IMPROVED HAND SEED DIBBLE
Year: 1878

page_text: PROVISIONAL SPECIFICATION left by the said Robert Holmes at the Office
of the Commissioners of Patents on the 2nd October 1878..
ROBERT HOLMES, of King Street, in the City of Norwich, Corn Merchant.
IMPROVED HAND SEED DIBBLE."
« AN
This Invention consists of an implement with a reservoir to contain the seed
fitted with apparatus by means of which any required quantity of the seed may be
deposited at the requisite depth beneath the surface of the earth, and with means
for regulating the same.
I construct the reservoir used to carry the seed with an internal tube having a
sliding plug or valve by means of which the desired quantity of seed is allowed to
pass from the reservoir into the hole made by the end of the dibble in the earth,
and thereto attach suitable handles, by means of which the dibble is used and
actuated.

page_text: SPECIFICATION in pursuance of the conditions of the Letters Patent filed by
the said Robert Holmes in the Great Seal Patent Office on the 31st March
1879.
ROBERT HOLMES, of King Street, in the City of Norwich, Corn Merchant.
IMPROVED HAND SEED DIBBLE."
<< AN
My Invention consists of an implement with a reservoir to contain the seed fitted
with apparatus by means of which the seed may be deposited at the requisite
depth beneath the surface of the earth, and with means for regulating the quantity
of seed deposited.
I construct the reservoir used to carry the seed with an internal tube having a
sliding plug or valve by means of which the desired quantity of seed is allowed to
pass from the reservoir into the hole made by the end of the dibble in the earth,
and thereto I attach suitable handles, by means of which the dibble is used and
actuated.
In order that my said Invention may be fully understood, I shall now proceed
more particularly to describe the same, and for that purpose shall refer to the
several Figures on the annexed Sheet of Drawings, the same letters of reference
indicating corresponding parts in all the Figures.
Figure 1 represents my improved dibble; Figure 2 is a section of the same;
Figures 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 represent various parts of it separately. The Drawings
are half size, and the materials, where stated, are those I find the most advantageous
or economical for the purpose. A convenient length for the dibble is two feet nine
inches.
A is the principal handle; B, a small handle, by means of which the seed is
discharged; C is a tubular stem, to the bottom of which is screwed the union screw
ferrule E, into the other end of which is screwed the slightly larger tube F, the
lower end of which forms the nozzle F¹ by which the seed is deposited in the
ground, and which parts A, C, E, F, and F', are more particularly shown in Figure 3.
G is a stout wire screwed into the small handle B, and having a cylindrical tubular
plug H (the bottom of which is closed) attached to the lower extremity of it by a
pin I; S is a spring coiled round the wire G and pressing at one end on the top of
plug H and at the other end against the end of the tubular stem C. An adjustable
screw R on the top of the handle B serves to regulate the distance which B, and
consequently the plug H, can be raised, and hence the quantity of seed discharged
each time. The parts B, G, H, R, and S, are shown separately on Figure 4. I is a s
dome-shaped piece of cast iron, shown separately in Figure 5, forming the top of
the seed reservoir and resting against the union screw ferrule E; J is a cylinder of
sheet iron forming the body of the seed reservoir and having an orifice K for the
introduction of the seed, and a screw plug L for closing the same, and is shewn
separately at Figure 6; M is a piece of cast iron forming the bottom of the seed 4
reservoir, and shown separately at Figure 7; N is a nut by which the several parts
of the seed reservoir are held together, and which screws on to a thread cut on the
tube F, just above which is an orifice Q in the tube F through which when the
plug is raised the seed passes out of the reservoir.
In using the dibble some seed is placed in the seed reservoir and the screw plug L 4
replaced, the dibble is held vertically and the nozzle pressed into the ground. The
small handle B is then raised and allowed to return. As it is raised it draws with
it the plug H until the lower end of it reaches the level of the orifice Q, which is
thus left partly open and through which some seed immediately falls, the quantity
depending on the extent of the opening which depends on the height to which the t
plug is raised, as determined by the position of the screw R. The handle B
being released is drawn sharply back by the action of the spring S, and the plug in
returning expels any seed which may have remained in the nozzle and presses the
seed gently into the earth.

page_text: Having now fully described and set forth the nature and object of my said
Invention, and in what manner the same is to be carried into effect, I wish it to be
understood that what I claim as the Invention secured to me by the herein-before
in part recited Letters Patent is, constructing a hand seed dibble, as herein-before
described, and for the purpose set forth.
In witness whereof, I, the said Robert Holmes, have bereunto set my hand
and seal, this Twenty-eighth day of March, in the year of our Lord One
thousand eight hundred and seventy-nine.
ROBERT HOLMES. (L.S.)