate in one or other direction by turning the hand
wheel h, and by this means the front of the frame a may be raised or lowered.
In place of raising or lowering the front of the frame a by a nut screwing on
a screw thread on the standard d, the front of the frame may be raised by
means of levers or otherwise. Each of the wheels b, b, which support the
back of the frame a turns on a stud 6 projecting from one end of an arm 6*;
each of these arms is forged in one piece with an axis, which turns in bearings
in the frame a, and on each of these axes there is an arm 63, which is connected
by a rod b with a lever handle b³; each of these lever handles carries a spring
catch on which there is a projecting pin 6, which is capable of entering
between the teeth of a circular toothed rack 7. By this means each of the
wheels 6 is capable of being raised or lowered, and of being retained in any
position independantly of the other, and the frame a may also be so lifted that
the tilling implements carried by it may be lifted entirely off the ground.
The frame a carries several horizontal bars j, j, to which ploughs k, k, are
shewn to be bolted, but the bars are so formed that tines or other tilling
implements may be bolted thereto. Each of the bars j has at each of its ends
a vertical stem j¹, and these stems pass up through guides or sockets carried
by the bars a¹, which run from end to end of the frame a. In each of the
stems there is a toothed rack, into which the pinions 1, 1, on the axes m
gear; each axis m carries two pinions 7, which gear with the two stems of each
horizontal bar; each axis m receives motion from a worm n, gearing with one
of the pinions l, there being on the axis of each worm a crank handle n³, so
that by turning these handles, the horizontal bars j, together with the tilling
implements carried by them, may be raised or lowered. Each of the crank
handles n¹ carries a bolt o, which may, by means of the levers o¹ be raised out
of or depressed into holes in plates p, p, on the top of the guides or sockets
through which the stems ¹ pass, and by this means the bars j may be retained
at any desired elevation. In place of the axes m receiving motion by worms
taking into one of the pinions upon them, the axes m may be prolonged
and crank handles placed upon them, or motion may be otherwise communi-
cated to the axes m.
In witness whereof, I, the said Frederick Roberts, have hereunto set
my hand and seal, this Thirtieth day of November, in the year of our
Lord One thousand eight hundred and fifty-nine.
FREDERICK ROBERTS. (L.S.)